BORN TO BUY

1. BORN TO BUY SOME MAJOR THEMES

2. Introduction-Background- Overspent Overspent: Luxury replaced comfort Americans pressured to keep up with �basics� as well as luxuries (branded goods, SUVs, recreation) Preoccupied with getting and spending, shopping

3. Few �downshifters� among parents, because: Children as conduits from consumer marketplace into the household Young people passionate consumers Young people as repositories of consumer knowledge and awareness

4. Children as Consumers Brands and products determine who is �in� or �out� or who is �hot� , who deserves to have friends or social status (so, why would parents try downshifting?)

5. Major Shift: Marketing to Children Marketplace has been �re-made� 80% of global brands require a �tween� strategy 40% of urban tweens (worldwide) are strongly attached to particular car brands 30% of parents ask for advice

6. Childhood Corporations have infiltrated core activities and institutions of childhood (advertising in schools) Electronic media replacing conventional play

7. Childhood Commercialized USA teens: brand oriented, consumer involved, materialistic (most of all generations in history) USA teens: 75% want to be rich, 61% want to be famous Most USA teens �bonded to brands�

8. However, Problems: Rising Obesity Attention Deficit Disorder Addiction to electronic games Teasing & bullying in schools Anxiety increase, fear and pressure for tweens

9. Generational Changes Today=higher degree of immersion in consumer culture Changes in childhood=more exposure to adult worlds, sometimes more responsibility Disappearance of childhood?

10. Loss of �childhood� Decline in children�s games Early sexual activity Drug and alcohol use Eroticazation of children through beauty pageants, fashion

11. Changing �model� Children now autonomous and empowered consumers Previously, a �gatekeeper� model (marketers appealed to mom as to what was good for child)

12. Changing Patterns Logo recognition at 18 mos 2 years=asking for brand names By 3 or 3 � belief that brands communicate personal qualities First grader knows 200 brands

13. Changing Patterns By 6 or 7 girls asking for latest fashions, using nail polish, singing pop music tunes 8 year old boys enjoying Budweiser commercials, World Wrestling Entertainment, and violent video games

14. As they age, turn to teen culture Saturated with violence, alcohol, drugs and guns Gratuitous sexuality (unrealistic body images) gender stereotypes, materialism Pressure to conform

15. 8 and 9 year olds Watch MTV and BET Watching 3 � hrs of TV a day

16. 10 year olds Have memorized 300 to 400 brands �stick with a brand� Brand names have become pure symbols (detached from a specific product)

17. Child Psyche According to the Marketers Growth or developmental model Belief in an immanent process of unfolding product needs Have �naturalized� childhood (reification)

18. Beliefs about children: Consumer desires are natural Timeless emotional needs Products should be matched to needs

19. 1st need=gender differentiation Boys want power, action, to succeed, Girls want glamour, to display femininity

20. 2nd need=success & mastery Ads show challenging games and toys, where children are portrayed achieving and winning For boys, getting rich, becoming the boss, beating out the competition (from need to succeed)

21. 3rd need=sensory stimulation Oreo cookie leads to a tsunami of cr�me (ad) Product is a trigger for over-satisfying kids� senses

22. 4th need=love Skewed toward girls and the younger children Stuffed animals, sweet looking dolls, rounded objects Translates the desire for love into concrete objects, shapes, music

23. Fear=children need to overcome fear (however, scaring children may backfire�source of nightmares etc)

24. Marketing of Cool Cool is something every product tries to be and every kid needs to have Cool as key to social success (who belongs, who is popular, who is accepted by peers

25. Principles of Cool 1. Socially exclusive (expensive) 2. Being older than one�s age 3. Anti-adult sensibility 4. The Taboo, the forbidden. At the edge, edgy, pushing the edge

26. Nickelodeon & the anti-adult bias With MTV�kids are cool and adults are not MTV=teen rebellion against parents MTV-Nickelodeon trickle down

27. Kids Rule Anti authoritarian Us vs them �how to make the substitute teacher screech� �sliming the teacher� Adults are the bothersome, nerdy, embarrassing the repressive

28. Kids Rule (2) When it comes to fashion class the principal is a flunkie Adults impose a joyless world Adult world is drab, regimented, borring

29. Video games For boys a form of empowerment through �Oedipal rebellion� and rejection of home environments

30. Advertisers and Parents Advertisers make fun of parents Have �kicked out� the parents Parents are creeps, teachers are nerds and idiots, authority figures are laughable Nobody can understand kids except the corporations product, not the parent, on your side

31. Advertising to Children Age Compression Dual Messaging Pester Power Trans-Toying

32. Selling kids on junk food, drugs and violence Junk food is bulk of advertising dollar Food ads are kids favorite ads (Pepsi, Coke, Snickers, McDonald�s and Hostess)

33. Food marketing Follows model of �timeless needs� Empowering (Mom may not like it) Trans toying (changing colors)

34. Food ads Dangerously close to association with drugs (sugar�s jolt), getting hyper Cheetos=addictive drug metaphor (officially hooked, crave)

35. Alcohol Ads Some ads kids are more likely to see than adults (times) Smoking & alcohol use are more prevalent in film and TV than in real world Children more like to smoke or drink when exposed to ads

36. Selling Violence Playing video games was positively related to aggressive behavior and delinquency