Consumer Culture And Contemporary Childhood Agency

No matter where children are or what they are doing they’ll always find some sort of advertisements. It can be when their casually watching television, reading a magazine or just playing games on their computer. Advertisements are different forms of communication whose purpose is to make their product known to the public. Marketers aren’t partial to certain people; they target anyone and every age group, but recently there has been an upsurge of advertisements aimed towards children. In Eric Schlosser’s article, Kid Kustomers, he demonstrates how child advertising has boomed by the tactics marketers use to get children to want and demand certain companies’ products.

One of the most successful marketers is quoted in the article “Get kids to nag their parents and nag them well”(260). In the initial few sections, he discussed the present time effects of the advertising on youngsters. Through this he contend that, previously, there weren't numerous child based marketing organizations that concentrated exclusively with respect to children and have their own kids' divisions, while now, they have huge amounts of organizations that makes a whole advertising division for the

Some companies even target little children just because they know that they are innocent and that they are most likely going to go to their parents to buy them the product that they want. In some occasions the parents are going to buy the product because they want the best for their children; which might not be the right thing in these type of situations. Most parents do not know that the companies are targeting their children and they give no importance to what they are doing. The only thing that the parents are thinking are that they are choosing the best for their children by satisfying them. Most children in this century already know what each brand is or what is trending before even learning how to add or subtract. In this type of situation I strongly agree on what Barber said that “... parents can refuse to relinquish their gatekeeping roles and let marketers know they won't allow their kids to be targeted anymore.” Moreover it explains that parents should not let their children believe what social media or producers say that they need. It is their job to teach children to know what they need on their own and not what producers tell them they

As advertising usually portrays the message that material possessions bring fulfillment, happiness, and success, an increase in the perceived reality of advertising can cause an increase in general materialism (Chaplin & John, 2007; Goldberg, Gorn, Peracchio, & Bamossy, 2003). In sum, this study contributes to the existing literature on youth’s advertising exposure and materialism in three ways: (1) it is based on longitudinal rather than cross-sectional data, (2) it focuses on children from an age group (8- to 11-year olds) that until now has received little attention in materialism research, and (3) it deals with both direct and mediated effects of children’s advertising exposure on materialism. Direct Effect of Advertising Exposure on Materialism Several correlational studies have shown that children’s advertising exposure and materialism are positively related (Atkin, 1975a; Atkin, 1975b; Buijzen & Valkenburg, 2003b; Moschis & Churchill, 1978; Moschis & Moore, 1982; Schor, 2005; Ward & Wackman, 1971). Because of their use of cross-sectional data, though, most scholars can only theorize about the causal direction of the relation between children’s advertising exposure and materialism (Buijzen & Valkenburg, 2003a). On the one hand children’s advertising exposure is plausible to precede materialism, because it is advertising’s aim to evoke an increased need for products (Buijzen & Valkenburg, 2003a; 2003b). Up until now, two

“Congress should ban advertising that preys upon children, it should stop subsidizing dead-end jobs, it should pass tougher food safety laws, it should protect American workers from serious harm, it should fight against dangerous concentrations of economic power (Schlosser). People must wonder how is it that a fast food company has so much customers. Advertising is the answer. The power advertisers have to be able to influence so many people 's decisions and affect people’s lives especially the lives of young children is incredible. Advertisers know just who to target and they research how too. In Eric Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation, Schlosser explains to the readers how advertisers use techniques to draw in customers. A technique used is the “cradle-to-grave” which focuses on children to make them lifelong consumers. Like many researcher, Schlosser, has found that advertising to children when they are younger makes them be loyal to the company, and a child 's “brand loyalty” may begin as early as the age of two (43). Fast food advertising reaches out and harms families everywhere. This is why it is crucial that the people to make changes in their lives and change the way fast food is affected us.

Every kid wants to be cool, and advertisers know that. This is the main idea explored by Juliet Schor in her article “Selling to Children: The Marketing of Cool”. This article originally appeared in Schor’s 2004 book Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer. The author is an expert on the topic of behavior in humans and the economy, as she has taught sociology and economics at multiple universities. In her article, Schor explains to the reader how companies market to children, specifically through the lens of cool. Marketers achieve “cool” by various means, three of which are examined by Schor. In her article, Schor examines the ideas of street-culture, an anti-adult bias, and age compression and how they are perceived as cool in the world of advertising to children.

