So, I just saw an advertisement the other day for an idea that has been around awhile, apparently. Regardless, Wal-Mart is breaking into a pretty exclusive target audience for clothing retail. I honestly never thought a child (newborn through seven-year-olds) could ever have an opinion or be persuaded to care what they’re wearing or how they look (outside the direction of their parents). On the tail of the Abercrombies and Hollisters of the world starting to drill into the middle school age kids minds that what they wear says who they are, which seemed destructive enough in the easily persuadable mind of such adolescents, I thought that would definitely be the line in the sand never to be crossed. However, without breaking stride, another retailer (Wal-Mart) has proven me wrong.

I (re-)introduce, Garanimals, the mix-n-match clothing line for children that let’s them choose what they wear, mixing and matching tops and bottoms. Yeah, sure, the video on the homepage is definitely cute and boy is it a great idea to let these kids be independent and choose what they wear. Or is it? I’m not so sure. Maybe I’m just taking this too far, but if this doesn’t scream to me, “Get ‘em interested in shopping and styles while their young so we’ll have ‘em hooked on caring and needing the newest clothes the rest of their lives,” then I don’t know what it says. Sure those mentalities can be imbedded through way of their parents, which is a different story, but is it really necessary to directly and explicitly put this mindset on such a young brain?

I’m not saying I’m in opposition of letting kids be kids (which was a pretty slick messaging strategy on their part, wouldn’t you say?), but letting kids be kids to me doesn’t include letting them make sure they have an ‘ideal’ clothing line in their closets. Just as the middle school-aged crowd was dealing with image and self-esteem issues, the next generation of image and style conscious individuals has taken on a whole new look, and they stand about two feet tall.