Life & Health

Published on February 27, 2014 | by Kristina Kirkaldy Photography by Kristina Kirkaldy

Parodies on the playground

The impact of advertising on children’s lives has always been a concern for Theo Selles.

Selles, a psychology professor at the University of Guelph-Humber, has always thought it would be hard for children to think for themselves when they are being bombarded with corporate messages telling them what to eat, what to play with and what to read.

“How are we going to get children to think critically about corporations if we have them branding everything?” said Selles. “I can just imagine the slogan, ‘critical thinking by Ronald McDonald’.”

Selles’ viewpoint was challenged, however, when he attended Dr. Greg Kelley’s feature lecture, “Your Kind of Place: Branding in Children’s Culture,” at the University of Guelph-Humber on Feb. 6.

Last year, Dr.Kelley, media studies professor at the University of Guelph-Humber had students from his subcultures & mainstream media classes participate in a field project, where they would collect and archive material from children under the age of 14. This included jingle parodies, hand clapping, jump rope rhymes, jokes and insults.

“As a result, they started to collect and populate this archive with the wealth of really interesting material,” said Dr. Kelley.

“I noted that product names were mentioned and parodies of commercials started to appear.”

As in he mentioned how children sang a different version of the Sleep Country Canada jingle, replacing “why buy a mattress anywhere else?” to “why buy a mattress, you’ve got a couch.”

Dr. Kelley said the material reminded him how much children’s culture is shaped by commercial influence because of the creative manipulation.

His study suggested the parodies and nonsense weaken the messages of corporate interest.

Dr. Kelley said he describes this as an early form of culture jamming, which is a tactic used to disrupt the dominant message.

He said whether children consciously register it or not, when they poke fun at the corporate world, it shows they can – and are – thinking critically about advertisements.

“I think it’s great the way kids mock corporations, because perhaps it will lead them as adults to not be as susceptible to advertising and buying into what they’re told to be like,” said Selles.

Tags: advertising, children, culture

About the Author

Kristina Kirkaldy is a third-year journalism student at the University of Guelph-Humber. She is an energetic and high-spirited person who has had a passion for writing since she was in middle school. She always sets her goals high and is working towards becoming a successful journalist. Kristina is always trying to find new ways to gain experience in her field, as it will help her to become the person she wants to be.