role of tweens in advertising

No longer little children, and not yet teens, tweens are starting to develop their
sense of identity and are anxious to cultivate a sophisticated self-image. And
marketers are discovering theres lots of money to be made by treating tweens
like teenagers.
The marketing industry is forcing tweens to grow up quickly. Industry research
reveals that children 11 and older dont consider themselves children anymore.
The Toy Manufacturers of America have changed their target market from birth
to 14, to birth to ten years of age.
In its 2000 report to congress, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the U.S.
raised concerns on how Hollywood was routinely recruiting tweens (some as
young as nine) to evaluate its story concepts, commercials, theatrical trailers
and rough cuts for R-rated movies. In its 2009 report, the FTC noted explicit
and pervasive targeting of very young children for PG-13 movies, with
Hollywood continuing to conduct market research on children as young as age
seven for the advertising of these films. [1]
By treating pre-adolescents as independent, mature consumers, marketers have
been very successful in removing the gatekeepers (parents) from the picture
leaving tweens vulnerable to potentially unhealthy messages about body image,
sexuality, relationships and violence.
Marketing cool to teens
The entertainment companies look at the teen market as part of this massive
empire
theyre
colonizing.
(Robert McChesney, The Merchants of Cool, 2000)
Corporations capitalize on the age-old insecurities and self-doubts of teens by
making them believe that to be truly cool, you need their product.
According to No Logo author Naomi Klein, in the 1990s, corporations
discovered that the youth market was able and willing to pay top dollar in order
to be cool. The corporations have been chasing the elusive cool factor
ever since.
Trying to stay ahead of the next trend can be a tricky business however, as
cultural critic Douglas Rushkoff explains. The minute a cool trend is
discovered, repackaged, and sold to kids at the mallits no longer cool. So the
kids turn to something else, and the whole process starts all over again.
Some companies hire cool hunters to infiltrate the world of teens and bring back
the latest trends. However, with the Internet just a click away, many companies
prefer instead to let teens come to them, through online quizzes and personality

tests. Often these forms of data collection use the language of empowerment
and encourage teens to spread the word to their friends. For example, after
completing a quiz on the COSMOgirl site, teens are told: COSMOgirl! Has
heard a lot of stories, so lets get yours straight. What makes you so CG!? Be
sure to post this to your fave social networking site and link back to
cosmogirl.com your friends are probably interested in what you have to say
(we know we are)!
Teen anger, activism and attitude have become commodities that marketers coopt, package and then sell back to teens. Its getting harder to tell what came
first: youth culture, or the marketed version of youth culture. Does the media
reflect todays teens, or are todays teens influenced by media portrayals of
young people? Its important that teens be provided with opportunities to
discuss these issues, and challenge the materialistic values promoted in
the media.
Body image and advertising
Its difficult for teens to develop healthy attitudes towards sexuality and
body image when much of the advertising aimed at them is filled with images of
impossibly thin, fit, beautiful and highly sexualized young people. The
underlying marketing message is that there is a link between physical beauty
and sex appealand popularity success, and happiness.
Fashion marketers such as Calvin Klein, Abercrombie & Fitch and Guess use
provocative marketing campaigns featuring young models. These ads are selling
more than clothing to teenstheyre also selling adult sexuality.
Studies show that while teens received most of their information about sex from
the media: magazines, TV, the Web, radio and movies, the majority say their
parents shape their sexual decisions most, so its important that parents talk to
their kids about healthy sexuality, and about exploitive media images.
Media images can contribute to feelings of body-hatred and self-loathing that
can fuel eating problems. While body image has long been considered a female
issue, an increasing number of boys now also suffer from eating disorders. A
2012 study found that 50 per cent of both boys and girls in Grade 10 felt that
they were either too thin or too fat. [2]
Studies have also found that boys, like girls, may turn to smoking to help them
lose weight. [3]
Tobacco and alcohol

