Not Another Teen Marketing Study

An old review I penned in 2005, originally published by the in-house magazine of a large Filipino bookstore chain. There are plenty of Filipino-centric references, but hopefully the context should be obvious enough for international readers to understand.

For many twentysomethings, the idea of being a kid started with "Pepsi... 7-Up!" on the roadside, and ended with our first (measly) paycheck, via Game & Watches, inuman sessions, and cramming for mid-terms. For better or worse, things seem decidedly more complex for those born after the '86 EDSA uprising. Like so much else in life, the concept of youth has been redefined dramatically, in the last few decades or so. If you believe philosopher Francis Fukuyama, mankind has reached the so-called "end of history", with the spread of liberal democracy, and the rise of a global market economy. One side effect of these hyper-mobile capital flows has been the increasing focus on kids as consumers.

In various ways, "tweens", high schoolers, and college undergrads have each become discrete target markets for a surprising range of goods and services, from cellphone plans to racy underwear. There are now marketing gimmicks devised to separate teens from their spending money. But how do these media-savvy young adults buy into -- or resist -- the lure of the consumer world? That's what Alissa Quart hoped to answer when she penned Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers (2004).

More like pop journalism than scholarly work, Quart's book reads like a collection of well-researched, critical magazine articles. She avoids using too many dull statistics and complex, ivory-tower economic theories. Instead, she relies mostly on interviews and first-hand anecdotes to illustrate how the values of branding and corporate identity have made their way into various facets of adolescent life, from teen designer clothing lines, to movies that encourage reckless shopping as therapy.

Her work gives readers an insider's view of the youth culture industry. Quart interviews brand managers and their trend-setting "teen advisors". She meets with guiltlessly self-promotional young authors. She even reports on a marketing conference held just days after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US, when the somber mood threatened to dampen the 'celebration' of youth spending power. In the process, she exposes all the inner workings of youth branding, from promotional strategies to crass attitudes about kids' buying habits.



A lot of the examples cited are decidedly 'Western'; Quart is an Englishwoman, but her research was conducted mostly in America. Still, it's not difficult to make parallels with Filipino culture. The fuss over expensive Latina quinceanera celebrations is not so far removed from the hassles of organizing a sosyal debut party. And the stress of getting into a 'big name' university is certainly not limited to would-be applicants for Ivy League schools.

Quart is fiercely critical of corporate influence on youth culture, no doubt. But if you're hoping to read a Communist Manifesto for the Bratz set, think again. She clearly understands the appeal of cheap pop thrills for young people, steering clear of moralistic hand-wringing, as well as the dreary 'pop culture is bad' attitude of hardcore Marxian writers.

If Branded has one flaw, it's the lack of suggestions about ways to negotiate the encroachment of branding into everyday life. There are chapters titled "Unbranded" and "DIY Kids", featuring anarchist punk rockers and student radicals, who rage against the corporate machine in basement shows and campus auditoriums. But there are few other concrete proposals, if your tastes do not lean towards subculture and going organic. This is just a minor quibble, really; Quart has built a solid foundation on which other researchers can document more thorough alternatives to all this relentless consumption. (And when they do, I'll be ready to buy it.)