Branded: The Buying And Selling Of Teenagers

Generation Y has grown up in an age of the brand, bombarded by name products. In Branded, Alissa Quart illuminates the unsettling new reality of marketing to teenagers, as well as the quieter but no less worrisome forms of teen branding: the teen consultants who work for corporations in exchange for product; the girls obsessed with cosmetic surgery who will do anything to look like women on TV; and those teens simply obsessed with admission into a name-brand college. We also meet the pockets of kids attempting to turn the tables on the cocksure corporations that so cynically strive to manipulate them. Chilling, thought-provoking, even darkly amusing, Branded brings one of the most disturbing and least talked about results of contemporary business and culture to the fore-and ensures that we will never look at today's youth the same way again.

Ms. Quart shows that the marketing tactics used are often invasive and unscrupulous, amounting to a sort of "corporate pedophilia" whose aim is to grow the corporate bottom line at the expense of childhood itself. Indeed, the author explains that whole classes of products (such as sexually-provocative undergarments designed for pre-teen girls) are unapologetically marketed to ever-younger children, thereby accelerating the pace at which children develop, perceive and interact with their surroundings. Ms. Quart blasts the justifications used by marketers to defend such indefensible actions and alerts us to the moral vacuousness that lies at the heart of the corporate agenda.

Ms. Quart argues that our children bear unmistakable psychological, physical and financial scars from this assault. Media-induced anxiety leads boys to steroid abuse and girls to anorexia; social acceptance is garnered by the flaunting of expensive designer clothes and accessories; class status is predicated by admission to brand-name colleges; and so on. The end result is a hyper-competitive, anxious and debt-ridden generation of youths who collectively are getting locked into the cycle of labor and consumption at a significantly earlier age than their predecessors.

It may be true that Ms. Quart's work depends heavilly on observations drawn from the ranks of upper middle-class society, but she has impressively succeeded in describing a phenomenon that has largely eluded others. The reader is impressed by the author's ability to synthesize scholarly research, pop culture, business information, anecdotes and first-person interviews to make her case. In short, this is original and cutting-edge research that should give inquisitive readers much to ponder.

I recommend this book to parents of teenagers (like myself) who want to understand more about the brave new world their children are inhabiting as well as to teenagers who want to critically deconstruct and reclaim their branded selves.


Seduction of the Innocent   March 16, 2003
20 out of 22 found this review helpful

In accessible, often witty prose, Quart shows the corrupting effect that the conscienceless pursuit of profit by corporate marketers has on everything from young girls' body images or young boys'understandings of what it means to be masculine, to the complaisant administrations of public schools. "Seduction of the innocent" is not too strong a term to apply to the corporate behavior that Quart describes; though happily she also focuses on the ways in which many young people have begun to resist being "branded." As an account of the impact of corporatism on daily lives, this book belongs on the shelf next to Naomi Klein's No Logo. It will only not appeal to those who make a living exploiting young people; most others will find it a revelation.


Brand This!   July 7, 2005
HLR (Plum Village)
4 out of 6 found this review helpful

Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers by Alissa Quart is a quick and fascinating read on the current and constructed intersections between young people, the media and popular culture, corporate agencies, and consumer culture.

What struck me most about Quart's analysis is how RELEVANT it is. Unlike many books published today, the research, reference, and anecdotal material in Branded (published in 2003) is very recent and does not rely too much, or at all really, on the 1990s.

Two shortcomings of the book were the chapter on Self-Branding (I felt Quart could have done more with body piercing, for example) and the last few pages (her final analysis could have been stronger). Despite these weak spots, Quart clearly did her research.

Branded is an interesting and even fun read suitable for parents, teenagers, and educators alike. As a teacher myself, I will definitely refer to it in the future.




Elaborate Analysis of Youth Branding   June 22, 2010
BARTOLOMEO RAFAEL BIALAS (LAS VEGAS, NV, USA)
Branding is all about inculcating meaning into the collective mind. Consumption in industrialized nations has led to dynamic branding activities. Advertisers are using sophisticated psychological techniques to create social tribes around their brands. Penetrating influence of the branding machine is enormous and quite effective (if it wasn't, there would be no Madison Avenue). The concept of selling to kids isn't new; the sooner you recognize THEIR needs, aspirations, peer pressure, etc., the sooner THEY will identify your brand as THEIR own. Brands reach deeper into the youth's psyche in order to become almost an intrinsic part of the very fabric of kids' lives. Alissa Quart's book demonstrates accurately the process of creating loyal customers by advertisers. According to a survey of Americans aged 18 to 24, two-thirds cannot find Louisiana on a U.S. map. At the same time our children can perfectly recognize the golden arches.
"Branded: The Buying And Selling Of Teenagers" is a well-structured, informative book. Quart's vernacular is plain, clear, and unpretentious. As a professional brand consultant I recognize this book as a significant contribution to the ongoing development of branding discipline.


In the words Mickey-D s- "I'm Lovin It!"   February 23, 2004
Ryan Britt (Tempe, AZ)
5 out of 8 found this review helpful

What I'm lovin'is books like this. The message that consumerism is attacking the younglings of this country and turning them into faux-yuppies who end up broke or depressed couldn't be more true. Ms. Quart gives a much needed "shout-out" to all the nerds out there who's skin is tough enough to resist the marketing machines that permeate the all important kingdom of youth. This woman is one smart cookie and is able to give us delightful jaunt into part of our culture that many of us try to avoid. Some people will drive past a dead cat lying in the road and think, "Hey, it wasn't me that hit that dead cat..."
Alissa Quart tells us,"Hey THERE IS A DEAD CAT IN THE ROAD! SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING!"
Great book.