Advertising has always sold anxiety, and it certainly sells anxiety to the young.
Its always telling them theyre losers unless theyre cool.
(Mark Crispin Miller, The Merchants of Cool, 2000)
Tobacco and alcohol companies have long targeted young people, hoping to
develop brand loyalties that will last a lifetime.
With smoking killing over 45,000 Canadians each year, and thousands of others
quitting, [4] its crucial for the tobacco industry to continually cultivate new and
younger smokers.
In Canada, government attempts to restrict tobacco advertising culminated in a
2007 decision by the Supreme Court of Canada that upheld federal legislation
restricting tobacco advertising, banning tobacco sponsorships and requiring
larger warnings on cigarette packages. [5] This is significant when it comes to
youth because studies have clearly found that nonsmoking adolescents who
were more aware of or receptive to tobacco advertising were more likely to
become smokers later. [6] Girls are a particular target of the tobacco industry,
with brands in the U.S. like Superslims Lights and Camel No. 9 designed
specifically to appeal to females.
Despite the restrictions in Canada, this does not necessarily mean that Canadian
youth are not exposed to ads for smoking.
These more subtle media influencers include:

Celebrities smoking on TV shows or movies (in 2004, 81 per cent of

teens saw smoking on television or in the movies) [7]

Integrating smoking into video games (a recent study tracking smoking in

video games saw an increase from 08% in 2005 to 126% in 2011 in games
that are rated appropriate for 10-year-olds and older). [8]

Branded swag especially for nostalgic brand characters like Joe

Camel or images like old Players Tobacco packages

Associating smoking (and drinking) with being sexy, cool and

independent and with taking risks (particularly physical risks)

Aggressive marketing of flavoured and coloured cigarettes

Exposure to cigarette ads in American magazines

Like the tobacco industry, the alcohol industry spends billions of dollars
annually trying to grab the eyeballs of consumers of all ages and for good

reason. When it comes to youth, research shows that alcohol advertising

normalizes drinking, changes young peoples attitudes about alcohol and is
linked to early initiation to drinking and risky behaviour.
Compared to tobacco, legislation relating to alcohol advertising is less
restrictive, which provides more opportunities to engage youth. The U.S.-based
Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) notes that studies have found
that exposure to television beer advertisements on TV, alcohol ads in magazines,
alcohol ads on billboards, in-store beer marketing displays, beer concessions at
sporting events and alcohol use in movies, increased the likelihood of drinking
among young people. [9]
Many of the strategies used by the tobacco industry can also be applied to
alcohol advertising. The alcohol and beer industries also target youth by:

running ads during TV shows with a high number of young views, such
as The Simpsons, South Park or sporting events

placing ads in magazines with high adolescent readerships, such as

Rolling Stone, Maxim or People

sponsoring rock concerts and sporting events

creating and extensively marketing alcopopssweetened, lightly

carbonated drinks that dont taste like alcohol (think Mikes Hard Lemonade)

Linking TV commercials and magazine ads with online videos and

immersive lifestyle websites that further engage young consumers.
The most significant medium for reaching youth remains television. CAMY
found that youth exposure to alcohol advertising on U.S. television increased 71
per cent between 2001 and 2009. [10] In addition, TV commercials often provide
direct links to websites and online social media platforms such as YouTube,
Flickr, Twitter, and Facebook.
The alcohol and beer industries were quick to recognize the value of the Internet
as an effective tool for reaching young people. The Web offers marketers a
medium that is a huge part of youth culturewith the added bonus that its
unregulated, with very little parental supervision.
In 1999, the U.S. Center for Media Education found that 62 per cent of beer and
alcohol websites displayed what they call youth-oriented featuresthat is,
activities that appeal to the adolescent and pre-adolescent set. In 2011, CAMY
released a report on digital marketing by the alcohol industry that noted, among
other findings, that:

Ten leading alcohol brands have more than 16.5 million people liking
their Facebook brand pages.

Ten alcohol brands with youth appeal had uploaded 35,725 photos and
377 videos to their Facebook pages.

Fans of brands with youth appeal had uploaded 15,416 photos and 98
videos to the brand Facebook pages, taking their messages viral.

That sexually suggestive photos and photos indicating binge consumption

of alcohol were on the industrys social media sites.

