While I always knew that the teenage demographic was a big market, I did not know how big it was until I did some research on my own. During my investigation, I found a site called Youth Exchange, a site designed to educate parents and teachers about the dangers of youth consumption and ways to promote healthy spending lifestyles. The site offers a plethora of statistics and figures that show how much money big corporations spend on youth markets – many of the figures were shocking. According to Youth Exchange, “ In 2004, 12- to 19-year-olds spent roughly $175 billion, or $53 billion more than in 1997, according to Teen Research Unlimited. This figure does not include annual spending by parents or siblings, which can reach an additional $150 to $200 billion.” This means that in seven years, teens have increased their spending by approximately 40 percent.
The site also said that big corporations are focusing on younger audiences called tweens, which are children between the ages of 8 and 12. Even though this is not the youth group that we focus on in class, it is important to note because these children will surely grow up to be a more consumer hungry generation than the one that preceded it.
After examining this site, I took a moment to reflect about my own teen years. While I did not recognize it then, after looking back on those years, I realized that advertisers invest a lot of energy in attracting the teenage market; the ads were not only numerous but they also implied that I could not be cool without them. For a teen, the difference between being cool and uncool can roughly be translated as the difference between being alive or dead.