Corporate marketers have kids in their cross-hairs.
Increasingly, these marketers see children as an economic resource to be exploited, much like iron ore or raw timber. Because children are required by law to attend school, marketers want their ads to appear in schools, too. The corporate conscription of the compulsory education laws is now commonplace. It brags to advertisers about how it harnesses the coercive power of the state to compel schoolchildren to watch ads. The atmosphere in school is splendid for selling, Babbit says.