Freshman Composition English 11000              

Alejandro Loarte                     

“Kid Kustumers” Response

In the essay, “Kids Kustumer”, Eric Schlosser, American journalist and writer, asserts that children in this generation have become the direct target of companies and marketing agencies and suggests that these industries manipulate the behavior of the kids through specific strategies with the intention of increasing consumption and profit from it. He supports his claim by doing the following: first, he addresses different studies made by companies to increase their sales aiming for what the kids desire the most even if it is unnecessary; next, he points out some strategies that companies have adopted over the past decades; last he mentions how the FTC originally tried to protect young consumers but later it changed its stance because there were various number of marketers that opposed the idea of banning ads, they  wanted to defend and increase their gains. Schlosser wishes to convey the importance of the connection between consumerism and child advertising; he wants to show how industries persuade youth to acquire their products and make his readers more aware of this issue. The audience likely consists of those interested in the subject of consumerism as is evidenced through his references to marketing studies and actual facts; he addresses readers with a tone that is informative and not subjective.

After reading the essay, “Kid Kustomer” my reaction to Schlosser’s writing about children being main target of businesses is supportive and appealing. My reason behind this is because I can identify what he is trying to say and when I questioned it does sound clever noticing how much these industries have changed in their ways of advertising. Moreover not only they want to increase their economic gains, they are also trying to affect the way kids behave in order to fulfill the company’s objectives. Also it is important to mention that their intention is obviously clear and though many of the laws that were passed to refute this type of conduct from major business have been pinned down by producers and big marketer agencies that do not like the idea of being stopped from expanding their sales. In this respect, I concur with the argument of the author which establishes the idea that the strategies to increase the income of industries are severely becoming more and more successful in capturing children and teens attention. Another important point is that sometimes it can bring a bad influence to the mindset of the kids, for example the discontinued Camel cigarette ad, most of the kids were able to recognize who that character was just like Mickey Mouse as it is mentioned in the text.

For the most part, the text has not changed my mind at all.  On the contrary, it has supported my original thoughts about how consumerism has been ‘evolving’ in a way that it familiarizes with current time situations and changes its methods to continue to sell products that attract people. For this reason, I find it very impressive the way that the whole system works. But for this instance, Schlosser justifies and presents a series of studies made by companies that explain the process by which they are able to obtain the necessary information to be able to adjust. In this case, it has a lot to do with psychology and the way the minds works. Coupled with childhood researchers and experts, marketers are able to identify a sequence and pattern on how children are first targeted by television and are attracted to what they see and not what they hear in their very starting years. Then, Schlosser switches his focus to a study that discusses the different types of naggings and how easy is for industries now to see what type of those naggings are children most likely to use on their parents. Lastly, the collection of information is an important part for the use of the company because it can determine huge wins in terms of being able to sell more to consumers.

Overall, I might say that Schlosser should have been able to explicitly criticize those businesses in all their aspects because of the effect it is causing on young consumers. Though I agree to the fact that these companies are trying to create a “lifetime of purchases” as mentioned on the text, it is fairly motivated by the fact that nothing can really stop what these people want to buy or not. In the long run, they have managed to acquire a bigger weight in decision when the idea to stop targeting children was proposed and enforced by many agencies and even the government. Therefore, it could not really cause a great impact in society but the awareness is being put up there. Correspondingly this is reinforced by the fact that until now most of the consumers have not object to what these industries have been offering us because we either need it, even if the price is high, or we just do not mind showing off  and brag brand-named new clothes and toys to our friends and relative.