This is pretty interesting.  I don’t really have a take on it, but it’s worth sharing.

The Federal Trade Commission has launched www.admongo.com.    Admongo is an adventure game, where kids have to travel around identifying advertisements, answering questions, collecting points, etc.   The purpose is to make kids more aware of marketers and their intentions.   Or as the site puts it…

Welcome to Admongo where advertising is all around you.
Online. Outside. On television. Who makes ads?
How do they work? What do they want you to do?
Here, you will explore, discover, and learn.
Can you make it to the top?

It’s an odd use of our tax dollars, but hard to argue with anything that protects children.   However it does raise the question…what are we protecting kids from?  From being too valuable too marketers?    Marketers are spending billions on this incredibly valuable audience.   If that money went into college funds, wouldn’t the game be different?

How about a game where you increase your consumer value and rack up the money as you see ads, share buying preferences, provide personal info, invite friends,  write blogs, build social networking profiles, and provide product feedback?    Let kids (and adults too) see what makes them valuable as consumers so that they can maximize the value as they choose.   Sounds more fun.    Of course it only works if the money flows to the consumers.   But think about it…maybe kids’ll think twice before spending $50 to wear and Abercrombie & Fitch logo on their chest.   They’ll still wear the shirt….if A&F pays them $5 to do so.  What parent can’t see the logic in that?

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