Kid Kustomers

In “Kid Kustomers,” Eric Schlosser discusses the role of children in advertising and marketing schemes. Children have big potential for marketers because they have the “nag factor” or “pester power” needed to convince parents or other adults to buy products as well. Even products that are not directly meant for children have been marketed in their direction, such as alcohol and cigarette brands. Schlosser writes about how the Joe Camel cartoon character, a representative of Camel cigarettes, became a familiar figure to young children. He reports, “A 1991 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found nearly all American six-year-olds could identify Joe Camel, who was just as familiar to them as Mickey Mouse” (223). This research is a shocking example of how children are targeted by commercials and then view the product being sold as kid-friendly or tempting. Moreover, Schlosser says, that the information found on the Internet by marketers was used to improve their business tactics to attract more kids. In addition he discusses the persistent nag, which is a constantly repeated plea that children use to persuade their parents to buy things for them. Children learn this method by playing on a parent’s guilt,

Schlosser argues, and marketers learn how to create products that convince kids to use this and other nagging methods. Bringing up the idea that these marketers are exploiting children, in that they are not able to comprehend the idea of advertising so they are sucked in to it. I agree that children make up such a big part of the buying market that advertisers need to put a focus on them, and I think that this will only continue to grow with the continuance of childhood technology. Ten years ago, it was unheard of to have a cell phone before high school, maybe even before college, but nowadays kids as young as eight or nine have iPhones. The increase in technology use by children will just fuel the children’s advertising industry even more, by hitting them at an even younger age. and even with food companies, The best thing to do when it comes to toddlers and the weekly shop is to leave them at home. You can’t make sensible decisions when buying food when there are 2 or 3 kids wrecking your head looking for  muffins, and candy! Every time  I went to the store with my mother when me and my brothers were much younger , I noticed she ended up spending a lot more money than intended and forget half the stuff she needed.