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Recently I attended a semi-pro hockey game. During half-time, there was entertainment on the ice involving children. It was kind of a “bumper” car race on ice. I noted that the cars all had large lettering of a brand of beer and thought that so inappropriate. I was really shocked, though, when the children were awarded their prizes—t-shirts also advertising that beer! This is slick marketing aiming for brand recognition to children not even close to the legal age of drinking.
How to Say No and Keep Your Friends, 2nd Ed.
A must back-to-school reading for your teen!
 Too Smart for Trouble
Helping grade K-4 children think on their own!
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I had a discussion years ago with a representative from a beer company that used a darling dog in its advertising and promotions. He claimed the company was only trying “to get 40 year old men to switch brands” through the use of the dog! Give me a break!
I suggest that you think carefully about allowing your children to wear or be involved in activities that have advertising promoting substances that can be harmful to your children (and often to adults as well). And when you see glamorous commercials or print ads about tobacco or alcohol, joke about how absurd the advertisement is. Discuss, without lecturing, marketing techniques and how they will tell us that we will not be popular, cool, pretty, smell good etc. if we don’t use their product. Tell them about what the ads are not saying. Have your child draw or act out their own ad telling the real story.
If you begin doing this when your children are young, you may prevent your children being so swayed by advertising’s beautiful images.
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Copyright © 2008, Sharon Scott. No reproduction without written permission from author. Excerpted in part from Sharon’s classic parent guide: Peer Pressure Reversal: An Adult Guide to Developing a Responsible Child, 2nd Ed. ((HRD Press, 800-822-2801 and www.hrdpress.com/SharonScott)
P.S. Please check out my other column, “SmileNotes”
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Sharon Scott, LPC, LMFT, is an internationally recognized family counselor with a private practice in north Texas. She is considered the leading expert on peer pressure having trained more than one million people across the U.S. and in Australia, Canada, Switzerland, South Africa, Spain, Malaysia, the Philippines, Turkey, and Micronesia in her proven techniques. For information on bringing Sharon to your community or school to present one of her 29 dynamic workshops for children, teens, parents, or educators, please see her website www.SharonScott.com .
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The guide for parents/educators on how to peer-proof children and teens is 
Sharon also has a charming series of five books for elementary-age children each teaching an important living skill and “co-authored” with her savvy cocker spaniel Nicholas who makes the learning fun. Their book on managing elementary-age peer pressure is titled 