UK children stuck in « materialistic trap »

This document is an article drafted from The Guardian. It's entitled UK children stuck in "materialistic trap". It was written by Randeep Ramesh and published the 14th of September 2011.

It deals with a burning issue nowadays namely the consumer society and children who become materialistic because they are influenced by advertising.

In this concern I'd like to analyze this text along two main lines, fist I'll focus on the case of the UK, and then I'll make a comparison between the case of the UK and Scandinavia and Spain.

Let's start with the first part, that is to say the case of the UK.

In the first paragraph we are led to understand that more children watch advertising, the more they tend to become materialistic. In fact, the advertising tends to make children believe that the possession of an object is a way to be happier

In the second paragraph we thus learn that the UK was ranked at the bottom of a league table established by UNICEF concerning the wellbeing of children, taking into account 3 criteria: poverty, family relationships and health.

Moreover children are purchase influencers and are faced to peer pressure, so low-income families are primarily affected by the materialistic trap because they do not want their children to feel excluded by reporting to their peers.

Let's tackle the last 2nd part, namely the comparison between the case of the UK and Scandinavia and Spain.

In Sweden, parents do not feel the need to buy things for their children to make them happy, they believe their happiness comes from time spent with family. Indeed on the 3rd paragraph we can read "children told researchers that their happiness is dependent on having time with family and friends and having plenty to do outdoors". What's more, the Spanish culture tends to promote family time since women stay at home. In Sweden and Spain, children do not have the pressure of own material goods. Indeed, in Sweden, the government has banned the television advertising for children under 12 years old, and UNICEF has thought that it would be a good measure to establish in the UK.

To put it in a nutshell I would say that nowadays advertising occupies a major place and could have an important impact on children.

In a branching out I would talk about an image representing a large billboard on which there was a picture of Charlton Heston* and an advertisement for weapons. In front of the billboard there was a school bus, and the children inside the bus might have seen the picture. It highlights the fact that advertisements should be controlled depending on the audience they want to reach.

*Charlton Heston was the former President of the NRA (National Rifle Association: association that aims to promote the right to keep and bear firearms at home in the United States).

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