"I tend to think that our consumer capitalist culture creates psychological ill health," Sarah Conn says. " It's bad to treat any group, particularly kids, as a market only."

Children are a particularly good target for advertisers, Lynn says, because they are too young to tell the difference between commercial and regular programming.

"It is manipulating them to buy things without going through the mitigating presence of their parents," Lynn says. "They are too young to distinguish between reality and fantasy."

When asked why some might disagree with what seems like a logical argument, Linn responds by saying it's matter of opinion.

"The question is whether or not you believe this is using psychology to manipulate and deceive," she says. "I believe it is."

Another signatory, Tim Kessler, an assistant professor of psychology at Knox College in Illinois, says that commercials also reinforce a particular value system.

"There is a deeper value behind buying a Barbie," he says.