I've just seen an advert that's made me see red and the really strange thing is that it's not even what they're saying that I really object to.
The advert I saw was for Persil's "Be My Coach" campaign, designed to encourage more children to play sport by getting their parents to play with them. Or, let's be real about this, buy loads more Persil and eventually get a 'sports kit' that costs a fraction of the additional expenditure you've just laid out to produce. The contention of the advert is that playing sport is "the best way for kids to learn about life".
Now, I've said before that I don't do sport. I find football, the national sport, soporific at best, athletics yawn-inducing, horse racing tedious, motor racing likely to bring on brain death etc. It doesn't interest me. I know some people find that completely beyond their comprehension but that's how it is. Put me on an exercise bike and ask me to ride 10 miles and you can sod off. What a pointless waste of time. In fact, not only is it pointless, I'd find it actively pissed me off. It's like if I came round your house and forced you to listen to Westlife's Greatest Hits. You'd resent wasting the precious gift of life on something you found so loathsome. Now you know how I'd feel about playing a game of football.
I'm sure you get the point... Sorry, if that offends, but that really is my take on it. I'm not saying it for effect, because I somehow imagine it makes me in anyway cool or better than anyone else or anything else you might care to think of. It's simply anathema to me.
However, clearly I'm not so stupid as to believe that a life devoid of physical activity is a good one, and actually, put me at the bottom of a mountain and ask me to walk up it, and I'm happy. Put me in a canoe and let me go and find a secret island and I'm in hog heaven. Stick a bike in front of me and ask me to ride ten miles and I won't blink. Ask me to walk five miles and I'll just ask for my iPod. I don't actually mind doing some things that involves physical activity but at least make it have a point. At the end of walking up a mountain, you're at the top of a mountain, one of the most life affirming and humbling things a person can do. At the end of a ten mile bike ride, I'm in a new place and so on.
So, I'm not so stupid as to deny that exercise is good for you and I'm definitely not so stupid to even think of letting my kids grow up without doing a bit of physical exercise. They will, even if I hate every minute of it. I always used to say to my parents, 'Oh well, you gave up the right to a nice life when you had kids...' It was a 'joke', used when they'd whine about us boys treating the house like a hotel or making a mess or whatever it was, but they knew there was grain-ette of truth to it, and I knew it too. And now I'm going to be a parent, I'm becoming more aware that the joke really isn't funny any more, and has a lot of truth in it.
So, what's my problem with the Persil ad. Firstly, I object to multi-national corporations selling themselves as the guardians of our well being (Bisto selling themselves as a force for binding families together over Sunday Lunch equally offended me) or telling me how to bring up my kids (ignoring the fact that they aren't actually here yet for the moment). Secondly, 'playing sport is "the best way for kids to learn about life"'. Oh is it? And how do we know that?
Because Persil has paid for an academic at Roehampton University to tell us this is the case. So, let's get this straight, Persil, who wish to run a promotion to increase sales of their washing powders, have paid for someone to conduct their research for them. Awooga awooga! Conflict of interests alert!
The academic, a chap called Richard Bailey, got the pollsters at You Gov to ask 2,000 people, a quarter of which are teachers. Now, I'm on the You Gov panel. I don't recall this particular survey and don't believe I took part, but their surveys are all of a muchness for the most part, so I can make a reasonable guess at the type of questions it asked. In any case, You Gov provides a picture of what people say. If 2,000 people say the sky is green, it doesn't mean it is. It means that 2,000 people have expressed an opinion that is not borne out by science.
Just because "Teachers are firmly convinced that taking part in sport improves pupils' concentration in the classroom, teaches important life skills like teamwork, leadership, and confidence, and helps youngsters develop into well-adjusted, happy individuals". That all may be true, but not just because someone says it is. The only way you can make such claims is by carrying out experiments according to a rigorous scientific methodology, using a control group to check for any testing biases, not by stuffing £50 notes in an institution's back pocket, tapping your nose and suggesting the results you'd like the academic to prove up front.
I'm trying to approach this whole notion of impending parenthood with the right mixture of idealism and realism, and generally, a few wobbles and anxieties aside, I feel I'm doing okay. I'm certainly looking forward to it. I just don't want soap manufacturers telling me how to bring them up. That's not really unreasonable, is it?
