Why Think When You Can Ban?

These people really need lives.

Or a spine.

The logic used by these groups is that banning advertising to children will reduce pressure on parents by reducing the number of requests/nagging/demands that children have for advertised products -- in short, if they don't know about it, they can't ask for it or throw a temper tantrum over not getting it.

The simple act of saying "No" and sticking to it seems to be quite beyond the capacity of these groups to understand.

What groups like these are doing is trying to make life easier for parents by abdicating responsibility for raising their children. Instead of having parents hold responsibility for what their children eat, ban junk food. Instead of having parents have to refuse their childrens' requests, hide information from the children so they can't make the request in the first place.

Children learn by experience. Instead of trying to get banned programs like Book It! that obviously do help children, these advocacy groups could provide resources to educate parents about how to explain product placement and good consumerism to their kids.

But that would require work, not sexy public ranting that gets you on TV.