Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood

Description

A critique of marketing to children

Susan Linn is Instructor in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School and Associate Director of the Media Center at Judge Baker Children's Center. An award-winning ventriloquist, she is internationaily known for her pioneering work using puppets as therapeutic tools with children and in co-founder of the coalition Stop Commercial Exploitation of Children.

"This book is a powerful warning and wake-up call about the obvious and subtle ways our consumer culture is deliberately sending messages to our children that are shaping their lives." -Marian Wright Edelman, President, Children's Defense Fund "A splendid book-a call to arms for parents today. Consuming Kids lays out the ingredients of a fight back, giving control to parents and their children. Our children as consumers are being consumed. We can and must take back out parental roles in this media battle." -T. Berry Brazelton, M.D., Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics, Harvard University "At last a book that provides the data, the arguments, and the passion that can be mobilized to end marketing to children. Susan Linn is a hero of our times." -Howard Gardener, author Changing Minds "Barbies for three year olds? Advertising junk food in middle schools? If you're thinking marketing to kids has gotten out of hand, and are wondering what to do, this book is for you. Susan Linn, one of the nation's leading opponents of the commercial exploitation of children, has written a compelling and compassionate critique of today's 'what will they think of next' advertising environment, and provided a road map for taking back the culture of childhood." -Alvin Pouissaint, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School and Judge Baker Children's Center "Linn presents a salient, substantial, and worrying case. She shows how children's daily lives have been trespassed on evermore by brand names and images. As useful as it is serious, this book is necessary reading for parents in particular." -Alissa Quart, author of Branded