Wednesday 9 January 2008

Just one of those "oh-so-common" unethical marketing

On one side of the world, children were deceived and/or forced to commit torture and murder.
On the other side the world, children are deceived by unreasonable, no, I say, down right unethical and greedy business people to create wrong and negative self-image from even earlier age.
Larissa Dubecki writes:
Last year Nair, makers of hair-removal products, released their Pretty range, aimed at 10 to 15-year-olds, or, as they call them, "first-time hair removers". Yes, you heard right. Ten-year-olds. Girls — children — in grades 5 and 6, encouraged to wax and chemically remove hair from their barely pubescent bodies. As online site Gawker put it, what's next: Baby Brazilians?

She concludes:
It sits oddly that parents, who note and celebrate each step of their child's development, are being encouraged to celebrate premature sexualisation as another rite of passage. So at age two, their little darlings can use simple, short sentences and sort by shape and colour; at four they're able to distinguish between themselves and other people; at five they can dress themselves; eight is a big whoop with the likes of Santa Claus filed under a newly found sense of "fantasy". At 10 they can start ripping hair from their bodies to be more attractive to the opposite sex? You'll need to try just a little harder to convince me that's a "milestone" worth celebrating.

Encourage them to be children, just for a little while longer. And don't worry. They'll have plenty of time to learn to hate themselves when they get older.

Seriously, parents, do something! And those business men, just don't. (shaking my head thinking, "Do any of them have children? If they do, they would know what they are doing? I mean... just give me a break!")

No comments: