The Target."The Bullseye."
“Although children’s consumer behaviors continue to develop during the adolescent years, the foundation is laid in these early years with a progression from simple wants and desires to a search to fulfill those desires to making independent choices and purchases [in which they] evaluate the product and its competition” (Calvert, 2008, p. 215).
Target marketing appears to fixate on the idea that children should be, and will continue to be, the focus, or “bullseye” of advertising. Within her article, Calvert (2008) also stated that, “In 2004, total US marketing expenditures were estimated at some $15 billion to target products to children” (p. 207). Statistics such as these pose the question of whether or not kids will be helpless when billions of dollars in advertising is being thrown at them.
