Advertising Expenditures Spiral

In 2001 US advertising expenditures topped $230 billion, more than doubling the $105.97 billion spent in 1980. (1)

Given that the 2000 Census reports 105 million households in America, this means that advertisers spend, an average of $2,190 per year to reach one household. (2)

Ad Industry Spends Billions to Target Kids

• Marion Nestle, chair of the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies at New York University, estimates that $13 billion a year is spent marketing to American children - by food and drink industries alone. Food advertising makes up about half of all advertising aimed at kids. (3)
• Channel One's twelve-minute in-classroom broadcast, featuring 2 minutes of commercials for every 10 minutes of news, is compulsory on 90% of the school days in 80% of the classrooms in 40% of U.S. middle and high schools. Companies pay up to $195,000 for a 30-second ad, knowing that they have a captive audience of 8 million students in 12,000 classrooms across the country. (4)

Little Big Spenders – Children and Teen Spending Skyrockets

• Children's spending has roughly doubled every ten years for the past three decades, and has tripled in the 1990's. Kids 4-12 spent $2.2 billion in 1968, and $4.2 billion in 1984. By 1994 the figure climbed to $17.1 billion, and by 2002 their spending exceeded $40 billion. Kids' direct buying power is expected to exceed $51.8 billion by 2006. (5)
• Older kids, 12-19, spent a record $155 billion of their own money in 2001, (6) up from $63 billion just four years earlier. (7)

The "Nag" Factor Works – Kids Influence on Parents’ Purchases Continues to Grow

• In the 1960's, children influenced about $5 billion of their parents' purchases. By 1984 that figure increased ten-fold to $50 billion. (8) By 1997 it had tripled to $188 billion. Kids marketing expert James McNeal estimates that by 2000, children 12 and under influenced family purchases to the tune of $500 billion. (9)

Kids are Glued to the Tube and Bombarded by Commercials

• It's estimated the average child sees more than 20,000 commercials every year - that works out to at least 55 commercials per day. (10)
• Children spend a daily average of 4 hours and 40 minutes in front of a screen of some kind - two and a half hours of which are watching television. (11)
• 47% of children have a television set in their bedroom. (12)

Creating Brand-Conscious Babies

• At six months of age, the same age they are imitating simple sounds like "ma-ma," babies are forming mental images of corporate logos and mascots. (13)
• According to recent marketing industry studies, a person's "brand loyalty" may begin as early as age two. (14)
• At three years of age, before they can read, one out of five American children are already making specific requests for brand-name products. (15)
• Experts say a lifetime customer may be worth $100,000 to a retailer, making effective "cradle to grave" strategies extremely valuable. (16)

What Do Kids Really Want?

• According to a Kaiser Family Foundation study, children who use the most media tend to be the least contented. (17)
• In the Art/Essay Contest "What Do Kids Really Want That Money Can't Buy?" sponsored by the Center for a New American Dream, the most common answers were "love," "happiness," "peace on earth," and "friends." Significant numbers of children also wanted time with family, a clean environment, a world where people treat each other with respect, a chance to see lost loved ones, help for suffering people, health, and time to play.