Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

Youth Lured to 'Net by TV, Print Ads

Ugh. According to a new survey, 46% of children 6-11 (including 26% of kids 6-7 years olds who were surveyed!) have visited a website to learn more about a product they saw in a commercial or advertisement. No wonder, companies spend billions of dollars on marketing to kids, tweens and teens.

Nearly half (46%) of children aged 6-11 have visited a website to learn more about a product they saw in a commercial or ad, according to findings from Mediamark Research (MRI).

MRI's 2008 American Kids Study finds that the older a child is, the more likely he or she is to turn to the internet after viewing an ad, writes MarketingCharts. Of the nearly 10.7 million young consumers who report visiting a company's website after viewing its ad, 26.5% are 6-7 years old, 33.3% are 8-9 years old and 40.2% are 10-11 years old.

These internet-viewing children are more likely to hail from households where there are no rules placed on which sites they can or cannot visit, the study found. The gender split is almost even, with 49.4% of girls and 50.6% of boys saying that viewing an ad resulted in a website visit.

In addition, MRI data shows children who report visiting a website after they saw or heard about it in a commercial are 48% more likely than the average US child to access the internet every day. They are also 41% more likely to have their own email address, 40% more likely to use an instant messenger service, and 34% more likely to download music.

Source: Marketing Vox
http://www.marketingvox.com/youth-lured-to-net-by-tv-print-ads-tendency-increases-with-age-042567/?utm_campaign=rssfeed&utm_source=mv&utm_medium=textlink

Parent Alert: Abercrombie at it Again with Underwear Store Spin-off - Gilly Hicks

Coming soon to a mall near you, Abercrombie & Fitch, known for their racy, "soft-porn" advertising is at it again, this time with a new spin-off retail store called Gilly Hicks, poised to sell underwear. Like A&F, the mode of advertising aimed at attracting young people is indeed, soft-porn. So, be warned and be prepared! According to reports, the Gilly Hicks website offers an advertisement video of romping and swimming topless girls and naked boys.

Gilly Hicks Backstory Is a Fiction to Sell Sexual Fantasies to Teens
As opposed to the stated goal of selling "The Finest Underwear Ever Made", the Gilly Hicks pitch is more of a lifestyle appeal, namely: "You're 16, and you are therefore a walking-talking hormone engine, so why not visit our website, declare yourself at least 18 and watch our semi-soft-porn vignette?

(In the video there is) nudity, plus an implied liaison between a topless WASP mermaid and an altogether underwear-free beach boy with a butt carved from stone. Product showcase this isn't. No, it's an exercise in sexual fantasy -- one that should be completely transparent to the target generation reputed for being able to see through all manner of marketing come-ons.

Source: Advertising Age
http://adage.com/garfield/post?article_id=125578

How Much Money is Spent on Advertising?

Pop Quiz: How much money is spent by companies in the USA on advertising in a year?

A. 1.9 Billion Dollars
B. 6.8 Billion Dollars
C. 12.3 Billion Dollars
D. 14.9 Billion Dollars

If you chose any of the above, sorry, it was a trick question. I just came across the stats regarding advertising spending for 2006 and the actual amount spent is much higher. A lot higher. The number is actually just shy of 150 Billion dollars. Read it again: 150 Billion dollars. That's more than the individual Gross National Products of some 185 countries. There are only some 35 countries in the world that have a GNP higher than the amount U.S. companies (as a whole) spend on advertising. Why do our companies spend so much?

Advertising works. It's all about the bottom line. The goal of advertising (obviously) is to sell goods and services, to you and to your kids. This just serves as an encouragement to talk to your kids about advertising. There are plenty of opportunities in any given day to engage in such a discussion. Remind your kids that the point of advertising is to create a desire within them in order to get them to buy something, so that companies can add to their profits. It's the American way. It's not that all advertising is bad, it's just that kids should learn and become savvy enough to realize that everyday, they will encounter companies (via advertising) that want their money.

TNS Media Intelligence Reports U.S. Advertising Expenditures Increased 4.1 Percent in 2006
Total advertising expenditures in 2006 increased 4.1 percent to $149.6 billion as compared to 2005, according to data released today by TNS Media Intelligence, the leading provider of strategic advertising and marketing information. Ad spending during the fourth quarter of 2006 was up by 4.2 percent against the same period in 2005.

Source: TNS Media Intelligence
http://www.tns-mi.com/news/03132007.htm