Feature Article Reading Journal

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/business/21marketing.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

Title: “In Online Games, a Path to Young Consumers”

Author: Matt Richtel

Nytimes.com

I chose this story because right away, it is easy to tell that it is a feature. Starting with an anecdote, the article describes a 10-year-old at work on an interactive website. Lesly creates comic strips online, and then sends them to her friends and family all over the country. Because these online games are created by General Mills however, Lesly becomes an advertiser without realizing it.

The sources in the article were also very believable. The first was a psychologist at Harvard Medical School who explains the trouble marketers has with accessing the children and bypassing the parents successfully. This is an interesting observation. Now that advertisers have a way to reach the children without the parents intercepting, is brings to question all the reasons parents shelter children from these articles. To remedy this, the second source was the director of the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative who said that they would only advertise foods that are better for you. I was glad that the author included this second source because the first source almost made me uneasy. The article discusses child obesity rates as well and the fact that the second source is trying to advertise healthy foods settles that.

At the end of the article, it circles back to the story of Lesly Lopez, this time focusing on her mother’s concerns. Mrs. Huerta is concerned about her daughters diet and he teeth as well. She blames the advertisers for her daughter’s “love of sugar,” and the games they create to get children involved. Mrs. Huerta tells the author that her daughter is obsessed with sugar do to the interactive game sites she plays, made by the makers of “Baby Bottle Pops.” I really enjoyed this feature because the sources and the anecdotes grounded the piece and made it believable and interesting.