Abstract

This article presents a theoretical and analytical reflection on the issue of education and religion in advertising aimed at children. It describes distinctive features of postmodernity – immediacy, consumerism and secularization – as constitutive elements of our time and characterizes media as a sort of all-powerful being that channels, processes, produces and disseminates these postmodern attributes, while offering products that form and shape the way of life of Western society. The article goes on to analyze the content of two advertisements, identifying in them the possible presence of an educational religious-theological discourse. It contends that there is an intrinsic relation between education and religion in advertising, one which strongly influences the learning, thinking and acting patterns of children through such practices as gaining power by what they consume and seeing consumption as a means to attain a more prominent position in this world. In advertising, forms of socialization are presented to children. Finally, it is suggested that one way to introduce and discuss advertisements in educational contexts is by reading and analyzing the narratives of advertising together with the children