Tweens & Everything in between

Target marketing or "niche" marketing as it's sometimes called can either be helpful or a hazard. When done right, target marketing on the internet can help companies completely advertise to a targeted demographic. Thanks to pop ups and ads, web pages have become billboards for companies to get their products out to people who frequent different sites. And no matter how old are how young you are surfing the internet, 9 times out of 10, your favorite site will have an ad on it, if not more than one. Nowadays ads have evolved from just "click here" images to audio messages, and motion graphics. And while some companies consider this a good way to reach their target audience, I don't know if there are many people who go to the internet to find out about new products being offered from big money companies they already know of. In the text, Shayla Stern refers to these ads as "moving pictures and flashy gimmicks users may click on". And I for one have never really purposely clicked on an ad, but I have on accident. Which brings me back to the point of tracking traffic for these ads. Usually these companies find out how well their ads are doing by the amount of clicks they receive, but how accurate can that be? I know I'm not the only one who has clicked on an ad by mistake. There are so many ads out there that end up just being distracting, but in the case of ads geared towards adolescent girls, (ie: clothes, make up, modeling) we find out that although they are being heavily targeted, they aren't buying into the ads. And rightfully so, because at the end of the day, these huge corporations really know nothing about the young audiences they target their products to. They are completely out of touch with the personal aspect of the consumer, and they believe that these mass advertisements will help them in their plan towards success. Generation Y as it's called seems to be the money market for these companies. These teens are using IM platforms to communicate, and they use the web on a daily basis. It's pretty clear that these marketing tactics used don't get the job done, but who knows what it does to the psyche of young adolescents. Changing the perception of Generation Y is as easy as it looks, but we can't completely leave it up to these corporations to taint the minds of the young future. The younger generations use the internet to communicate, now more than ever, and at the sam