Look at your child. No, I mean really look. Does your child look like a walking advertisement because of all the clothing labels he wears?

Hillfiger and Gap, Nike and Adidas, Pepsi and Coca Cola…do these sound like your child’s best friends?

“Got milk?” “It’s the real thing.” “Just do it!” Can your child tell you what these slogans represent?

Barney, Pokemon, Harry, and Beanie…how many “kiddie meals” have you bought, just so your child could get the toys inside?

Advertisements and commercialism are all around us. Even our government is telling us it is our patriotic duty to buy something to help America.

What can you do? Promote media literacy. Teach your child to be an informed consumer by evaluating advertising claims, recognizing advertising gimmicks, and detecting inaccurate information.

Here are some fun ways to help your child learn media literacy:

Analyze print advertisements:
Look through the magazines in your home. Select a few advertisements that might interest your child. Ask your child:

  • What product is being advertised?
  • What does the advertiser want you to believe? Will this product really make you popular, handsome, beautiful, thin, muscular, cool, rich, healthy?
  • What is the truth about this product? What will it really do for you? What doesn’t the ad tell you?
  • Draw and write on the ad to make it more truthful.

Critique television advertisements:
Suggest that you have a contest to see who can notice the most advertising gimmicks during television commercials. Get a paper and pencil for each of you, and watch television together.

Take notes and discuss:

  • What product is being advertised?
  • Who is the ad targeting? How can you tell?
  • What gimmicks did the advertiser use to make the audience want to buy the product? Did the ad include music, famous people, promises, scare tactics, emotional appeals?
  • Why does the advertiser spend millions of dollars for television ads?

Partner with your child’s school:
Lessons on media literacy are commonly included in elementary, middle and high school language arts curricula. Ask your child's teacher how media literacy is integrated into the curriculum so that you can support school-based media literacy initiatives at home. 

 

Wendy L. Sellers, Heath4Hire, Inc. is a health education consultant who has written lessons on media literacy for the "Michigan Model for Health" and "Puberty: The Wonder Years."