This week, I managed to also get in touch with members of mumsnet, the online community for parents, by parents; Sharna Jackson of Tate Kids, as well as some raw data on the public’s acknowledgement of product placement from OFCOM, all of which will add great data towards my research. The main problem that I have been experiencing with this subject is that, due to the nature of this subject, and the fact that this is still relatively new, it is hard to gather raw data to create visualisations to show the flow of process.
Definitions of the three main keywords/phrases so far as gathered from my research:
Product placement is about implanting an idea of purchasing purposes within media; a communication tool that is integrated into the media
Branding is about providing the terminal values for the consumer to build the ultimate brand loyalty relationship between themselves and the brand
Childhood is a period their mentalities are still in development, and therefore should be a period where any form of communication exposed to them should allow to continue to grow; the idea of childhood nowadays is more about consumption and consumerism rather than a process of developing their own identities; their own brand.
Carrying on from the previous week on fairytales and fables; the main objective of these stories was to provide a sense of morals for the reader, and to allow them to develop a sense of morals on their own accord. Fairytales and fables are not much different from branding, where both stem from the idea of storytelling, and to create a relationship between the narrative and the reader themselves; to create an emotional link, and to allow the children to relate themselves to the appropriate characters.
We, as designers/creative thinkers/design philosophers/all of the above, have objectives, one of those perhaps, is to improve society with future changing concepts, wanting to add some meaning to the society. These life-changing decisions? They are adult concepts. They were influenced by what we were exposed to ourselves, or other ideas. So can it be said that ideas are also adult concepts? If so, how about starting from where we began ourselves? Childhood.
As previously said, childhood nowadays has become a term that is associated with materialistic values, where children grow up surrounded by brands, and are branded themselves, this categorising by sub-culture creates an tidal wave effect of wanting to seek out the latest gadgetry to fit within their evocative values that the children themselves want to see themselves become associated with.
By influencing perceptions from a young age, we can change the future from the beginning. An idea of influencing perceptions is where this final major project was stemmed from; the recent lift of the product placement ban to its essentials, is about the placement of ideas or a concept. On the discovery that children are becoming increasingly obsessive about consumption, this can be interpreted in different ways; whether in food or other products, we are becoming increasingly materialistic in our values, and the age of desiring and obtaining materialistic luxuries are getting younger. Why? One thing is clear; advertising.
Advertising’s role in brands are important in their own right, as advertising becomes the first point of contact in establishing a link between the consumer and the brand itself. How about the products that are targeted towards children? The juxtaposition of promoting a product for children with an advertising campaign that is an adult concept, what effect would this have on children psychologically?
The stressful lifestyle that the majority face in this metropolis are beginning to show strains and their children are also noticing too, as the gradual increase of both parents having a full-time job, the amount of time that can be devoted to their children has decreased significantly; “working mothers in Britain spend just 81 minutes each day looking after their children – including mealtimes.” (Donnelly, 2011)
The parents’ role to their children are supposed to be setting an example on growing up and providing a positive mental attitude towards their developing, but as adults begin to go through the routine of wake up, eat sleep and work, and less time is being spent with children; bills to pay, mouths to feed, their children will also begin to be exposed to the routine of becoming slaves to the clock.
Upon reading more on the origins of fairytales, and its psychologies, it provided the most wonderful insight that very much links my research on how ideas and implanted in the first place, with the impacts and function of branding. This is a crucial turning point within the project, as this is about gaining an understanding of the metaphors that became idealised, or branded, and its utilisation of them in today’s society within many contexts.
Combining this with the strategic methods of advertising, particularly, product placement and the overload of information everywhere; on billboards, television, on the internet, that even we, ourselves, as young adults, are being influenced, sometimes unconsciously in light of product placement, where this project began. There seems to be nowhere to hide, and we are being brought up in an environment where advertising is the norm that one probably gets exposed to more than their homework or more time spent with advertising than their own parents; branding is no longer child's play, but rather, a materialistic maturity for the growing youth in the way that this can be classified coined as a brand terrorism; where brands bombard so much that they dictate our own lifestyle and we inherently lose our freedom of choice.
So has branding become the modern adulthood to the modern childhood?
Bibliography
Donnelly, L. (2011) Working mothers send 81 minutes a day looking after their children The Guardian [ONLINE] Available at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8408503/Working-mothers-spend-81-minut...> [Accessed 22 August, 2011]
