(157). It’s not likely that in America the average person could be
convinced that our children need protection from such onslaughts
of corporate greed. In Norway, by way of contrast, direct advertis-
ing to children on television has been illegal for years (“Norway
Ban on Advertising to Children”).
The development of children’s media in the United States is thus
inextricably linked with “technological breakthroughs and market
forces that are driving the formation of the larger digital delivery
system” (Montgomery 146). This system does not pause to consid-
er the pedagogical implications of its technological innovation and
corporate expansion, although there is a great deal of intellectual
and creative effort being spent on finding ever more effective ways
of inducing children to consume. Montgomery addresses this as
well:
The intense focus on research within the new media
industries has produced a wealth of information about
children’s preferences as consumers, much of it propri-
etary, which is guiding the development of digital con-
tent and services for children. It has also raised ques-
tions about the appropriateness of some of the strategies
being used to target children as consumers in this way.
(Montgomery 157)
Montgomery then cites the work of McNeal who speculates that
branding occurs during preschool for both child- and adult- orient-
ed products and is rooted in children’s developmental need to
belong (affiliation) and have order in their increasingly complex
lives (157). As a parent of a preschooler, I can attest to my daugh-
ter’s burgeoning needs for belonging and order but am horrified
that corporate culture—rather than parents, extended family,
school, and neighborhood—is plotting to meet these needs.
Three specific strategies cause Montgomery particular concern:
*banner ads, which send children to games. These are
considered “sticky” because they are places where chil-
dren will stay for a long time and will return to.
*one-to-one marketing sites, which ask for a child’s
address, name, friends’ names, e-mail in order to par-
ticipate in games.
*direct sales (such as the site “Icanbuy.com”), which
feature on-line selling to children. (157-8)
Games play a uniquely insidious role in marketing to children
because, on the face of it, they are not selling anything at all.
However, marketing specialists use banner ads to direct children to
games because they know the power of the game to capture the
child’s imagination. The idea is that children will come to identify
with the characters represented in the games, and will thus want to
buy anything related to the characters and the game. Under these
circumstances, children will give out any private information asked
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WORKS AND DAYS
of them in order to play. In discussing adult players of computer
games, Ruggill, McAllister, and Menchaca argue that “gamers
actively help create the narrative, thematic, and ideological struc-
tures that determine the artifactual experience even while they
reproduce or consent to other ideologies embedded within the arti-
fact itself” (8). My concern is that child gamers are so vulnerable
to the ideologies of consumption in the games that target them that
their ability to co-construct narrative, theme, and ideology are
severely constrained.
To be fair, The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)
was passed in 1998, the main goal of which is to protect the pri-
vacy of children using the Internet. Under this new rule, many
commercial Web sites are required to obtain parental consent
before collecting, using or disclosing personal information from
children under the age of thirteen (“Children’s Online”). COPPA is
having some effect on corporate marketing strategies. Beth Cox
describes in her recent article “A Sweet Victory for Kids’ Privacy”
how Mrs. Fields Cookies and Hershey Food Corp were both cited
by the Federal Trade Commission for illegally obtaining personal
information from children under COPPA. Both companies will pay
substantive fines ($100,000 and $ 85,000 respectively) and will be
forced to revise their practice of requiring children to give their per-
sonal information in order to receive membership in clubs that give
away coupons for chocolate and cookies. There is now some
industry speculation that COPPA has had an effect; a 2000 article
on Internetnews.com reports that: “research showed a strong 96
percent increase in online advertising by businesses targeting fam-
ilies between May 2000 and August 2000, while advertising by
companies targeting children declined 56 percent in the same peri-
od” (“AdRelevance”). The article cites COPPA as one major reason
for the decrease in child-targeted advertising. However, while
COPPA does serve to limit corporations’ ability to extract children’s
personal information, it does little to check the overwhelming
forces of cross-merchandizing of which computer games play a sig-
nificant part in luring children to the Internet where they can be
caught by various forms of on-line advertising.
It is important to emphasize the specific role computer games
play in mass-marketing campaigns. First, games function to invite
children into larger cross-merchandising schemes. Thus, not only
is the content of the games at issue, but so too is the fact that games
function to bring children to other sites that are specifically
designed to promote consumption. Second, games are “sticky,”
which means that children will stay on the computer for a long
time while playing them and that they are likely to bookmark these
places so that they can return to them easily. Advertisers prize
computer games as prime opportunities to reach an audience that
is pre-selected, likely to linger, and that has been primed for future
consumption.
The Marketing of Lilo & Stitch
Before singing, [American Idol] contestants revealed
their favorite film, along with a reason why. Trias,
Desser
47