Money-Smart Kids / Tom Henske

As I tuned in to see what will go down as one of the greatest Olympic hockey games of the century (U.S. vs. Canada), I couldn't help but notice the tremendous number of television advertisements for McDonald's.

I'm sure every young girl ice hockey player now thinks that McDonald's is an important part of their preparation to make the Olympic team (sarcastic humor if you missed it). Still, it brought to mind the role branding efforts play in shaping the spending habits and preferences of our young children.

This is not an article in which I start to bash our country's greatest companies for their effort to attract and retain loyal purchasers. In the country we've all chosen to live, this is their capitalistic right. But that doesn't mean as parents, we should lay down and surrender to the advertising assault aimed at our children every time they turn on the television.

A study published in Psychology and Marketing contained research showing that children may be influenced by advertising earlier than originally believed. Alert Kings Highway Elementary School: McDonald's is making their play for our children.

When 3 to 5 year olds were asked to match the brand logo of 50 sample companies with the entity it represented, recognition rates were hovering around 90 percent for several companies. It was of no surprise to me that fast food, soda and toys were leading the way within this age group. I wonder if the Hamburglar figure or Happy Meal has anything to do with these results? I'm sure it does.

How do we provide our children with the objective glasses in which to view this all-out effort to sway their purchasing habits? That's easy -- just talk about it.

It could be a very interesting family dinner-time conversation to bring up one of these brands and start talking about it. For example, you might just lob out some easy questions like:

"¢ Did you happen to see the McDonald's commercial where the coach takes the players of his girls youth ice hockey team to McDonald's?

"¢ What did you think?

"¢ Do you think that top athletes regularly eat at McDonald's? Why do you feel that way?

"¢ What do you think they order when they go to McDonald's?

You can see where I'm headed on this tactic. It is crucial that you employ the "Socratic Method" of moderating the discussion here. I would recommend being slow to interject your own opinions too early in the discussion in hope that your line of questioning will steer the discussion and allow your children to come up with their own opinions, which -- we hope -- fall in line with your family's values system.

On numerous occasions, I've said how important it is that we break the taboo of speaking about money in our households. And I would also remind you that making it a regular practice of putting certain subjects "on the table" for open discussion stimulates thinking and allows your children to mentally arm themselves the next time a commercial is implying that eating fast food is the key to reaching Olympic dreams.

Tom Henske, a Westport resident and partner with Lenox Advisors, a wealth management firm with offices in New York City and Stamford, developed the Lenox Money-Smart Kids Program in conjunction with MassMutal Financial Group. He can be reached at thenske@lenoxadvisors.com