The advert I saw was for Persil's "Be My Coach" campaign, designed to encourage more children to play sport by getting their parents to play with them. Or, let's be real about this, buy loads more Persil and eventually get a 'sports kit' that costs a fraction of the additional expenditure you've just laid out to produce. The contention of the advert is that playing sport is "the best way for kids to learn about life".
Now, I've said before that I don't do sport. I find football, the national sport, soporific at best, athletics yawn-inducing, horse racing tedious, motor racing likely to bring on brain death etc. It doesn't interest me. I know some people find that completely beyond their comprehension but that's how it is. Put me on an exercise bike and ask me to ride 10 miles and you can sod off. What a pointless waste of time. In fact, not only is it pointless, I'd find it actively pissed me off. It's like if I came round your house and forced you to listen to Westlife's Greatest Hits. You'd resent wasting the precious gift of life on something you found so loathsome. Now you know how I'd feel about playing a game of football.
I'm sure you get the point... Sorry, if that offends, but that really is my take on it. I'm not saying it for effect, because I somehow imagine it makes me in anyway cool or better than anyone else or anything else you might care to think of. It's simply anathema to me.
However, clearly I'm not so stupid as to believe that a life devoid of physical activity is a good one, and actually, put me at the bottom of a mountain and ask me to walk up it, and I'm happy. Put me in a canoe and let me go and find a secret island and I'm in hog heaven. Stick a bike in front of me and ask me to ride ten miles and I won't blink. Ask me to walk five miles and I'll just ask for my iPod. I don't actually mind doing some things that involves physical activity but at least make it have a point. At the end of walking up a mountain, you're at the top of a mountain, one of the most life affirming and humbling things a person can do. At the end of a ten mile bike ride, I'm in a new place and so on.
So, I'm not so stupid as to deny that exercise is good for you and I'm definitely not so stupid to even think of letting my kids grow up without doing a bit of physical exercise. They will, even if I hate every minute of it. I always used to say to my parents, 'Oh well, you gave up the right to a nice life when you had kids...' It was a 'joke', used when they'd whine about us boys treating the house like a hotel or making a mess or whatever it was, but they knew there was grain-ette of truth to it, and I knew it too. And now I'm going to be a parent, I'm becoming more aware that the joke really isn't funny any more, and has a lot of truth in it.
So, what's my problem with the Persil ad. Firstly, I object to multi-national corporations selling themselves as the guardians of our well being (Bisto selling themselves as a force for binding families together over Sunday Lunch equally offended me) or telling me how to bring up my kids (ignoring the fact that they aren't actually here yet for the moment). Secondly, 'playing sport is "the best way for kids to learn about life"'. Oh is it? And how do we know that?
Because Persil has paid for an academic at Roehampton University to tell us this is the case. So, let's get this straight, Persil, who wish to run a promotion to increase sales of their washing powders, have paid for someone to conduct their research for them. Awooga awooga! Conflict of interests alert!
The academic, a chap called Richard Bailey, got the pollsters at You Gov to ask 2,000 people, a quarter of which are teachers. Now, I'm on the You Gov panel. I don't recall this particular survey and don't believe I took part, but their surveys are all of a muchness for the most part, so I can make a reasonable guess at the type of questions it asked. In any case, You Gov provides a picture of what people say. If 2,000 people say the sky is green, it doesn't mean it is. It means that 2,000 people have expressed an opinion that is not borne out by science.
Just because "Teachers are firmly convinced that taking part in sport improves pupils' concentration in the classroom, teaches important life skills like teamwork, leadership, and confidence, and helps youngsters develop into well-adjusted, happy individuals". That all may be true, but not just because someone says it is. The only way you can make such claims is by carrying out experiments according to a rigorous scientific methodology, using a control group to check for any testing biases, not by stuffing £50 notes in an institution's back pocket, tapping your nose and suggesting the results you'd like the academic to prove up front.
I'm trying to approach this whole notion of impending parenthood with the right mixture of idealism and realism, and generally, a few wobbles and anxieties aside, I feel I'm doing okay. I'm certainly looking forward to it. I just don't want soap manufacturers telling me how to bring them up. That's not really unreasonable, is it?
"the best way for kids to learn about life"
ReplyDeleteHow is that ever possible? Surely the best way to learn about life is to live it?