The last battleground of advertising

A new book has been published by Juliet B. Schor, called The Stepford Kids and has been reviewed in a recent BusinessWeek. It is about the stealth marketing strategies of companies to reach younger and younger cohorts of children in schools. Okay, the book apparently talks about marketing in schools in the US, but it can as well be happening in Asian schools. Or is happening already in magazines such as K-Zone. A magazine for younger age groups, full of advertising and marketing messages.

In the US, more and more people are tuning out of traditional advertising. It just doesn't work - people switch channel on TV, or program their TiVo in a way that they don't need to watch advertisement anymore. They are used to check on products before they buy them - they check offline and buy online. They blog about products if they like them and criticise companies that don't follow certain humanitarian requirements - look at the campaigns against sweatshops in Asia.

To counter the trend, companies try to improve their own marketing skills - psychological profiling is in - just talk about "neuromarketing". In effect, all that has been researched about products has been researched and companies benchmarked themselves so enormously that they look alike and produce products that are very much alike.

Now, companies try to reach the younger demographic groups under the motto, if you cannot get them young, you won't get them at all.

As BusinessWeek writes: "The walls of many sports stadiums are smothered in corporate logos. Most lunchrooms could double as fast-food courts. And classroom TV monitors flash a regular stream of racy video-game, movie, and fast-food ads along with the TV news shows that get piped to 40% of U.S. teens. Corporations have even made "huge inroads" in the curriculum, thanks to the free materials they send to schools. Among the things grade-schoolers have been taught: that fossil fuels may pose few environmental problems and that alternative energy is costly and unattainable, in the words of Exxon's Energy Cube curriculum. They've also learned that the "earth could benefit rather than be harmed from increased carbon dioxide" from materials provided by the American Coal Foundation."

This can be bad but shouldn't be forbidden - it cannot be forbidden. In fact, there is an opportunity for school curriculum to teach children about the pro and cons of products. About responsible usage of fossil fuel. About sweatshops in Asia. About the damage, that sugar can cause. About the importance of brushing teeth.

So don't forbid it, but use it responsibly.