There’s a commercial on the air for a cupcake mix. A mother serves her kids and their friends a plate of cupcakes during a lull in their play. The kids look at the plate. The cupcakes are not evenly formed, the sprinkles are askew, the icing drips the wrong way. “Re-do! Re-do!” they chant, while banging on the table with their cups. Oh, no, oh oh. The kids are not happy! The mother turns to THE PRODUCT and re-bakes the cupcakes. All is well in the household.

What’s wrong with this picture? I haven’t raised children (unless you count kittens) but I can tell you that any gaggle of pre-teen tyrants banging their cups on my table and chanting “re-do” would soon find themselves totally cupcake-less and out the door, preferably in a ditch.

The people who wrote this ad, the company that endorsed it, the exec who said, okay, run it, are part of the problem. We are encouraging children to be entitled beyond their due and to become authoritarian and greedy adults. There has to be a better way to sell cupcakes than to suggest that children ought to tyrannize others to get their way and aren’t they just too cute. No, they are little monsters in the making.

I am going to watch for the next showing of this commercial and make a note of the manufacturer of this mix and write them a letter to say I am waging a personal campaign to boycott their product. Money talks.

xx, Teal