The Mom Crowd

For several weeks, Burger King has been airing its ad for a kids’ meal deal.   I don’t normally watch commercials if I can help it, but this one is hard to avoid.  While I thought the whole thing was pretty dumb, I was quietly amazed to discover that it was marketing a kids’ meal.

Naturally, the ad has caused plenty of controversy, which was probably Burger King’s goal to begin with – more talk = more sales.  You’ve got people on both sides crying out their points of view: “Get over it!  Your kid has seen worse!”  or “I am never going to Burger King again.”

My question is, what do you do when your kid sees this?  Do you discuss it with them?  Turn it off as quickly as possible?  Explain to them in pre-school vernacular about the objectification of female bodies and using sex to sell hamburgers?

As a rule, we generally don’t watch t.v. when our kids are awake.  It only comes on after they go to bed.  But when they get older, this will inevitably change.   I don’t look forward to seeing that line be pushed even further in a mere couple of years.   Sure, we won’t allow them to have their own televisions, and yes, we’ll be monitoring what they watch as much as we reasonably can.   We’ll be big supporters of reading books for entertainment and cultivating hobbies that exercise creativity.  Bottom line, though, it’s pretty exhausting, trying to let our kids be kids in a culture that wants to make them grow up so fast.

Thoughts?