TO: Amy Chastain
FROM: Paige Foster
SUBJECT: English 108
DATE: May 7, 2010

Reader’s Response:

Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers

This book, in my opinion, provides a lot of valid information, very relevant to an English 108 class. For the most part, students in English 108 are fresh out of high school, or at least still fairly young. Branded focuses solely on teenagers and how marketing affects them. I think that the facts provided are eye opening and can be useful to a group of young people, such as a 108 class and I would recommend it to them.

Quart explores a lot of issues in this book, but one of the most important for young people to know is that brands literally fill our lives. Before I read this book, I really had no clue how much branding affects my day to day life. For example, branding even affects what college we decide to attend. As discussed in chapter 10 Logo U, kids will go to extreme lengths to be accepted to a “brand name” school. A sixteen year-old named Rick states “The name is important- you need brand recognition, if you want people to know that you are smart, and that’s a serious way of letting them know that” (Quart 152). I honestly can somewhat relate to that, because the fact that Missouri Western is a University, makes me feel like when I get my degree, people will think I am smarter than if I had just attended a state college.

Branding doesn’t just affect our choice of school, but our choice of clothing, make-up, movies, video games, food, and the list is endless. Reading this book will open a young person’s eyes to how the marketers are playing on this “need” to be branded, and cashing in all the way home! It is something that usually just flies under the radar and no one really talks about it, but it was very interesting to see how much brands really do affect me.

I was an English 108 student this semester and I feel that I know what people around my age are interested in. Branded will encourage students to write about the deep emotional issues involved in branding such as body branding (plastic surgery) or schools for sale (companies contracting schools), and also some of their personal experiences. I think that there is a lot to discuss with this book, and 108 students could definitely explore other sources that discuss the same issues.