Shaping Youth Slams Capri Sun With Counter-Marketing

Timing is everything! This week we’re counter-marketing Capri Sun Coastal Coolers as ‘juice pouches that aren’t juice’ but mostly high fructose corn syrup. (HFCS) We’ve been using Capri Sun label lingo as an example of misleading claims...Lo & behold: 48 hours ago, Center for Science in the Public Interest launched a lawsuit against Kraft for … [Read more...]

A “Brand” New Year: Brain Waves, Brand Names & Brainwashing?

“Come in, my little pretties,” lured the witch in Hansel & Gretel, as the door banged shut behind the wee ones. Today’s brand marketers and media mavens aren’t exactly summoning kids into an icing laced gumdrop gingerbread house, but it’s pretty dang close on a few media and marketing fronts. There’s enough subversive enticement to … [Read more...]

7 clues to a New Year’s riddle for the 7th year of 2000

This landed in my e-mail from some pals of mine, and it seems worthy to toss out there to get kids thinking along these lines and open up some dialogue. Yes, I’m being ambiguous on purpose so I won’t spoil the fun. To challenge yourself, write down your guess after reading each clue; then, after reading all the clues, see which (if any) of your guesses is … [Read more...]

A Shaping Youth Roundup of Kids’ Media/Mktg. Notables

I left my ‘round-up’ ritual back in my editorial magazine days but my au courant colleagues and content partners have worthy ones so I’ll defer to their musings. Ypulse publisher, Anastasia Goodstein posted “Reflections on the year in youth culture” which gets my vote for the most articulate wrap up of four key trends: The ‘totally … [Read more...]

Preteen Podcasts: Media, Middle-school & Growing Up Too Fast

The past few weeks Shaping Youth has recorded some preteen podcasts to hear what kids from public and private schools have to say about body image, celebrity hype, products, brands, teen media and how it all relates to the middle school experience. Yowza. It may not quite be Fast Times at Ridgemont High out there but I’m feeling quite Jurassic about the 'wannabe world,' … [Read more...]