Getting taken:
What you and your teens need to know about marketing (Part 2)
Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series. Part 1 can be read here.
Marketing is especially powerful in the lives of our children and teens. These are years characterized by change. Because the change brings confusion, kids spend time wondering where the changes taking place in their lives are going to end. And, they wonder if the ending will yield something that leads to their acceptance by others. Consequently, the teenage years are marked by an insecurity that leads them to be easily influenced if an influence promises to help them fulfill their hopes, dreams and emptiness. In other words, teens are perfect targets for the marketing machine.
Because marketing is so pervasive and powerful in today’s culture, those who love and minister to kids need to be aware of the many advertising strategies marketers employ in an effort to influence children and teens’ spending decisions. By knowing how advertisers and advertising works, we can be better equipped to help kids understand marketing and how they are manipulated and influenced by it. Then, we can equip them to think Christianly about marketing in a manner that allows them to resist when necessary. I believe one of the most important steps we can take in leading our kids to a deep and life-shaping faith is to train them in skills that will put them on the road to being discipled and shaped by Christ, rather than being discipled and shaped by advertising.
In Part 1 of this series, we looked at several strategies marketers have developed and are using deliberately to get into our kids’ pockets. What follows are some additional strategies, along with some suggestions for how to help your kids become more responsible and thoughtful advertising “consumers.” As you read through each, think of examples you and your kids have encountered in your daily interactions with advertising.
Exploit—and even create—adolescent yearnings
Because the adolescent years are marked by monumental change in every area of a child’s life, kids who find themselves in the teen years wonder where it’s all going to end in terms of physical appearance, relationships, vocational choice, etc. Rather than allowing God to shape them into the people he wants them to be, most kids lean toward becoming who or what the culture is telling them to be. Of course, culture’s definitions of who or what they are to be fluctuate and change over time, but one thing remains the same: kids look to the culture for clues on the who and the what. Rather than yearning for God and His ways, kids are prone to yearn for completeness that they believe will come when they look the right way, have the right stuff, wear the right clothes, and hang out with the right friends. Until then, they feel they are incomplete.
Marketers tap into these feelings of incompleteness by advertising products that reinforce these yearnings and promise to make kids complete. For example, a recent two-page back-to-school ad for Kmart clothing invited girls to “Ace the fashion test,” a reference to the adolescent yearning to fit in, and the necessity of wearing the right styles in order to do so. The ad then played on a math equation by showing articles of clothing and accessories being added together. The sum of the equation read, “= Kmart.” The discount chain promised fashion success and acceptance.
Marketers are especially successful if they can create a new yearning that they can then exploit by marketing a product designed specifically to meet this yearning. For example, the advent of the cell phone led to marketers convincing kids that the ring tones that come with the phones aren’t good enough. Instead, kids need to download a variety of ring tones that fit their personality and mood. Of course, the products never deliver, meaning that completeness will never come—a fact that marketers are well aware of— which ensures there will always be a market related to unfulfilled adolescent yearnings.
Exploit—and even create—adolescent anxieties
Along with the anxieties that come with going through normal adolescence (acne, body changes, love interests, etc.), growing up as a teenager in today’s changing world leaves kids facing a whole new set of issues and problems largely unknown by previous generations (family breakdown, eating disorders, etc.).
Our kids are facing lots of pain. Many are suffering with brokenness, heartache, and hopelessness. All of these anxieties combine to create fertile ground for marketers as they identify a point of anxiety and then offer a “cure.” Buying the product is believed to cure the anxiety and deliver a new self. In effect, the product is believed to be the adolescent’s messiah or redeemer. This is why marketers go out of their way to research the problems and fears of kids.
A recent ad for Ban deodorant tells teens that “you’ve got more important things to worry about than odor.” Above these words sit nine photos of teens locked in nine different anxiety-causing situations that are common to the adolescent experience. The ad tells young readers to “ban” loneliness, insecurity, stereotypes, drama, peer pressure, angst, self-doubt, fear and nerves. While a deodorant is designed to stop odors, the ad implies that using this particular deodorant will help address these other anxieties as well.
A classic example of exploiting anxieties is the old McDonald’s commercials that told viewers, “You deserve a break today, so get up and get away, to McDonalds.” The hamburger chain’s research didn’t tell them that people were looking for a hamburger. Rather, their research told them that furiously busy and overstressed people were looking for rest. Anxiously searching for rest, McDonald’s positioned itself as the place to go to find needed reprieve.
Exploit the adolescent desire for independence
Once children enter the teenage years, they desperately want to be independent adults. This desire is at the root of so much of the parent/teen conflict that exists in families.
Marketers are fully aware of its existence, and they eagerly exploit it by encouraging and tapping into youth rebellion. Some ads do this by creating an anti-adult world, thereby identifying with kids by sharing their view of their parents. Ads treat kids like adults while demeaning and denigrating parents by casting them in an unattractive light. Some tactics include positioning the child against the parent by presenting adults as absent, stupid, or incompetent.
