Why arent we tricking kids into being decent individuals anymore?

I was taught many lessons as a child. A few by my parents, some by my peers but most came from Saved by the Bell and Family Matters. There was a time when I would criticize television for being blatantly subtle with their life lesson moments. I didn’t enjoy the fact that I was being manipulated and TRICKED into being a better person. For instance, every episode of Full House en…

EVERY episode

ended with one of the adults sitting one of the children down, putting their arm around them, and telling them what they did was wrong. This act would always lead to a hug and unwavering forgiveness no matter how large the offense. Like, again, pouring cement into a kitchen because you were secretly making out in a cement truck with the boyfriend you weren’t supposed to have.

But despite my anger toward being forced to learn through entertainment, I always did learn something. There was an episode of Smart Guy where the character Mo thought a Korean shop owner was racist because he would never hand him his change. Instead he would put it down on the counter. In the end, we learn from the shop owners son that his father considered it disrespectful to hand money to another person. I learned two things from this episode: (1) Maybe we should all be more understanding of the choices and cultures of others and (2) Don’t touch Korean shop owners. These lessons have stayed with me and as a result there are only a FEW cultures Im not willing to tolerate and I haven’t touched a Korean man since.

Now

These days, such lessons are lost. We aren’t making any valid attempts to trick children anymore even though it was all the rage a decade ago. All we have now are these over the top life lessons that children only laugh at in reality. Don’t smoke pot or you’ll shoot your best friend in the face. If youre going to be this literal, it requires a certain level of finesse and it needs to contain a lot less “ridiculous”. I suppose such commercials are actually the product of my generation though. Some advertising major fresh out of SVA said “I hated what Full House did. I hated the intended subtle force feeding of life lessons via Danny Tanner. It never worked on me” and thus began the shift. The shift towards friend murdering pot smokers. But I feel this has the opposite effect.

By being so literal and “matter o fact,” we are causing children to question and debunk. When we watched Full House we never really questioned the lessons because it was so easy to relate . Ive been caught stealing and cheating and making out in cement trucks. Who hasn’t? But Ive smoked pot and Ive yet to shoot someone in the face. Whats more, I don’t have any desire to play with guns when Im high. So I cant take this lesson seriously because I cant relate. Show me a commercial where a kid goes 1 and 23 in Modern Warfare 2 after taking a bong hit and maybe you’ll turn some heads. Or maybe show the possible negative effects of pot smoking on social networking and you’ll turn all heads.

Though Im not sure the latter has any real negative effect. Im always slightly more charming when high.

But I digress. What was I saying?
…yea don’t shoot your friends in the face.