Editorial

Citation

Brian Young, D. (2009), "Editorial", Young Consumers, Vol. 10 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/yc.2009.32110aaa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Young Consumers, Volume 10, Issue 1

Welcome to our first edition of 2009. Young Consumers is now in its tenth year. I have on my shelves issues going right back to issue 1, volume 1 when it ran under a different title and a different publisher. In those days it was primarily a practitioner based journal and there were articles on advertising food to children, McVitie’s Penguin, and other case studies. Several incarnations later through different titles, liveries, and publishers we have arrived at volume 10. What has changed? What’s the same? We still have “issues” with the relationship between children and youth and the commercial world. Food advertising is always on the radar especially with recent concerns about the “obesity epidemic” and that will not go away. How much regulation should there be and whether advertisers and marketers to children are behaving responsibly or not will always be with us. But we have changed. The scope of the journal is much wider and we are looking at children’s consumption practices in several different contexts. We are not just restricted to advertising. We are seriously academic with a steady stream of enthusiastic and well-researched academic articles arriving on my desk. All of these are international with contributors from across the globe. We have several guest-edited issues under consideration and our next issue (10.2) is likely to be a special issue on children and consumption in China. And we are gradually being listed in major databases such as PsycINFO that of course means that if you publish with us the abstract of your paper will become part of the international traffic in scientific communications.

Let’s remember though that in the beginning we were taking in many more practitioner articles. I want to see this balance restored as part of my mission as Editor is to encourage a synergy between academics and those working in the commercial world where children consume goods and services designed for and marketed to them. So in this issue we have three articles that provide valuable executive insights. There is our regular piece by Martin Lindstrom, a valuable contribution by Dan Acuff, and a thoughtful paper by Jeff Jones and Erica Minton. Both Martin and Dan have written best-selling books on marketing and children and are well known internationally and all three have very successful consultancies.

Turning finally to our academic papers, we start with a lead article by Barrie Gunter and his colleagues on alcohol advertising and youth consumption of alcohol. This is part of a wider study and is essential reading for those concerned and involved in this issue. Next, there is a longer paper than usual. It is written by Jacqueline Harding and she looks at children’s websites and their design. When I read this I thought that it would appeal to several audiences. For the serious student of website design there is a thorough review of the literature with examples; practitioners in this area will gain insights into good practice; and media researchers will appreciate the sophistication of the analysis. It deserves the space I have given it. There are several papers on what is sometimes called “new media” although the pace of change is such that for children and youth what is new for 30- and 40-somethings is commonplace for them. Matt Klein talks about the hidden benefits of “exergaming” or in other words Wii is good for you physically and can be a useful weapon in the battle against obesity. Stephan Dahl and colleagues looks at “advergames” where often the brand is an integral part of the game and provides us with insightful comments and thoughtful research. Yonca Aslanby and colleagues examine the extent of internet addiction in Turkish teenagers using a sophisticated and analytical framework that goes beyond simple head counting and frequency tables. The last paper is by Ken Henrie and Chris Taylor and is the first study to provide empirical evidence supporting the use of persuasion knowledge by younger consumers in a retail environment.

I hope you enjoy reading this wide ranging set of papers as much as I did.

Dr Brian YoungEditor