Solo Mother

Make your voice heard: what do you want??

by christina on February 18th, 2008

The fabulous website, PEM: Corporate Babysitter (PEM stands for Parents for Ethical Marketing, btw) has sent out the call to make our voices heard. Says Lisa: “Working with corporations to ensure their marketing practices sustain healthy kids and families is a vital component of PEM. When I started on this venture last November, I didn’t think we’d have the opportunity to engage companies — or have our voices heard — quite so soon.”

She has asked that we offer some feedback to Shari Aaron from Vision Conscious Brands, which she will then share with her clients why environmental, social, and economic issues must be better addressed in the products, marketing, and brand strategies with which families are constantly bombarded. I say, ‘hell, yeah!’ to this one and am sharpening my quill. While I am going to head on over to her site and post my thoughts in the comments, I wanted to take the time to babble a little here. In the wake of lead paint, over-sexualized preteens, mindless violence and other head-spinning, how on earth did we get here events of late, I think it’s time that we, as consumers, stop playing the victim and start using out purchasing power to… well… to purchase some power.

This study group is going to hate me. I do not conform. I don’t own a television. I don’t shop at WalMart, Target, or Toys R Us. We have one battery-operated toy in the house. It doesn’t have any batteries in it. We don’t buy into the Disney Princess madness, the Power Rangers crap, the frenzy of buy one get one free. There’s a lot of plastic in our house, but that’s because the King of Everything got the 763-piece Lego Mars Mission for Christmas this year. Otherwise, we have wooden puzzles and building blocks, tons of books, art supplies, and adventures. Oh. And pipe cleaners. We shop organic as much as we can afford, we wear handmedowns and hand down what the Kid hasn’t destroyed leaping off the top of the jungle gym. We’ve got those special, energy saving lightbulbs in the house, and damn, they are annoying with how long they take to warm up and actually LIGHT, but we feel good about making the switch. Ceiling fans mitigate the muggy summer heat better than AC does. We set the thermostat at 65 in the winter. Natural fibers, recycling bins, good things back into the world.

In short, we’re not true Consumers. We aren’t desperate to fit in with the Joneses. Frankly, that world doesn’t offer us much of anything truly valuable. I watch television suck children in, until they are parrots of the marketing jingle, latched fast onto the corporate teat. My son, on the few times when he does watch commercial television, comes home filled with the awe and excitement of commercials, spouting back at me as Gospel the tag lines and hooks that products use to get you to come home with them. Hell, I went to the grocery store with a friend of mine who had seen so many of those John McEnroe commercials urging us all to eat some cereal for just TEN DAYS! that my poor friend found himself searching the shelves for the product. “Why are you doing this? Listen to yourself, you just admitted you want to buy this because John McEnroe told you too!” I laughed. If commercials can sway the mind of a 40-something year old, can you imagine what it’s doing to the very young? I specifically do not shop at the big box stores because I don’t like what is happening out there in world. Did you know, you can eat at Pizzeria Uno’s in Doha, Sharjah, and points even farther East? Do you know how difficult it is to find local eateries, small specialty stores, mom and pop produce? Do you really want so little choice in your lives? I like to support local, small businesses. I’m going to join a co-op this spring, and I’m going to figure out how my grassfed membership works, next week. I’ve vowed to buy only handmade gifts this year, or to make presents with my own hands. This sort of life appeals to me. I know. I live in a bubble. My friends feel the same way — indeed, I’m rather boring and mainstream compared to some of them.

I pray I can maintain this devil-may-care attitude about what the Great They thinks, in my son… I hope it will be cool enough to be uncool when he’s a tween. I hope I can give him the strength, the humor, and the bravado necessary to set his own trends and not become slave to someone else’s.

Here’s a little more of what Lisa says about Ms. Aaron’s goals and the company for which she works:

Vision Conscious Brands works with clients who are interested in having a positive social impact. Currently, Ms. Aaron wants to show her clients that consumers do care about corporate social impacts and to prioritize our concerns. She can’t do that — and no company will make the move to change — unless we let them know what we want.

Please join the conversation over at PEM: Corporate Babysitter if you are interested in products that leave a lighter footprint on the Earth, a cleaner impact on our children’s minds, and a brighter future for all.

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