- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: Basic Books; 1 edition (Jan 6 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0738206644
- ISBN-13: 978-0738206646
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 16.6 x 2.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 476 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,770,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
For the readers still waiting for a substantive follow-up to Naomi Klein's No Logo, this is the book. Quart, a former media columnist for the Independent, follows the bread-crumb trail from the Fourth Annual Advertising and Promotion to Kids conference (no joke, unfortunately) to the mechanics of "peer-to-peer marketing," product placement in video games and the ever-escalating parties of the "bar mitzvah showcase." She hones in on teens' delicate self-fashioning and how it's manipulated for profit by adult "teen trendspotters" who insinuate themselves into the lives of "Influencer" teens in order to cop "youth buzz." Quart is brilliant on the world in which teens "obsessed with brand names feel they have a lack that only superbranding will cover over." She gets great quotes in her first-person encounters with her mostly female subjects, giving the book real voice. And Quart's analyses-of teen movies, SAT tutoring (to improve scores and pose college choices as brands), teen SUV ownership and the role of parents-are sharp and funny. Her exploration of how teens internalize and express market logic-through a process of "self-branding" that can include teen boob jobs and kid-produced anorexia Weblogs-is original and striking. The book lacks a broad cultural perspective: most interviewees are white, middle class and female, so it's difficult for Quart to generalize about how American teens and tweens as a whole use money and products to define themselves. Nevertheless, by the end, readers should be able to spot certain youth demographics and deconstruct their branded worlds instantaneously-and with empathy and anger.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
In Branded, Alissa Quart takes us to the dark side of marketing to teens, showing readers a disturbingly fast-paced world in which adults shamelessly insinuate themselves into "friendships" with young people in order to monitor what they wear, eat, listen to, and buy. We travel to a conference on advertising to teenagers and witness the breathless and insensitive pronouncements of lecturers there. We meet the unofficial teen "sales force" for a new girls' perfume (the unpaid daughters of the company's saleswomen) and observe the attempts of mega-corporations to purchase the time and space for product-placement in schools. We witness the aggressive and potentially emotionally damaging ways in which adults seek to control vulnerable young minds and wallets. But we also witness the bravery of isolated and increasingly Internet-linked kids who attempt to turn the tables on the cocksure corporations that so cynically strive to manipulate them.Eye-opening and urgent, Branded exposes and condemns a segment of American business whose high-paid job it is to reduce teens to their lowest common denominator, to systematically sap youth of individuality and creativity. Engaging and thought provoking, Branded ensures that consumers will never look at the American way of doing business in the same way again.In Branded, author Alissa Quart spotlights the most nefarious of youth marketing techniques, revealing eye-opening facts about the commercialization of today's teens, including:--31 million teens now spend upwards of $153 billion on leisure expenses- clothing, CDs, and makeup-a year. 55% of American high-school seniors work more than three hours a day to earn the money to fulfill their need for stuff.--A growing number of high schools are sponsored by corporations. Textbooks regularly mention Oreo cookies and math problems contain Nike logos. Teenagers not only play ball in gyms rimmed with logos but also spend their English classes coming up with advertising slogans for sponsors, all under the auspices of their so-called public schools.--In the last two years, cosmetic surgery rates for teens have gone from 1% to 3% of the total 4.6 million surgeries performed each year. Teen liposcution has doubled; breast augmentation has increased by almost a third in the last five years.
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First Sentence
Coming of age in the 1980s, I was aware of status signs and corporate logos and the distinction between them. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Coming of age in the 1980s, I was aware of status signs and corporate logos and the distinction between them. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
only half the issue is examined,
By
This review is from: Branded: The Buying And Selling Of Teenagers (Hardcover)
While this book has a lot of sound principles about how youth are bombarded with messages to buy buy buy particular status-laden brands, I felt a lot of the data was manipulated to support the author's theory. For instance, she cites Katherine Newsome's book No Shame in My Game, about how teens take low-paying jobs in fast-food industries to pay for these status symbols. However, the rest of that book (which I highly recommend, by the way) goes on to say that a lot of people chose to work at those jobs rather than go on welfare --- even though they would have gotten more money from welfare - because it gave them self-esteem to work for their money, a positive social network among their coworkers, job experience, and, for some, a chance to break away from their gangs. She tells how schools have contracts with Pepsi and Coca Cola, so that their drinks are sold in vending machines and ads are put up in the hallways. This is not done primarily to brainwash kids about the product, but to raise money for the school for basic supplies and repairs. Believe it or not, a lot of schools don't have everything they need to adequately teach a growing number of students. I once spoke with a board member for a school in DC whose windows were sealed with duct tape (as well as problems with the boiler) and the city did not reply to their complaints till they had a news crew come film it. Maybe Branded could have done itself one better by examining more how the obsession with objects stems from loneliness and disconnectedness (hence the need to brand oneself and create an identity through labels). She speaks of teenaged girls and guys wanting plastic surgery and being accompanied to the plastic surgeon's office with parents. But what is the real dynamic behind all that? Why have the girls been asking for implants since age 13? We know they have seen Britney and crew forever, but why haven't parents, other relatives, counselors, teachers, etc - people they actually know --- helped them see beyond all that and have a stronger sense of self? THAT was the book I thought I was going to read. I feel this book did only half the job of looking at why things are worse than ever in terms of materialism. Brands have been and always will be out there - it's the degree of importance that we attach to them that is the real issue. Is it appropriate or is it taking over our lives? You can only answer that for yourself, I guess.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good examination of consumer culture,
By A Customer
This review is from: Branded: The Buying And Selling Of Teenagers (Hardcover)
Quart does an excellent job of disecting the corporate world's exploitation of children and teenagers. This book could have been just another indictment against advertising, but Quart examines multiple aspects of brand-mania. I especially liked how she includes a chapter on "brand-name" colleges and universities (this is not just about sneakers and jeans, folks). I do have a few criticisms. As some other reviewers pointed out, she mostly interviews upper class teens. Young folks who can't afford to buy Gucci and Prada won't see themselves in this book. Quart also engages in some handwringing over the poor innocent children (see the chapter on teen authors), which I think was a little insulting. Overall though, I recommend this book.
5.0 out of 5 stars
In the words Mickey-D s- "I'm Lovin It!",
By Ryan Britt (Tempe, AZ) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Branded: The Buying And Selling Of Teenagers (Hardcover)
What I'm lovin'is books like this. The message that consumerism is attacking the younglings of this country and turning them into faux-yuppies who end up broke or depressed couldn't be more true. Ms. Quart gives a much needed "shout-out" to all the nerds out there who's skin is tough enough to resist the marketing machines that permeate the all important kingdom of youth. This woman is one smart cookie and is able to give us delightful jaunt into part of our culture that many of us try to avoid. Some people will drive past a dead cat lying in the road and think, "Hey, it wasn't me that hit that dead cat..."Alissa Quart tells us,"Hey THERE IS A DEAD CAT IN THE ROAD! SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING!" Great book.
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