Product v. Parenting

I tend to think badly of myself for reading the comment pages on online news stories and blogs (yes, I know, please forgive the hypocrisy!) but from time to time there’s an article when provokes discussion that has me hooked, for purely professional reasons, of course.

Today’s story is that of a parental response to a Kellogg’s cereal advert, and I invite people to read not only the story up top, but the comments being posted by readers underneath.

Sure, there’s a degree of proto-hysterical responding to the article by those who throw their tuppence worth of input onto every online message board available, but there are also contributions from people who I think are probably offering an honest response to the story. And for all the media hype of the story itself, pitting corporation against individuals, undermining personal responsibility with commercial firepower, there’s a serious debate about the nature of healthy parenting and the forces which threaten it.

I’ve written before about the impact of media influences and advertising on the lives of individuals, but this story concerns the impact of advertising on something bigger than just us – if, as some of those people commenting on the article claim, the Kellogg’s advert in question is seriously impacting on their parenting, then we have more to worry about than we perhaps realised. Because this is the process by which cultural myths and messages are shaped into social acceptance: advertising alone won’t convince us of anything, it’s the way in which the message conveyed in the ad is reflected and repeated in other ways, such as the parental message we give and receive, imbued with an authority that is exclusive to parenting, which formulates a kind of social belief which then gets past on in a purer, more concentrated form, which gives it even greater power.

So I’m curious about the debate in the comments section of this Guardian article – as a non-parent I can understand both the position of those who say the advert undermines their authority with their children, but also with those who suggest that as parents our potency must be far greater than that carried by a simple advertisement.

Ultimately I guess the true position is somewhere in the middle – advertising does have an impact on our lives, but it is for us (as individuals, or as parents) to moderate this impact, especially in light of others (such as children) who may take their lead from us.

I’m now off to indulge myself with a bowl of Coco Pops with a clear conscience. Thanks Kellogg’s.

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