Pensive Gargoyle

Yesterday I read an Op-Ed article by Gary Cross, a professor of history at Pennsylvania State University, who, in the light of the Chinese-made toy recall, postulates that character licensing and the way toys are advertised to kids are just as dangerous to children’s psyches as the toys’ lead-based paint is to their health.  Cross claims that most of the toys on the recall list, which include “56 Polly Pocket sets (including a Lip Gloss Studio Playset), 11 Doggie Daycare toys, 4 Batman figures, 43 Sesame Street toys (not just Elmo Stacking Rings but Giggle Grabber Soccer Elmo and Grow Me Elmo Sprinkler), 10 Dora the Explorers and more than a score of assorted figures and cars,” are junk and that the advertising promoting them does little more than teach children to be good consumers and instill additive tendencies.

When I was a kid, my brother and I were just as obsessed with amassing Care Bears, Popples, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and He-Man figurines as today’s kids are with collecting Dora or Elmo stuff.  (For the record, Care Bears are WAY cooler that Elmo, and Rainbow Bright trumps Dora.)  Maybe our obsession started as a result of the deregulated ads we watched during Saturday morning cartoons (arguable), but it stopped because we had a mother and grandparents who taught us that we didn’t need mounds and mounds of toys to be happy.  They also refused to buy them for us in excess. 

Since deregulated toy ads aimed at kids have been here since 1980 and are probably here to stay, it’s up to parents to teach their kids how to be smart consumers.  Of course, parents can tell their kids they don’t need 10 Elmo toys until the furry little imp stops laughing, but I’m assuming that that’s not too effective when the ‘rents have 7 different ipods and a drawer full of discarded cell phones.  Do as I say, not as I do, right?

Wow, it sure is easy to spew out parenting advice when you don’t have any kids. . . .