Operation: Student Spending
By SAMANTHA MAZRIAZ | Apr. 26, 2004Blink and you might miss it. But corporations are banking billions of dollars in marketing and advertising on the chance that you won't.The demographic encompassing 18 to 25-year-olds is the one most feverishly sought after by corporations worldwide, making most UB students - with pools of disposable income - their prime target."The marketing business has put a price on your head, to the tune of $300 billion a year - that's what experts believe that people your age collectively spend," stated Allan Casey, an author, in an article for www.adbusters.org.According to Christopher Mele, an associate professor in the Department of Sociology, corporations go after the student dollar by studying the students themselves."Corporations target youth markets by employing what journalists have called 'cool hunting' in order to predict the next trend in consumer markets, which change quickly and dramatically," he said.According to Mele, these cool hunters are experts paid to study people in schools, malls and clubs in cities and suburbs throughout America.
