Shaping Youth Through Ambient Advertising

Advertising’s ubiquitous presence CAN be amusing sometimes. You’ve gotta admit, this use presenting "teeth as bowling pins" for a European dental insurance company did a creative job of media immersion via bowling alley. (not sure that’s the right target market, but that’s another story) Aside from the rather violent concept of kids knocking out … [Read more...]

Digital Marketing Tactics Revealed to FTC: Report At DigitalAds.org

Quite a coup for consumer and health advocate groups today who released the power of media and marketing to depants digital advertisers who are undermining parents by flying under their radar. Woohoo! This is gonna be fun. If I sound juvenile, it’s because I can barely contain my glee...Nothing like a one-two counter-marketing punch to start the day, complete with a … [Read more...]

Dads and Daughters Togetherness: A Firsthand Snapshot

We interrupt this CBS program series recap to bring you word from the parenting trenches, sharing a magic media moment! Promise I’ll get back to last night’s CBS advergaming segment (video clip here) but frankly, Shaping Youth’s readership is well-versed in the pitfalls of same...Especially since I’ve already covered advergaming here, and here, and … [Read more...]

Shaping Youth Through Consumerism: The Hard Sell to Kids

Buy, Buy, Baby. CBSNews is doing a four-part series called Gotta Have It: The Hard Sell to Kids all about womb to tomb marketing, with kids being targeted in a scope we’ve never seen before. In this video clip, investigative journalist and Buy, Buy, Baby author Susan Gregory Thomas talks about the $20 billion being spent on the 0-3 “baby genius” products … [Read more...]

Secret Agent Tweens on CBS; Shaping Youth Goes Undercover

“From books, to toys, to clothes to snacks. There's a multi-billion dollar, global marketing machine targeting YOUR children. Our special series, Gotta Have It: The Hard Sell To Kids, begins Monday on the CBS Evening News.” You can bet I’ll be tuning in for Shaping Youth’s purposes, though my guess is they’ll be talking about GIA (Girls … [Read more...]