Eric Schlosser's "Kid Kustomers": Marketing tactics targeting children

Kid Kustomers -- Rhetorical Analysis

Kid Kustomers: Rhetorical Analysis Outline

Writing Strategy #1: Language

The essay 'Kid Kustomers' assumes a casual, almost-informal tone to reflect the nature of the essay itself, which is about popular and consumer cultures, and to also make the essay appropriate for its target audience -- the general public (specifically, parents and children)

The essay, from the kind of casual, informal language and usage of terms and names that are associated with pop and consumer culture, talks directly to the concerned parent and child, who are the primary target audience of the essay

Kid Kustomers communicates to the parent and child how marketing in pop culture America has targeted children as the primary target audience of their marketing, 'inciting' them through ads and programs to "whine" and demand for children's products and merchandise.

Writing Strategy #3: Claims

V. Schlosser's claims are linked heavily from his sources, who are the named analysts in his essay. Through these analysts and industry experts, the author establishes his credibility as the creator of the essay: while the tone is informal, arguments are based on evidence or historical narratives

a. Claim 1: Analysis of children as 'marketers' targeted by ads to influence their parents to buy them the advertised product or service. Children as marketers have specific styles as a response to these ads, called "leverage," "nudge factor" or "pester power"

b. Claim 2: Children's need to belong spurred the development of "clubs" that primarily aim to market products and merchandise to a larger and more targeted group of children

c. Claim 3: Regulation battle between the government and mass media organizations and entities in regulating the showing of ads and promos specifically targeting children