Because marketing is so pervasive and powerful in today’s culture, youthworkers need to be aware of the many advertising strategies marketers employ in an effort to influence children and teens’ spending decisions. Of course, the main goal of marketing is to sell product. But marketing is actually even more effective at shaping the worldviews, beliefs, and behaviors of our kids. By knowing how advertising works and the beliefs/behaviors that marketing sells, we are better equipped to help kids understand marketing and how they are manipulated and influenced. Then, we can equip them to think Christianly about marketing in a manner that allows them to resist messages that steer them away from God’s will and way for their lives. I believe that one of the most important steps we can take in leading our kids to a deep and life-shaping faith is to train them in skills that will put them on the road to being discipled and shaped by Christ and His Word, rather than being discipled and shaped by advertising and its “word.”
Source: CPYU
