In Owen Gleiberman’s review (Sub. Req.) of the movie, ‘Thirteen’, the Entertainment Weekly movie critic comments on the effect advertising can have on today’s youth:
“What’s eerie about ‘Thirteen’ is the way that everything Tracy goes through hooks into a corporate advertising culture that has become nearly metaphysical in its impact: not just the clothes and accessories (which include her hip-hop boyfriend) or the standards of beauty, but the whole subjugation of identity and flesh to a dictate from above — the sense that there’s just one way to be, and that if you’re not that way, you’re nothing.”
That’s a powerful statement on the advertising industry yet there is some truth to it. The whole premise of advertising and the underlying strategy of branding, is to intertwine an emotion with a particular state of being creating a force consumers are compelled to follow. Young minds are easily swayed and without proper perspective, the results of this “be cool or your not” approach to advertising can have devastating effects.
The movie was co-written by then 13 year old Nikki Reed who stars in the film with Evan Rachel Wood from TV’s ‘Once and Again’. The movie examines the downward spiral of Wood’s character as she attempts to fit in while entering 7th grade.
