Kids and Brand Names

When did marketing to children become so prevalant? We've recently started taking greater stock of our purchases, budget, commercials, marketing, etc. and it's amazing how much is marketed to children. Personally, I find this very wrong.

This became very real in my house this weekend when Will needed new shoes. "I want skechers" - the brand name that some of the other little boys have. I could tell him any of the shoes are skechers and he'd be happy.

I took him up to Rack Room and they have mostly skechers anyways which is unfortunate. I tried to get him to try on some nikes, but the cool shoe boxes with superheroes on them that were at his eye level (of course) caught his eye. And, of course, they were skechers. I asked him if he liked the shoes or the shoe box and he said both. At least he's honest.

So, I ended up getting him skechers in a size too big because they didn't have his size. And, they did end up being the amount I had budgeted for his shoes. We talked a little about not always getting what you want and buying within our budget, but I could tell that he didn't really understand. We're going to have to work on that.