Have you ever wondered why the evening news programs are filled with stories about children drowning in pools or being visited by similar easily preventable tragedies? Have you ever noticed too, that in between those news stories are commercials for products and services designed to keep kids safe and happy and taken care of? If so, then you’re becoming aware of what seems to be an expertly orchestrated campaign to artificially manipulate parents by means of their natural instincts and desires to care for their children.

I recently had the pleasure of spending time with my older siblings and their families. Between them, they have three children under the age of three years old, and they are both adorable, a lot of fun and a handful to keep track of. Hanging around with both kids and parents for a couple weeks straight really opened my eyes to a lot of subtleties about our culture that have been up until now lost on me as a single childless person.

The thing that I noticed the most strongly was how television is designed to work on parents. Parents are busy; there’s no doubt about it. Between working and make ends meet and caring for their children and the myriad of small responsibilities that arise as a result of kids, most parents don’t have a lot of time to focus on things outside of their immediate environment. Enter the evening news. The evening news gets turned on after a long day at work, or of caring for the kids, and for most parents it serves as a window to the outside world, and a vitally necessary lifeline to keep them connected to important events of the day.

Media companies seem to be aware of this dynamic, and are also aware of the need to provide news coverage that interest parents and with which they can identify. As a result you’ll see lots of human interest stories about parents and kids, and community issues. But the flip-side is that a preponderance of those stories seem to be negative. Just watch any five or six o’clock news broadcast to verify this for yourself. During a recent stint in front of the television at my sister’s house, they featured multiple stories about children drowning in pools. It’s important to consider the emotional effect this has on the parent. They automatically project themselves into the story. They imagine it is their child who is injured or killed or put at risk, which causes great anxiety - whether it’s consciously recognized or not. During that same broadcast, when they cut to a commercial, I saw television ads which are designed to sell you products that alleviate that anxiety. Buy insurance to protect your family. Buy this car because it’s safer for your kids. Shop at Lowe’s so you can baby-proof your house and provide a sanctuary for your little ones. The proximity of these ads to these types of news stories simply can’t be accidental. It is too common, too consistent.

Unfortunately, this is only part one of a two-pronged attack on parents and children by corporations seeking to manipulate and profit from them. The other major element that I noticed was the intense cross-over branding that nowadays goes into children’s products. Say your young child regularly watches and absolutely loves particular kids show, such as Dora the Explorer. Now imagine that you need to buy some ordinary everyday items for your child such as forks, plates, bibs, and any variety of toys. You have three objectives in this situation: get what you need, spend your money wisely, and please your child - if possible. The best would to do all three. And this is where cross-branded products come in. Why not buy plates, forks, bibs and toys that you know your child will like and identify with because they have Dora and her friends featured prominently on them? If they are available and the same price, or maybe only a little extra more money, chances are you will shell out in order to keep your child happy.

I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with this transaction, of course. Parents need to buy certain things and companies have every right to sell them the best way possible. But what happens to a child who, from birth, is trained to only buy products which feature cross-over tie-ins through other media franchises? What happens is that you create a consumer who is so well-trained and so deeply programmed that they will never question the possibility that all-encompassing marketing and promotional schemes might not be in their best interest. Why might they not be in their best interest? Because what right do corporate entities have to colonize all of human existence and experience with products and services? Who gives them that right?

Did you know that expectant mothers are given by their doctors parenting magazines and product samples? Who do you think pays for these things? Who gives them to doctors? Who benefits from imprinting in the mind of a woman anxious to bring a new life into the world a sense of which products to buy and where to shop? Humans have been having and raising children for thousands of years. When you get down to it, encoded within our biology are all the instincts and knowledge we could ever need - but we’ll never hear it if we continue to let so many other outside voices scream at us day and night.

Thanks to Jared Drew Moody for the awesome illustration that accompanied this article.