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I blame companies instead of consumers because they market the shit out this stuff. No one is born with an innate desire for that specific Barbie or Lego set.
by codemac 15y ago
I blame companies instead of consumers because they market the shit out this stuff.
No one is born with an innate desire for that specific Barbie or Lego set. The companies market to you, make you feel like you want it. The companies may not be able to change the entire macro environment, but they actively profit and exploit it.
So yea, they are way more to blame than what 11 year old girls think their place in the world is. Who do you think told them?
- dman 15y agoWhat about the role of parenting?
- TeMPOraL 15y ago> No one is born with an innate desire for that specific Barbie or Lego set. The companies market to you, make you feel like you want it. True, but it's the fault of both companies and consumers at the same time. It's a feedback loop. Marketing strategies are based on what people are willing to buy, which is based on what companies market. The system feeds on itself.
- polshaw 15y agoThe company is trying to maximise profit (NB the single use point made in this article). It is not the 'fault' of a child to want whatever fad is current. Yes, there are broader influences from society, but to paint the child as some kind of active and equal player in this game (aside from their natural love of awesome (eg. superheroes are better than vegetables)) is disingenuous, imo.
- maximusprime 15y agoDepressing to see people blaming advertising and marketing as if they as parents are powerless to buy their daughter a lego set unless an advert says they can. If adverts have more of an influence on your kids than you do, then you're a terrible parent.
- HotKFreshSwag 15y agoPeople who work at corporations have consciences. They are not run by robots yet. Corporations consist of people with kids of their own. They are human beings. They are not without blame just like the parents.
- maximusprime 15y agoIt's not immoral to give the public what they are asking you for.
- whateverer 15y agoYou speak as if 'the public' were unable to be shaped by offer, advertising, the consumption of peers, as if, in the end, consumption wasn't part of culture, and part of a grand feedback loop all of it.
- einhverfr 15y agoIndeed when we talk of material culture, we are talking about consumption, in essence, right?
- barrkel 15y agoGiving the public what they're asking for has no necessary relationship with morality at all. Simply because it's what they're asking for doesn't mean it's moral either. For the downvoter(s), a thought experiment: lynch mobs.
- einhverfr 15y agoDude, the advertisments are at least halfway directed at the parent.
- mattmcknight 15y agoYeah, but they used to market stuff to girls, and generically, but they started doing analytics and switched to marketing stuff that sells more- branded toys to boys. A minor variation in natural preference is expanded by the feedback loop. That said- you can still buy all of the plain bricks you want from their website. If you don't want the complicated sets, don't buy them. The blocks on their own are fine.