"Marketing to kids gets more savvy with new technologies"

The headline of the news article from USA Today sounds like it's praising the marketers. See how savvy you are in scanning this list and finding the words used to express negative reactions.

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 7 Unit 2's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: So Much to Buy, Facts About Marketing to Children, Responsible Marketing, Marketing to kids, America the Not-So-Beautiful, the insanity of selling junk food, Ain't I a Woman?, Remarks to the U.N., Failure to Ban, It's Perverse, But It's Also Pretend, Screen Time?
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. covet
    wish, long, or crave for
    Isabella Sweet doesn't wear a target on her chest. But kid marketers covet this 9-year-old as if she does.
  2. savvy
    the ability to shrewdly understand or judge things
    With the use of new, kid-enchanting technologies, are savvy marketers gaining the upper hand on parents?
  3. coddle
    treat with excessive indulgence
    Are toy marketers such as Ganz, food marketers such as McDonald's and kid- coddling apparel retailers such as 77kids by American Eagle too eager to target kids?
  4. expenditure
    the act of spending money for goods or services
    Up to age 16, kids are determining most expenditures in the household
  5. devious
    characterized by insincerity or deceit
    Marketers are getting more and more devious
  6. nudge
    push into action by pestering or annoying gently
    On the log-in screen, an ad flashed for BabyPictureMaker.com, which nudges consumers to download pictures of two people--promising to send back a picture of what a baby they might have together would look like.
  7. frustrated
    disappointingly unsuccessful
    A frustrated Cunningham contacted Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.
  8. decline
    show unwillingness towards
    Webkinz declined to share the outcome of this investigation with USA TODAY--nor would it explain how the ad got on the site.
  9. obesity
    the condition of being excessively overweight
    I can't imagine any mom in America who thinks stripping tigers and toucans off cereal boxes will do anything to address obesity
  10. distinguish
    mark as different
    We know that children under 8 have no ability to distinguish between truth and advertising
  11. petition
    a formal request that something be submitted to an authority
    More than 1,000 doctors, including Altman, recently signed a petition that asked McDonald's to stop using Ronald to market to kids.
  12. ambassador
    an informal representative
    Ronald McDonald is an ambassador for McDonald's and an ambassador for good
  13. retailer
    a merchant who sells goods directly to consumers
    And if any retailer exemplifies the techie new world of marketing to kids, it may be 77kids by American Eagle.
  14. established
    settled securely and unconditionally
    Babies as young as 6 months old can form mental images of logos and mascots--and brand loyalties can be established as early as 2
  15. bore
    make a hole, especially with a pointed power or hand tool
    he consults with companies that are constantly trying to figure out how to get inside day care centers and bore their images inside the minds of preschoolers.
Created on August 27, 2014 (updated August 29, 2014)

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