Quart, Alissa. (2003). Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing.
OVERVIEW
We live in a world where we are bombarded day in and day out with marketing schemes and calls to consumerism. This constant barrage takes a toll on the thoughts and attitudes of even the strongest individuals, and it is seen it glaring colors in the thoughts, attitudes, and lives of teenagers in the United States of America.
Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers walks its readers through how consumerism and marketing, often geared directly at children and adolescents, has “branded” teens. This branding is seen in such things as an early allegiance to a certain brand of clothing, or a certain university, or a certain way of dressing or being. In the introduction, the author writes, “Inspired by the commercialization of youth and also by the signs of resistance to it, I decided to write Branded. The term brand suggest both the ubiquity of logos in today’s teen dreams and the extreme way these names now define teen identities. My hope is that these stories of kid branding will help to increase understanding of the dangerous consequences of our current materialism.” (p. xiv)
The book focuses on examples, some more sinister than others, of ways in which companies have used their power and techniques to influence the adolescent generation – and what this means for those teens. This effect is widespread, and is seen in various arenas, such as the media, the college admission process, the business of plastic surgery and steroids, and even in age-old bar mitzvahs.
One section of the book focuses on the lives of teen consultants who are hired by companies as “insiders” or “affiliates”. These adolescent consultants participate in focus groups about clothing, test new products such as lipstick, fill out surveys about the latest movie, and share their thoughts and feelings about the latest new thing in return for payment in the form of a free pair of shoes, movie tickets, or the chance to be a part of something larger than themselves. They become, as the author puts it, “proselytizers” for the brands they are working with. “Teenagers have come to feel that consumer goods are their friends – and that the companies selling products to them are trusted allies. After all, they inquire after the kids’ opinions with all the solicitude of an ideal parent. Tell us how best to see you our products, they ask. If you do, we will always love you.” (p.35)
The author tells about attending the Fourth Annual Advertising and Promoting to Kids conference, where marketers gather to learn how to better market to adolescents and children, listening to speeches peppered with both business tatics and child psychology statistics. Adolescents, “tweens” (those between the ages of 10-13, a big focus of the advertising companies), and even children are seen as a market whose hearts and minds are able to captured and molded.
James U. McNeal, well known in the field of marketing to teens is quoted as writing, “The plain fact of the matter is that businesses have only two sources of new customers. Either they are switched from competitors, or they are developed from childhood… If children are made to feel warm and fuzzy about a store or brand or product, they will bond with it. When they reach market age for that store or brand or product, they will logically migrate toward it.”
How companies are teaching younger consumers about their products varies from traditional commercials to subtler product placements in media. Television shows and movies blatantly advertise for Coca-Cola, Clinique or Cosmopolitan. Even video games are subject to this influence, whether it be a skater competing in front of a Quicksilver billboard, a Pepsi banner during a football game, or the Skye of Lynoora who fights with rainbow-colored Skittles. And if you think kids can avoid this pressure by avoiding media, this isn’t always so. There has lately been an increase in advertising in schools. Some schools, dealing with budget cuts and increasing demands for services, have allowed advertising in their halls, their cafeterias, and buses.
This incredible branding pressure is even seen in the quest for entrance into college. The author speaks to parents and students who go to extreme means to gain entrance top colleges, colleges with name that cause people, and future employers, eyes to light up. For many, getting into these schools comes at a great price, financially as well as socially and emotionally. Parents now hire private “college counselors” who work the student to make sure that they look good on paper, not just with their SAT scores and class grades, but also with their summer activities. Gone are the days of summers spent at camp or in a job at the local pool. Now adolescents are pressured to do summer activities and internships that look good on their resume, whether they be interning at a business, taking college courses, or doing a service project that shows the altruistic side. The pressure is on even before high school – you must exploit every minute of your life and summer in order to have an application that can get you into the elite colleges. “ ‘They obsess – if I just get my SATs to a certain point, if I help orphans, if I get a 1760 combined score, then the path will become clear to me, I will get into Brown and then all this would have been worth it,’ says college counselor Coon, describing the self-branding that now goes into obtaining entrance to a Logo U. ‘They structure summers in a certain way that they wouldn’t have normally, just to get in.’” (p. 151)
Such extreme measures often does result in entrance to if not the best at least a top tier college or university. But is it worth the lost time and the pigeon-holed interests of the past years? It seems that this narrow-sighted path is taken to the detriment of children and their families.
Alissa Quart ends her book with a series of examples on how some adults and adolescents are working against the prevalent marketing and consumerism that is pressuring teens from all sides. These stories of individuals or groups are the author’s way of showing that there are still patches of resistance to this overwhelming way of being.
QUESTIONS FOR REFELCTION AND DISCUSSION
- In what ways have you seen an allegiance to brands in your life? Is the influence good, bad, or both? Can you think of specific instances of how you have been marketed to today or this week?
- What do you think is cool or hip? How many of those things have a brand name attached to them?
- How can those who work with youth help them see how marketing influences decisions and actions? How can people become more aware, and possibly more immune, to these influences?
IMPLICATIONS
- All humans are susceptible to the power of brand-names, and this is especially true in the time of adolescents. We need to recognize when we are being influenced, and we need to help others recognized this as well.
- While it may be difficult to avoid marketing techniques, there are ways to go against them. One of the most important may simply be learning to recognize marketing and making sure your choices are not influenced negatively by it.
- Marketers know that adolescents and “tweens” have larger disposable incomes than in the past, and often less supervision over purchases. For that reason, they have defined this as an important market to “capture” and influence. Adults must realize this and help children and adolescents avoid these pressures.
- There are alternatives to a branded existence. There are ways to push against the pressure.
Rebecca Wolf cCYS
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