If I talk to you about "The fox that has it all" several faces will probably come to mind, but in this book that name is used to refer to the Barbie doll. With that critical and incisive look we look at some chapters of “Children's culture and multinationals”, a book that I just discovered and that I think may interest our readers.
It is not new that the market goes out to conquer new consumers, the little ones in the house. Many times parents contribute, without realizing it, to turning them into another piece of that irrational devotion to consumption, trapped by brands, by television programs, by meals ...
Appear new idols of children's culture, idols created from marketing and advertising offices. For many companies, boys and girls, or rather the money of their families (but that of those same children later, thus perpetuating the bonding), constitute one of their main objectives.
There are television programs, movies, video games, toys, books and restaurants that specifically target this sector of the population. “Children's culture and multinationals” analyzes some icons that model the values of child consciousness, through essays by different authors.
The work is from the year 2000, so some references seem somewhat distant, but most are held without noticing the passage of 11 years. Sesame Street, Beavis and Butt-Head, the Power Rangers, Barbie, the Bear Barney, the Walt Disney movies or the Nintendo video games and our McDonald's friends appear in the sights of the authors and will make us reflect.
What values are there behind idols and children's brands? What consequences are there after the advertising bombing we suffer every day? How does television influence children?
Above all, they reflect the authors, personalities of education, sociology and popular culture that analyze the profound effects and the pervasive influence of these productions of commercial companies in a dissemination style that makes it a simple read.
This is an excerpt from the content of the work "Children's culture and multinationals":
- Introduction: Enough of secrets. Children's culture, information saturation and postmodern childhood.
- Chapter I: Only at home and "Bad to the core": a postmodern childhood arises.
- Chapter II: Are Disney movies good for your children?
- Chapter III: From Sesame Street to Barney and his friends: television as a teacher.
- Chapter IV: Beavis and Butt-Head: there is no future for postmodern youth.
- Chapter V: Video games and the emergence of interactive media for children.
- Chapter VI: The Power Rangers: the aesthetics of phallus-militaristic justice.
- Chapter VII: “It's not true, mom!” Children build childhood by reading horror novels.
- Chapter VIII: Read children's magazines: children's culture and popular culture.
- Chapter IX: Wrestling and youth culture: teasing, mockery and containment of urbanity.
- Chapter X: Cheating: the business of postcards or cards to collect, from past to present.
- Chapter XI: The fox that has it all.
- Chapter XII: Multiculturalism and the American dream.
- Chapter XIII: Everything you want: women and children in popular culture.
- Chapter XIV: McDonald's, power and children: Ronald McDonald (Ray Kroc) does it all for you.
On the website of the publisher you can see a more detailed analysis of the different chapters, which accounts for the depth with which each topic is analyzed and the critical and revealing perspective. The compilers are Steinberg, Sh. R. and Kincheloe J. L.
Any parent hopes that the education received by their children, at home, in school, does not nullify their spirit of initiative, their own personality, but many times the welfare society (we) childish them and separates them from real-world problems, moving to an area where it is more important to have (a brand, a car) than to be.
Parents should be a little more aware of the influences our children are exposed to, and certainly the book "Children's culture and multinationals", by Morata Editions, offers us a breath of reality in its 256 pages full of interesting content.
Official Site | Morata editions
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