Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781565847835)

With the intensity of the California gold rush, corporations are racing to stake their claim on the consumer group formerly known as children. What was once the purview of a handful of companies has escalated into a gargantuan enterprise estimated at over $15 billion annually. While parents struggle to set limits at home, marketing executives work day and night to undermine their efforts with irresistible messages.

In Consuming Kids, psychologist Susan Linn takes a comprehensive and unsparing look at the demographic advertisers call "the kid market," taking readers on a compelling and disconcerting journey through modern childhood as envisioned by commercial interests. Children are now the focus of a marketing maelstrom, targets for everything from minivans to M&M counting books. All aspects of children's lives - their health, education, creativity, and values - are at risk of being compromised by their status in the marketplace.

Interweaving real-life stories of marketing to children, child development theory, the latest research, and what marketing experts themselves say about their work, Linn reveals the magnitude of this problem and shows what can be done about it. With a foreword written by research psychologist and author Penelope Leach, Consuming Kids is a call to action for parents, educators, legislators and anyone who cares about the health and well-being of children.


Author: Susan Linn
ISBN-10: 1565847830
ISBN-13: 9781565847835
Publisher: New Press
Language: English
Published: 05/06/2004
Pages: 288
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.35lbs
Size: 9.40h x 6.16w x 1.10d
Award: Independent Publisher Book Awards - Finalist

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 03/15/2004 pg. 94
Publishers Weekly 03/29/2004 pg. 47
Mother Jones 05/01/2004 pg. 86
Booklist 05/15/2004 pg. 1585
Christian Century 01/11/2005 pg. 22
Choice 02/01/2005 pg. 1063