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Book Reviews of Buy, Buy Baby: How Consumer Culture Manipulates Parents and Harms Young Minds

Buy, Buy Baby: How Consumer Culture Manipulates Parents and Harms Young Minds
Buy Buy Baby How Consumer Culture Manipulates Parents and Harms Young Minds
Author: Susan Gregory Thomas
ISBN-13: 9780618463510
ISBN-10: 0618463518
Publication Date: 5/8/2007
Pages: 288
Rating:
  • Currently 4.8/5 Stars.
 2

4.8 stars, based on 2 ratings
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Book Type: Hardcover
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

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reviewed Buy, Buy Baby: How Consumer Culture Manipulates Parents and Harms Young Minds on + 19 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Marketing companies, advertising companies, publishing companies and entertainment companies do not have my children's best interests at heart; they're concerned with making money for themselves and their clients.

I never really believed the educational claims of anything watched on TV for the youngest children. We don't have what you'd call "educational videos" in our cabinet. I was, therefore, surprised to learn that studies of babies and toddlers watching TV (whether shows designed for them or those targeted to preschoolers) were learning something after all. They are learning to recognize characters, which is essentially the brand awareness capability of babies and toddlers. I shouldn't have been surprised since my daughter recognizes the Veggies, Elmo and probably Clifford, even though she's not interested in watching the TV shows.

So by watching the shows, we're essentially watching long commercials for products.

Ms. Thomas also confirmed what I'd long suspected. Most toddler and baby books are really just more ways to get character faces into the home. They don't have real writers or illustrators.

I was very much concerned to learn about the ubiquitous presence of these publisher's materials in classrooms, especially in day care centers and preschools.