Kid Kustomers Analysis

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In “Kid Kustomers” a selection from Eric Schlosser’s best-selling book, Fast Food Nation, he explains the increase in children’s advertising and states that advertising aimed at small children attempts “to increase not just current, but also future, consumption.” Throughout this text Schlosser gives many examples of how children’s advertising is effective and why it began. The reasoning behind this new increase in advertising aimed at children is because all of the companies noticed the potential amount of profit they could make off of this change. Adding children to their advertising aim was supported by companies because they want to create lifelong relationships with their customers, put pressure on future consumption of their product early,…show more content…
The companies know that most young kids do not buy their own things but they do now that it is still productive to advertise for these things because the kids will go off to persuade their parents, family members, or others. Schlosser calls this “surrogate salesman.” In Kids As Customers, James McNeal, a professor of marketing at Texas A&M University defines the seven categories of juvenile nagging tactics as pleading, persistent, forceful, demonstrative, sugar-coated, threatening, and pity nagging. All of these types of nagging builds up on the parent and eventually they usually give in, in order to make up for all the time they stay at…show more content…
They understand that advertising to all types of people is not going to hurt them in any way. Once children are exposed to a brand enough and this brand is thought to be cool or hip they will find a way to buy this product weather it be through begging their parents or getting it illegally such as alcohol and cigarettes. The reason behind companies advertising to children at such an early age is to set up a lifelong brand customer connection, make “surrogate salesman” to nag the parents, and to hope for future
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