On the Dangers of Staring Too Long Into the Abyss

John Droescher                                             

English 11000

04 Mar 2015

On the Dangers of Gazing Too Long Into the Abyss.

               Chock full of data and factoids, Eric Schlosser’s article “Kid Kustomers” is a piece of rhetorical genius. Author of Fast Food America, Schlosser seems to be the perfect journalist to lead the charge against another group of large predatory Corporations. And he does so in this article vehemently.

               Beginning with a nostalgic look at the dearth of children-specific advertising of yesteryear, Schlosser lays the groundwork for his argument against Corporate exploitation of children. Sometime in the 1980s, according to Schlosser, increasingly busy parents began spending on their children in greater amounts attempting to alleviate the guilt they were feeling from spending less time with their children. Marketing and advertising firms began picking up on this and increasingly targeted their clients’ campaigns to take advantage of this rising market.

               Around the same time, these advertising and marketing companies increased research into the subtleties of the manner in which consumers received and processed advertisements. Much of this research was directed toward children and the possibility of creating lifelong brand loyalty. Additionally, marketing and advertising companies began developing new methods of collecting, collating, and processing data. As a result, children were increasingly subjected to advertising campaigns imperceptible to their developing psyches.

               Examples of these campaigns include kids clubs which were not only utilized as advertising platforms but also to collect data from children who were unaware of the privacy concerns involved. In response, the United States Congress passed a law restricting these predatory campaigns. These data mining campaigns were combined with dream research to develop children’s programs and advertisements designed to appeal directly to young and impressionable minds.

               Attempts to combat this exploitation of impressionable young psyches have been overwhelmingly unsuccessful due to the influence of Corporate interests on both regulatory bodies and the US Congress. The only real success in the campaign to combat predatory advertising has been the forced abandonment of the Joe Camel mascot and the use of a portion of cigarette profits to actively educate the public of the dangers of smoking.

               Premised on the “won’t someone think of the children” canard, Schlosser’s article is full of appeals to emotion. While he presents relevant data to show that children are increasingly being targeted by ad campaigns designed to create a lifetime of brand loyalty, at no time does he present data that this is a specifically bad thing. There is no study backing the assertion that creating brand loyalty negatively impacts the lives of these children, nor the young adults, nor even older generations who have been subjected to these ever increasingly specifically targeted ad campaigns.

               In fact, the only negative to be found is based upon the idea that manipulation of a person’s mind is inherently immoral, and manipulation of a child’s mind is even more so. Which is, in many respects, patently ridiculous. Every day interactions between individuals often involve subtle manipulations. Despite adults being heavily susceptible to manipulation, the increasingly partisanized, rapidly growing following of the Fox News Channel exists as an example, there is no outcry regarding said manipulations. Schlosser’s argument boils down to the tired, old: “Won’t someone think of the children?” canard which is nothing more than a fallacious appeal to emotion.

               Schlosser does deserve much credit, however. As a journalist and an author he has mastered the art of persuasion. Ironically, perhaps, given that his persuasion relies on similar tricks to those marketing and advertising companies use to promote their own goods, and agendas, at the expense of their competitors. Despite offering copious data and arguments in support of his position, virtually no valid counterpoints are presented, nor is any raw data that could be interpreted to detract from his argument presented in this article. So masterfully is this manipulation penned that even the above average reader is persuaded by the argument until these machinations are expressly pointed out. Schlosser reveals he has ignored Nietzche’s warning regarding gazing too long into the abyss and so has become a monster himself.