That age affirmation technology to control exposure of minors on these

websites was meaningless. [11]
Packaging girlhood and boyhood
As they make the transition from childhood to the teenage years, tweens (ages
8-12) are continually bombarded with limiting media stereotypes on what it is to
be a girl or a boy in todays world. This packaged childhood is sold to them
through ads and products; and across all media, from television, music, movies
and magazines to video games and the Internet.
If you believe the media messages aimed at kids, tween girls are minifashionistas who are pretty and sexy and who are obsessed with boys, friends,
shopping, pop stars and celebrities; tween boys are independent and strong, and
preoccupied with sports, video games, adventure, cars, music, and hanging out
with friends.
Young girls in particular are targeted by marketers, and the focus of these ads
beauty, sexuality, relationships, and consumerism is worrisome for parents.
According to Sharon Lamb and Lyn Mikel Brown, authors of Packaging
Girlhood, images of girls as sexy, diva, boy-crazy shoppers can be quite
harmful to their self-development. At an age when girls could be developing
skills, talents, and interests that will serve them well their whole life, they are
being enticed into a dream of specialness through pop stardom and
sexual objectivity.
Media stereotypes of boys are no less harmful: they are nearly always presented
as tough guys and, as with girls, there is a consistent emphasis on their
physical appearance. Ads and movies communicate a masculine ideal that is
athletic and muscular. In fact, over the last twenty years action figures for
properties such as Star Wars and G.I. Joe have gained more muscles than even
the most dedicated body builders. Rap and hip hop videos reinforce this narrow
vision of masculinity: particularly popular with youth, this musical culture

whose origins are broad and diverse has narrowed to present a single,
stereotypical image of masculinity and relations between the sexes.
Example
A tween is vaguely defined as a prepubescent between the ages of 8 to 14, 9 to
12, or 8 to 12, depending on whom you believe. (Some industries, such as the
wireless sector, categorize the age as an unbelievable 6 to 12 years old,
prompting one to ponder, "in between" what?) Regardless of the exact age
definition, most agree that the breaking point of a "child" becoming a "tween" is
by the American fifth grade (approximately ten years old), when he/she rejects
more childlike images and associations and aspires to be more like a teen.
Contrary to hyped-up industry reports, the economic power of most tweens is
dependent on parents and other family adults through allowances and gifts,
versus the independent purchasing power of teens through after-school jobs.
(360Youth.com puts the teens-with-jobs number at 63 percent.) For as much
industry talk as there is about tweens being the decision-maker driving
purchases, ultimately it is still the parent in control. Of the reported US$ 51
billion spent by tweens themselves, an additional $170 billion was spent by
parents and family members directly for them, according to 360Youth.com,
which focuses on youth marketing.
Whether it's the media aging the child or that children are simply evolving faster
these days, marketers have been quick to notice that the growing distinctions
between childhood ages are pronounced enough to warrant products, services,
retail stores and marketing tactics specific to the "bridger" age group. Build-ABear, Paint Your Own Pottery, and the American Girl Store are just a few US
retail stores that were specifically designed for tweens -- and namely tween
girls.
American Girl, based on books, dolls and accessories for girls ages 7 to 11, last
year enjoyed a 25 percent increase in sales (as Barbie sales slumped), taking in
$379.1 million dollars. Spurred by the success of its New York and Chicago
stores, parent company Mattel (MAT) is creating its third destination shopping
store in Los Angeles featuring a whopping 40,000 square feet, including a 150seat theater for a live Broadway-style "American Girl Revue," hair salon for
dolls, bookstore, and a cafe where girls can enjoy tea and lunch with their dolls.
Whereas most trips to the toy store can be as inexpensive as a few dollars,
starting prices at American Girl are about $79.
Lest you think American Girl is about teen-attitude toting images a la Bratz and
other similar brands, American Girl is enjoying its success with dolls and story

