Starting them young

I've been seeing these commercials, both on TV and the Internet, for a few weeks now.

I'm all for good hygiene, especially for kids who don't know about things like communicable disease. But I'm going to be honest; the commercial makes me kind of ragey, for a bunch of different reasons.

First, let's break down the voiceover: 

"You're always looking out for your kids but you can't be there 24/7. That's why Lysol has partnered with over 2 million teachers, to educate kids with healthy habits programs all across America, to give them a fun place to learn about things like how to fight germs and the importance of hand washing. So you can relax; Lysol will take the school shift. That's Healthy Habits Week with Lysol."

Do you see what they did there? With a wave of the pen, Lysol has created a perceived need: that the hours of the school day can't possibly be as disinfected as the time your child spends in your presence. So Lysol, with their brightly painted-over school bus, swoops in and saves the day from inadequate school staff and slobbery, runny-nosed classmates.

Second, let's explore the very targeted correlation between germ-free and self-worth. When did this happen? I'm a good parent because I bleach the sh*t out of my house every day. Or, the opposite: Mary's son washed his hands, but she doesn't carry hand sanitizer and 4 kinds of disinfecting wipes on her at all times, tsk tsk.

To be fair, some folks NEED this level of disinfection in their lives. There are a number of medical conditions that cause or necessitate immuno-surpression (chemo, I'm looking at you) and disinfecting products offer safety and peace of mind for those individuals. But the rest of us? It's a bit much.

Lastly, I am super annoyed at the blatant marketing to kids here. Companies have NO BUSINESS going into schools and waving their heavily branded everything in front of children. There are strict guidelines about marketing during kids' TV programs, but nothing about the marketing that happens during a school day. Kids don't understand that the harsh chemicals in these products can do terrible things to their bodies, or the environment. They only understand that they trust their teachers and are learning to do what they are told.

What sucks most is that so many schools can't say no to programs like these, because there otherwise are no resources to provide things like cleaning supplies for teachers or whatever. Stuck between a rock and hard place, having to sell out because the need for free supplies outweighs the need to shelter our kids from undue influence.

That's my rant on Lysol's Healthy Habits. I promise, next week will a lot less rant-y. Thanks for listening, and have a great weekend!

-- Jazzy