Kids begin to view the marketers and their product as friendly and supportive allies in the war against dad and mom. The ads spark reasoning that says, “If I use this product, I will be more independent.” This strategy worked well as manufacturers of hip-hop styles marketed their clothing and other products to kids. The edgy urban hip-hop culture played well with suburban kids for many reasons, one of which was that it signified an arrogant and excessive attitude whose adoption by suburban kids was a sign of rebellion against and freedom from their parents’ suburban values and lifestyles.
Associate the product with positive feelings and emotions
We live in a postmodern world where emotions have superceded thinking rationally. Feelings have become very important. People want to feel happy, pleasurable and good. In the more rational modern world of the 1950s and 1960s, advertisements tended to appeal to a consumer’s mind and reason by stating a case for why “our product is better than their product.” For example, clothes detergents were often advertised by putting two identically soiled football jerseys into two identical washing machines. The only difference was in the detergents used. At the end of the cycles, the smiling housewife would pull them both out and look in amazement at how much cleaner the advertised detergent got the jersey. There was indisputable rational visual proof.
In today’s world, the product, and its name and logo typically don’t take center stage in the ad. Instead, the product is depicted in use in a setting that oozes positive feelings and emotions. For example, Newport cigarettes has been running ads for years that are photographs depicting happy people engaged in a variety of enjoyable activities. Sometimes they’re smoking and sometimes they’re not. Along with the brand’s name, the ads feature the word “pleasure” prominently displayed.
Associate the product with relational connections
No child or teenager wants to be alone. Because of where they are in the social development process, they want to belong and be accepted. In a day and age where more and more teens not only experience these typical adolescent feelings, but are also growing up in a sea of broken family relationships, kids are especially vulnerable to marketing efforts that promise relational connections.
Many ads in today’s world picture the product embedded or used in a social situation that depicts community, friendship and fellowship. For years, Tommy Hilfiger ads have shown models sporting the brand’s clothing while clustered in a group of peers who are touching each other and smiling happily. Other ads depict the product in a setting where there’s the relational intimacy of romance. In a cultural climate of relational desperation, ads that depict relationships send an unspoken promise of deliverance to desperate teens.
Associate the product with fun
It’s no secret that teenagers love to have fun, especially if it’s having fun with their friends. Over the years I’ve asked teens what makes them happiest. I consistently hear, “When I’m having fun with my friends.”
Marketers know this to be the case as well. If they can depict their product in the midst of teenage fun, chances are it will connect with kids. A recent ad for Sunkist Orange Soda depicted a group of kids engaged in a basement party (playing video games, jumping on the furniture, etc.) while loud music played. In addition, all the kids at the party were shown drinking the soda. The message? Drink Sunkist Orange Soda and you’ll have fun with your friends.
Employ humor and entertain them
Kids tell marketers that humor is the best way to reach them with a marketing message. This is why kids always list funny commercials as their favorites. Humor breaks down the defenses and gets us laughing. Once we’re laughing at or with something, it’s easier to win allegiance to a message or product.
Marketing efforts that are most effective oftentimes include a character who appears in a whole series of ads, thereby creating a bond of familiarity with viewers. Over the years these have included Clara Peller and her line “Where’s the Beef,” Joe Isuzu, the Bud Lite bullfrogs, etc. One Kid Power marketing conference seminar promised to help marketers use humor to connect with kids. Its title? “The Serious Impact of Kid’s Humor: Burps, Farts and Talking Cows … Find Your Brand’s Sense of Humor.”
Use the camera as the eye of the beholder
We oftentimes forget that everything we see in ads and commercials is a carefully constructed reality. In other words, the ad’s creators only show us what they want us to see and how they want us to see it. Nothing is haphazard. Angles, cuts, lighting, pacing and music are elements that are all carefully chosen and combined to generate the greatest positive response. In effect, ad-makers interpret and define life for us.
Because of where they’re at developmentally, children and teens are most susceptible to these constructed realities that can be so manipulative. Every adult who was a disappointed child when a real-life toy wound up looking and working nothing like it did on the commercial knows how effective this strategy can be.
Sex sells
Because we have been created by God as sexual beings, this is a strategy that works across the entire age span and has been used to peddle any and every product imaginable. One way in which marketers employ this strategy is to associate the product with sex. This is usually as simple as placing an attractive and seductive looking person in the ad. Another method is to convince the consumer that the product will make them sexy. Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to this ploy as they have been pounded with a message that tells them they are only worthwhile, lovable and acceptable if they look and act a certain way. Older folks struggling with the effects of time and gravity on their bodies are especially susceptible as well.
