Join The Club: Food Advertising, 1930 Children's Popular Culture
550 Words3 Pages
In the article, Join the Club: Food Advertising, 1930 Children’s Popular Culture, and Brand Socialization, Kyle Asquith from the University of Windsor highlights how food advertisers commercialize children’s 1930s popular culture to promote brand loyalty, through a series of case studies (Asquith, 2014, p. 17). Through the use of clubs, and special offers children became a great influence in product sales that were promoted by radio shows and comic strips. In the 1930s, children radio became extremely popular, and programs reached out to young listeners by using certain methods to ensure that children tuned in daily. They used strategic clubs and premiums to capture children’s attention, giving them a chance to feel like they belonged to something important and exciting (Asquith, p. 24). Food advertisers such as breakfast cereal makers were one of the first to use children as a marketing strategy in sales, and since children ate cereal regularly, it was easy to capture their attention. One example that Asquith provides is the Bobby Benson show, which was sponsored by Hecker H-O Oats hot cereal. Bobby Benson was a fictional child character who ate the H-O Oats to become strong. Therefore, children began to believe that if they ate the…show more content… Asquith uses the comic example of the Inspector Post comic strips which incorporated branded products into an adventure story which related to children (Asquith, p. 25). In relation to the Bobby Benson radio show this comic strip also had an exclusive club that children could join called the “Inspector Post Junior Detective Corps”. Comic strips provided a visual representation of these brands which could be easily interpreted and recognized by children. Therefore, children were more likely to become brand loyal to these products if the comics were relative to their popular culture, and everyday