I'm a recently graduated MBA, and the most disturbing thing that was taught in our program was that the new focus of marketers everywhere was children. But instead of looking at children as people, all marketers see are dollar signs. To businesses, children are a vastly untapped target market, and if they can get a kid to feel unwanted or uncool without their product, then they have done their job. Its sick, really, to think that there are highly paid teams of professionals sitting in rooms trying to trick, persuade, guilt, or mislead children into thinking they need their products. Many ads overtly pit children against their parents in anticipation of the inevitable "You don't need that" argument.
If you are a parent, I do not envy the war you wage daily on the mass media's play for your child's mindset.
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I'm a recently graduated MBA, and the most disturbing thing that was taught in our program was that the new focus of marketers everywhere was children. But instead of looking at children as people, all marketers see are dollar signs. To businesses, children are a vastly untapped target market, and if they can get a kid to feel unwanted or uncool without their product, then they have done their job. Its sick, really, to think that there are highly paid teams of professionals sitting in rooms trying to trick, persuade, guilt, or mislead children into thinking they need their products. Many ads overtly pit children against their parents in anticipation of the inevitable "You don't need that" argument. If you are a parent, I do not envy the war you wage daily on the mass media's play for your child's mindset.