Advertising to Youth

In the ever expanding world of consumerism and advertising, companies are constantly looking for new ways to sell their products to youth by making their commercials and campaigns more memorable than the competition; thus having to reinvent themselves. The youth generation has become the prime target because they have more spending power than ever before; because of more disposabel income, and increased avenues at their disposal in which to spend their money. Therefore companies spend an enormous amount of money on advertisement to ensure popularity and early brand loyalty. In the last decade, these superbrands are looking towards new and outrageous ways to capture young audiences, although these campaigns are appealing, how effective are they? This essay is meant to demonstrate how companies are reinventing themselves, whether their efforts are effective, and what possible implications these actions may have on youth during their teenage years, when they may be the most impressionable. As mentioned earlier, youth are incredibly important to the international market, in “The Advertising Age”, Jeff Jensen mentions that in todays youth market “Selling out is not only accepted, it’s considered hip” (Klein, pg. 65) Corporate sponsorships have become a regular occurrence, as a conglomerates advertise during large sport events, concerts and or even host entire contests . This provides for a perfect channel of penetration to a large amount of youth as they are usually key observers of these types of events. An example of this would be the how McDonald’s was a sponser of the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games. Throughout the two week duration of the games, McDonald’s sponsorship was seen everywhere, which was ironic considering that most food offered at McDonald’s is high in fat and cholesterol. Regardless of the facts, the company promoted themselves as a product of healthy active living by having athletes endorse their products. An earlier campaign featured pop icon Justin

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