Marshmallow Power and Frooty Treasures: Disciplining the Child Consumer through Online Cereal Advergaming

• In Event: Modeling, Theorizing, and Criticizing Communication Technology

Abstract

The food industry is increasingly turning to the Internet to market food to children, largely through interactive product-themed Web sites and digital games in which children can play with brand icons, narratives, and characters. This paper offers a critical look at the marketing narratives, digital environments, and advergames on two Web sites—Frootloops.com and Luckycharms.com—to argue that online cereal marketing disciplines the child (as) consumer through an immersive simulation of marketing narratives.

Author

• Deborah Thomson, East Carolina Univ