Tweens, Media and Marketing

Tweens and Media: What's Too Adult?

NPR All Things Considered produced “Tweens and Media: What’s Too Adult?” (August 1, 2006) by Lynn Neary. Retrieved June 15, 2010 from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5595146

The notion that tweens are media-savvy and tech-proficient, while still young enough to engage in imaginative play is discussed. Visual and auditory media present tweens with a large degree of sexual content that tweens, developmentally, are too young to process and understand. Diane Levin, a professor at Wheelock College in Boston, has written a book about this subject, exploring the affects of the sexual images and messages on young teens.

YouTube has her appearance on the Today Show - “So Sexy So Soon”. Levin, along with her co-writer, Jean Kilbourne presented at Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood summit including in their presentation the changes in media and how sexual content is marketed; click here.

Levin, Diane E. and Kilbourne, Jean (2010). So Sexy, So Soon: The Sexualization of in commercial culture. Retrieved June 15, 2010 from the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood website http://www.commercialexploitation.org/articles/4thsummit/levin.htm

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How to Hype-Proof Your Tween

Kluger, Jeffrey “How to Hype-Proof Your Tween: marketers want to sell stuff (lots of stuff to your kid. Here’s how to short-circuit their ‘spend more’ messages” (2010). Retrieved June 15, 2010 from the Good Housekeeping magazine website at http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/family/teens/tween-shopping-peer-pressure-3

This article gives a thorough perspective on tweens and marketing approaches that target their market. It explains how advertising influences the trend in tween spending, which is about $50 billion a year. In addition, parents and others spend $170 billion a year on tweens. Peer pressure and parents play a role in tweens’ purchasing behavior.

The author suggests to parents’ that they be aware when they are giving out material rewards to their child and when they are worn down from constant begging for items. Interestingly, “marketers deliberately rally pester-power to work on parental soft spots”.

Kluger recommends teaching kids to be critical thinkers and suggests that conversation about marketing manipulation is very powerful. This conversation could include discussing what a commercial urged them to buy and information about product placement in shows. A couple of good websites that were suggested Admongo and PBS Kids - Don’t It. Both are interactive, appealing and informative. More practical tips include setting limits, trying procrastination and providing pocket money. Kluger ends by saying that “no parent ever fully prevails in the commercial wars of the tween years”, which gives insight to how powerful advertising and marketing are to this population.

The influence of marketing and advertising is incredibly far reaching - affecting tweens’ choices and interests in fashion, brands, activities, music, sports, games, entertainment, television shows, books, websites and social media. It also affects relationships, school behavior and social behavior. Tweens want to emulate what they see and watch.