“I’m armed like never before”
For this critique I want to look at a commercial that targets young boys ages 8 to 12, its advertising a new toy product line that came out for one of the Dark Knight (Batman) movies. In particular I want to look at how violence is sold to our children as acceptable at a young age. It’s easy to understand that companies are targeting children at young age to become life long customers, but beyond products they sell ideas that children deem as acceptable. At the 10 second mark the child says “I have new weapons that will stagger your imagination”. This is selling the idea that weapons are okay, and that they are something you should be proud about and show off. Children get exposed to thousands of violent acts in the media by the time they are 18 and by doing this violence has become accepted as a consumable product. We see this in video games and movies, the majority of which contain some acts of violence. But since children are targeted at such a young age to accept violence, violence becomes a major marketing tool that is sold through media. We know from Klass (2009) that alcohol consumption is more likely to happen to kids who are exposed to advertising of it at a young age, why wouldn’t violence work the same?
The actual ad itself really glorifies these products as the child is seen sitting behind the desk in the Batcave. He then runs through all the different items that are available to create the “Ultimate Collection”. At the target age 8 to 12, children are going to want to be this kid because he has the ultimate clubhouse with the batcave, he as all the gadgets in which children will want the entire collection to be like him. No only are they selling one product but they are saying to be the ultimate crime fighter you need ALL the gadgets. It’s not until the end with a fast talking voice do they say they are all sold separately. This commercial sells multiple products to children but at the same tell them you can’t be the “ultimate” until you own them all, of course children are going to feel the need to own them all.
This ad not only attempts to create life long fans of the batman series that will help D.C. and movie studios grow in audience. But they also are selling violence in order to desensitize kids to violence so they can consume featured films, TV and video games the rest of their life. To me this is the same as McDonalds selling to kids to become life long customers but instead its violence. In order to become the ultimate crime fighter you need a rocket launcher, stun gun and some serious armor. At a very young age children are exposed to weapons and violence making them an acceptable part of our culture, even those these are children’s toys these kids will become life long consumers on violence. Worst of all in this particular case the “Good Guys” are the ones with all the guns, the idea becomes in order to be a good guy you need a arsenal of weapons to defeat the enemy. This is a scarey ideology being exposed to children who have no way of knowing what ideology they are being exposed to and the flaws within that ideology. With out being able to truly understand the statistics behind weapons ownership or being able to explore the dangers of weapons violence these children are vulnerable yet companies don’t seem to care.