Media Awareness: Who is watching whom?

1. Media Awareness: Who is watching whom? Marketing to Teens: Marketing Tactics

2. What you will learn: • an awareness of the influential nature of ads • an understanding that advertisements don’t necessarily tell the whole truth about a product • the ability to identify specific advertising tactics geared to teenagers • an awareness that advertisements are designed to deliver very specific messages to consumers • an understanding about how you, as consumers, are influenced by these commercial messages • an appreciation of your position as a desirable demographic for advertisers

3. Agree or Disagree with the following statements: Advertising sets us up to feel dissatisfied; even if we think we have everything we need, ads will still try to convince us that there is something else we must have.

4. Advertisers try to show us how much more satisfied, popular, happy, hip, attractive, sexy, fun, and in control we would be if we had their product.

5. Fashion and trends are always changing so that we must continually spend money to be current.

6. Advertising stresses competition and status versus feeling good about being who you are and accepting others for who they are.

7. So how do ads influence you?

8. Dog-whistle Advertising "Often advertising is not about keeping up with the Joneses, but about separating you from them. That's especially true of advertising directed at a particular group, such as adolescents or young-adults - it's called 'dog-whistle' advertising because it goes out at frequencies only dogs can hear." Dr. James TwitchellSmithsonian, April 2000

9. What is it that separates those ads from ads that appeal to your parents?

10. Within the teen demographic, is there a difference between ads geared to teenage girls, and ads geared to teenage boys?

11. Why is advertising so effective? How does it separate you from the Joneses? • Advertising works best when it creates insecurity about some aspect, such as appearance.

12. Why do you want this product? • A successful ad convinces the viewer that he/she has a problem that needs to be fixed, and then proposes to offer the solution, which just happens to be the product the advertiser is selling. • The message to teens is that they aren’t good enough the way they are. Many kids unwittingly buy into that message, and, as a result, end up being hypercritical of themselves because they don’t fit a certain “image” that they believe is necessary for their happiness.

13. How much do advertisers spend to influence you? • Industry spending on advertising to children has exploded in the past decade, increasing from a mere $100 million in 1990 to more than $2 billion in 2000.

14. Pester Power • Today's kids have more autonomy and decision-making power within the family than in previous generations, so it follows that kids are vocal about what they want their parents to buy. "Pester power" refers to children's ability to nag their parents into purchasing items they may not otherwise buy. Marketing to children is all about creating pester power, because advertisers know what a powerful force it can be.

15. Building Brand Name Loyalty • Marketers plant the seeds of brand recognition in very young children, in the hopes that the seeds will grow into lifetime relationships. • Magazines such as Time, Sports Illustrated, and People have all launched kid and teen editions—which boast ads for adult-related products such as minivans, hotels, and airlines.

16. Commercialization in education • School used to be a place where children were protected from the advertising and consumer messages that permeated their world—but not any more. Budget shortfalls are forcing school boards to allow corporations access to students in exchange for badly needed cash, computers, and educational materials.

17. The Internet • The Internet is an extremely desirable medium for marketers wanting to target children: • It's part of youth culture. This generation of young people is growing up with the Internet as a daily and routine part of their lives. • Parents generally do not understand the extent to which kids are being marketed to online.

18. Internet continued… • Kids are often online alone, without parental supervision. • Unlike broadcasting media, which have codes regarding advertising to kids, the Internet is unregulated.

19. Internet continued… • Sophisticated technologies make it easy to collect information from young people for marketing research, and to target individual children with personalized advertising. • By creating engaging, interactive environments based on products and brand names, companies can build brand loyalties from an early age.

20. According to the Center for a New American Dream, babies as young as six months of age can form mental images of corporate logos and mascots.

21. Targeting Teens • MTV has long emphasized market research to learn about its teen audience. But in the late 1990s it noticed its ratings were starting to slide. So MTV embarked on a new teen research campaign, the hallmark of which was its "ethnography study."

22. MTV Exec Explains • "We go out and we rifle through their closets," explains Todd Cunningham, senior vice president of strategy and planning for MTV. "We go through their music collections. We go to nightclubs with them. We shut the door in their bedrooms and talk to them about issues that they feel are really important to them." At the end of these "ethnography study" visits…Cunningham and his team translate the visit into a videoclip to show to MTV's executives.

23. Mark Crispin, media critic, responds to MTV • “The MTV machine does listen very carefully to children...The MTV machine doesn't listen to the young so that it can make the young happier. It doesn't listen to the young so it can come up with startling new kinds of music, for example. The MTV machine tunes in so it can figure out how to pitch what Viacom [MTV's owner] has to sell to those kids…It closely studies the young, keeping them under very tight surveillance, to figure out what will push their buttons. Then it takes that and blares it back at them relentlessly and everywhere. ”

24. What does it all mean? • Ads are influential • You need to be aware of specific advertising tactics geared to teenagers • You, as consumers, are influenced by these commercial messages • You are in a desirable demographic for advertisers, but they want your money, not what’s best for you

25. Sources Carney, Susan. “Advertising to Teens: Why and How Marketers Target Kids.” 23 Feb 2007. Suite101.com. 19 April 2009 <http://youthdevelopment. suite101.com/article.cfm/advertising_to_teens>. “Children and Media.” PBS Parents. 2008. 18 April 2009 <http://www.pbs.org/parents/childrenandmedia/ads-teens.html>. “How Marketers Target Kids.” Media Awareness Network. 2009. 19 April 2009 <http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/parents/marketing/ marketers_target_kids.cfm?RenderForPrint=1>. “How to Get Really Close to Teens’ Lives: MTV’s Ethnography Study.” Frontline. 2008. 18 April 2009 <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ cool/etc/close.html>.