Evaluating Attainment by Children: Bridging Conspicuous Consumption with Fundamental Elements of Obtaining Commodities

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.

In today’s media obsessed society, youth is greatly influenced by advertising. For example, Marketing to kids gets more savvy with technologies is how they ,“Online games like Webkinz show ads on the site draw youth to buy the product or just to look at it for ‘money’”. Because this tactic works, the ads are an excellent at make youth to talk about this and be annoyed. In Facts about Marketing to Children, it says, “Children pack 8.5 hours of media a day’, is what the Facts about Marketing to Children says.” Because children are on the media so much it is easy for marketers to advertise and get children to buy the product. “ Anne Lappe says that when her daughter grows up, and goes to a movie, the character might have a soda or fast food.”

“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

Eric Schlosser’s essay, “Kid Kustomers,” concludes and makes several strong points about the marketing on children. He starts his essay with a brief comparison that “twenty-five years ago, only a handful of American companies directed their marketing at children,” whereas today, “children are being targeted by phone companies, oil companies, and automobile companies…” He emphasizes and stresses the importance of having “Kid Kustomers,” because one important marketing strategy is to aim to “increase not just current, but also future, consumption.” Schlosser learns that ad agencies target children because they make up a majority of their sales. Throughout the essay, Schlosser not only gives marketing tips but also discusses the 7 different types

In the essay “Kid Kustomers” by Eric Schlosser, the author addresses how companies use advertising as a way to lure children into buying their products. The author eventually convinces the reader that children then influence their parents into buying the product as well. Schlosser incorporates statistics about how much McDonald's sold their happy meals to children between the age of three and nine. This is simply because children watch more tv and go on the internet more; therefore, they are more likely to see more advertising, and eventually pursue their parents to buy them the product. In an informative tone, the author is speaking to parents with young

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 her article “Selling to Children: The Marketing of Cool” Schor discusses the techniques used by ad makers to manipulate children. She points out that marketers look at consumers to understand what is cool for youth—by tapping hip-hop and rap culture—and the reverse, creating a feedback loop. Also, Schor argues that cool is usually associated with an antiadult sensibility, and thus ads portray children with a blatant adverse attitude towards authority, such as parents and teachers by promoting an antisocial and mischievous behavior. Furthermore, ads are targeting kids using products and messages initially conceived for an older audience—strategy knows as age compression. A perfect example of this new trend is the Victoria’s Secret “Bright

Over half of eight to 12 year olds will spend their own money. This essay is about how advertisers target youth so they feel pressured to buy certain products. The three roles that advertisers play in the lives of youth are that advertisers overwhelm youth with ads, design ads to target youth so they nag their parents, and to target youth so they pressure others.

For many years, corporations have targeted adults, but as the years progressed their main focus and targeted audience have been children. Countless corporations often focus their products such as toys, clothes, and drugs to children in order to increase their own economic gain. In Juliet Schor’s article, “ Selling to children: The Marketing of Cool”, she mentions how products are accepted and interpreted by children in today’s society. However, in Eric Schlosser article, “ Kid Kustomers”, he emphasizes on the constant antagonizing strategies through ads and televisions shows to target kids. Although Juliet Schors and Eric Schlosser are both speaking about corporations marketing to children, their articles differ quite significantly. While they both speak about corporation and their marketing directed to children, Schor maintains her focus on how society perceived these products as cool or geeky, while Schlosser focuses his article on the negative way corporations have marketed their products to underage children.

One of the reasons that Americans suffer from affluenza more than consumers in other countries is because of the advertising in America. Businesses, marketers, and advertisers have discovered that colonizing the imagination of the child is the most effective way of securing a life-long conspicuous consumer. Between 1980 and 1997, the amount spent on children's advertising in America zoomed from $100 million to $1.5 billion a year. American children watch up to 200 television commercials per day. The average 12-year-old in America spends 48 hours a week watching television

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.

A consumerist society is a group of people who put a lot of time, energy and thought into consuming material goods. The media plays an essential role in this. In America, people are constantly consuming advertisements persuading them to consume materialistic goods. Children aged 2-11 consumes 25,000 advertisements on television annually while an adult consumes 52,500 advertisements annually. These advertisements promote a vision of a ‘good lifestyle’ that people should have in order to be happy. These advertisements include materialistic goods such as big houses, large televisions, latest cars and much more.

Childhood- what was formerly known as a time where children could freely express creativity, experience the act of play, and develop from this exposure. Unfortunately it is now overrun by what is known today as consumerism. A child, who normally represents utmost innocence in society, is now merely a display of a forty billion dollar market. Even in their earliest stages, children are used as a target for youth marketers to exploit for profit. Gunter (2005) explains that babies are able to recognize labels before they reach the age where they learn to read. He says marketers use this to their advantage by associating products with a “logo” therefore desire a material item predominantly because of the brand name associated with it. This is a