A recent high-profile ad for Carl’s Jr. Hamburgers depicted Paris Hilton, dressed in a revealing bathing suit, seductively eating a hamburger while slithering over a black Bentley. Strip-club music added to the ad’s sex-appeal. The ad’s stated target group was 18- to 34-year-old males, although wise viewers know the target group’s parameter starts much lower. The racy ad was the target of criticism. In response to critics, Carl Pudzer, CEO of Carl’s Jr., said, “If this ad increases sales, I would choose her again. If it doesn’t, I wouldn’t even use this ad again. It’s all about the sales.”
Associate the product with a celebrity
A recent Hanes underwear campaign tells readers, “look who we’ve got our Hanes on now.” Featured prominently in the print ads’ photos are a variety of teen-friendly celebrities sporting Hanes underwear. Brands know that associating the right celebrity with their brand can spell marketing coup in the teen market, bringing notoriety and developing brand loyalty for years to come. Sports stars, musicians and actors have all signed sometimes multi-million dollar endorsement deals. For example, basketball star LeBron James signed a $90 million contract with Nike before ever playing a minute in an NBA game.
Instead of starting with a brand and adding a celebrity endorser, some celebrities are springing off of their celebrity status to create a brand. Britney Spears’ line of fragrances and Jessica Simpson’s Dessert line of creams and lotions are just two examples of how marketers are connecting with kids by connecting with celebrities. It pays off. When Mary Kate Olsen was photographed in cowboy boots, sales of cowboy boots took off. When Hilary Duff started wearing a snake bracelet, marketers replicated the jewelry and it started to sell.
One extreme example of celebrity marketing occurred in May 2005, when Tag body spray invited males ages 15 to 20 to bid on eBay for a date with Carmen Electra. The winner would receive an all-expense-paid trip to
Associate the product with a social cause important to teens
Shortly after hurricane Katrina ravaged the
At Youth Power 2006, attendees could attend a seminar entitled “Redefining Cause Marketing Brand Experiences with Teens: An in-depth look at this generation’s attitudes and actions surrounding corporate cause related efforts and activism.” This strategy is being effectively used to build brands among teen consumers.
Product placement
Do you remember the candy made popular by the early 1980s film ET? The folks at M&M Mars wish you didn’t. You see, they were the company first approached by the film’s makers to see if they wanted their little bite-sized candies to feature prominently in the story. When M&M Mars said “no,” the offer went to Hershey’s. After saying “yes,” the company’s Reese’s Pieces candies were placed in the film, boosting sales to the highest levels ever. It’s one of the earliest examples of a marketing strategy known as product placement.
Virtually every media outlet imaginable—television, film, music video, video games, music, etc.—is a platform for product placement, with every imaginable product popping up and being used by media stars and characters. The next time you’re watching TV or a movie, make a game out of finding the advertisements that are products placed on screen. Consider these few examples.
Television’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is an advertisement for Sears. Product placement on TV grew from a $709 million to $1.9 billion business from 1999 to 2005. As kids race around the track while playing car racing video games, they pass walls filled with ads for real-life products. They see those ads over and over and over, as they pass them every time they go around the track. Kids who play the video game Everquest II can order a Pizza from Pizza Hut while in the game and playing the game. The pizza will be delivered to their door.
The CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder game features Visa’s fraud-monitoring capabilities and technology when a suspicious charge is found on a victim’s Visa card. It is estimated that advertisements placed in games will be costing marketers $800 million by 2009, up from $120 million in 2004. Popular teen TV series The OC has an online home where viewers can find and purchase brands worn by the characters in each show. The list goes on and on.
The competition for product placement continues to heat up as companies jockey to pay for the rights to have their product advertised on media outlets popular with children and teens. In fact, one television network is even allowing companies to digitally insert their product into old syndicated shows from years gone by that are still being watched in reruns!
Get them online
Anyone who has a computer knows about the scores of unsolicited e-mails and pop-up ads that are a nuisance filling in-boxes and monitor screens. As Internet use grows by leaps and bounds, so do the opportunities for advertisers to grab you while you’re online.
Our computer-using kids make especially good targets. Not only do they encounter banner ads and pop-ups in their normal online activity, but most products and brands targeting children and teens have created entire interactive Web sites around their brands. Nike’s site allows shoppers to design and order their own shoes. Other sites include downloads, news, screensavers, chat and games—also known as advergames.
The games are created around the product, rather than the product being placed in the game, allowing kids to interact with the brand. The product is the star. There’s the Hershey’s Syrup Squirt, LifeSavers Boardwalk Bowling, M&M’s trivia, etc. An entire seminar on advergaming was offered at the Youth Power 2006 marketing conference. The seminar, “Tap into Advergaming to Market Your Products,” demonstrated “how positioning your brand within an Advergaming experience serves as a powerful marketing tool. We will provide insight on how to create a meaningful brand experience that your audience finds valuable and seeks out the opportunity to interact with you.”
