If you raise children in a culture of economic precariousness while showing them a thousand commercials a week for Sit N’ Spin, Big Wheel, Garanimals, and Hungry Hungry Hippos—not to mention product placements, as in 1982’s E.T. (Reese’s Pieces) and, self-consciously, with a slew of products in 1992’s Wayne’s World—can you blame them for feeling, years later, a deep sense of pleasure in the aisles of a big-box store or a cavalier attitude toward chucking hardcover books, face serums, and children’s pajamas into their Amazon Prime cart?
