And it is we as parents and grandparents who



are to blame for their success and for the

inroads made into the protecting cover of our

principles.

Advertising Objectives

The objectives of virtually all advertisers is

to dominate the minds of we the consumers. That

sounds somewhat extreme. But it is not that each

individual advertiser seeks total control of all

minds. Any given advertiser is only interested in

that part of our separate minds to which his

products or services seek to appeal. Individual

advertisers would "throw up their arms in protest"

at the suggestion of their seeking total influence.

And quite rightly.

But there are thousands of them - and each one is

seeking to control a part of our behaviour i.e. that

part which relates to the sales of his product. Of

course, some are much more powerful and effective

at it than others. But collectively the sum that adds

up to a highly significant realm of influence.

Common Philosophies

Moreover, virtually all advertisers have the same

basic, underlying, or even overt materialistic

philosophy. This is endemic to the way they approach

their marketing activity. Hence thousands of individual

organisations are ALL effectively propagating the same

anti-Christian philosophy to all of us.

Objective Children

Companies which are new and strapped for cash often

find themselves taking crude and short term

approaches to advertising. But the large corporations,

flooded with financial resources and often operating

in many different markets, and selling a multiplicity

of products and services, can afford to take long

term views and adopt highly sophisticated approaches.

"Get 'em while they're young" has been modified

slightly but significantly into "Get at 'em while

they're young".

Again, the individual corporation/advertiser would

feign horror at the suggestion that it was corrupting

the Christian values of our young children. One

advertising campaign does not a cesspool make, no doubt.

But it is not the influence of the one which matters.

It is the combined influence of the many. That

accumulated influence is very considerable - and

especially in its influence on young minds.

Indeed, there are two important aspects here. One is

that young minds are unformed minds. So when we as

parents allow advertisers access to them, we

inevitably and unavoidably allow them to bring a

considerable power to influence their young minds

and on their formation.

What is the essence of that formation? It is to

inculcate a process of the acquisition of materialistic

attitudes and systems of thought. In short: to promote

values which are commonly at variance with those

taught us by Jesus.

From a very early age we are allowing our kids to

have their choices determined for them by people

we ourselves, confronted by a specific situation,

would never allow near us. They are people whose

principle objective in life is to make profit

by convincing our children that they cannot

possibly be happy in life without their product -

whether it is a particular kind of cereal, footwear,

coat or whatever.

In fact, most parents are aware that the influence of

advertising has gone so far that their children are

likely to be subject to ridicule at school if they

do not have the brand which is "acceptable" this season.

Some will be aware that their children will be

"rubbished" for parents shopping at down market stores.

All this brings us to the second important aspect.

Children themselves do not usually have significant

personal spending power. In this sense they are "secondary

consumers": they consume only through their parents

spending potential.

So advertisers work on this. Crudely or sophisticatedly,

their objective is to bring a not inconsiderable

persuasive power on kids to determine their parents

preferences.

Parent Gullibility

Are parents so gullible? Of course. For at least

two reasons. Firstly, we have ourselves been

persuaded so successfully by the direct influence

of advertisers that we really expect our children

to succumb to the same and to want the same as other

people are buying.

Secondly, and with a direct link to the first reason,

we really do consider, at least at a subconscious

level, that what our children have been made to believe

by the advertisers is actually the best for them!

When we look at this in the cold light of reason it

is clear and obvious nonsense. But we rarely use

the cold light of reason. Advertisers don't like it

at all - let alone the instructive light of the

Christian's Spirit.

We sometimes take a perverse sense of superiority

in what our children are led by advertisers to

demand: "Oh, our John/Mary will simply not have a

coat/jumper/cereal/shoes without such-and-such a

brand on them". We think they are developing so

marvelously when they exhibit such "adult" attitudes

and values which we, however unrealisingly, have

ourselves come to regard as important.