KGOY reconsidered: kids just want to be kids

Abstract

Questions the validity of the KGOY dictum, ie that kids are getting older younger; this has been the driving force behind much dialogue about marketing to children over recent years. Explores the presumptions behind this trend: children are brand aware at earlier ages, they are more technologically aware and “graduate“ from dolls and action figures earlier, and puberty itself is earlier in girls; other issues like obesity, school violence, child abduction and terrorism demonstrate the involvement of children’s issues with the adult world. Reports a KGOY recalibration exercise by KidShop, however, which finds that children, while being aware of issues, are in fact quite satisfied with their status as children, rather than wanting to be older than they are.

Citation

Kurnit, P. (2004), "KGOY reconsidered: kids just want to be kids", Young Consumers, Vol. 5 No. 2, pp. 29-33. https://doi.org/10.1108/17473610410814139