[BBKing]

You're not a parent, are you?

This was on Radio 5 this morning, and I've been worried about it for some time - the adverts in question are generally aimed at, shall we say, the less sophisticated TV audience. They use bright colours, pretty girls and childish music. Unfortunately, children also aren't very sophisticated and digest this pap rather easily.

Since under fives have no inbuilt talent for making important financial decisions it's rather important they get taught that money doesn't come from a pretty woman in an advert but from actually working for it and that it's rather important to plan properly. This is particularly important with the way things are going with the state not likely to look after you too much in future. Being imbued with the kind of financial planning espoused by such companies is akin to being taught the Green Cross Code by rabbits and hedgehogs.

I noticed this months ago - my son always stops and watches the Ocean Finance adverts whenever they're on (which isn't generally on anything he's watching, he's usually far too busy smashing the place up to watch TV). It's worrying to find that it's not just him.