Ad it up

Every year our church has Bible School in the summer—essentially a week of evenings in which kids from pre-school to 8^th grade can come for activities and fun and bible stories. And every year (almost), I’ve helped.

This year was no different, and I signed up to lead a station. You might remember last year, when I led Anabaptist Adventure, and the kids chased each other around the church pretending to be either a) Anabaptists or b) the persecutors.

But this year I led the station on Media Messages, and the way advertisers get you to buy their products by putting all sorts of messages into their ads. Seems appropriate, since by day I’m the one putting messages into them. Maybe I’m helping to counteract what I do during the day. And honestly, if I could create a world where advertising didn’t work, I would be okay with that, even if it put me out of a job.

But I’m still something of a hypocrite.

Anyway, it was all good and I feel like I did my small part, and the kids got something out of it. I didn’t have the preschoolers, but the 1^st and 2^nd graders were my favorite group. They were very wide-eyed and interested, and they seemed to catch on pretty quickly. Even at that age they know that ads aren’t real, and they could pretty quickly figure out who the ads were aimed at and what the messages were.

(For some reason, two different girls brought up the ProActive infomercial to me. Must’ve made some kind of impression.)

I realized quickly how out-of-touch I am with kids stuff, too. I taped some commercials off TV on Saturday morning so I could show them, all of which I’d never seen in my life, and those kids knew every one and could quote them. The moment the commercial came on they knew what it was and what it was for.

And on another topic, yet related to media, I guess—I finished the last episode of Six Feet Under last night. Good gracious (for some reason I’ve caught myself talking like an old lady recently) was that emotional. At the end of it I was literally sobbing—not just teary, but full-on snuffling, gasping sobs (the ugly kind of crying.) I recommend it, but be prepared!