Selling Kids

We often believe that childhood is one of the most carefree and innocent times in our lives - a time where social hierarchies and brand names had no significance and value. We thought that kids didn’t have to worry about fitting in or being popular and they could use their imaginations to bring any old object to life. However, this view of childhood is idealistic and improbable. Children are often looked at as subjects who are passive and easily manipulated. However, it is important to recognize children as complex with the capacity to observe and reflect. Since the development of early forms of media, advertising became a popular way to make money and raise brand awareness. Marketers targeted their ads towards seemingly passive social groups like women and children. In the 1980s, the commercialization of youth culture was popularized. In this day and age, even toddlers are asking for name brand toys. Today, the children’s market is the most profitable market of any kind. Young people from this decade been exposed to more advertising than any other generation in history and this has left some ill effects on our youth. This essay will discuss the history of children’s advertising, the reasons behind the success of the kids market, marketing strategies used to attract children, and the effects of the commercialization of youth culture.

The American teen market was founded during the Second World War and the early postwar era (Quart, 2003). Marketers hoped teens would spend money on films, cosmetics and music. Clearly, the phrase “get ‘em while they’re still young” is hugely relevant today. When certain corporations started gearing ads towards children, it was because early understandings of human psychology explained that childr...

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...ds are surrounded by radio, print media, television and Internet every single day, it seems only natural, unfortunately. Technology has become a way of life – it is a part of our daily lives and this doesn’t necessarily need to be a bad thing. What is important is to understand the effects that technology has on a macro and micro level and to navigate carefully around such powerful forces. Businesses and technology are alike in the sense that they don’t care for individual psychological and emotional well-being. They serve for one purpose and that is to get the message across! It doesn’t matter how that happens, it just needs to be done. It is up to society as a whole to teach our youth that life is about more than fancy clothes and cars because they won’t get that message through the media. We are more than what we own and it’s important that our youth know that.