Marketing the Youth
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Sixteen year-old Tom just got paid for mowing lawns all week long. He cashed his check came home, sat down, and turned on the television. The first thing that came on was a Sprite commercial. The advertisement has Kobe Bryant preaching, "Marketing is nothing, taste is everything. Don't believe the hype, obey your thirst" (Sprite). He thinks it's "cool" that Sprite isn't trying to force the product on him but is encouraging him to try it out and if he doesn't like it drink whatever tastes good to him. A few days pass and Tom is at the grocery store with his mom, he goes to the drink isle and goes right to the Sprite. If Kobe likes it, then I have to like it. Even Sprite's top competitor, Pepsi, looks at teenagers in the same way. Dave Burwick, Vice President of Marketing for Pepsi-Cola described the group that Pepsi-Cola targets, "If there are 12 million people out there with our stuff, let's have them be 12 million 18-year-olds" (Qtd...