Advertisers hijack the meaning of Back to School

It’s mid-July and most of the parents I know are thinking about what they can do to make the summer enjoyable and safe for their children. People are looking for activities around the house, in the back yard, the local park and if they are lucky, short trips to the lake or campsite.

Many parents are wondering if they will have a job or if the job they have will provide enough money to pay the bills. They worry about their children’s nutrition and whether or not they have enough time to prepare healthy meals. Most parents wonder every day whether or not they are doing all they can to ensure their child’s safety. This is what parents do and this is what parents spend their time thinking about.

Now consider what advertisers spend their time thinking about as it relates to parents and their children. Remember, it is mid-summer, which means that advertisers are implementing their Back-to-School campaigns, where billions of dollars will be spent to convince parents and their children to spend billions more to ensure that students will be in fashion for the coming year.

Back-to School campaigns have become some of the most sophisticated of all ad campaigns in recent years, utilizing some of the most creative minds. AOL Advertising is using an array for techniques to reach consumers, such as their Tech campaign, which brings together some of the best electronics brands to provide a back-to-school electronics buying guide; the Spinner program, which popular soundtracks for selling products to teens and pre-teens; and PopEater, which connects celebrity fashion with youth interest.

Then there are marketing groups like School Family Media, which provide consulting services to companies to better target parents, especially moms – “moms with school-age kids – at a time and place where they are most interested in and receptive to your brand message – at school or while involved in school-related interests or activities.”

There are also the big retailers like WalMart, which goes as far as to even provide a check list for parents on what to buy for their children’s back-to-school needs, from kindergarten on up. The retail giant is also a big supporter of Box Tops for Education, a campaign designed to get families to buy branded products as an incentive for raising money for schools.

However, the company that best exemplifies the back-to-school marketing hype is JC Penny. JC Penny all the current social media sites and techniques that are way ahead of the rest of the back-to-school marketing world. Their 2010 campaign is called “New Look. New Year. Who Knew,” and features a “school picture day” video campaign, where teens take over this decades long school function to promote the newest JC Penny Teen fashions.

In addition, the JC Penny back-to-school campaign features a partnership with Supergirl by Nastia, and another skater event the Dew Tour, which will feature as a major sponsor exclusive clothing brands through JC Penny. JC Penny will also be targeting youthful ethnic minorities in their back-to-school campaigns by sponsoring the largest Hispanic music awards, Premios Joventud and the Secret International Agents concert, which showcases the talents of the best of young Asian and Asian Americans.

JC Penny continues to be a leader in the mobile space, bringing its products directly to teens’ fingertips with a special Back-to-School WAP site (jcpteen.mobi). This mobile hub includes JCPenney’s Back-to-School TV spot and an opportunity to opt-in and receive weekly texts on the latest Back-to-School looks; view Back-to-School styles and even upload their own look, which can be voted on and shared with friends.

Of course, one of the most popular tools that JC Penny has used to tap into the teen and pre-teen market is their Facebook page, JCP Teen. At the site, one can view all the back-to-school media – still ads, video, games and the full product line. Members are invited to share ideas and vote for their favorite items, as the company uses this information to sharpen its marketing campaigns in the future.

So, while parents are busy trying to make ends meet and minimize the negative influences the world can sometimes have on children, Corporate America is hard at work in order to manipulate you and your children into associating back-to-school with fashion and product consumption.

We may all desire that our children get a good education, have the best learning environment and even develop good critical thinking skills, but if we do not come to terms with what back-to-school marketers are doing then we will fail our children. We must understand that the fundamental economic principle of capitalism is growth and that translates into a constant need to get us to buy more clothing and other items in order for our children to have a proper “educational experience.”

The Grand Rapids-based group, Stop Targeting Our Kids (STOK) understands the importance of this issue and has resources available to help parents and anyone in the community who think it is unconscionable to manipulate the children of our community. You can find them on Facebook and join in on their local efforts to defend children and to counter-act the effects of commercialism in our lives.