Jean Kilbourne: Own This Child Essay

Advertisers are targeting youth, â€Å"Own This Child† Written by Jean Kilbourne an informative article on this matter. Major corporations have recently begun using gaming [web] sites to create an image and â€Å"brand loyalty† early on in today’s youth as young as four years of age. Although The United States is an industrialized nation it is one of the few that entire campaigns are designed to target children. These same corporations are working with major television networks advertising products that pertain to program that is being viewed; with the intent to get them as a present consumer but also well into the future. In addition to television ads one company has initiated a program for advertisers to distribute coupons and promotional materials to a network with more than two thousand day care centers and about two million preschool kids. Companies are even going as far advertising in our schools ads are emblazoned on school buses, yearbooks and even scoreboards. Each day eight million students are successfully reached by advertisers. As schools become increasingly cash-strapped and underfunded, the more the schools except funding from corporations eager for a captive audience in exchange for their financial support. Educational programs have increased by 25% from 1965 to present putting more pressure on the schools to accept the funds from the more than willing companies and causing advertisement to become so over the top that when an spoof program offering students money to get tattoos of company logos many people believed it was an actual program. Big consequences are the result for any student doing anything to jeopardize funding from corporate sponsored events; such as wearing a competitor’s logo to company sponsored rally. Schools are going to the extremes of signing long-term contracts in exchange for millions of dollars and exclusive rights to place vending machine where students all-day can access them. Companies even push the school to increase sales even though large consumption of soda can lead to health problems later in life.