My oldest daughter Poppy grew up watching the BBC. She never saw adverts, which was a great advantage in the supermarket since she never realised that all that shiny packets stacked up by the checkout were sweets. However, since Five improved their children’s programming, with great shows like Bottle Top Bill, she’s been changing channels and watching commercial TV. Yesterday in the bathroom she said to Carol, my partner, “There’s a lavatory cleaner you can get now that has something in it that makes it stay in the toilet, even after you’ve flushed it, so that it can keep on killing germs. We should get some of that.” Later on she said, “You know, there’s a shampoo you can get that makes your hair really bouncy and shiny. It’s got a new ingredient.”
I’m starting to think that maybe it wasn’t such a smart idea preventing her from getting the hang of adverts earlier. I bet other kids her age just filter them out, like we grown-ups do.
Children are ultimate consumers. At least you’ve got Bottle Top Bill to cheer you up.
Could be worse. Henry is addicted (and I mean addicted) to the CITV channel. The CBBC people should get him in and scan his brain or something to work out where they’re going wrong. (He does filter adverts out, though. Can’t remember him asking us to get anything he sees on TV. Unlike William who wants everything he sees on TV.)