Category Archives: advertising

Educational Toys: Helpful Learning Tool for Children

ab15507572ea6ac4_800x800arChildren just love toys. Toys form a critical part of fun for children, as they enable them to engage their senses, spark their imagination, and encourages them to interact with others. As a result, buying your children different toys to play with, including educational toys may make a delightful difference. This is because the toys will help your children to learn, and at the same time have fun.

Toys come in all sizes and shapes, each with a unique attribute and purpose. Some are mechanical based, hence can be manipulated, and in the process promote the child’s physical development. Other types of toys such as puzzles mainly deal with problem-solving. These usually give the child the opportunity to expand their knowledge and understand some basic principles such as colors and shapes.

If you never thought of buying educational toys for your child before, here are a few reasons why you should:

1. Developing their creativity

Educational toys support creative and open-minded play. For example, a box of plastic inedible food can inspire a child to spend a lot of time pretending to run a restaurant, or simply cooking food. A set of Lego city blocks can be turned into a fort, tower, a road system, or even animals. The main aspect that makes games such as those from Lego city so captivating and timeless is that modeling has unlimited possibilities. The more time a child spends exploring all these, the more their power of imagination will be. This is will help the child to develop his or her creativity and help to find creative solutions to challenges they face in life.

2. Self-confidence

Playing allows your child to assert him or herself. Open-ended toys like musical instruments and dress-up props improve their imagination and self confidence through activities such as performing, acting, and singing in front of an audience. These toys may include fake microphones, a drum-kit, and more to enhance the experience.

3. Independence and socialization

By buying toys that enable the child to mimic real-life events or daily realities, the child may become more independent. The toys will enable the children to create and direct their own plays, hence promoting interaction and socialization in the process. Such toys include medical kits that include items such as stethoscopes and first-aid kits, while teaching kits that include items such as a chalkboard, chalks and more.

In conclusion, every parent should buy their children educational-toys to help to positively shape their child’s development.

Stream of Consciousness Sunday: Kinky Kids

Here is my 5 minute brain dump as part of this great series. Here goes …

It’s not the first time I write about advertising that is blatantly sexualising children. It’s starting to make me feel sick. It makes me want to scream, cry and break things – in THAT order.  The scary trend is alarming and disturbing.

thylane-blondeau

Thylane Lena-Rose Blondeau, a 10 year old girl from France has appeared in Vogue posed as a adult. At a glance you think “Wow that’s a hot chick” then you realise SHE IS TEN YEARS OLD. It’s sickening.

Another French company called “Jours Apres Lunes” has created a lingerie line for children made from finest silks and lace etc … the products themselves don’t bother me really, as you have a choice to buy, BUT the advertising does – we can’t avoid seeing.

This goes beyond pageants. If these images were found on someone’s computer there would be serious questioning going on.  These children are minors. They are inappropriately dressed and posed. If I told you the images came from a paedophile ring you’d believe me. The fact that their are in a catalogue for children’s wear or in a magazine DOES NOT make it ok.

My blood is boiling. I will not let this topic drop. Hot, Kinky, Sexy, Erotic, Alluring etc are words that should NEVER go with child.

What are your thoughts on this?

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This is my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

  • Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
  • Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
  • Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
  • Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
  • Link up your post at all.things.fadra.
  • Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

 

Lingerie for Children in France

Children's lingerie

sexy kids in advertising

The girl in the background is advertising the 6 month - 3 yr collection. In the foreground is 4 - 12 yrs. : Jours Apres Lunes

Children should be kept children for as long as possible. If innocence could be bottled I’d be the first customer.

Sexualisation of minors

Today I was sent a link from a UK newspaper about a French company who is blantantly sexualising minors as part of their advertising campaign.  I visited the site in question which is called “Jours apres lune” (Days after the moon) and was quite frankly saddened and disgusted.

How far is too far?

The sexualisation of minor in advertising is going too far. It’s not the first time I have posted about this subject and I feel that a greater force needs to come in to play. A child lounging scantily clad in pearls and sunglasses is NOT the natural pose of a pre-pubesent girl.  Art directors and marketing managers are clearly on something to let this fly. Iconising Lolita is distasteful and downright dangerous. Where do you draw the line? Personally I feel any child, posed like an adult, is crossing the line when the word “sexy” or “hot” can be applied.

As a mother, a marketer, a sexual abuse survior and as a human I call for everyone to boycott such companies that stoop so low to sexualise CHILDREN.

What do you think, is the sexualisation of minors EVER ok?

Baby Bikini Babes: Should such advertising be banned?

Today I came across a post by Melissa on how “Sexualization Shouldn’t Sell Swimsuits” – the post was about a Brazilian Swimwear company for girls creating a questionably slick advertising campaign that sexualises young girls to push their product line. I have to admit it was the picture that accompanied the post that made me gag and choke on my coffee. I dashed to the company’s website “Submarine Kids” and my jaw dropped further.

I grabbed a picture and posted it to my Facebook page – the responses were enough to make me realise that this really is a topic that NEEDS attention. As a mother, the pictures used to market the swimwear are outrageous. As a Marketer, they make me question the company’s social responsibility. As a woman, well, the whole subject just makes me question why is it necessary to exploit this child?

kids swimwear submarine kidsSo, what’s the problem?
Well, in short, Submarine Kids have a young girl who is about 7 years old in a bikini, wearing colourful showgirl wigs, full make up in provocative poses. Is that really necessary? The bikini’s themselves aren’t really the issue – it’s the way the child, I repeat CHILD, is posed that I take massive issue with. Blurring the line between childhood innocence, fashion and pornography the images are confusing, disturbing and just plain wrong. Where is the company’s conscience in creating such images? Shouldn’t they be held responsible for creating ethically wrong images of young girls? How can they be allowed to use images of a child in an overtly sexual way?

I’m not going to address the social issues that such images will create – I say “will” because ultimately, allowing such images to be used in advertising will create problems. It has to. Issues such as eating disorders, body image issues etc are fueled by crazy depictions such as these. Children are children and they are not cognitively aware enough to say “Ahh yes, that’s a tongue-in-cheek cool ad campaign” – NO – children cannot process the campaigns.

Let children be CHILDREN!
As I have said, the swimwear itself is a matter of taste – it’s up to the parents to choose how they dress their kids. I am fully aware that many kids dress like mini (questionable) adults and that’s fine – they are not my kids. Yes, it’s up to the parents to decide how they influence their kids but at the end of the day it is short sighted to assume that your influence alone is enough.  I don’t feel, like some have suggested, that these images are going to attract or create pedophiles – that in itself is a sick condition that no company can create BUT the campaign does cross the lines making the age of consent, suitability (call it what you like) substantially younger.

Clearly the creative director on this campaign is totally out of touch, maybe he wanted to cause a sh*t storm (and succeeded) but what is wrong with photographing the same girl in the same swimwear being a child?

Should companies be held accountable for sexualising children? Should such advertising be stopped as suggested by the Advertising Association in the UK? What do YOU think?