Article Analysis Of Selling To Children By Juliet Schor

Essay 2: Article Analysis Juliet B. Schor, a professor of sociology at Boston College, is the author of Selling to Children: The Marketing of Cool and many other books on the topic of American Consumption. Schor is a professor of sociology at Boston College. In this article, Selling to Children: The Marketing of Cool, Schor talks about what cool is and how it has affected the culture of advertising and ideals. From Schor’s writing we can try to understand why she wrote about this topic and how she feels about the methods of advertising used for kids, providing facts for each of her main statements. Schor states right off the bat that cool has been around for a long time, although the meaning has changed. Cool used to be just another style

Schor talks about how the street culture has affected marketing to young adults. Rap and hip-hop have become quite popular even in suburban homes. The top charts on any popular radio station have at least four or five rap songs in them. This popularisation of street culture has influenced marketers to subtly include violence, drugs, crime and sex into ads meant for teens, making it just subtle enough not to get called out for it. Edginess in advertising gave it that cool feel that kids were attracted to, the “gangsta” life. Cool being associated with these kind of negative things can influence kids to take part in such activities, wanting to live the cool way. Advertisers also exploit the underlying desire for kids to be more independant, showing rebellion against their parents, who are depicted as lame. When kids see this kind of behaviour on TV, they think that is how it should work for them too. One example Schor gives is a Sprite ad “The parents are in the front seat singing “Polly wolly doodle all the day,”... He is in the back banging his head on the car window in frustration… stuck this these two losers.” (223). The kid is the only one who gets that his parents are lame and he is the only one who is even close to cool in the car. The worst part about the new cool is that it’s not only

Even with all the different examples given, there are some reference studies and statements provided to back up what she is saying. Schor at one point quotes a paper she coauthored with Douglas Holt from Harvard University. Many of her sources are quotes from professors on the matter or people who are part of the subject she is speaking on. “A senior executive explained their stance: “ The whole premise of our company was founded on serving kids”…”(223) Schor also provides studies such as the study of video game which showed “Nintendo ads… often construct the gamer as under siege by the adultified world while promising the young male gamers ‘empowerment’ and ‘control’ in and unlimited world” (Kline and de Pueter, p.