lines based on various ethnic characters from history, such as Kaya, a Nez Perce
from 1764, and Molly, an Irish immigrant growing up during World War II.
Another company that has capitalized on ethnic diversity and navigated the
increasingly difficult toy market is the Manhattan Toy Company, with its
successful Groovy Girls line of dolls. The unique selling point? Each doll
features a girl of different skin tones, hair types and facial features reflecting the
real American ethnic landscape of today.
Since its launch in 1998, Groovy Girls dolls and accessories were a category
bestseller until 2003 and won "Girl Toy of the Year" and "Specialty Toy of the
Year" awards from the Toy Industry Association (TIA) at the 2003 Toy Fair in
New York City. With the demise of many specialty toy stores such as Zany
Brainy, Noodle Kidoodle, and Store of Knowledge, the dolls were launched in
Target (
TGT) stores in early 2005 to introduce the brand to American tweens en masse.
As the girls tween market becomes saturated, attention is moving more to the
boys-only area as a niche to fill. Riot Media is a website-turned-media and toy
company that capitalizes on the "gross-out" humor factor that boys so love.
Launched this year, Robert Thorne (the Svengali behind catapulting the Olsen
twins to billion-dollar heaven) is looking to create a similar dent in the boys
market.
Within the plethora of products, there are still areas where parents want direct
control, especially in something like wireless phones and services. Kid giants
Disney (DIS) and Nickelodeon are already providing cellphone ringtones and
content, while service providers and phone manufacturers such as Verizon (VZ),
Cingular and newcomers Tic Talk and Firefly ("starter" phones designed
specifically for keeping kids easily in touch with mom or dad) are investing
large dollars to reap even larger rewards. Other new tween phones about to
emerge are MyScene Mobile by Mattel and Wherifone, a small start-up
company out of the Bay Area, which also features GPS location tracking of the
phone and, theoretically, the child. Of the 26 million tweens in 2009,
iGillottResearch forecasts that 4 million will be using their own cellphones.
As with any other age group, tweens are saturated with media and Madison
Avenue images each day. Given the sheer volume of brands and brand images
cast out into the populous, it's hardly surprising that much really grasps the
attention of a tween. In-school media boards for advertising, television, viral
(a.k.a. buzz) marketing, book covers for textbooks with ads on them, traditional
mall intercepts and "Day in the Life" videos and journals are just a sample of
tactics used to get a better understanding of the lifestyle of a tween.

Then there are the infamous slumber parties pioneered by market research firm
Girls Intelligence Agency as an intimate, if not covert, form of a focus group in
tween girls' own environment: their bedrooms. GIA also features a "Best
Friends Forever" (BFF) network where girls are given products to discuss
among their friends, reporting back resulting comments to a GIA agent. Clients
of GIA include Mattel, Disney and Warner Brothers (TWX).
Not so surprisingly, some parents are finding these new marketing tactics for
tweens more than a little Orwellian and, in some cases, are downright disturbed
by the child-as-guinea pig approach. In 2004, a public interest group asked the
Federal Trade Commission (FCC) to "use its subpoena power to get access to
marketer research studies to help determine if online data collection actually
succeeds in helping advertisers to reach kids and tweens." It also asked for a
moratorium to be placed by the advertising industry on interactive tactics that
"could potentially harm or negatively affect children and youth."
PBS also offers a website called "Don't Buy It," chock full of advice on how to
make kids intelligent consumers. Features include "advertising tricks," "buying
smart -- see through the sales pitch," and "cover model secrets."
The bottom line? Tweens may have a wealth of choices at their fingertips and
are more brand finicky than ever, but despite the new marketing and product
creation conundrums they present, one thing remains constant. Sociologist Juliet
Schor, in her book "Born to Buy," puts it as "Authenticity...staying true to the
brand."

EXPLORING THE ROLE PLAYED BY CHILDREN AND TWEENS IN

ADVERTISING USING CONTENT ANALYSIS

Toddlers, children and tweens represent the mainattractions in terms of TV

commercials and because of thepositive reaction triggered, it is highly important
to measure thelevel of this phenomenon on the Romanian market. Although,the
importance of the tweens and children segments is constantly growing, the
Romanian market is still at an early stage compared to countries such as United
States or United Kingdom where this phenomenon is taking everybody by
storm.
Children and especially tweens nowadays represent a highly important segment
for marketers due to three main reasons: they dispose of increasingly large
amounts of money which qualify them as an important primary market, will
grow and develop into mature consumers ensuring a loyal future market, they
have started to develop brand loyalty at an early age, positive attitudes that will
most likely last until adulthood for certain brands and last but not least, are
powerful influencers for the household purchases in general.
At the same time, the marketing activities and especially advertising continues
to expand in Romania, as constantly ways of improving the brand performance
are sought after. Consequently, children/tweens find themselves casted in an
heavily increasing number of commercials due to the characteristics described
above, but also since the publics reaction in general is a very good one which
helps cutting through the clutter and increase the attractiveness of the
commercials. Although, it is easy to observe that this phenomenon of
commercials featuring children and tweens is developing consistently, however
the exact extent was not yet quantified, nor did the product categories more
likely to resort to this technique.
Children and tweens being features in advertisings do not only influence the
main decision makers, meaning parents, but also peak the curiosity and interest
of their pears in the respective brand, creating awareness and most likely
consideration. From now on, in case the product is suitable for the children and
tween segment, the young viewer will process the information received through
the ad and become persuaded to buy the product, or in case it is related to
products or services not aimed at this target, will start play their role as
influencers. Having all this in mind, quantifying and understanding the
penetration rate of commercials featuring children and tweens along with
analyzing their content represents an important aspect that will provide valuable
information on how to better apply it, while at the same time build awareness
among parents related to the size of this phenomenon so as to take decisions in
the future in the best interest of their children. Previous research focused mainly
on providing information on the number of hours/minutes of commercials
targeted at children and the ratio of air space filled by these ads during airing
time that was addressed to this audience. Kotz & Story, in a similar experiment
conducted in 1994, quantify the number of commercials aired during Saturday

