Resource Review: Don't Buy It

Many people agree that it is important for children to recognize and interpret media and advertising messages to become better and more aware consumers and citizens. In recent years, a number of private and public organizations have created tools, resources, and classroom materials to develop in children what many people call “media literacy” or “advertising literacy.” The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) created one such resource in the form of their Don’t Buy It website, funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS.

The site is designed to be navigated by kids themselves. It features a bunch of cartoons and animation, uses short and catchy phrases, and focuses on issues young people are generally assumed to be interested in. For instance, sections of the site deal with how models are made up and airbrushed before they appear in magazines or other media; how burgers or ice cream are treated with dyes and chemicals to make them seem so appetizing in commercials; and why designer brand clothes cost more than others.

For a media literacy resource, the site is helpful yet lukewarm. Let’s cover the good points first. Kids (and adults) can learn some interesting new information from a few parts of the site. Under the Advertising Tricks portion, kids can "be an ad detective," learning to locate product placement in media and finding out facts like “Nike is paying Tiger Woods about $100 million to use Nike products for five years.” They can also learn about what it takes for a band to end up on the radio, and why big record labels are more successful at getting their artists airplay.

Also, the site is fun to use. Even as an adult, it is enjoyable to click through the quizzes and guessing games within its various portions. The colors, images, and videos are interactive and incorporate various multimedia, and the design of the site makes for an effective active learning exercise.

The sections of the site also cover different areas, from advertising to consumption to media and entertainment, and finally, to civic engagement.

But Don’t Buy It is missing some important factors. First, while its civic engagement section deserves compliment simply because it exists, it is very weak. For kids who have been enjoying the rest of the site’s interactive and fun components, this section is incredibly boring and mundane. It contains way too much text, and does not help its audience to navigate through the various organizations listed. Under the section Get Involved, for instance, are kids expected to call or mail every single one of the businesses and governmental institutions listed? And what are they supposed to say to them? “Stop this!"? It is important to point this out, because it shows that the site itself does not directly address policy issues in any way. So if a person were to want to get involved politically, she still would not know what the political issues are currently on the table. So her comments wouldn't be well-received.

Second, the site contains research coming from the popular press and mainstream books. This is only disappointing because, if the creators of the site were to have looked at some other, perhaps more scholarly readings, they would have found a lot more historical and contemporary facts to add to the site. The facts are bit too shallow and, I think, they underestimate the interests and abilities of some kids. The audience of this site is treated a bit too much like children. Perhaps the site could have contained more complex facts and research embedded into deeper portions, so those kids who are interested could find and learn about them.

Third, and very important, who really looks at this website? It is commendable that PBS decided to undertake the construction of Don't Buy It, but how do kids find it? Perhaps I am spending time with the wrong children, but I don't know any person under 30 who surfs around on PBS' website in their spare time in hopes of stumbling onto something exciting. (Actually, I don't want to offer 30+ year olds: I don't know a single person who surfs around on PBS' site -- but again, I may be hanging with the wrong crowd.)

To the website's benefit, I recently read in an issue of an education technology magazine, whose name escapes me at the moment, that a social studies teacher found the site useful and wanted to share it with fellow K-12 teachers. According to the teacher, students in the classroom found the resource rewarding and enjoyable, and seemed to come away with new things learned. (This article was actually the place I heard about this PBS website.)

Although I have not heard directly from other sources about the usefulness of this site, it is a positive sign that some teachers are using it as a classroom resource. Perhaps this was the primary purpose the creators imagined for it, although this is not clearly stated anywhere on the site itself. Otherwise, though, it is hard to imagine how young people would be able to find the site, since I have not heard of any serious publicity campaigns about it.

PBS' Don't Buy It is a useful resource, but it reeks of adult management and underestimates children. While it surely gets a young person's mind started in thinking in more critical ways, this reviewer wonders whether many kids don't already harbor doubts and skepticisms about media and advertising to begin with. Growing up in today's culture, it is virtually impossible not to see through the misleading messages in media and advertising content. Although the site is a great start, it would benefit kids much more if it contained more concrete facts about media ownership, the ways business can influence politics, and how that affects various media outlets. In other words, the site requires even more context for any audience to become media literate. And a greater focus on policy does not have to make the site boring -- it could be presented in equally fun and interactive ways.