MovieChat Forums > The Corporation (2004) Discussion > O NO SPARE THE CHILDREN! THEY NAG FOR C...

O NO SPARE THE CHILDREN! THEY NAG FOR CUCKECHEEZE OMGWTFBBQ!!!11111

posted 12 years ago by mozillameister
7 replies | jump to latest

Seriously...have these people ever been kids? Maybe being 22 and very immature I remember being a kid better than most, but I LOVED noisy crap. Maybe its the jungle instinct. I LOVED Discovery Zone, and I never saw a commercial on TV. In Brooklyn, there was this playplace with bumper cars and arcades. HOLY MACKAREL DID I HAVE FUN (too bad its gone :( )! I HATED McDonalds food, but I loved the playland and the ads. I never bought a thing there...just used the jungle gym and went on my way (a lot of kids do this, too). I HATED Trix. Tasted like sweet marbles. Still loved the ads. I LOVE rollercoasters, but I never went to Six Flags...just to Coney and the far more dangerous (and independent) Cyclone.

I loved Power Rangers.
I loved Pokemon (still have a bunch of cards).

Yet I also loved science and space. Maybe Star Trek brainwashed me into becoming a nerd?

Truth? Advertising did balls for me as a kid. It was filler between saturday morning cartoons and some would be kinda funny. Did it make me buy anything? Not really. Did I learn about the products existence? Yep, but I don't think that's a bad thing...I bought a yo-yo because a friend of mine did and it was cool, but nothing to do with ads. I bought Pokemon Blue when a friend showed me the game on his Game Boy. No commercial neccessary, and Pokemon is still the best portable RPG ever made. Child influence plays a much larger role in children marketing than advertising does.

And nagging about Disneyland? What kid wouldn't?!? I did...wana know what my parents told me? "Maybe when you're 120"...

I don't think parents send their kids to Disneyland on a whim due to excessive nagging. Many parents WANT to send their kids there because its an experience they can enjoy with their kids, and after a very long planning process. If they have the disposable income, what's so wrong with that?

It p!sses me off when these type of documentaries place children as some kind of mindless drones that don't do things THEY want to do, and must "submit to the 'evil' whim of corporate entities!". Children aren't stupid. Most of the time, their a hell of a lot smarter than their parents. This whole mentality of "SAVE TEH PRECIOUS FVUKIN CHILDREN!" is just complete stupidity. We didn't evolve from harsh African conditions just to be killed off by some stupid clown selling hamburgers.

What pisses me off more? That parents are portrayed as victims. THEY ARE PARENTS! You had sex to get a kid? Well, its your damn responsibility to say a very simple word: NO ....

Oh, and bar charts and graphs do not make your argument more intelligent. Just pretty lol-worthy...

[–] Xavior_Penguin 12 years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_consensus_effect

Not every kid had neglectful middle-class parents like yours that left you to your own devices and allowed you to become narrowly knowledgeable at the expense of social skills which is the stereotypical thinking you manifest as a manchild she now keeps in her basement.

If you ask me, corporations succeeded in f#cking you up. A 22-year-old manchild who cant be bothered to get off his Xbox to stand up for his rights won't exactly be a threat.

~Lance

[–] mozillameister 12 years ago

What?

Dude...lay off the smack.

First off, my parents don't have a basement, since New York City living quarters means everyone lives in a basement.

Second off, I've went away to college.

Third, I'm from a low income family, in which 1/2 is immigrant.

Forth, I rarely play video games...just Pokemon since its awesome.

Fifth, lay off your high horse.

And finally, you have not said one thing of any substance whatsoever.

This docu is pointless fear mongering. Tight editing does not make it deserving of such high accolades it has received.

Prove to me how advertising affects children negatively versus without. Its not like children used to be angelic beings before. They're as cruel and nazi-ish as they were a millennium or two ago.

All I'm saying is that, from all the purchases I've made as a child, none were influenced by advertising.

Did I consume? Sure. Everyone *beep* consumes. Its human nature to accumulate *beep* Papers, articles, books, cheap 99c store toys... But none of it was due to advertising.

You can blame the externalities of society for all of society's ills, if you truly need a scapegoat.

You should truly blame bad parents, a society imbedded in a culture that glorifies short-term greed, and a downgraded education system.

Luckly, some of those evil and pesky things kids buy (technology) will actually save those of the next generation, since they can inspire and teach themselves, rather than wait on society to inspire them.

I can personally attest to learning most of what I know through the wonders of technology. My schooling prior to college was woefully inadequate. I've had to teach myself basic algebra, geometry, and calculus. Grammar, spelling, diction...history... Without the internet, I would of become a dullard...a shell without purpose nor meaning.

Yet, in order to access the internet, you must purchase a computer...a thing. And when I was 3, a computer would cost $3000...which is almost $7000 today.

But its such a wonderful thing...someone must advertise it. Is Apple wrong for advertising their iPads for students, or for Dell to advertise to schools about docking centers, or for 1LaptopPerChild to advertise their donation scheme?

Advertising is possibly the most innocent form of human corruption, if it can be considered so. Compare advertising a Smurf doll to kids to fraudulent banks purposely misleading their investors into purchasing bad securities so they can hedge against them. Are they truly the same?

[–] smoko 11 years ago

@mozillameister Did it make me buy anything? Not really.
Most people say that advertising doesn't make them buy anything, yet companies spend millions of dollars on advertising every year. Maybe it's more effective than you think.

[–] mozillameister 11 years ago

Advertising does not make anyone buy anything (unless its an infomercial). Its there to bring knowledge of a brand via association, whether the association is through a mascot, jingle, or catchphrase.

If a product is horrible, advertising would do nothing to force consumers to purchase it.

For children, most advertisements go over their head. If you watch children television, most advertisements are for toys. However, many of those toys advertised will not do well in sales.

For toy manufacturers, it is understood that a majority of their designs will never catch on. Only a few toys truly do, and often it has more to do with acceptance by other children than advertisements.

[–] smoko 11 years ago

@mozillameister Advertising makes plenty of people buy all sorts of stuff.

There are plenty of instances of a product being advertised and it selling poorly, then the advertisements are changed and the same product sells well. Advertising definitely influences people to purchase, whether we want to admit it or not.

[–] mozillameister 11 years ago

Examples? There's a lot more of the inverse (New Coke is a good example). Also, too much advertising can cause the opposite reaction to occur, where negative association with the brand is played out.

[–] smoko 11 years ago

@mozillameister Examples? There's a lot more of the inverse (New Coke is a good example).
How about Coke? Everyone's aware of the brand, yet they still advertise because they know that it works. If it didn't then they wouldn't continue to spend millions of dollars on advertising. I think Coke knows more about the effectiveness of advertising than either of us.