Film explores children’s marketing

Posted May 6, 2010

The Marda Loop Justice Film Festival is presenting a free screening of the documentary Consuming Kids, a film about the marketing machine selling children and parents everything from junk food to violent video games and bogus educational products. 

The film will be followed by a Q and A with pediatrician Dr. Peter Nieman from the University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine. Calgarians are invited to attend the free screening this Tuesday May 11 at 7:00pm
at River Park Church, 3818 14A St. SW, see www.justicefilmfestival.ca .

Consuming Kids
Consuming Kids throws desperately needed light on the practices of a relentless multi-billion dollar marketing machine that now sells kids and their parents everything from junk food and violent video games to bogus educational products and the family car. Drawing on the insights of health care professionals, children's advocates, and industry insiders, the film focuses on the explosive growth of child marketing in the wake of deregulation, showing how youth marketers have used the latest advances in psychology, anthropology, and neuroscience to transform American children into one of the most powerful and profitable consumer demographics in the world. Consuming Kids pushes back against the wholesale commercialization of childhood, raising urgent questions about the ethics of children's marketing and its impact on the health and well-being of kids. Check out: consumingkidsthemovie.com
67 min.
      Official Selection - 2009 Freedom Week Film Festival, New Zealand
      Official Selection - 2009 Fiuggi Family Festival, Italy

Dr. Peter Nieman
Dr. Nieman teaches as a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Calgary and is a regular medical contributor to newspapers and radio and television broadcasts.  He hosts a website www.healthykids.ca which is a resource for parents who want to raise healthy kids". In addition to his medical experience, he is also a parent who recognizes the challenges of raising healthy children.

Dr. Nieman has been practicing as a specialist with children for more than twenty years and has been a pediatrician in Alberta since 1987. He currently serves on the Canadian Pediatric Society's Healthy Active Living Committee. Previously Dr. Nieman served on the Canadian Pediatric Society's Psychosocial Committee which explored the beneficial and harmful effects of media on children?s mental and physical health, and to identify how physicians can counsel families to promote the healthy use of the media in their homes and communities.