Born to Buy
Subtitle: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture
Publisher: Scribner
Published: August 24, 2004
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 275
ISBN-13: 9780684870557
Subjects: Children; Young consumers; Marketing - General; Business/Economics; Business & Economics; Business / Economics / Finance; United States; Popular Culture - General; Marketing - Research; Consumer Behavior - General; Social Science / General; Advertising and children; Child consumers; Materialism
First sentence: The United States is the most consumer-oriented society in the world.
Description: "Juliet Schor examines how a marketing effort of vast size, scope, and effectiveness has created "commercialized children."" "Schor, author of The Overworked American and The Overspent American, looks at the broad implications of this strategy. Sophisticated advertising strategies convince kids that products are necessary to their social survival. Ads affect not just what they want to buy, but who they think they are and how they feel about themselves. Based on long-term analysis, Schor reverses the conventional notion of causality: it's not just that problem kids become overly involved in the values of consumerism; it's that kids who are overly involved in the values of consumerism become problem kids. In this revelatory and crucial book, Schor also provides guidelines for parents and teachers. What is at stake is the emotional and social well-being of our children."--BOOK JACKET.
Table of contents: title: The changing world of children's consumption; title: From Tony the Tiger to Slime time live : the content of commercial messages; title: The virus unleashed : ads infiltrate everyday life; title: Captive audiences : the commercialization of public schools; title: Dissecting the child consumer : the new intrusive research; title: Habit formation : selling kids on junk food, drugs, and violence; title: How consumer culture undermines children's well-being; title: Empowered or seduced? : the debate about advertising and marketing to kids; title: Decommercializing childhood : beyond Big Bird, Bratz dolls, and the Back Street Boys