Is anyone else as horrified by this state of affairs as I am? If/when I have children, is home-schooling my only option to protect my kid(s) from corporate brainwashing?
I think you make great (and in some ways frightening) points, FB, but let me play Devil's Advocate for a minute:
It is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid being barraged with advertising everywhere you turn. I just read an article about Boston signing a deal with a German company that will (in exchange for providing the city public toilets and bus kiosks) install "street furniture" (which used to mean benches and trash cans, but now seems to mean free-standing advertising signs) all over the city. Even walking down the street ad-free is impossible. Maybe we should be using the implied "ads" in our kids school lunches and textbooks as "teachable moments". Ask them "So why do you think McDonalds put its name on that cooler? Why does this company pay for your textbook?" and teach them to be *aware* of the haze of advertising that will (increasingly, no doubt) surround them. I've heard recently about the excellent job Canada seems to be doing teaching "media awareness" to kids, and I think the US should take a page out of their book.
I haven't read Fast Food Nation, and I imagine I would be pretty shocked by it (the stuff in your quote about Exxon-sponsored environmental education is particularly scary), but I do think that attempting to keep our lives free of advertising is like trying to bail out a boat with a sieve, unfortunately.
