Pro-Family Advocate Blasts Wal-Mart's Online Ad Gimmick Targeting Children
by Ed Thomas
December 19, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The direct targeting of children by advertisers and the encouragement of greed and materialism in young people through advertising media are two of the complaints a pro-family children's advocacy coalition has lodged with regard to a Wal-Mart-sponsored website that helps children build Christmas lists of what they want their parents to buy for them. The Wal-Mart wish list game at www.toyland.walmart.com features two elves, named "Wally and Marty," who stand near a conveyor belt of toys and ask children whether they want to have the toys for Christmas. From their responses, a list is generated for them that ultimately can be e-mailed to their parents if the children provide the address.
Members of Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood (CCFC) are not pleased with this marketing approach. According to the group's co-founder, Dr. Susan Linn, the online game is another attempt by advertisers to get around parents and their efforts to curb materialism in their children.
"This is another example of the way that corporate America is undermining parental authority, bypassing parents and targeting children directly," Linn says. This website, she asserts, features "the world's largest retailer, manipulating kids to nag their parents for products for sale at Wal-Mart -- but also [for products] that Wal-Mart is being paid to advertise."
Also, the CCFC spokeswoman points out, children are being encouraged to get more toys than necessary. She feels the online game uses an insidious, though not terribly subtle kind of pressure on young players when it presents them with a toy that is available for purchase: "If kids say they don't want it," Linn notes, "there is dead silence, and then one elf saying to the other that that elf is going to lose their job because of kids' decision."
Parents should be able to decide on Christmas gifts for their children without being bombarded by companies manipulative advertising, Linn insists -- and without having their children targeted by aggressive ads designed to bypass the parents altogether.
Ed Thomas, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
