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rvs-ff- vju economist sunlsuntribune saturday aug 27 2005 editor in chief advertising director distribution director marketingpartnerships sunlnibune a metroland community newspaper 34 civic ave 3rd floor stouffville on l4a 7z5 publisher ian proudfoot retail flyer sales nicole fletcher debora kelly business manager robert lazurkb advertising director director production classified real estate interactive media- events management johnfuthey gord paohicci circulation barry black director circulation systems lynn pashko director debraweller york region prlnting general manager bob dean letters to the editor gun education only answer re gun violence has cops on alert aug 1 1 as far as i know this is the first time anyone has admitted and said what so many people in their right mind have known for years there is an emerging subculture where its cool to have a gun and that comes from whats only movies in videos and video games too many people think a gun is the way to resolve the issue said york regional police chief armand la barge now if he could only get himself to admit that more than one billion dollars was wasted on gun control by registering farmers sport shooters and hunters long rifles even if they dont work can anyone imagine how many police we could have hired to stop illegal guns from com ing across the border with that money handguns have been registered in canada since 1932 that shows how great the system works my god what a waste of money by our liberal government in ottawa even to give young people the opportunity to hold a gun on a controlled shooting range would make most of them turn away from guns for good there used to be a time when teenagers received shooting lessons at school now there are very few shooting ranges left thanks to our government as in many other instances some laws have a devastating effect farmers and hunters tried to tell the govern ment but the politicians wouldnt listen now we have a list of victims of recent gun violence guns will always be with us just like smoking alcohol and sex we had better get used to that idea and do something about it and do it right this time gun education is the only answer heinz nitschke markuam human spirit prevailed oh aug 19 we watched from our office the water rise from the freak storm passing through as the water flooded the centre street plaza cars trying to drive through the flood seized up next door quiznos had a major water leak from the roof and their employees were outside no sooner did a car get stuck than people from both businesses rushed out in kneehigh water and pushed them to safety we then herd ed them into our office until they could get help at one time we had at least 30 adults and children in our office taking refuge what a sight hugs and kisses of thanks were plentiful the human spirit displayed by many young people during this event was extraordinary did mother nature have this in mind when she threw this at us rochelle rodney thornhill cruiseshipcenters g children begins earlier than ever would you let your kids play in a swamp odds are most parents would balk at such a notion today after all a swamp seems so dirty and teem ing with who knows what but if not a swamp what about a forest or a creek even a back yard what worlds are chil dren exploring today and what are they learning from them when i was a boy my play ground was a swamp near my home in southern ontario i spent countless hours there catching tadpoles and wading though cattails delighting at each new discovery as a result i could easily name dozens of species of birds fish and insects this was my world and it shaped who i am today but while my world was full of natures delights todays children face a world dominated by con sumer delights instead of a real swamp their world is often virtual consisting more of television video games and the internet each of these technologies wields tremendous power and children can learn a great deal with them what they learn however is not necessarily what we intend advertising certainly existed when i was growing up but it was nothing close to the saturation levels faced by children today in my swamp there were no billboards frogs did not croak most two to three-year- olds recognized eight out of 12 logos and the majority of eight-year- olds recognized 100 per cent of them including camel cigarettes and heineken beer coke birds did not pull banner ads the swamp was not spon sored by an oil company and i was blissfully free of the con sumer messages that bombard children in the 21st century david suzuki so while i learned the names of other living creatures kids today are far more likely to learn the names of various products and popular brands and according to new research this constant assault of brand imagery is reaching our children at earlier and earlier ages a recent study published in the journal of applied developmental psychology has found children as young as two are now able to recognize com mon brand names researchers tested some 200 dutch children presenting them with common logos such as mcdonalds nike mercedes and cheetos most two to three-year- olds recognized eight out of 12 logos and the majority of eight- yearolds recognized 100 per cent of them including camel cigarettes and heineken beer researchers found one of the strongest correlations with high er brand recognition scores was a childs exposure to television generally the more television a child watched the more readily he or she was able to recognize brands this makes sense given tele visions power as a visual medi um but the researchers also point out their results should bea warning about the potential for advertising to influence the most impressionable minds advertising to infants and toddlers is a rapidly growing trend just 10 years ago most marketers only targeted children over age six today with the success of toddlerbased television shows such as teletubbies researchers say infants and toddlers have been identified as a vital and undeniable target group in fact the authors argue marketers have already done their own research about the cognitive and behavioural effects of advertising on young children in most cases however the results haye not been made available to academics or policy makers d other words mar keters arent just incidentally targeting some of the most vul nerable members of society they are actively targeting them and then keep quiet about it children of the 21st century are growing up in a world much different than the one i faced in some ways they have more opportunities than my genera tion ever did but they also face new prob lems and threats that we never would have imagined given the insidious nature of some of those threats maybe a swamp isnt such a bad place to play after all take the nature challenge and learn more at wwwdavidsuzukiorg letters policy the suntribune welcomes your letters submissions must be less than 400 words and include a daytime telephone number name and 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