The one character trait of practically every adolescent and teenager, from the barrio to Beverly Hills, is insecurity. Teens are among the least secure people on earth. They are terrified of doing anything that might cause them to be ostracized by their peers. Confidence cannot be bought in the store, nor can it be taught in a class. You cannot give kids a magic pill called confidence. Instead, confidence must be developed over a long period of time.
People who have enjoyed longtime success are confident of their abilities. A bricklayer who has worked for fifteen years is confident of his ability to build a house.A fashion designer who has developed several hot clothing designs has confidence in her ability to set trends. Teenagers have not yet had the opportunity to hone their skills, social or otherwise, and thus lack the confidence required to stand tall among their peers.
Teenagersmight appear bold or sassy. But the majority are covering up for a deep-seated feeling of uncertainty, if not outright inferiority. This lack of security is especially true for many children from low-income homes and children of color. They are perhaps even more full of doubt about themselves than theirmiddle-class Caucasian counterparts. This is a fact of life that we who are raising black and Latino childrenmust face.
So how do kids try to develop a sense of confidence? The same way adults do: they try to buy it. People who lack confidence are natural targets for marketers. Here's a little-known fact: every single ad geared at preteens and teens is created to remind them of their insecurities.
An advertisement doesn't simply call your attention to a product's existence. Its real purpose is to create a sense of anxiety that the product is essential to your happiness. If you don't drink Pepsi, people will not like you. Without Calvin Klein's jeans, your love life will be nonexistent. If you don't use Herbal Essences shampoo, no one will want to travel in your car with you. The point of every ad is to create a sense of panic that what you have, what you look like, what you drive, and even how you smell just isn't good enough.
Adults are able to ignore many of these messages because we've already made a lot of our basic brand-loyalty decisions. How many adults change toothpaste brands more than a couple of times after age twenty? How many adults try a dozen different shampoos to figure out which one is best for their hair?We buy either what's on sale or the brand we've become accustomed to. There's not much point in marketing to adults.
That's where your kids come into the mix. Because kids are still choosing, still desperately wanting to fit in, the message in every ad is simple: buying this product will boost your street worth and your self-esteem.
Marketers play on sensual confidence in particular. Notice how sensuality is used to sell nearly every product, from soup to Nissan Sentras. Advertisers use sensuality to sell products because sensuality gets our attention. A beautiful model, female or male, using a product causes people to sit up and pay attention more than the product alone could ever do.
The image of the model is often much bigger than the picture of the product! Everybody enjoys looking at attractive people. If an advertiser can get you to associate the way you feel about sensuality with the way you feel about their underarm deodorant, you'll be more inclined to get a little tingle when you see their product on the shelf.
If you don't think advertisers are selling sensuality to kids, just look at Christina Aguilera in that hot little outfit shaking it for Pepsi. How many thirty-five-year-old women do you think she is influencing to go out and drink a can of Pepsi? Not many. How many fifteen-yearold- boys is she lining up to take the Pepsi challenge? You can't count them all.
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Note: This article was sent to us by: Leah A. Ermingstone at 06022010
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