One study found that among Web sites for major food products, 53 percent have commercials or cartoon Webisodes, 64 percent urge kids to e-mail their friends with a link to the site, 38 percent have incentives to get kids to buy foods in order to gain access to special games or prizes, and 25 percent offer children a membership so that they can get information and commercials about new brands. With virtually all cell phones now being made game and online capable, ads once limited to the immobile computer screen now will follow them everywhere they go.
Interact with kids and get their names
Have you ever used your cell phone to text your vote to American Idol? If so, you’ve been duped into giving them access to your cell phone and it probably wasn’t long before your cell phone started getting ads. Or how about the day before Britney Spears launched her Fantasy line of fragrances? While her Web site was not yet fully opened for visitors, eager and curious kids could visit the site and enter their personal information in order to get a special message from Britney. I know, because I went there.
Or consider the annual Teen Choice Awards show. Teenagers are duped into believing that their online votes resulted in choosing the winner. But if they were to read the fine print on the Web site they’d see these words: “Winner will be chosen from among the top four vote getters in each category by a committee of Teen People, Teenasauras Rox, Bob Bain Productions, and Fox Representatives.” In other words, the winners are a marketing decision. And, what the marketers get with your teen’s vote is their name and e-mail address. Marketers are desperate to build their databases, and they’ll do anything and everything to get the names of your children and teens.
Use schools
Just when you thought school might be the only place where kids aren’t subjected to advertising, you discover that, yes, the marketers are even there, drooling over the most captive audience they can find—and all that in an environment that is built to facilitate and maximize learning.
The push for kids’ attention hit home recently for me when a beautiful electronic sign appeared on the lawn in front of our local high school. After a year of budget complaints and negotiations, district residents contacted the school complaining about this unannounced expenditure. In a newsletter to residents, the superintendent assured folks that the sign didn’t cost the district a penny. Rather it was donated by Coca-Cola as part of the district’s exclusive contract with the soft drink maker. Also known as “pouring rights,” this is just one of the many avenues marketers are using to get to our kids while they’re in school.
Some marketers use sponsorships of extracurricular activities or they may underwrite the cost of textbooks that feature ads for their product. For example, one early elementary math textbook replaced apples and oranges in math equations with M&M’s. Other school marketing avenues are vending machines, signage on walls, scoreboards, gym floor logos, book covers and sponsored assemblies.
Perhaps the most well-known school marketing strategy of recent years is Channel One, a school cable network that began in 1989 and continues to broadcast 10 minutes of daily news and two minutes of commercials, filling the equivalent of five instructional days over the course of a school year. Schools are furnished with video equipment and monitors in exchange for running the network. Estimates are that roughly 40 percent of all sixth to 12th grade students in the
While Channel One might be the most well-known school marketing strategy, there are other strategies that might qualify as the most bizarre. They are becoming more and more common. For example, in 2005 a school district in suburban
Planned obsolescence
Today’s children and teens are especially fashion conscious. They don’t want to be caught dead wearing things that are “so yesterday.”
The root of this fashion consciousness and awareness lies in the fact that marketers have built obsolescence in to products, with “this year’s” and “this season’s model” making last year and last season’s model “so yesterday.” As a result, there’s a built-in cycle that ensures that the market will still be there for a product as kids look for replacements, not because what they have has worn out, but because what they have—whether it be clothing, shoes, electronics, cars, etc.—has gone out of style. Marketers have become masters at formulating and reformulating culture in order to sell more product and generate more revenue.
What now? Help them to process ads by constantly asking the ad filtering questions.
Teaching students to consciously and continually think Christianly and critically about advertising is a valuable skill that fosters spiritual formation. By asking good questions, students will learn how to compare advertising’s messages and worldviews to the biblical world and life view. Not only will they learn more about advertising’s methods and power, but they also will see how the Scriptures speak to all of life.
A good place to start is by using what I call “The Simple Seven” questions as a filter through which to process ads:
1. What product is this ad selling?
2. What, besides the product, does this ad sell? (ideas, lifestyle, worldview, behaviors, etc.)
3. What’s the bait, hook and promise?
4. Complete this sentence: “This ad tells me, use ________________________ (the name of the product) and __________________________ (the result the ad promises).
5. Does the ad tell the truth? What truth? How?
6. Does the ad tell a lie(s)? What lie(s)? How?
7. How does this ad and its messages agree or disagree with God’s truth and what does that mean for me?
By making a conscious effort to address the pervasive world of advertising with our kids, we can teach them how to manage the marketing that fills their world, rather than allowing the marketing that fills their world, to manage them.
This is the second in a two-part series. Part 1 can be read here.
For more information on resources to help you understand today’s rapidly changing youth culture, contact the Center for Parent/Youth Understanding.
©2007, The Center for Parent/Youth Understanding