Thursday, November 3, 2011

Halloween costumes: NOT age appropriate

What are retailers thinking when they make Halloween costumes for young girls that are NOT age appropriate? Where are the little ballerinas, fairies, and princesses? Now they have little black dresses  for 4-5 year olds. Young girls are being influenced by TV and advertising and are going for the racy costumes. We forget that this is all led by the clothing market of skinny jeans and for lack of a better word, “sexy” T-shirts for tots.  Young girls are learning that their value comes from how they look and being defined as “sexy and sassy”. The retailers are extending this idea of sexy and sassy into costumes that are being bought up with no problem at $35 - $40 per costume. These retailers are banking on advertising campaigns with huge temporary storefronts to attract families young and old to walk in and buy these ridiculously expensive but, cheaply made costumes. As these companies spend money on advertising and the packaging of these costumes, they are hoping for an increase in demand for their goods. The demand for these goods has evidently increased because Halloween has turned into an $840 million business to $1billion business in the course of 1 year. With the economy not doing well, the consumer is choosing to spend their income on a luxury item. They could make a costume, borrow a costume, and have something that is age appropriate rather than spending the extra money. In my opinion, they are EXTREMELY influenced by the media at such a young age; they have plenty of time to grow up. A kid needs to be a kid!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Even though the idea of “sexy” T-shirts for tots is a bit much for the young ones, you have to admit its pretty catchy and they do a fantastic job at advertising for it. They overprice the products which creates a greater total revenue for the business. And lastly they promote it well. I think this is an superb job of doing business inappropriately. But sometimes you have to do what it takes to provide for yourself/family cass!