Why They Whine

Why They Whine: How Corporations Prey on our Children
By Gary Ruskin
Web Exlusive

Cheryl Idell knows a lot about nagging.

She has written reports for major corporations with such titles as the "Nag Factor" and "The Art of Fine Whining." She tells her clients that nagging spurs about a third of a family's trips to a fast-food restaurant, to buy children's clothing or a video.

Idell, who is chief strategic officer for Western Initiative Media Worldwide, a major market research firm, speaks with the cold precision of a physicist. "Nagging falls into two categories," she explains. "There is persistent nagging, the fall-on-the-floor kind, and there is importance nagging, where a kid can talk about it."1

Either is a good first step. But alone they are not enough. Idell advises Chuck E. Cheese and numerous other corporations, that getting kids to whine is even better. Better yet is to give them "a specific reason to ask for the product." In other words, Idell's job is to make your life miserable. She even rates brands according to their "nag factor"-that is, their capacity to make your children badger you-and companies toil mightily to rate high on her list. Some of the most successful are McDonald's, Levi's, Discovery Zone, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Disney, and OshKosh.2 Like we couldn't have guessed.

Now meet George Broussard. He is co-founder of 3D Realms, a company that makes a video game called Duke Nukem. An ultraviolent "first-person shooter" game, Duke Nukem comes complete with strip bars, porno theaters, and tons of gore. Even with the "mature" rating, and all the violence and sexual imagery, Broussard wants to sell this game to your kids. "Duke is a mass market character that can sell 2 million games," Broussard says. "It'd be suicide to make the game unplayable by younger people."3

Idell and Broussard are typical of something endemic in America today. Thousands of the brightest minds in the country devote their great talent, and use sophisticated psychological techniques, to influence your children to purchase products-or rather, to want products-regardless of whether or not they are good for your kids. These minds do not work to solve the nation's real problems; they work to create new problems for you.

Name something that you do not want your kids to have, and the chances are people like Cheryl Idell and George Broussard are trying to entice your kids into wanting it. They're selling Doom, Quake, Basketball Diaries, Marilyn Manson, Mortal Kombat, The Matrix, Jerry Springer, Small Soldiers, gangsta rap, World Wrestling Federation toys, South Park , and so forth. The big question is: How can we teach our children and ourselves to resist this commercial onslaught?

What Are Children, Anyway?
There's been a shift in the predominant way our society thinks of children. Not long ago we considered children vulnerable beings to be nurtured. However, today we increasingly see kids through an economic lens. In our business culture, children are viewed as an economic resource to be exploited, just like bauxite or timber.

James U. McNeal, a professor of marketing at Texas A&M, is perhaps the foremost expert on selling to children. He is the elder statesman advocating this shift in our thinking from viewing children as trusting, impressionable humans to be protected to seeing children "as economic resources to be mined." His emotional response to this contrast isn't the same as yours. McNeal sees the money in your kids, and helps corporations get access to it: "[C]hildren are the brightest star in the consumer constellation," he writes.4

McNeal divides the booming kiddie market into three parts. There's the "primary" market-the $24.4 billion each year that kids directly control and spend. There's the "influence" market, perhaps as high as $300 billion, the amount of parental spending that children can directly or indirectly influence. And there's the "future" market, which is the purchasing that children will do for the rest of their lives.

"Virtually every consumer-goods industry, from airlines to zinnia-seed sellers, targets kids," McNeal enthuses.5 Johann Wachs, the vice president of Saatchi and Saatchi's Kid Connection unit, agrees: "Marketers are just waking up to the enormous possibility of kids-targeted products," he says. "As kids become more powerful as consumers, they are being targeted more directly."6

Children aren't hard to take advantage of. They tend to trust adults even when they shouldn't-sometimes especially when they shouldn't. Marketers know this, while most children don't grasp the motives behind advertising or realize that the products advertised may not be good for them.

However, none of this is troubling to the new breed of advertisers and marketers. If they have any qualms, they do a good job of repressing them. Like investors in prime real estate, they see children's minds as a kind of cash cow. "[I]f you own this child at an early age, you can own this child for years to come," explained Mike Searles, president of Kids-R-Us, a major children's clothing store.7 Companies are saying, 'Hey, I want to own the kid younger and younger.'"

Wayne Chilicki, a General Mills executive, agrees: "When it comes to targeting kid consumers, we at General Mills follow the Proctor & Gamble model of 'cradle to grave,'" he says. "We believe in getting them early and having them for life."8

Advertisers infuse their pitches with messages that prey upon the emotional weaknesses and insecurities of children. "Advertising at its best is making people feel that without their product, you're a loser," explained Nancy Shalek, president of the Shalek Agency. "Kids are very sensitive to that. If you tell them to buy something, they are resistant. But if you tell them that they'll be a dork if they don't, you've got their attention. You open up emotional vulnerabilities, and it's very easy to do with kids because they're the most emotionally vulnerable."9

Moreover, some marketers try to sell by tapping into destructive and antisocial urges. According to Rick Litman, a partner at Kid 2 Kid Market Research, the goal is "to use youth rebellion to more effectively target a product and sell a product."10