Materialism for kids

From a piece on "60 Minutes Wednesday"

"...25 million kids, between the age of 8 and 13, form the most powerful consumer group since the baby boom. They're called "tweens," and marketers are obsessed with them. Tween girls are especially prized since they spend the most money -- and marketers are now targeting girls right in their own bedrooms. Sofia Mandel's special mission as a secret agent is to host a slumber party and invite her closest friends. It starts with a sealed box filled with goodies, never-before-seen products designed to produce a feeding frenzy of tween girls. The box is strategically placed there by...a marketing firm.

But critics say the research is enabling marketers to appeal directly to kids, making an end-run around parents. "The clear message from the marketers is it doesn't matter what the parent thinks," says Juliet Schor, author of "Born to Buy," a book that accuses marketers of skillfully reducing the power of parents. "They go directly to the kids, and say, 'You want this product?' Get your parent to buy it for you.'"

[Marketers say,]"Our responsibility is to translate that girl-speak into biz-speak for our clients...then tell the young girls, 'This is what you did...You are affecting change in your world.'" But what’s changing, parents say, is children’s attitudes, and it’s not for the better.

Meanwhile, Sofia, the alpha girl with her box of loot, is influencing her friends, whether she knows it or not. In fact, it’s not clear that any of these girls or their parents are aware of the marketing mechanics at work. And that's what concerns Schor. She says that while the slumber parties look fun, there's a subtle manipulation going on: "The marketers are inserting themselves into these peer dynamics." And the host girl? "She's being taught that her friends are an exploitable resource," says Schor. "She needs to get those friends over there, get that information out of them. It's an instrumental use of friendship.""

I have to say I'm leaning more toward the opinion that using friends to fuel the marketing side job is exploitive. And all the relentless selling to such an impressionable group, while it may be the American Way, just encourages materialism at an early age. Could it be that parents are supposed to have some measure of control over the situation? I have two "tweens" at my house. Sure they love to get new stuff, but I have yet to see a full scale buying frenzy and, thankfully, they don't beg, whine or act like spoiled brats.