Media brands in children's everyday lives

Abstract

Media brands are the result of the interplay between the marketing strategies of media companies directed at children, and children's practices related to these strategies and the respective media offers. After an outline of recent theoretical work on children as part of consumer culture, this paper sheds light on central aspects of marketing strategies that set out to establish media brands in the everyday lives of children. With regard to the other side of the interplay, children use media brands in order to gain orientation in the confusing world of products and services, to position themselves within their peer group, to distinguish themselves from other groups, and to acquire resources for coping with the challenges of their everyday lives. Against this background the article discusses media brands as an issue of societal concern.