To some extent, parents can mitigate the effects of marketing, but unless families retreat to the woods, children are exposed at friends' houses, on the street, the playground, supermarkets, and even in school. That companies get awards for doing the best job of manipulating children into buying things is emblematic of a consumer culture that is out of control. Parents need help from policymakers to protect children from this unprecedented assault. The White House should lead the way by convening a conference on corporate marketing and its effects on children to serve as a springboard for national dialogue and lay the groundwork for creating appropriate policy. The National Institutes of Health should fund research on the psychosocial and health consequences of intensive marketing to children.
Children pay for advertising.
They pay with their safety, their health, and their creativity. The Third Annual Golden Marble Awards should be the last. Susan Linn is associate director of the media center at Judge Baker Children's Center in Boston.