David and David both point toward Congressional threats toward advertisers, making noises about how their advertising candy to kids is liable to bring down the Wrath of Congress upon them.
Give me a break.
Katherine likes candy. Katherine loves candy. Yet, strangely, Katherine doesn’t get to eat candy all the time. She sees ads for candy. She got lots of candy at Halloween. Yet, oddly, she still has candy left over from that past October.
How could this happen, you might ask? Did we seek Congressional intervention? Did the candy companies pilot a non-candy-advertising policy on the channels of TV she watches? Of course not.
- We only rarely buy candy for Katherine at the store. She asks, certainly. We remind her that it’s just not something that routinely happens. We don’t yank candy out of her mouth or teach her that candy is evil. We just don’t buy much for her, and certainly it’s not a normal occurance. Ditto for sugared cereal and cookies.
- We prefer TV channels with minimal commercials, and we FF through most commercial breaks on Katherine’s channels when watching them. If Katherine responds to an ad she sees, we don’t immediately leap to answer her desires.
- Candy is a special treat at home — maybe one piece for dessert (if she’s finished her food), maybe a special reward for something special she’s done. And she simply doesn’t get to grab candy on her own from the candy basket.
So, despite the best efforts of candy advertisers, somehow we manage to keep Katherine from being a candy-gobbling refugee from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It didn’t require the literal or figurative Act of Congress. All it took was some time and effort … from her parents.
Imagine that.