Brand Labeling

All you locals: I'm sure you know what we are selling. An innocent pear? The Coop has branded you! Oh and me for that matter.
I have tried for so long to keep any type of logo, character and words off my child. I thought that I would never let him be an advertisement for anything. Our children are our children and I really do believe that I want to establish boundaries on their exposure to all the evils of the world. I know a lot of parents will shake their heads and not agree with me, but I do think that corporations are an evil that I want to shelter my child from for awhile. And corporations are all about Brand Labeling, Brand Loyalty and buying more more more. And guess what, those marketing geniuses out there? they are really really good at their job. That's why so many of those characters your kids love watching on T.V. are EVERYWHERE!! They are on fruit snacks they are on lunch boxes, clothing, backpacks, pasta shapes, they were created to sell things. Sure maybe they have a fun show that lets you get the laundry done, and sure maybe they taught your child their colors, but really their goal is to sell you more stuff! And sell it via that sweet vehicle, with those beautiful eyes threatening a tantrum in public. They are evil geniuses!

Back to the purple shirt... oh the color looks so good on Asher. I was so excited that he could finally fit into a kids size coop shirt. I love it on him. And then I took him out in public and it hit me that he was a walking advertisement. What am I doing to my kid? Sure, I completely support all aspects of the CGFC, I have served as a board member, been a volunteer and part of the staff (shortest employment ever), but do I want my kid to be an advertisement?

The kids is really cute, maybe he needs an I love the Food Nanny shirt- he really loves them. Then you can see why people want cute kids to wear their stuff. And as a business owner, I can start to see how it works and how it became the evil spiral that it is.

I know there must be a balance, but for us we are holding firm trying to keep it out of our lives. We will keep our advertising to local businesses and keep all that other stuff out of our clothing, our food and our books, oh and off our shoes and art supplies. I am very happy to report that Asher doesn't know who Elmo is (although he was totally attracted to Elmo as a character on a book, what is it with that thing?) and I would like to keep it that way.