Candy from Strangers: Kids and Consumer Culture

About Candy from Strangers

At a time when mass marketing is blamed for everything from childhood obesity to youth violence, Stephen Dale offers an alternative view. An unbiased and in–depth look at the subject of kids and mass media, Candy From Strangers raises the question: Are children victims of the marketing world –– Or could they in fact be sophisticated participants in consumer culture? 

In this provocative examination, Stephen Dale takes on such hotbutton topics as violence in television programs and video games and wonders whether or not they really stoke kids' aggression. His book examines competing theories about advertising and its effects on children. Some experts claim marketing is benign and informative, and others see children's media–fueled demands as destructive to the very fabric of family life. It takes us from the natural habitat of the fabled ";cool hunter," through experts in their dens, to the ecosystems of kids themselves.

Instead of offering easy answers, Dale raises the rarely voiced concern that our hand–wringing about media and its effects on kids may distract us from the truly important issues facing future generations.