February 17th, 2002
Holding the Reins in Marketing to Youth
By David Koeppel
New York Times
Twin 17-year-old sisters in Mattituck are barraged with credit card offers
from Visa and American Express. Gillette sends promotional offers to Syosset
high school boys promising them razors and shaving paraphernalia. In the Carle
Place High School cafeteria, students are regularly exposed to advertisements
from companies like McDonald’s and Nintendo.
Consumer advocates say that the nation’s children are being flooded with product
offers and that what they call the "commercialization of childhood"
has become a troubling and persistent issue.
"There’s one central message being sent to children, that the highest
purpose in life is self-indulgence, instant gratification and materialism,"
said Enola Aird, a representative of the Institute for American Values, a Manhattan-based
group focusing on child-rearing issues.
American teenagers spent an estimated $170 billion in 2001, compared to $155
billion in 2000, according to Teenage Research Unlimited, a company that tracks
teenagers’ spending habits. Commercial messages aimed at children fall on especially
fertile ground on Long Island, ranked by the Census Bureau as the No. 2 area
in the country in median household income and a place where children have above-average
amounts of money to spend.
But it’s just a coincidence that two prominent collectors of student data for
the direct-mail market are based on the Island.
The 30-year-old American Student List in Mineola has a database that includes
the names, addressees, telephone numbers, racial and ethnic background and religious
affiliation of about 9 million high school students and 12 million pre-K through
eighth graders. It is reportedly the largest collector of student marketing
data.
A challenger in this highly specialized market is Student Marketing Group of
Lynbrook, managed by a former American Student List vice president who started
his own business in 1997. On its Web site, Student Marketing promises "a
wide range of list services to businesses targeting children, students and young
adults."
The companies suggest that customers use their lists to sell everything from
clothing and computers to automobiles and credit cards. American Student List
charges customers a base price of $130 per 1,000 names for one-time use, while
Student Marketing charges $70 for the same number. At these rates, customers
are given only names and addresses. Family income, telephone numbers and unlimited
list usage are available for a higher price.
The lists are compiled from a variety of sources—magazine subscriptions,
book and music clubs, school ring sellers and Web sites, to name a few—and
often without the knowledge or permission of parents.
Both companies are loath to discuss their operations. Jan Stumacher, president
of Student Marketing, declined to be interviewed, and Kevin Bonberud, a spokesman
for American Student List, said that collection methods and the contents of
its databases are proprietary information that if revealed could hurt the company
competitively.
Consumer advocates say these methods of targeting children constitute unethical
and deceptive behavior.
"They hide behind that term of proprietary information," said Alex
Molnar, an education professor at Arizona State University. "But they’re
dealing with private information. The public has the right to know how that
information is being used. We have to decide if children are supposed to be
a protected class or a crop to be invested in for mercantile self-interest."
In an age when youth-oriented commercial television advertising supports everything
from cartoons to MTV, Mr. Bonberud defended the industry from accusations that
direct marketing to children is unethical.
"It’s not a nefarious business," he said. "There’s a view that
these are people in trench coats, waiting outside schools. This is mail that’s
being sent to the home that is appropriate and of value to parents and children.
A worst-case scenario is that they get something they’re not interested in that
they can ignore or throw away."
Mr. Bonberud said anyone receiving unwanted offers could "opt off"
by contacting American Student List or the company sending the mail.
Still, companies seem reluctant to discuss their direct marketing efforts.
A spokesman for Gillette acknowledged that it buys names from American Student
List, but declined to discuss the specifics of the relationship. Other large
companies like Primedia Publishing and Stanley Kaplan Testing Centers, best
known for its SAT preparatory courses, wouldn’t confirm or deny published reports
that they were also American Student List clients.
Student Marketing Group has testimonials from corporate executives on its Web
site,
but none would discuss their business with the company except John Klein, an
executive for the Pontis Group, a direct marketing company in Akron, Ohio. He
said that he has worked with American Student List and Student Marketing for
many years on a Chrysler automobile campaign aimed at college students, and
that the Long Island companies are the primary sources for companies seeking
lists to target the youth market.
Direct mailings may not always be welcome in students’ homes, but sometimes
companies are welcomed into their schools. For four years, Carle Place High
School has had a four-by-eight-foot electronic bulletin board that features
a school calendar, daily messages and a prominently displayed advertisement.
The principal, Neil Connolly, said that February’s advertiser is Nintendo and
that past sponsors included McDonald’s and Life Savers. Mr. Connolly said the
board’s usefulness outweighs any conflict about advertising on school property.
Mr. Connolly’s school, and 2,500 others around the country, receive the electronic
bulletin board free of charge from 360 Youth, a New Jersey company whose clients
are looking for access to the youth market.
360 Youth also promotes its clients’ products at participating schools by distributing
free samples and textbook covers bearing product advertisements. Besides Carle
Place, the company has partnered with Centereach, Kings Park and Hauppauge high
schools.
The National School Board Association has long lobbied against laws seeking
to limit such partnerships. The association’s director of federal programs,
Dan Fuller, listed corporate donations of computers and athletic equipment and
internship offers to students as positive aspects of the connection between
businesses and schools. Administrators at Freeport High School boasted about
their student internships at Northrop-Grumman.
"Any arrangements with commercial entities should be decided on a local
level in conjunction with the community," Mr. Fuller said.
In December, Congress passed a federal education bill that requires parental
notification for collecting information from students for commercial purposes.
Supporters of the measure called it a good first step but said it still left
open too many ways for marketers to reach children.
And the new law wouldn’t have prevented the scores of credit card offers that
were sent to 17-year-old twins Meghan and Sarah Pillai of Mattituck last summer.
Their mother, Cathleen Pillai, complained that after enrolling in a sailing
program at the Mattituck Yacht Club her daughter began receiving two offers
a day for major credit cards. She said the other teen-agers enrolled in the
same program also received similar offers.
"The sailing company had sold our children’s names," Ms. Pillai said.
"I felt like they betrayed all these kids."
Jason Isaacs, a 13-year-old eighth grader from Greenlawn, has also been sent
credit card offers in the mail and online. But he doesn’t object to all product
marketing.
"Credit card companies shouldn’t be marketing to a 13-year-old kid,"
he said. "But I wouldn’t mind something from Chuck E. Cheese or Adventureland.
That wouldn’t be a problem."