“We can’t afford toys, so stop ads”

I came across this newspaper article today - some US parents wrote to the toy companies to stop advertising their toys on tv to kids.  The parents had been badly hit by the financial crisis and they simply can’t afford to buy those latest in-trend toys as Christmas gifts for their kids.  They find it hard to break the news to their kids and disappoint them.  Here are some excepts from the news article:

What some parents wrote:

“Unfortunately, I will not be able to purchase many of the toys that my sons have asked for; we simply don’t have the money,” wrote Todd Helmkamp of Hudson, Ind. “By bombarding them with advertisements … you are placing parents like me in the unenviable position of having to tell our children that we can’t afford the toys you promote.”

“My 8-year-old is still holding out hope that Santa will get her that one special gift, but understanding this year may be different,” Dower Charron said. “My son doesn’t understand. Everything he sees, he wants.”  Toy ads on kids’ TV shows make the process harder, she said. “The onslaught seems to be more intense this year.”

How the toy companies responded:

The Toy Industry Association has responded with a firm defense of current marketing practices, asserting that children “are a vital part of the gift selection process.”

“If children are not aware of what is new and available, how will they be able to tell their families what their preferences are?” an industry statement said. “While there is certainly greater economic disturbance going on now, families have always faced different levels of economic well-being and have managed to tailor their spending to their means.”

The big toy makers aren’t likely to redirect their ads to parents instead for one fundamental reason, according to Richard Gottlieb, a New York-based consultant to the industry.  “Toy companies advertise to children because it works, to be brutally honest,” Gottlieb said in an interview.

You can read the full article here.

My opinions and suggestions:

Much as it seems that the toy companies are portrayed as being unsympathetic to the plight of the parents, the toy companies are likely to be desperate to stay afloat too.  If not their own staff will join the plights of those parents who wrote in.  Christmas has always traditionally been the best time to make most toy sales for the entire year.

For the affected parents, they might consider exploring alternative ways of getting the toys or alternative Christmas gifts for their kids.  They can consider pooling their resources (with neighbours and relatives) and check out online actions like ebay to find cheap lots of used or loose toys in good condition for sale. 

You’d be surprised how quickly some loose in-trend toys can end up on ebay.  Small toys like Bakugan shouldn’t be expensive to ship within the US.  Other places to shop for loose toys are at flea martkets, garage sales and thrift stores.  All is not lost if you explore such other options.  You don’t always have to buy mint-in-package (MIP) toys from the retail stores as Christmas gifts.  And you don’t really have to buy the toys before Christmas.  How about buying them during the post-Christmas sales?

Of course sitting down with your kids and having a talk with them would help a lot too, provided if they are old enough to understand.  For younger kids, I think you might have to ban them from watching those kids cartoon programs which have the toy ads in between the shows.  You have to be aware by now that these cartoons were originally meant to be 20-minute commercials to sell their related toys.

Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) studies have shown that repeated exposure to something will cause those images, sound and emotions to be anchored for a very long time in the human mind.  These then become long-term memories.  That’s how advertising works in general - to make consumers remember their products for as long as possible.  Eventually there is an irresistable urge to possess those products, never mind if you really need them or not.  Even adults cannot fully resist the impact of advertising, much less the kids.

Right now, it’s also a good time for parents to reinforce the virtue of saving up for the future in the kids.  Encourage the kids to drop in at least some coins from their pocket money into their piggy bank everyday.  Who knows, they might just save enough to get the toys they want later when the toy prices gets slashed after Christmas or next year.  This is known as practising ”delayed gratification”.  Usually after a period of time has passed, the kids tend not to ’crave’ for those in-trend toys as much as during the pre-Christmas period.  When this happens, they can keep the savings for something more important that they need in future.

Being able to consistently save part of one’s income or pocket money to build up his or her personal savings for a rainy day, is the first step to eventual wealth creation. This is a very useful life long financial managment skill to instill in everyone.