and sucked it into a living Hell (for parents today). ------------

http://www.wordspy.com/words/nagfactor.asp

'Marketing and advertising to children has become a specialty unto itself,' agrees David Walsh, a psychologist and president of the National Institute on Media and the Family, a nonprofit group based in Minneapolis.

Trade conventions are held across the country to develop strategies to entice children to certain products and then get them to cajole their parents into buying the products. Those in the industry call it the 'nag factor' or 'pester power.'

Children between the ages of 12 and 17 typically will ask nine times for an advertised product in the hope their parents will give in, according to a recent survey conducted by The Center for a New American Dream, a consumer and environmental group based near Washington. More than half the parents surveyed said they do, ultimately, buy the product.

-Jenny Deam, "Targeting kid consumers," The Denver Post, July 23, 2002

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http://www.consumingkids.com/

In Consuming Kids, psychologist Susan Linn takes a comprehensive and unsparing look at the demographic advertisers call "the kid market," taking readers on a compelling and disconcerting journey through modern childhood as envisioned by commercial interests. Children are now the focus of a marketing maelstrom, targets for everything from minivans to M&M counting books. All aspects of children's lives-their health, education, creativity, and values-are at risk of being compromised by their status in the marketplace.

Interweaving real-life stories of marketing to children, child development theory, the latest research, and what marketing experts themselves say about their work, Consuming Kids reveals the magnitude of this problem and shows what can be done about it.

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Check this site out - read it and weep:

http://www.alloymarketing.com/media/tweens/marketingresearch.htm

"Customized and proprietary knowledge solutions to support your tween marketing needs"

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Don't like the way the world operates today? Take it back from those who advertise to children and undermine your parenting skills. Vote for a commercial FREE greed FREE childhood! Only those over 55 years of age might even understand what this message really means as they are some of the last free minds in existence on this subject (unless you don't have access to TV-land, which means you also probably don't even have internet, so you're safe, phew).

A great idea would be to pre-tape shows that your kids like to watch and edit out ALL the commercials - otherwise no TV at all, period. :) (Oh, and talk to your gov't about a legislated commercial free childhood for your children - because documentaries are awesome, but the commercials suck!)