Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have negative health effects on children that last a lifetime, heighten risks of premature mortality, and are likely to be passed on to subsequent generations. The causes of ACEs are both domestic and community-based. Marketing of the Western lifestyle and diet is an unrecognized but ubiquitous community cause of ACEs. The potential for ACEs is inherent in marketing designed to maximize gains that serve the self-interest of economic actors by exploiting children’s vulnerability. Using classical conditioning, marketing produces a consumer placebo effect that develops into a lasting belief in consumerism as a means to feeling healthy and happy.
Despite public health policies to protect children from the ACEs of marketing and promote positive childhood experiences, political opposition to mandating these policies prevails and the governments’ duty to protect the health rights of children goes unfulfilled. The combination of unregulated neoliberal economic power and government inaction renews the call for a public health revolution to protect and promote the health of children, families, communities, humanity, and the planet. The psychosocial demands of organizing and implementing this public health revolution make community psychologists ideal candidates to lead the way in this important endeavor.