Eric Schlosser's Kid Kustomers

Eric Schlosser talks about the roles children play in advertising and presents his views in a factual type way to get you to agree and see his point. The information is presented in way where it doesn’t seem to be just his thoughts about it but in reality they pretty much are although he does include of factual information from studies. He talks about how Joe Camel could be recognized by nearly all six year old children. Of course some children are going to pick up on advertisements like this and in the world of marketing why wouldn’t you make commercials and market your stuff to be recognized. Of course with cigarettes and alcohol shouldn’t be marketed towards children but the fact the commercials and advertisements are made to sell a product. Schlosser talks about  how marketers are exploiting children in the sense they aren’t able to comprehend the idea of advertising so they are drawn into it but if they can’t comprehend what the marketers are trying convey are they really being exploited?... Yes, children are easy to target when it comes to advertising because they make up such a big part of the buying industry from food and clothes to toys but the reason children are targeted more now than 25 years ago is because of how society has changed. Children are into technology more so now than ever before. Our technology has increased drastically and the ages of using this technology are getting younger and younger. While this also is increasing children's brain function and hands on activities by playing education games on their phones, consoles, and computers, it also benefits the market industry letting them target younger and more children.

While this essay was set up very well and presented information about children and marketing, it definitely wasn’t thinking about the business side and marketing side. People need to sell their products and what better way to do that than to target children who you know will be enticed by the product and intern ask their parents to get for them. In the business world though some people may think it’s bad, things like this need to be done, it’s the logical thing to do so why wouldn’t you?... It’s not like they are abusing children by marketing things for children to be enticed by and to find amusing. Yes, with cigarettes and alcohol I believe shouldn’t be targeted at children because for one thing, children can not legally buy them although we all know they have even had employees hand out cigarettes to underage children because they learned the younger people start smoking the more likely they will stay a smoker and be addicted. All and all I disagree with this essay, it only makes sense marketers and industries target children for their commercials and advertisements.