Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers - Softcover

Quart, Alissa

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0465002021 ISBN 13: 9780465002023

Publisher: Basic Books (AZ), 2006

Synopsis

In Branded, Alissa Quart takes us to the dark side of marketing to teens, showing readers a disturbingly fast-paced world in which adults shamelessly insinuate themselves into "friendships" with young people in order to monitor what they wear, eat, listen to, and buy. We travel to a conference on advertising to teenagers and witness the breathless and insensitive pronouncements of lecturers there. We meet the unofficial teen "sales force" for a new girls' perfume (the unpaid daughters of the company's saleswomen) and observe the attempts of mega-corporations to purchase the time and space for product-placement in schools. We witness the aggressive and potentially emotionally damaging ways in which adults seek to control vulnerable young minds and wallets. But we also witness the bravery of isolated and increasingly Internet-linked kids who attempt to turn the tables on the cocksure corporations that so cynically strive to manipulate them.Eye-opening and urgent, Branded exposes and condemns a segment of American business whose high-paid job it is to reduce teens to their lowest common denominator, to systematically sap youth of individuality and creativity. Engaging and thought provoking, Branded ensures that consumers will never look at the American way of doing business in the same way again.In Branded, author Alissa Quart spotlights the most nefarious of youth marketing techniques, revealing eye-opening facts about the commercialization of today's teens, including:--31 million teens now spend upwards of $153 billion on leisure expenses- clothing, CDs, and makeup-a year. 55% of American high-school seniors work more than three hours a day to earn the money to fulfill their need for stuff.--A growing number of high schools are sponsored by corporations. Textbooks regularly mention Oreo cookies and math problems contain Nike logos. Teenagers not only play ball in gyms rimmed with logos but also spend their English classes coming up with advertising slogans for sponsors, all under the auspices of their so-called public schools.--In the last two years, cosmetic surgery rates for teens have gone from 1% to 3% of the total 4.6 million surgeries performed each year. Teen liposcution has doubled; breast augmentation has increased by almost a third in the last five years.

About this title

Review:

Alissa Quart's Branded highlights the corporate marketing strategies aimed at teenagers and pre-teen (tween) consumers. It's no surprise to hear that most teenagers have mobile phones and a voracious appetite for designer labels or that, in the US, corporations spend billions of dollars to woo them.

Indeed, US schools have long since been sponsored by corporations but what Quart fears is that the current growth of corporate sponsorship in UK schools, if continued at the present rate, makes it increasingly likely that in a few years time there will be little difference between them. Despite the fact that, as recently as 1996, parents and politicians fiercely resisted the idea of advertising in schools, corporations have taken advantage of a recent initiative that saw businesses partnering-up with "under performing" schools. Since then, according to Quart, the doors have opened for branded school supplies and--given the ingenuity and determination of corporate strategists and the naïveté of the educational authorities--the corporate insinuation into our children's minds begins as soon as they leave mother's apron strings.

The heart of the book is very interesting indeed, describing as it does the actual tactics employed by the youth marketing industry and the required mindset necessary to be among the best employees. For instance, at the 2003 Kid Power event in London, conference organisers instructed attendees in how to harness "the power of word of mouth", how to ensure their products are "the talk of the playground", how to get past the "gatekeeper" (Mum and Dad), and to be aware of the influence of "pester power". The marketers wear the clothes of youth, befriend the kids as part of their job, milk them for information on what's hot and what's not and generally get the jump on their competitors by encouraging brand loyalty from as early an age as possible. The book is laced with the views of the teens and 'tweens' themselves as well as personal recollections of Quart's own tween years to add historical perspective.

On the whole Branded is earnest, well written and a little depressing--despite the final section focusing on examples of anti-corporate attitudes and activities among the kids. Readers of Naomi Klein's No Logo will find nothing surprising here, but it's a useful weapon (or rebuke) for parents afflicted with savvy, brand-afflicted teens. --Larry Brown

Review:

"Deserves to command wide attention among millions of families...Quart makes a brilliant case...[and] her book is a necessary warning for parents" (New York Times)

About this edition

• Publisher: Basic Books (AZ)
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0465002021
• ISBN 13: 9780465002023
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 272