Ads aimed at kids are virtually everywhere — in classrooms and textbooks, on the Internet, even at slumber parties and the playground. Product placement and other innovations have introduced more subtle advertising to movies and television. Companies are enlisting children as guerrilla marketers, targeting their friends and families. Even trusted social institutions such as the Girl Scouts are teaming up with marketers. Drawing on her own survey research and unprecedented access to the advertising industry, New York Times bestselling author and leading cultural and economic authority Juliet Schor examines how a marketing effort of vast size, scope, and effectiveness has created "commercialized children."

Introduction -- The changing world of children's consumption -- From Tony the tiger to Slime time live: the content of commercial messages -- The virus unleashed: ads infiltrate everyday life -- Captive audiences: the commercialization of public schools -- Dissecting the child consumer: the new intrusive research -- Habit formation: selling kids on junk food, drugs, and violence -- How consumer culture undermines children's well-being -- Empowered or seduced?: the debate about advertising and marketing to kids -- Decommercializing childhood: beyond Big Bird, Bratz dolls, and the Back Street Boys -- Appendix: Commercial alert's parents' bill of rights.