My kids (4 & 6) saw real ads on TV for the first time in their lifes’ about a week ago. Otherwise they had always just watched netflix. They watched disney channel on TV and were mesmerized by all the ads for toys. „Oh I want this one“, „and this one“, „dad can we buy that one?“. Was bizarre to see that for them this was somehow really special.

I almost feel like it's part of a "media readiness" thing. I have to wonder what happens to the kids raised on a perfectly curated media diet when they move out and actually drink from the marketing firehose for the first time unattended.

At some point in your childhood, you should desperately want something from an advertisement and get hopelessly let down with it, just so you can learn the lesson that advertisements lie.