morning childrens programming so as to identify the number of advertisings

for food items.
The approach used for this paper aims at providing a broader view, as the author
will be focusing on analyzing the whole spectrum of TV programs, not only the
shows addressed to children, covering both weekdays and weekends in order to
identify the commercials featuring children, toddlers and tweens, quantify them
and conduct a content analysis so as to reveal the product categories most
appropriate for featuring children and tweens along with the elements with the
highest penetration. The goal of this research is to see past the commercials
addressing children and featuring children and tweens as actors and try and
capture the extent of the phenomenon of them being distributed in ads
exclusivelly due to their increasing influence over the family acquisitions. All
these actions determine children and tweens to mature quickly as consumers
due to increased exposure to marketing activities in general and commercials
and materials featuring childrentheir age, that make the materials more
approachable and in the end more memorable.
RESEARCH DESIGN
The research technique applied was content analysis of commercials featuring
children and tweens, ads aired by the number one TV station in Romania, Pro
TV with a market share of 14,1% (ARMA-GFK Romania). During four days,
comprising a mix of week days (Wednesday and Thursday) and weekends
(Saturday and Sunday) in November 2010 all the programming aired by Pro TV
between 8 am and 10 pm (the hour interval most appropriate for this age
segment) were recorded and stored on the computer by using a TV tuner,
resulting in 56 hours of recording. The information was gather by covering the
following areas: day of ad broadcast, the hour interval when the commercial
broadcast accrued, the ad duration, the product category or service, the brand
and if the product was addressed to children or tweens.
RESULTS
Out of the 784 minutes of commercials recorder during the 4 days, 47%
featured children or tweens, proving that indeed this segment can somehow
associated with a gold mine for advertising, since keeps viewers in front of the
TV and more interested in purchasing the product or service The hypothesis
according to which children and tweens are being casting advertising, not only
for products and services that are designed for them is also validated, as actually
the large majority of commercials featuring children or tweens refer to other
types of products and services for which they are not the decision makers
(78%).

Food products and especially confectionary, represent the area most inclined
for including children or tweens in their advertising, regardless of the type of
product: for adults only or also appropriate for children and tweens. Overall
food items account for 74% of the commercials, while toys or other services
designed for children and tweens are in minority. This situation reinforces the
belief that childrens and tweens eating habits could be heavily influenced due
to the behavioural displayed in commercials, especially for less healthy
products such as sweets, and drinks with high content of sugar.
Product categories

Percentage

Confectionary
Juice/ still drinks
Breakfast cereals
Games and toys
Media: Comic books/ books/
movies

45%
16%
13%
10%
9%

Other

7%

Total

100%

Main product categories addressed to children and tweens featuring them in the
advertising.
In terms of children and tweens acting as triggers for parents by stirring the
emotional side and determining them to consider purchasing the respective
items, confectionary rank first, followed by laundry detergents and even
insurance and banking services.
Product categories

Percentage

Confectionary
Laundry detergents
Insurance and banking services
Savory products
Telecom services and handsets

26%
16%
15%
13%
10%

Automotive

6%

Pet food
Personal care products

5%
3%

Other

6%

Total

100%

Main product categories not addressed to children and tweens featuring them in
the advertising
CONCLUSION
The current research proved that children and tweens prove to be highly cast in
commercials across categories due to their influence over the familys
purchases. Besides mainly identifying and evaluating in more depth the triggers
that make children and tweens one of the most desired symbols in TV
advertising, further research should focus on identifying the ways in which
childrens and tweens' exposure to commercials featuring actors their own age is
influencing their behavior and development as consumers on the long terms
along with the reaction on the short term in terms of driving purchase for the
respective product or service.