Parental Success #37

We live in a strange age in which childhood has been almost completely co-opted by advertisers. It is almost impossible these days to buy anything for your child that does not have some sort of product tie-in. Even diapers are emblazoned with various characters. The hot marketing demographic seems to keep getting younger. Don't believe me? Note that advertisers find that children under 3 years of age represent a $20 billion market.

Of course, one of the pioneers and most successful businesses in this field is McDonalds. A recent study in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, the oldest peer-reviewed pediatric journal in the U.S., found that no matter what food was presented, when put in a McDonald's wrapper, kids preferred it. I still remember begging to go to McDonald's as a kid and thinking a birthday party there was the coolest thing ever.

So fast-forward to yesterday afternoon. Joy was meeting with a woman about Kindermusik, and they needed a place to talk without childcare. They hit upon the idea of McDonald's since it has an indoor playplace. Joy packed Sam up and told him they were going to McDonald's to play on the playground. Sam turned to her with his eyes wide and reverently asked:

"The farm has a playground?"

Sam likes their fries too much to be ignorant of MacDonald's forever, but I'm going to cherish that comment for a while.