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2008 •
O’Connor, D. (2012) Generation Yes. In Bustreo M. – Russo V. (Eds), Proceedings of the Child and Teen Consumption 2012 «Food Consumption, Communication, Life Styles and Fashion». 5th International Conference on Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Child and Teen Consumption, Qanat, Palermomore: Milan.
Generation Yes: How Childhood Consumerism has Influenced Play; Implications for Creative Development.2012 •
"""" Objectives 1. To show how child consumerism has changed over the last two generations to the extent that modern childhoods have become commercialised. 2. To show how the commercialisation of childhood has influenced play patterns 3. To Discuss the implications of this from the perspective of creative development Method THE METHODOLOGY UPON WHICH THIS PAPER IS FOUNDED IS LIFE HISTORY RESEARCH. The study is based on four life histories of Irish Parents who together span the last fifty years of living in Ireland. The age breakdown is as follows; Mother aged 26, Mother aged 36, Mother aged 42, Father aged 52. Life history research involves the story of a person’s life. It can be set in a particular context and can be analysed in conjunction with other documents that relate to the time period or experience in question. Bloor & Wood (2006) define Life history research as the collection and analysis of past events from eyewitness participants for the purposes of historical reconstruction. The main method of data collection was depth interviews with participants concerning their lives supported with information from documents such as letters and diaries. Other documents were also used to stimulate memory or discourse (Plummer 2001). Examples include photographs, videos, toys and newspapers. I believe that life history research offers an in depth and detailed method of including socially contextualised qualitative living experiences within a study. This view of the importance of including living experiences within any study of human situations is underpinned by venerable and highly respected and established social research concepts such as Phenomenology, Ethnography, Hermeneutic Sociology (Dilthey 1998) and Interpretivism (Gubrium & Holstein 1997). It also echoes Weber’s sociologically foundational material on Verstehen or Understanding. Life history research is a powerful medium of recording a person’s experiences and thereby enriching social understanding of our collective systems. As a process, it sets the person and their story at the centre of the research and as such is a participant empowering methodology. Collecting data on how cultures, systems and policies impact on the lives of people is a very important pillar of social research. It has also proved to be a fascinating journey of discovery, opening up lived experiences in a unique and fascinating way. The insight it affords into the human experience of such cultures, systems and policies is both important and truly rewarding research. Results The focus of the original life history research was creative development through the Irish Education System from 1950’s Ireland to the present day. All participant’s however, spoke richly about their childhood play experiences and how they differ from that of their children’s. The common theme was that the growing influence of consumerism and marketing has impacted massively on children’s play patterns. These stories formed the basis of a thematic analysis on changing play patterns influenced by the increase of direct marketing to young children through a variety of mediums including television, cinema, branding, toys, songs and product lines. Discussion The commercialisation of Childhood has now become an internationally recognised phrase (Calvert, 2008). It refers to how the modern child is exposed to pressure from an early age to see themselves as consumers. It is the result of the evolution of childhood into a marketing opportunity. Children are now directly targeted not merely though advertising but also through television programmes such as Fireman Sam, Peppa Pig and Bob the Builder. These shows carry product lines that include not only normative merchandising such as cups, plates, cutlery, bedding, clothing, lunchboxes and so on but also play based merchandising such as dress up clothes, soft toys, character toys, imaginary play equipment and more. A phenomenon that started with Barbie has become increasingly pervasive to the extent that the television story lines are now being recreated during early childhood play sessions where children of previous generations created their own story lines for imaginary play. Where once they played the things they experienced such as house, doctors, school, problem solving and conflict resolution, they are now more likely to play ‘Bella Lasagne’s cat got stuck up a tree’ – A popular Fireman Sam storyline. The issue for creative development is clear. In traditional or real play, a child is using a recreation of a popular story or regular life experience to create a new learning, a new outcome, to problem solve or resolve an emotional or social issue. When recreating a marketed story the learning is inevitably more controlled. The pictures in their head are not their own. The ending of the story is strongly imprinted upon them through the visual nature of its consumption and their freedom to ‘play’ with it to achieve their own innate learning goals is compromised. This is no accident; the ‘story’ as presented is designed to sell to the infant viewer. Its patterns of emotional attachment between the child and the character are a key component in convincing the child that it ‘needs’ the associated product lines. When viewed from the