Marketing Youth Culture

Today, however, we have reached the point where “youth culture” no longer spontaneously defines itself in clubs and dance venues – but where it is being first constructed in the marketers’ research departments and boardrooms. Today’s youth culture originates in the commercial world; it is young people who must scramble to catch up.

Alcohol, for instance, is carefully branded to most appeal to young people after detailed market research involving both psychologists and focus groups. Teens are sometimes hired to listen in on the conversations of their fellows and to report back on all recreational-product trends, on dress fashions, on the motivational impact of advertising images. There are even campaigns to identify the most popular youngster of a group – who is then plied with free samples. Brand-image is being insidiously but deeply imprinted on youth consciousness – so that finally we find young individuals being physically attacked (and on occasion murdered) while a clothing-item or mobile phone is seized; and young people are harassed for wearing the wrong clothes.

Previous generations of young people defined themselves by which gang they hung around with, which clothes they wore, or which music they listened to; but today they declare which camp they belong to by saying something like, “I am a Sony, not a Panasonic”. Surely, teaching young people to judge themselves and others by the products they possess, is as damaging as teaching them to judge each other by the colour of their skin ?

In the past, youth culture may have been challenging, disturbing or even outrageous – but its energy, anger and freshness often forced society to question its assumptions. The hippie movement of the 60s, for instance, played a key role in the U.S. in the challenge to the Vietnam War: but where is the angry youthful opposition to Western forces’ involvement in Iraq ?

The corporate world has managed to achieve what generations of school teachers, parents and clergy could not: it has tamed youthful rebelliousness. Teen culture is now defined from the top down by marketing corporations. The youth of today often seem not to want to make changes in how the world is organised; instead, they want to buy into trend changes organised by world-corporations.

 Brian MacGabhann is the spokesperson for STAC, (Stop TV Advertising at Children), 
a group which campaigns for restrictions on child-targetted advertising.