Breaking Down the Relationship between Brands and Teens

You may think of your teen as a moody know-it-all who loves to talk back, and not as a marketing informant to some of the biggest brands in the world – but maybe you should start.

Brands are increasingly targeting teens in an effort to grow brand loyalty. If a company can convince a teenager to faithfully and regularly shop its brand, it can stay top-of-mind as the teen transitions from adolescence to adulthood, from spending their parents’ money to their own.

Social media companies are already making billions on ads targeting teens. A recent study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that in 2022 Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, X and YouTube could attribute more than $11 billion in revenue from ads directed at people under 18 years old.

I was a teenager not too long ago. I am now a recent college grad with a degree in advertising, and an incoming graduate student studying advertising and its effects. The conversation about targeting ads to teens bothers me. Teens aren’t fully developed adult consumers so marketing to them feels ethically nebulous.

The modern and complex marketing landscape poses challenges for all consumers, as issues surrounding data privacy, ad pollution and mass consumerism abound. But teenagers are inheriting a culture that normalizes commodifying their attention and, unfortunately, exploiting their weaknesses.

The dark side of teen marketing

Deceptive marketing tricks even some of the savviest adults, and teens have been found to be much more susceptible to these schemes. It’s important to remember the ultimate goal of a brand that is going the extra mile to understand teenagers is to sell. Whether teens always realize that or not is up for debate.

A common misconception is that parents serve as an effective filter for the ads that target minors. However, more and more teenagers are introduced to products through social media, so unless parents are looking over their teen’s shoulder all day, they may not be much help.

Teens may not be able to recognize all forms of marketing on social media, especially when the ads are virtually indistinguishable from other content.

A 2022 study about advertising and young people’s critical reasoning abilities noted that adolescents “are particularly vulnerable to digital advertising because of their engagement with digital technology and media, which plays an important role in their social identity development.”

Meta prohibits brands from targeting teens by gender or by ZIP code, among other restrictions, but does not discourage the general practice of advertising to teenagers. And according to a report, Meta and Google recently teamed up to secretly serve Instagram ads to teens on YouTube, despite Google’s own rules against advertising to children.

Teens are also infamous for their proclivities for riskier behavior, impulsivity and for their difficulty to withstand peer pressure. So it’s not surprising that teens are influenced by how popular an ad appears on social media. In other words, they follow the “likes.” This behavior is partly due to the fact that critical reasoning and decision-making abilities are not fully developed until the mid-to-late 20s.

Not only are teens trying to keep up with trends, they’re trying to keep up with each other. As they are exposed to more products through social media, either through sponsored ads or brand influencers, the pressure to belong can be a strong motivator to purchase. Teens are more prone to impulse buying, and may be more inclined to make a sudden purchase to fit in.

Some companies may seem innocuous when promoting their products to teens, like skincare products. Sometimes it’s not even material goods – the FTC recently filed a complaint against an anonymous messaging app that it claims was deceptively marketed as a “safe place” for young people. But some companies will exploit teens in more serious ways.

• E-cigarette companies: In the last decade, e-cigarette companies have faced scrutiny for targeting teens with celebrity endorsements, kid-friendly flavors and even college scholarships. The CDC reports that 10 percent of high school students and 4.6 percent of middle school students used e-cigarettes in 2023 and cites youth-targeted tobacco advertising as a factor of teen tobacco use. Recent research found that 75 percent of teens that participated in a study were exposed to vaping or e-cigarette advertising. Black and Asian teens were twice as likely than other teens to see these ads.
• Alcohol companies: Alcohol companies will often use celebrity partnerships to promote their products. Take, for example, DJ Khaled, who failed to disclose his material connections to alcohol companies on multiple occasions, while promoting the products on his social media channels. In one Snapchat post, Khaled poured Belaire sparkling wine and Ciroc vodka into a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, a children’s cereal, before diving in. A 2018 study estimated that young people between 11 and 14 years old are exposed to an average of three alcohol ads per day. Another study found that each dollar spent on youth advertising by the alcohol industry corresponds to a 3 percent increase in how much young people drink.
• Credit card companies: While credit card companies are restricted as to how they can market to new college students (for example, no free stuff), these major companies have found other ways to entice students to open credit cards they may not be able to pay off. In 2023, more than 42 percent of college students had credit card debt. Combine this with the teenage proclivity for impulse buying, and a desire to get students hooked on buying on credit, companies understand the holes in purchasing decisions by teens, and know how to exploit them.

Studies on advertising are constantly finding more adverse effects of ads on teenagers, ranging from body image issues in both boys and girls, to political indoctrination and misinformation, to mental health concerns.

What teens can do

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) only protects children under 13 years old (and only pertains to privacy issues), leaving teenagers at the mercy of the algorithms of humongous social media platforms.

Teens and parents should educate themselves. Media literacy is key and helps people of all ages to critically evaluate the media they consume, including ads.

These efforts can help develop the younger generation into better, smarter consumers. After all, in only a few years, today’s teen consumers will be adult consumers, hopefully with a healthier relationship with the ads they see.