perspective of the real role of play as a learning and processing vehicle for children, the commercialisation of modern play is of grave concern. The right of children to play is enshrined in the Article 44 of the UN Convention on the rights of the child. It is recognised as a learning vehicle for children; a space where they are empowered to work through the problems in their life and creatively solve those problems. Piaget highlighted the centrality of emotional processing within children’s play. Vygotsky laid emphasis on the importance of the child’s imagination in early play where they possess the ability to make a sheet a cape or a stick a doll simply by saying it is so. This intrinsic and important capacity to imagine is a central platform of creative development. It does not, however, suit toy manufacturers. How can one make money from such a concept? Educational Philosophers and play pedagogics may have united in their view of the centrality of the imagination within childhood play but the concept that a good toy is 90% child and 10% toy is the antithesis of toy manufacturing and marketing. Television, electronic games, music videos, social networking sites, the internet, magazines and mobile phones have all provided child marketing companies with the means to infiltrate children’s play. Their motivation is to maximise their opportunities to create consumers with an emotional product attachment. Their real achievement, however, could well be the alteration of thousands of years of human developmental processing with unknown results for adult capacities within creativity and related skills such as problem solving, conflict resolution, emotional processing and interpersonal capacity. """"
This research looks to understand why anthropomorphic images are so overused by marketers to attract very young consumers. By drawing on theories from evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology and social psychology, it is argued that anthropomorphism acts as a catalyst for kin recognition and encourages attachment and liking. A number of bonding concepts are discussed, such as association and phenotype matching, to show how anthropomorphic images encourage a young consumer to draw closer to the product and avoid destruction of the product. The manuscript concludes by calling for further research on understanding very young consumers’ relationships with brands and brand images.
Creating creative teachers Chapter 12 page 115 contributed by Marisa Constantinides This chapter looks at the role of teacher training courses in supporting the development of teacher creativity and helping new teachers to understand the importance of approaching course materials in a creative way
Childhood overweight and obesity have been increasing over recent years and, more than ever, we are being called to act, whether as clinicians, parents or educators. The aim of this empirical research is to assess children's cognitive and emotionally internalized mental representation of a Preferred and Healthy Meal, using drawing as methodological instrument. This is a cross-sectional, exploratory and descriptive study using a qualitative methodology – content analysis. In the present research, conducted in two moments, with 1013 children (aged 4-10 years), from Lisbon metropolitan area, we've asked children to draw a Preferred Meal and a Healthy Meal, trying to evaluate the child's implicit knowledge and habits of drink intake and food cooking methods. 2026 drawings were collected: 1013 representing a Preferred Meal and 1013 a Healthy one. Drawings were evaluated using a content analysis instrument specifically developed for this study, using ATLAS.ti 6. For purposes of obtaining a descriptive analysis, data were treated using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 19.0 for Windows. The obtained results on Cooking Methods (sub-categories Meat, Fish and Potatoes) reveal that children, regarding the Preferred Meal, selected both healthier and unhealthier cooking methods like Fried (Meat and Potatoes), Stewed and Grilled (Meat). Representations of healthy cooking methods, on the other hand, show conspicuous disparities by age-group as children aged 4 and 5 years take frying as a healthy meat cooking method, whereas children aged 6 years are virtually unanimous in choosing grilling as the best representation of healthy meat cooking method. As to Potato and Fish healthy cooking methods, most children elect boiling. Regarding the beverages that children included in their Preferred Meals, we found some discrepancies with selection of fresh juices in the age-groups 4YG and 5YG with clear contrast with the dominance of soft drinks (carbonated beverages sweetened with sugar) in the older groups. Regarding healthy drink choices, soft drinks decrease drastically, being consensually replaced by Water in all age groups or by Natural / Fresh Juices in the younger age groups, despite an undeniable presence of soft drinks, disguised of " natural ". The results obtained in the study points out that preferred cooking methods and drinks are internalized during childhood and are connected to early experiences with food and to pathogenic (family and society) nutritional patterns. They also testify to the children's ability to learn to select healthy cooking methods, despite being an abstract cognitive construct, at a very early age. Despite that knowledge, when it comes to drinks, this study evidences that children's reveal some erroneous representations influenced by exposure to media, namely related to advertising soft drinks bearing a 'healthy food' label. These are the stronger arguments to support the need for developing health education ludic-pedagogic instruments for children.
