Not only is this generation strong in numbers, it also exerts enormous economic influence within the family-a fact not lost on the marketing and advertising industries. Current industry statistics on spending by youth are hard to come by: however, the 2005 YTV Tween Report reported Canadian kids ages 9 to 14 spending almost $3 billion of their own money and influencing at least $20 billion in purchases by their parents - a number that has continued to rise since then. Once an ignored demographic for advertisers, today's young people have become the most marketed-to generation in history, thanks to their spending power and their future clout as adult consumers. This section explores the ways that children and teens are targeted by marketers and provides tools to help counter the constant bombardment of marketing messages that have become a ubiquitous part of the lives of Canadian youth.
Help Skippy the hamster destroy advertisements and restore his town to its natural glory.
This educational game helps children of all ages learn about marketing and how to be proactive towards advertisments.
No, it's not your imagination. The amount of advertising and marketing North Americans are exposed to daily has exploded over the past decade; studies show, that on average, people living in urban centres see up to 5,000 ads per day. At the gas pumps, in the movie theatre, in a washroom stall, on stickers on fruit, during sporting events-advertising is pretty much impossible to avoid.
Kids represent an important demographic to marketers because in addition to their own purchasing power (which is considerable) they influence their parents' buying decisions and are the adult consumers of the future.
Parents of young children have an important role to play in protecting their kids from invasive marketing, and in educating them about advertising from an early age.