Background: The prevalence of electronic-cigarette (e-cigarette) product placement in music videos is on the rise and currently unregulated. This promotional activity is concerning given the popularity of music videos among young adults. Aims: We examined associations between self-reported levels of exposure to music videos with any e-cigarette…

Background: Peer crowds are macro-level, reputation-based subcultures with shared preferences, values, and behavior. The Country peer crowd has been the focus of tobacco industry research and marketing but has yet to be the primary focus of public health research. The current study explores the utility of "Down and Dirty," a "Social…

We focus on the recently emerging "baby culture" that is fostering a curriculum of consumption and consumerism among parents-to-be and infants aged zero-to-three. To gain insight into how the cultural artifacts, practices, and trends emerging from this demographic are shaping the way we think and act in a consumer culture, we investigate…

Suggests that students need to learn to "read" the cultural texts surrounding them. Argues that there is great need for including analyses of popular culture in the college curriculum. Presents a unit to help students gain a greater appreciation for the influence that advertising has upon them and the subtlety with which it manipulates people,…

Argues that people are affected by the pervasive images of advertisers who use signs to imbue products with specific realities. Examines how people use this information about various consumer products in making judgments of other people. (MS)

Kenneth Burke's concepts of identification, the five terms of dramatism, and strategic uses of ambiguity can be successfully taught to undergraduates if appropriate and familiar examples are used. Print and electronic advertising offer the instructor an up-to-date, familiar, and abundant source of classroom examples. Market segmentation models…

Children's publicness is undergoing a substantial change. "Scripts" created by the media and involving intensive consumption influence when, where, and how children's publicness occurs. Particularly important are attempts to develop new ways of integrating medial, sensual-active, body-, space- and group-related actions. This article…

This book argues that people live simultaneously in two different cultures. Values of the first culture are imparted to children through curriculum in the nation's public school classrooms. The second culture is the world of mass communication that promotes consumption, instant gratification, and impulse. The clash between these cultures confronts…