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Most folks want very much for the young people in
our communities to resist drugs and violence. Yet
many of us are just too overwhelmed with our daily
schedules to monitor the things that influence our
kids, which is why occasionally I feel compelled to
write a column like this.
There is one particular commercial on TV geared
towards young people that I really believe to cause
some kids in this society to end up on drugs and
participate in fights.
It is the cell phone ad in which kids are referred
to as animals.
If you watch TV at all, you should know the ad that
I am referring to. It is the one in which a ‘nasty’
big brother looks up his little brother’s ‘network’
and in it finds his brother’s friends symbolized as
animals- a girl referred as a horse, one boy as a
giraffe and one more as a turtle. The ‘big’ brother
is the mystery pig, which invokes laughs from the
other 'animal' kids.
My question is- how many kids will be picked on in
school this year and called horses, pigs, etc.
because of this ad? How many kids are going to grow
up abusing themselves because of what they will be
subjected to in school because of this ad?
How many girls who are called horses will have their
self esteem destroyed and end up becoming
alcoholics?
In my high school, I remember a kid with a large
nose constantly being called the ‘beak’ in school.
Then, I always wondered how he endured it. I also
remember him getting a gun and shooting people after
graduation - and everyone in town expressing
astonishment. I wonder what animal this cell phone
company would have categorized him as?
Some kids go through horrors in school already -
they don’t need cell phone companies inflicting more
pain in their lives by making it okay to call them
animals.
As some of you know, I do programs in schools. I
talk to kids. And guess what - kids don’t like being
called horses or pigs. (Neither do adults, I would
imagine.)
So what can we adults do? If you watch this ad with
kids, point out to them how wrong it is to call
people animal names. You might even want to boycott
the product as a community.
Personally, I fantasize about bringing a
multi-million $$ class action lawsuit against this
company on behalf of all American kids who get
teased and tormented and called degrading animal
names.
In the meantime, I hope all the guidance counselors
in our schools are ready to diffuse fights that may
take place between a name caller and the kid who
doesn’t want to be called a pig. |
