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Comment by hospitalJail | Hacker News Reader

As a person who has taken marketing classes, yes, I make sure my toddlers have close to 0 Disney and Nintendo exposure.

How about the uneducated people? Or those still brainwashed? Those children are sacrificed to Nintendo and Disney?

Lets not pretend we all have perfectly free will and that humans aren't animals.

EDIT: Flappy bird isnt a great example, because it wasnt marketed to children. Nintendo and Disney go to great lengths to find ways to insert them into children's lives at the youngest possible ages.

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>How about the uneducated people? Or those still brainwashed? Those children are sacrificed to Nintendo and Disney?

Who are you to decide who is "brainwashed" and who is merely enjoying something? Who are you to feel entitled to "protect" other adults against themselves?

I'm specifically talking about children, before they are at the age to comprehend marketing.

The prime example is a toddler.

I can't think of any exceptions, but any sort of marketing to children seems to be brainwashing. They don't have the ability to resist bright colors, music, and in-group bias.

I've done this on my own kids to teach them phonics and numbers. Lucky that there isnt any corporation with the exclusive ability to sell the number 7 or the letter F. At age 2, they all know the phonics.

This practice is particularly horrendous in the food industry(fast food, cereals, etc...). Kids are the prime target for companies that have no morals, because if you can get the kid to nag their parents, its a great strategy. Companies are also banking that those same kids grow up to be lifelong consumers, and then pass that loyalty down to their own children.

Its pretty messed up.

> Lucky that there isnt any corporation with the exclusive ability to sell the number 7 or the letter F.

I'm pretty sure there are. Those letters and numbers were sponsoring shows, and they had to get the money for that somewhere, presumably their corporate overlords.

That's why I mentioned parental responsibility. It's the parent's house and they choose where they take their children outside it.

What about the uneducated parents or brainwashed who let their kids watch disney?

It sounds like we are willing to sacrifice the lower class and children of brainwashed parents.

I let my kids watch Disney. I don't think I'm uneducated nor brainwashed (but I guess someone brainwashed would say that).

So do almost all other parents I know, btw.

Nobody here us saying that actual predatory practices are ok. I’m certainly not advocating for law of the jungle. But within reasonable legal and regulatory limits I don’t see how crating cute character and fun entertainment is a harm.

I’m up for effective fair and reasonable regulation, but banning all marketing to children is bonkers. No children’s books, cartoons, TV shows or movies at all? How do you even define marketing to children objectively? It’s absurd.

Unfortunately it is a fact there are people that find it hard to function in a sophisticated technological society. McNamara’s Morons, while an unfortunate term, is a real issue. That’s why I’m in favour of decently funded effective social services. If people genuinely need help they should be able to get it.

I’m basically a capitalist, because I think capitalism embodies essential individual economic freedoms. But all economic systems have failure modes, and I think it’s in everyone’s interests to live in a supportive egalitarian society.

I've seen hipsters prattle on about how much they looooove certain toys from hipster toy companies that are always bragging about saving the earth. Are they brainwashed? Well, the company says that not using plastics is ecofriendly. Don't pay attention to how many trees they cut down to make their neo-retro wooden toys. I think there's quite a bit of brainwashing going on all over the place. Humans are tribal and love their tribal signifiers.

Uneducated people are not idiots. Coming from peasant family, this infuriates me. My peasant grandma never read anything except Bible but was among the wisest and most respected people in her village. Us, her grandkids, are now working high-knowledge jobs in top companies in the world.

I've seen plenty of people from a low education background, and I also come partly from a family of peasants 2 generations ago. Education gives some ability for critical thinking. Absence of education leaves people extremely manipulable. People with education can't understand how very, very simplistic people can be when they don't have it, until they get dropped right into the middle of it and see it first hand. This is not a criticism of them, it's an endorsement of the value of education.

>As a person who has taken marketing classes, yes, I make sure my toddlers have close to 0 Disney and Nintendo exposure.

Good for you. I didn't take that level of a position, we had a Wii in the house and watched some Disney movies. We've never been a big TV watching family though, we'd only watch stuff we chose to watch, like specific TV shows and movies but never just had the TV on. Of course I ensured my girls were educated in the classics. Sailor Moon, Buffy, Xena, MLP:FIM and such.

> As a person who has taken marketing classes….

> How about the uneducated people? Or those still brainwashed?

Did you also stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night?

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