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Discusses the hot topic of anti‐brand activity, in particular the dangers of treating children as mini‐adults in marketing, and the issue of anti‐fast food campaigns; the article is based on a speech of Malcolm Earnshaw, Director General of the ISBA. Summarises some current press coverage which is critical of the advertising industry given the growing problem of child obesity, and the resulting adverse impact of this hostile coverage on companies like McDonalds; the campaigns link up with the anti‐globalisation movement. Urges corporations to consider fully the social as well as the financial effects of their activities.

Examines what thinkers have said about the nature of play, in particular its value to adults, and its relation to happiness and goals. Shows how play is natural to the digital generation, as back packers travelling around the world. Cites the pronouncements of writers like philosophers Jean‐Paul Sartre and Aristotle, psychologists George Butterworth and Margaret Harris, and Pat Kane (in “The Play Ethic”). Contrasts traditional attitudes towards play as being something of no cultural value, plus the views that play is “a separate activity” (Lev Semeonivich Vygotsky) and “pure waste” (Meyer Barash) with the view of Johan Huizinga that culture derives from play. Explores the views of Mihaly Csikszmenmiahlyi, who investigated the nature of enjoyment as an optimal experience based on the concept of flow. Moves onto the Policies Studies Institute study which sees fun as something which jobs can offer instead of security and promotion, and notes the use of fun items as part of companies’ competitive stance, for instance Virgin Airways’ computer games in each airline seat. Concludes with the “No Logo” radicals who subvert billboards and advertising through use of the Internet and street protests.

Explores some developing UK social trends and how they are being embraced by successful modern brands. Shows how technology is allowing people to realise their own creative amateur potential, by designing websites or starting magazines for example. Moves on to consumer activism against fast food and racism, in which some brands like Nike are getting involved (in its “Stand up Speak up” campaign). Warns that advertisers cannot produce bland and puerile ads: they must engage with consumers, not exhibit stunned desperation at the explosion in prosumer blogsites. Concludes that youth culture in the UK is again in the spotlight because of new talent, and brands are attempting to link up with a multitude of new artists, designers and musicians.

This paper is adapted from a speech given at the SMI Conference this year. Informer is a youth specialist marketing consultancy and research agency. Committed to a continuous exploration of the lifestyle, attitudes and behaviour of young people aged between 12 and 24. Clients include leading brands in the fashion, drinks, music, television, beauty, travel, finance, interactive entertainment and retail markets. The agencies flagship product is the Informer Youth Monitor the worlds largest ongoing qualitative research study of the youth market/youth trends. It is a powerful tool for strategic planning and an invaluable source of knowledge for those wishing to understand the young consumer. Today's kids are growing up faster than ever before. Adults are often bewildered at their speed of growth and at their ability to assimilate many aspects of older culture into their lives, even before they strictly become teenagers. This has huge implications for brands and brand marketing. The media — the biggest influence on our lives — constantly informs us of the impending breakdown of the family and diminishing family values in this post‐modern world. We're led to believe that rising divorce rates and the increase of single‐parent families are evidence that, not only is marriage an outmoded institution, but that traditional family unit is a thing of the past. But what will happen to family life in the future and what will the effect be on children? This paper will examine the latest learning's into attitudes to family life and sets the context of children's lives, examining everything from relationships with brands to advertising to sport.

Up to the moment consumer intelligence on kids and young people seems to be an increasing obsession these days for brand owners and advertising agencies. They're seemingly desperate for insider information and intelligence on the life of the latest generation — referred to as everything from N‐Geners to Millenials — who rather than challenge society like their forbears seem to define it, in these youthful times. Nowadays everyone from the President (be he Gore or Bush), to Hip‐Hop artists wears Levis and Gap. The last decade saw the commercialization of youth culture (how alternative is a bank sponsored dance lent at an MTV festival?), the alternative and underground became mainstream and the social construct, which stated that you were only young between the ages of 16–24, has been disproved. Teenagers, whilst being in the spotlight as never before, have increasingly had their culture stolen from under their noses by older (and younger) people, whilst ten year olds are demonstrating brand adoption and rejection attitudes that we'd have associated with a fifteen year old, only a short time ago. To clarify the current Life of Kids it is therefore necessary to gain the latest real‐life case histories and learning's, as opposed to mere statistics that give us huge amounts of cold data re: population demographics, growth rates, income levels, behaviour patterns and the like. Therefore, the first global kids marketing conference was held in Lisbon in October, where leading industry figures from the brand owner and agency sides came together to share information. Speakers included those from MTV, Leo Burnett, BMRB International, Cartoon Network, Polaroid, Informer, Chupa Chups, Applied Research & Consulting, B2B, Pokemon and the author.