The New South Wales Ministry of Health (2013) reported that 22.8% of children in NSW (24% of boys and 21.5% of girls) were overweight or obese in 2010. Projections suggest that, should no action be taken to address the issue, 68% of adult males and 54% of adult females in NSW will be classified as overweight or obese by 2016. The National Health and Medical Research Council (2013)1 states that optimum nutrition is essential for the healthy growth and development of children and therefore healthy eating is a critical behavioural risk factor that can have a significant impact on well-being at all ages. Optimum nutrition is essential for the healthy growth and development of infants and children. Healthy eating contributes to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight, and provides protection against chronic disease and premature mortality. Conversely, unhealthy eating, in particular the over-consumption of energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods and drinks, as well as physical inactivity an...
There is no end to the brands that lend themselves to anthropomorphic comparison. As an area under researched, the ultimate aim of this thesis is to improve our understanding of the phenomenon of brand anthropomorphism via focusing on one of the most prominent tactics currently being used by industry – the use of marketing mascots. This research begins by theoretically positioning the topic in a rich body of literature. Drawing on branding literature, the multidimensional nature of brands is explored as a starting point for understanding brand mascots. The fundamental theories referred to are integrated to form the Brand Puzzle. Next, the phenomenon of anthropomorphism is examined by referring to literatures from the disciplines of anthropology, animal behaviour, English literature and religion. To complete the extensive literature review, this thesis draws on marketing, advertising, psychology and consumer behaviour literature to reveal any existing classifications for brand anthropomorphism prior to introducing a new typology. Additionally, an investigation into the use of mascots is carried out paying particular attention to their conceptual development and their ‘humanity’. By designing an interpretive case study methodology that relies on a variety of research techniques, including netnography, interviews and photo-essays, as well as a provocative style of presentation, this thesis sets out firstly to explore the development of three marketing mascots on the social media site of Facebook: Aleksandr Orlov mascot for price comparison website CompareTheMarket.com; The M&M’s Spokescandies mascots for Mars’ M&M’s chocolate; and Mr Peanut mascot for Planters peanuts. A literary approach was adopted when tackling this mysterious process of creating marketing mascots. Secondly, this thesis sets out to analyse consumer engagement with the brands via their engagement with the selected marketing mascots. Six forms of consumer engagement were identified which were perceived to have an effect on the narrative of marketing mascots. The discussion section of this thesis creatively links the empirical evidence presented in the findings chapters and the insights from the literature with novels, storytelling and genre reading. The prominence of these have led to the development of a Literary Wheel model that has scope for use by industry and offers a direction for future research. In conclusion, this research contributes to knowledge in the field of brand anthropomorphism. It provides a formula for the creation of captivating marketing mascots that fulfil the needs of our increasingly communication hungry culture, encouraging elevated consumer engagement and the development of stronger consumer-brand relationships.
This publication is based on the five year Nordic discussion dealing with food and its various roles and meanings in the contemporary society. The discussion has mainly been carried out amongst five university departments, their lecturers, researchers, visiting scholars and enthusiastic students. The Department of Food, Health and Environment from Gothenbourg University, the Department of Food, Nutrition and Dietetics from University of Uppsala and the Department of Curriculum Research, Danish School of Education, Aarhus University from Copenhagen have been the long standing partners. Akershus University College from Norway participated in the beginning of the project and Tallin University from Estonia joined the group two years ago. The Department of Home Economics and Craft Science at University of Helsinki, Finland has coordinated the project. A careful reader will notice that the names of the participating departments have changed during the project and the swaping of names seems just to continue. These structural changes in each university have made the academic discussion more needed than ever.
Canadian journal of dietetic practice and research : a publication of Dietitians of Canada = Revue canadienne de la pratique et de la recherche en diététique : une publication des Diététistes du Canada
Evaluating a fruit and vegetable program: in eastern Ontario schools2013 •
Effectiveness was evaluated for a fruit and vegetable program developed to encourage Canadian elementary school children to eat the recommended number of daily servings. Also examined was whether the program modified children's personal factors, perceived social environment, and perceived physical environment. A prospective, quasi-experimental trial was conducted to compare the eight schools receiving the intervention curriculum (Freggie Friday schools [FFS]) with six control schools (CS). A food frequency questionnaire was used to measure differences in fruit and vegetable consumption. Personal factors, perceived social environment, and perceived physical environment supporting fruit and vegetable consumption were assessed with an adapted version of the validated Pro Children study questionnaire. Of the 942 children who completed the baseline assessment, 807 also completed the follow-up questionnaire (FFS, 450; CS, 357). A mixed-effects regression model indicated no significant...
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