Tv commercials and my son

My son's favorite tv channels are Nick Jr., Cartoon Network and Jetix. His favorite shows are Drake and Josh, Spongebob, Icarly, Power Rangers and Spiderman. I mentioned Dora and Thomas, he shook his head and gave me that 'nope' shake of his head, said it's for kids!! Isn't he a kid himself?? He think he is a 'bigger' kid, so Dora and Thomas are for younger kids. His most favorite channel is Nick Jr., and every 10 or 15 minutes in between shows, it will go to commercials and I would think that he would move away from these commecials, but I was so wrong! It affects him differently compared to us average adult. On every commercials that comes on, he could not resist saying something in response to those commercials, from physical actions to passive uses of those ad's language.He can verbally imitate ads, act them, especially those with music, images and also those non verbal ads.! It's really amazing how he reacted and his responses, how it affects him daily and the advertisers I bet are drooling!

There is no limit to the commercials that he watches on Nick Jr. It could be from Moon sand to Colgate advertisement. For example, during our weekly grocery trip to Wal-Mart we would go through each isle and out of the blue, he would say he wants cocoa puffs cereal, lucky charms, trix, cherrios etc., and I would tell him, we have never tried it before and he would say, I have seen it on TV, and I want to try it today. We have tried cereals like fruit loops, honey combs, frosted flakes and fruity pebbles which he loves, and to add more to the list of what he sees on TV is just ridiculous! We always end up trying some of the stuff that he wanted, but it will end up in the trash after a few months of him being no longer interested in it.

His never ending list starts from his birthday list, being good list, holiday list, or weekly to monthly list! Anytime there's a new commercials for Burger King, Mc Donald's, Arby's, Dairy Queen etc. he would say, 'mommy, maybe we should eat at Mc Donald's today, and I would tell him it's unhealthy, and he would bug me all day about going to such places, not for the food but for the toys that such places have! I am just shocked at his needs for toys and how commercials affect him so bad! At one point when this Roll'n grow commercial for miracle garden in a box came on, he even suggested that I should purchase them because it will be easier for me instead of the regular ways that I am doing now. One other classic commercial that affect him is the Aqua globes, a watering solution for house plants. He would start with, mommy, look... You can buy that and you don't have to water plants every day, just push it in the soil and it will water by itself. Honest to God, I am never bothered about those stuff, but it is just amazing how those commercials are influencing my son! Other commercials that he is attracted to are those like juicy juice, M&M's, starburst and so many others that I couldn't think of right off my head.


He grew up watching TV commercials and I'm sure I was equally duped but I couldn't believe the impact those commercials had on him. It was like they were handing out candies through the TV. I realize that I can't shield my child from everything, but I was absolutely disgusted by how easy it was for 'them' to get him. You've got to hand it to those ad agencies, they know what they are doing, but for my part, I'm immediately writing a check to Nick Jr or Cartoon Network for that matter, they've got my son HOOKED!