The author is very good at gathering specific data and examination. It is clear that Schlosser's purpose is to change the way you consume and the way you use cash, and additionally the way you think. Schlosser truly gives a flawless insight about his clarification upon marketing methods utilized on kids and in addition the reason for it. A marketing strategy plan to increment present deals, as well as future deals. “Growth in children’s advertising has been driven by efforts to increase not just current, but also future, consumption. Hoping that nostalgic childhood memories of a brand will lead to a lifetime of purchases” (Schlosser, 2011, p.259). In this citation, Schlosser claim that advertising on kids could make a greater possibility of brand royalty, which will keep the kids on purchasing items from this brand for the rest of their life. The introduction fits the body of the essay, it was clear and effective. The introductions opened a lot of discussions about the essay and it made me want to know more about the

In Sarah Banet-Weiser’s “Kid’s Rule!: Nickelodeon and Consumer Citizenship”, she analyzes and dissects how Nickelodeon became a dominating media empire among children. In the early stages of television and media, the child demographic was often overlooked and viewed as powerless agents in relation to the media, as they failed to have direct purchasing power. What many media companies failed to realize was that children can influence their parents into purchasing products, making children have a prominent indirect purchasing power. Nickelodeon was one of the first media channels that designed a network entirely for children, promoting childlike ideologies, values, and providing entertainment all day long.

Companies are continuously in search of innovative marketing techniques by encouragingly establishing individuals to purchase their advertised products. As intelligent as marketing companies are, they are indeed aware of the fact that adults are more likely to watch an advertisement and detect why they should or should not purchase such product. In such instances where the company cannot reach the focus of an adult, parent, or parental figure, marketers will target young children and teens in their advertising campaigns. Advertising campaigns targeting the youth have significantly impacted the ethical consideration in the children’s market through media, ethics, as well as food advertising to children.

In addition, the growing parental fears in society have caused parents to be more worried and cautious and even more protected over their children. As the increase in awareness that children are at risk of crime, assault and kidnapping by unknown people. Also due to increased road and train travel and traffic dangers, children are more likely to travel with their parents or carers. Rather than on their own. Secondly , to support that families have become more child centred is the children’s consumer market as children are now target audiences for many business such as , mother care , toys R Us , Nike , adidas and the music industry (especially) focus on the childhood market. Encouraging children to consume all of their products and parents to satisfy their children’s wants, this is “pester power”. Where the children pester their parents into buying them games, toys, music and so on. As the aim is to please the children, this would effectively say that

Marketing to children is not a new phenomenon; however, there have been many ethical debates on its rightness; is advertising to children a gentle persuasion of the innocent or a sinister threat to our society? There’s too much as stake if we remain silent and simply assume that marketing companies have our children’s best interests at heart; the truth is they don’t. This paper will explore to implications of marketing to children and the overall effects it has on our society. I will argue that advertising to children is a social problem. In the first part of my paper I will discuss why advertising to children is ethically wrong, I will then discuss what has changed; this will be followed by a discussion as to why it is a social problem and finally, I will conclude my paper by discussing what should be done to change it. Please note this paper is written in the first person as I have children and I have a vested interest in this topic.

Developmental and socialisation theories have been central in research on children and consumption for a long time (Hedegaard, 2012). Conventional frameworks for thinking about childhood, which is better known as “the dominant framework”, challenges the idea of children as human beings, with the focus of children on human becomings. As time has moved forward, sociological approaches to thinking about childhood have challenged the ideas of the dominant framework, which will be critically analysed in this review.

Marketing has always had an impact to the future of our children because children can be approached in easy manners. As marketing continues to digress among children, spending on them seems to increase due to the way the ads and merchandise is presented. I believe marketing towards youngsters is a positive benefit into our economy and pursuing positive behavior. Nowadays brands have developed a technique called “pester power” that’s supposed to encourage children to watch what they consume, join any sports or activities, and make them be socially aware of their well-being.

Consumerism is generally accepted to be how individuals interact with the acquisition of products and how they connect with the ever-expanding world of goods and services. In the current trend, companies believe that the amount of things someone posses determines their well-being and success as an individual. Thusly, advertisement reflects this, continuing the cycle of how prevalent the consumer environment is in our culture and world (4).

One key boundary is that between citizen and consumer: this intersects with many debates regarding the role of the changing media environment in the privatisation or commercialisation of public space or, conversely, in the extension of the public – outside - world into the domestic. Popularly, citizens are active, engaged, informed, participatory and perhaps even resistant, while consumers are treated as commodities, markets, being managed and passive. This paper examines these changes, and these debates, in relation to children, young