How to Inoculate Your Children Against Advertising
Get Rich Slowly had guest post a while back on How to Inoculate Your Children Against Advertising. I am trying some of these ideas. I know that advertising definitely affects our kids.
I’ve found that the best way of turning them down when they ask for something that they’ve seen advertised is to say “Sure!”. Then I make an estimate of the product’s price and tell them that when they’ve done their chores X days in a row they’ll have the money to buy it. Oddly enough that dampens their insistence that they’ll die without it. 
I find that a similar strategy works decently to curb my own impulse spending. If I start pricing out things as “I will have to work Y hours extra to have this”, my feeling that I’ll simply die without the latest widget diminishes greatly. The biggest problem with this approach is that I actually have the money so if I don’t stop and think I can spend it foolishly before making the calculation.
October 14th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
I used to use that approach when I wanted to throw away my money until I became a non-exempt salaried employee. Now I work those extra hours with no extra pay and buy myself stupid things to try to make myself feel better!
And anyways, buying that $30 bottle of shampoo will not only make my hair sleeker and shinier, it’ll give me happiness, peace of mind, and help me lose 50 lbs. to look like the girl in the ad, right?
October 15th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Absolutely! Commercials never lie to you.
October 15th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Actually, every now and again I succeed in using this approach to keep me from snacking on absolutely horrible things.
If I drink this can of regular soda, I would have to spend another 30 minutes on the treadmill to work it off (which I wouldn’t do so I’d just end up gaining more), or I would have to give up a substantial part of a meal. The easiest thing it helps me resist are those big ol’ cheese danishes they set out in the morning. “That is, like, a MEAL! Do you I want to NOT EAT LUNCH because I wanted a Danish, or can I deal with coffee and an oatmeal cookie instead?”