The Corporate Assault on Youth: Commercialism, Exploitation, and the End of Innocence.
Edited by: Deron Boyles
Peter Lang Publishers, 2008
Chapter 6: “Packaging Youth and Selling Tomorrow: Deconstructing the Myths of Marketalkracy”
by: Carly Stasko & Trevor Norris
The Corporate Assault on Youth examines childhood as a social construction increasingly influenced by corporations and commercialism. Through case studies, critical analysis, and historical/philosophical research, the essays collected here expose the degree to which children are unwitting targets of marketing. With topics ranging from the presence of media branding in schools and school supplies to the subtler ways in which the public education system is influenced by corporate ideologies and purposes, this book draws much-needed attention to how educators, administrators, policymakers, parents, and children can become aware of, and counterbalance, the effects of the commercialism that is overwhelming students’ understanding of the world and their place within it.