Monday, April 1, 2013
Kid trades Mac N Cheese for PG-13 movie...
Thanks to Melissa Wachter for passing along this commercial. Aside from the "dads are buffoons and will let kids do anything mom doesn't want them to" I think this commercial does a good job illustrating one of the main challenges of setting rules and limits regarding kids' media use. Kids want to watch TV...and they want to watch things that are not necessarily appropriate for them. This can set up conflict within families. Do you remember having any conflict related to media use in your family?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I run into this a lot when babysitting. The kids will be glued to the TV, then 15 minutes into the show they will say "by the way, mommy doesn't let us watch this". It seems that not being allowed to watch a certain show or movie makes it all the more appealing to them. A coworker of mine told her 9 year old son that he was not allowed to watch the movie "Ted" (for good reason). One day, "Ted" miraculously appeared in their purchased On Demand movie list. Her son said he had no idea how it got there and it was promptly deleted. Again, the mystery of a show or movie that is not appropriate for young kids is what makes them want to watch it so badly. In the end, they may not even like or understand the movie but the thrill of watching something that is forbidden by parents is much more exciting than the movie itself.
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing this commercial on TV and thinking to myself, i can only imagine the amount of children inspired by this commercial to woo their parents into giving them what they want. I also agree with Marissa because I have also experienced this while babysitting. Many children think that by negotiating their way to get what they want it will actually happen, and honestly I have to admit I have given into them sometimes. In this case they are able to put you in a situation that you would probably be in as a young child. I remember when I was younger and my parents wouldn't let me watch PG-13 movies and all my friends were watching Austin Powers and I wasn't allowed. Now i obviously know why, but at the time I would do anything to try and get my parents to let me watch it. This definitely gives children the chance to try and bribe and negotiate their way to what they want, and we as babysitters, parents and even friends need to realize how sneaky they can be!
ReplyDeleteI remember this commercial as well and like Stephanie mentioned, it teaches children to negotiate or manipulate a situation to get what they want. Commercials like these are what parents need to analyze when asking why their child is being so demanding for a product. Marketing and advertising to child creates a lot of conflict in a family because kids do exactly what they see on TV. Advertisers are becoming more persistent with their ads for young children, and parents are dealing with the consequences from it.
ReplyDeleteThis commercial reminds me a lot of my own childhood. I think every child is tempted to want to watch something that their parents do not want them to watch. I was only about 7 years old, but I remember all the hype and success that TITANIC had when it came out in theaters and I wanted to see it so badly. I begged my parents and they always said no. For obvious reasons, I now know why they did not want their seven-year old watching it. When it came out on TV, I would try to sneak and watch it, but my parents caught me every time. One of the reasons why I think I had such a fascination about watching it was because curiosity set in and I wanted to know what all the hype was about. Also, it was a movie that was strictly off-limits for me that made me want to watch it even more. And I think that is what causes so much conflict in families: curiosity and mystery of the unknown.
ReplyDeleteI think this commercial relates a lot to my childhood. I would always manipulate my babysitters to letting me watch TV. My parents didnt let my brother and I watch TV on school nights so I used to tell my babysitters that my parents changed the rules and made up some excuse to be able to watch TV. Everyone in my class at school would rave about the TV shows they would watch, but obviously never was able to watch TV as much as them so it was a constant battle with my parents and I.
