Branded - Softcover

Corporations spend billions of dollars annually to woo teen and pre-teen consumers. Over the last 5-10 years, the research of these groups and their behaviour has become very focused on exactly how best to part them (or their parents) with their money. Alissa Quart takes the reader into the disturbing world of teen marketing, showing how they are taught to market to each other and where adults build careers out of insinuating their way into 'friendships' with teens in order to monitor what they wear, eat, listen to and talk about with each other. This compelling book looks into the way teens succumb to peer pressure and the constant commercial battering and the young people who fight back, who turn the tables on the cock-sure mega-corporations who so cynically strive to crack the codes of teen cool. These kids prove it isn't necessary to give in to branding, but it is a drop in the water when an entire generation is being raised to consume.

Alissa Quart grew up in the UK and used to write a column for the Independent. Although she now lives in the US, she still writes arts features and opinion pieces for them regularly.