DO COMPANIES MANIPULATE TEENAGERS THROUGH ADVERTISEMENTS?
"Advertising is a phenomenon through which someone tries to communicate something to a group of people and whose aim is to persuade them to act in a certain way" (Diaz, pg. 1).
One voter said, "All too often the stores cross the line and make their ads way too sexual, or too discriminatory (If you don't wear OUR clothes, your friends won't like you anymore..)." (Harper, B. 2013).
It's a blizzard of brands, all competing for the same kids. To win teens' loyalty, marketers believe they have to speak their language the best. So they study them carefully as an anthropologist would an exotic native culture" (Merchants of Cool, 2).
"[Teens] are given a lot of what we call guilt money. 'Here's the credit card. Why don't you go online and buy something because I can't spend time with you?'"(Merchants of Cool, 2).
I believe the companies like Aeropostale and Hollister manipulate teens into thinking [their ads are] how there body should look, like if you try on the clothes in the store they are skin tight, and the shorts that are for girls are barely long enough to cover someone's butt. (Lewis, 2013).
"I bought some Fila tennis shoes 'cause I seen 'em on a commercial. I mean, they had this basketball player, but I don't know who he was ... he was jumping. Anyway, the shoes have like, little flaps on the sides of 'em, like little wings. They're Velcro ... anyway, they come off, and they started flying (giggles). They flew off of the building, so I had to have them shoes!" (Fox).
" A typical American teenager will process over 3,000 discrete advertisements in a single day, and 10 million by the time they're 18... 75% of teens have a television in their room. A third have their own personal computer, where they spend an average of two hours a day on line" (Merchants of Cool, 2).
Examples of Manipulation
Facts and Figures
Scale
Bandwagon
TOMS
Different Advertising Techniques
PROGRESSIVE
COCA-COLA
Put-Downs
Omission
Ambiguity
Social Campaigns
"[Peer to peer marketing] has been around a long time and in many forms, from the girls rounded up and paid to scream for Frank Sinatra to the hard sell of hip-hop by way of so-called street teams, or marketing youth gangs, that have advertised since the 1980's!" (Quart, 38).
FRANK SINATRA
Peer to peer
Ashlee Chaffee on Types of Advertising
"NNU uses a broad mix of advertising mediums including print, advertorials, online, billboards, newspaper, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), social media, radio and television. We always assess our target audience before placing advertising. For example, our a prospective student looking at our traditional undergraduate program is a much different prospect than a nurse wanting to return to obtain his/her Master of Science in Nursing degree (typically at least mid-20's since they have to be an RN - registered nurse- to start)" (Chaffee, 2013).
Teen Consultants
HIP HOP
"Their devoted voluntary labor tends to bear the faint taint of exploitation" (Quart, 18).
Online Poll
- 25% of our voters said that clothing companies did not use their ads to manipulate teenagers.
- 75% said that the companies went overboard with their ads. (Harper, M. 2013)
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