Abstract
A few years ago I was asked by the editor of a marketing journal to read and comment on a stack of articles by leading authorities in children’s consumer research. I was struck by how these papers focused on one basic issue: how children are socialized to become competent agents, capable of rationally evaluating advertising claims and purposes. Of course, many factors were explored, including the gender, racial, and social differences among child consumers. The authors suggested that knowledge about the child’s capacities could address simultaneously the interests of child protection advocates and of merchandisers (e.g. Goldberg, 1982; John 1999; Goldberg & Baumgartner, 2001).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
American Heart Association, ‘Tobacco, Federal Regulation of’, http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=11223, accessed 19 December 2008.
Ariès, P. (1962) Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life. New York: Vintage.
Campbell, C. (1987) The Romantic Ethic and the Spirit of Modern Consumerism. Oxford: Blackwell.
Carlson, L., L. Russell and A. Walsh (2001) ‘Socializing children about television: an intergenerational study’, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 29, 276–88.
Cook, D. (2000) ‘The other child study: figuring children as consumers in market research’, 1910s–1990s, Sociological Quarterly, 14(3), 487–507.
Cross, G. (1997) Kids’ Stuff: Toys and the Changing World of American Childhood. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Cross, G. (2000) All-Consuming Century: Why Commercialism Won in Modern America. New York: Columbia University Press.
Cross, G. (2004) The Cute and the Cool: Wondrous Innocence and Modern American Children’s Culture. New York: Oxford.
Cross, G. (2008) Men to Boys: The Making of Modern Immaturity. New York: Columbia University Press, Entertainment Software Association, http://www.theesa.com/archives/files/Essential%20Facts%202006.pdf (accessed 2 August 2006).
Federal Drug Administration (1995) ‘Regulations restricting the sale and distribution of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products to protect children and adolescents’, Federal Register (11 August 11), 41314–41351.
Federal Trade Commission (1978) FTC Staff report on television advertising to children, Washington: US Government Printing Office.
Findlay, J. (1986) People of Chance: Gambling in American Society from Jamestown to Las Vegas. New York: Oxford.
Formanek-Brunell, M. (1993) Made to Play House: Dolls and the Commercialization of American Girlhood, 1830–1930. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Goldberg, M. (1982) ‘TV Advertising Directed at Children: Inherently Unfair or Simply in Need of Regulation?’, in Shapiro, S. and L. Heslop (eds) Marketplace Canada: Some Controversial Dimensions, pp. 1–31. Toronto: McGraw-Hill.
Goldberg, M. and H. Baumgartner (2001) ‘Cross-country attraction as a motivation for product consumption’, Journal of Business Research 55(1): 1–6
Higonnet, A. (1998) Pictures of Innocence: The History and Crisis of Ideal Childhood. London, Thames and Hudson.
Harris, D. (2000) Cute, Quaint, Hungry and Romantic. New York: Basic.
Jenkins, H. (1998) Children’s Culture Reader. New York: New York University Press.
John, D. R. (1999) ‘Consumer socialization of children: a retrospective look at twenty-five years of research’, Journal of Consumer Research, 26 (December): 83–213.
Kimmel, M. (2008) Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys become Men. New York, Harper.
Nelson, J. P. (2006) ‘Cigarette advertising regulation: a meta-analysis’, International Review of Law and Economics, 26 (2, June): 195–226.
Perschuk, M. (1982) Revolt against Regulation. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Postman, N. (1982) The Disappearance of Childhood. New York: Dell.
Preston, S. and M. Haines (1991) Fatal Years: Child Mortality in Late Nineteenth-Century America. Princeton: Princeton University Press
Schor, J. (2004) Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture. New York: Scribner.
West, N. (2000) Kodak and the Lens of Nostalgia. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.
Wullschlaeger, J. (1995) Inventing Wonderland. London: Methuen.
Zelizer, V. (1985) Pricing the Priceless Child, New York: Basic.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2010 Gary Cross
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cross, G. (2010). Valves of Adult Desire: The Regulation and Incitement of Children’s Consumption. In: Buckingham, D., Tingstad, V. (eds) Childhood and Consumer Culture. Studies in Childhood and Youth. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230281844_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230281844_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-30978-8
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-28184-4
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)