Brands Target Tween Girls In Bid To Keep Them As Longtime Customers
"It's still a construction," Long says. "They're still creating a shot ... putting them in costumes and lighting and makeup. Just because they're not going back over it later on with something like Photoshop doesn't mean that it hasn't been manipulated."
Aerie declined to give an interview.
The models in these ads are clearly older than 12. Aerie says it targets females 15 and older. Its close rival, Pink by Victoria's Secret, says it's for college-aged women. But Willa Peltzer, our 12-year-old in Brooklyn, has shopped at both places.
"At 11, other girls my age were shopping there too," she says. "I think that they might not know it, but I think that they target all girls."
Oh, but the companies do know it. One 2013 study put the spending power of kids aged 9 to 13 at $200 billion.
Win a loyal fan today, and she could be a customer for many years to come.
tweens
preteens
marketing to kids