ReplyDeleteThis commercial reminds me a lot of my younger half-sister who is ten years younger than me. There have been many times when she has found ways to get me to give things that my parents may not be too happy knowing I have given into. Since I live at my mom's house, and she lives at my dad's, sometimes she would feed on the fact that I am not always around a lot, making me feel bad about that and thus, more likely to give into her as a way to sort of "make up" for not being there. She also tends to be a very good liar as many times it has happened that when I ask if she asked my stepmother if she can have something or watch something, she will tell me that she did and "mom said yes." However, I realized that I should stop assuming she is telling the truth after a few times of being duped.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was younger I spent a lot of time with my aunt who often treated me like an adult even when I was pretty little. I remember one particular time, I was about 9, I had wanted to watch Tremors, which is a movie rated PG-13 about a small town that is tormented by these horribly ugly underground creatures, who are slowly killing the people of the town. Being my favorite aunt she didn't want to disappoint and allowed me to watch it with her. I remember watching it and not thinking really anything of it, as a 9 year old it frightened me but I knew it was just a movie. After about a week I started to have nightmares about a monster that would come out of the floor and eat my mother. Until then I hadn't told my mom that I had watched it, but once I did she was extremely upset with my aunt for allowing me to watch this. Although my parents were never really that strict about the things I was and wasn't allowed to watch on TV there were certain things that were just out of the question. Thinking back now I can completely understand why a 9 year old shouldn't be seeing anything like that no matter how aware they are of how unrealistic it is.
ReplyDeleteThis commercial is interesting for me to watch because growing up my parents were very lenient when it came to television programming. I was allowed to watch typically whatever I wanted but I was never the type of child who was looking to watch an R rated movie just because it seemed cool and for the older kids. I was talking to my mom about this course and how we talk a lot about parental control and regulation of the types of programming children are allowed to watch and the only example she could recall was how when Friends was really popular my mom, brother and I would watch it together but at some point she decided it got to be full of too many sexually based references or jokes so she stopped having us watch with her. I can relate to this commercial however, because my cousins heard about how my brother and I could usually watch whatever we wanted and they weren't even allowed to watch Harry Potter when it started. They would constantly come over to our house and watch movies with us and go home and use us as examples and ask their parents if they could watch something similar.
ReplyDeleteI think that this commercial brings up the very interesting topic of finding a middle ground in the family for what is appropriate media content. Growing up, my experience was similar to this. When I was at home, my mom was pretty strict with what we could watch and we usually were only allowed to get up to PG-13 movies. However, when I would stay at my dad's house we could watch anything that we wanted. Also, we would find ways to watch movies at friend's houses that we could not watch at home. This brings up another discussion, how much control do parents really have on what children watch? Considering the expanse in different forms of technology with smart phones and tablets it has become harder than ever to regulate the usage.
ReplyDeleteMy mother was extremely strict about media use as a child, ranging from parental advisory CD's to PG-13 movies. I thought this commercial did a great job of portraying the dynamic of a father being easily swayed. My father was much more lenient than my mother with media usage so this commercial truly resonated with me. The restrictions on media usage would absolutely create conflict between my mother and I, especially when it came to limiting the amount of time that I was allowed to play video games for a day. That was classic.
ReplyDeleteThis commercial displays how children can be very manipulative to their parents, as well as any other caretakers including grandparents or babysitters. It shows how parents will do anything for something they want, even if that includes doing something that could potentially harm their child. However, this is not usually the case and shows parents in a negative light. I remember when I was younger I was exposed to a lot of media that was inappropriate for the age when I viewed it, because I have an older sister and we would watch movies together with my mom. For example, I saw "Mean Girls" in theaters with my sister and mother. At the time I was 12 years old and the movie was rated PG 13. Even though it was only one year away, I told my mom I didn't want to see it because I thought I was too young and my mom made me go anyway. Even though I did enjoy the movie after watching it, this shows how children can see media they shouldn't be exposed to.
ReplyDeleteI have definitely come into situations like this both with my younger brother and while babysitting. Although I've never been bribed, I remember kids trying to convince me that certain things were ok for them to watch when I fully knew that their parents would not be happy to see their children watching the same show. Also, I think one conflict that families can run into is when there are siblings are different ages and are allowed to watch different media content. I have a brother who is 4 years younger than I am and I remember it being difficult for us to find movies for the whole family to watch because I was allowed to watch certain things he wasn't and I didn't want to get stuck watching a "baby movie".
ReplyDelete