How Corporations Sell Stuff To Your Kids: Ashleigh Clyde (Transcript)

Here is the full transcript of Ashleigh Clyde’s talk titled “How Corporations Sell Stuff To Your Kids” at TEDxWarrenton conference.

Listen to the audio version here:

TRANSCRIPT:

At an early age, I’ve had a rather unique perspective on movies and watched them more critically apart from my peers. Never understanding the whimsical appeal to our childhood classics, I found myself viewing them through a different lens. So much so, that by the age of 16, I became an entertainment reporter and film journalist. And it was then that I delved deeper into these seemingly innocent movies that I uncovered a rather chilling truth.

The Horrifying Truth Behind Childhood Films

Our childhood films are horrifying. Think about it: tales of attempted murder and the relationship between a 14-year-old girl and a 31-year-old man. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” A child left home alone, fighting off murderous criminals. “Home Alone.” Or a brother murdering his brother and then attempting to murder his nephew. “The Lion King.” While these movies are great, we can’t help but notice how they affect our real world context.

As you can see, murder is a common theme. With this said, there is one particular movie I’ve been studying, analyzing, and researching for the past five years: The 1971, “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” For those of you who are fortunately unfamiliar with this film, “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” follows a candy-making man named Willy Wonka, whom no one has seen in years, who owns a factory that no one has been to in years, when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, he releases five golden tickets into the world, summoning children to his factory, which no one has been to in years, to meet a man no one has seen in years.

Then, the five children enter, and only one comes out alive. However, a horror movie, in itself, is not as scary as seeing those five words solemnly glaze the screen, “based on a true story.”

Shweta Verma, an entertainment journalist, explains that knowing that someone actually went through that terror in reality makes the movie more horrifying in nature, and while “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” may not be based on a true story, its entire essence is more legitimate than you may think. You see, just like “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” our own world is no stranger to Willy Wonka and his tactics used to lure children into the holds of a company or product.

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The Insidious Nature of Child-Based Marketing

This is known as child-based marketing, and this brings me to my topic. Corporations are seeing ample opportunity to take advantage of the overwhelming fact that children are vulnerable. So that is why, first, our journey will begin with taking a closer look at Willy Wonka and his corporate friends. Then, we will start the search for a golden ticket to explore the insidious strategies corporations use to target children, until finally, seeing what possible initiatives we could take to solve such a classified issue, before the factory doors close behind us, forever.

While researching, I found one number particularly hilarious. Corporations are projected to spend over 21.1 billion dollars advertising to an audience that doesn’t have any money. As silly as it may sound, this is a business strategy known as childhood commercialism. You see, to understand child-based marketing is to simply ask why corporations target children in the first place.

Simple, really. There are two main factors. Number one, kids influence their parents’ buying decisions. And most importantly, number two, kids are likely to keep wanting to use a product if they genuinely enjoy it. This is known as brand identification. So, taking candy from a baby is not as easy as we ought to think, where the metaphorical candy becomes a shoe brand, a favorite soda, a particular phone brand, or even a political party.

Marketing research has suggested that brand identification is essential early, because it’s more potent later on. Let us not forget that children are the future consumers, the very lifeblood of corporations.

Or as Mike Sorales, former president of Kids R Us explains, “If you own this child at an early age, you can own this child for years to come.” In addition, child-based marketing is not just about selling products, but mindsets as well. Upon speaking with Dr. Alex Molnar, the nation’s leading expert on corporate involvement in education, he explains that commercialism has become the curriculum of our culture.

Subtle Warfare in Education

Corporations, cognizant of the malleability of young minds, recognize that these impressionable individuals hold the key to a future where loyalty, preferences, and ideologies are molded. This recognition transforms classrooms and libraries into arenas of subtle warfare, a war fought not with weapons, but with narratives.

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For example, if I were to describe an educational digital resource led by a cheesy scientist who wears a lab coat with a bow tie, some students will say, “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” while others, “Lab Time with Leo.” With so many similarities between these two, there’s one difference that stands out above all else: their message.

While Bill teaches us that global warming and climate change are crucial to understand, Leo teaches us that oil, coal, and petroleum help us with our everyday needs. This difference of message is linked to one vital thing: who’s pulling the strings? “Bill Nye the Science Guy” is owned by the Walt Disney Television Corporation, while “Lab Time with Leo” is owned by Oklahoma Oil and Gas. Among these two enthusiastic educators is a plethora of other examples known as schoolhouse commercialism.

The Importance of Addressing Educational Commercialism

We often find ourselves embroiled in political debates regarding the content of our education, often overlooking the underlying factors that contribute to this division in the first place. It’s imperative that we address these root causes to foster a more unified and constructive educational environment.

And now that I’m thinking about it, Willy Wonka sent Wonka bars all over the world to over 195 different countries across seven different continents. And the only five kids who happened to receive a golden ticket were white and spoke English. Pure coincidence? I think not.

In retrospect, real world corporations like to send minority children golden tickets more than their white peers. According to the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, black children and teenagers are showing 75% more advertisements from fast food corporations on networks with a higher black audience, endorsing obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure at an early age.

The Future Awaits

Increasingly, schools located in heavily minority populated areas are seeing more advertisements within their schools also. As I conclude, I will share a quote Willy Wonka exchanges with Charlie, the last child remaining, at the very end of the film. Quote, “I can’t go on forever, and I don’t really want to try, so who can I trust to run the factory when I leave and take care of the Oompa Loompas for me? Not a grown-up. A grown-up would want to do everything his own way, not mine. So that is why I decided a long time ago that I had to find a child, a very honest, loving child, to whom I could tell all my most precious candy-making secrets.” End quote.

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In the enchanting tale of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” we discover a profound revelation, that perhaps it’s not just about trust. Perhaps deep down, it’s also about fear. Fear of what a child like Charlie Bucket could become, a child with the potential to challenge the status quo, to question established norms, and to disrupt the very fabric of the corporate world and society itself. Willy Wonka saw this potential in Charlie, and corporations see it in the children they target.

The future awaits, and it’s the responsibility of all of us, parents, educators, policy makers, and advocates, to ensure that the sweet innocence and pure imagination of childhood is not tainted by corporate agendas. For just as Willy Wonka thought a child to inherit his legacy, we too must protect and empower the future leaders of our world. Because the fact that we are the future criminal justice lawyers, climate change activists, and teachers, make us Willy Wonka’s worst nightmare.

SUMMARY OF THIS TALK:

Ashleigh Clyde’s compelling talk, “How Corporations Sell Stuff To Your Kids,” delves into the intricate strategies employed by corporations to market products to children. She highlights how companies exploit the vulnerability and impressionability of young minds to foster brand loyalty from an early age.

Clyde sheds light on the concept of childhood commercialism, revealing that corporations spend billions on advertising to an audience that lacks purchasing power. Her research underscores the two main reasons corporations target children: their influence on parental spending and the establishment of long-term brand loyalty. The talk also touches upon the ethical implications of child-based marketing, questioning the morality of manipulating young consumers.

She advocates for increased awareness among parents, educators, and policymakers to protect children from covert corporate agendas. Ultimately, Clyde’s presentation calls for collective action to safeguard the innocence and imagination of childhood from commercial exploitation.