"Tweens - so named for their status between early childhood and the teenage years -- are not developed enough psychologically to know how to be skeptical about advertising," said Elizabeth Moore, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Notre Dame.

"Children have television in their rooms, phones, computers," Moore said. "From a marketer's point of view, the range of products these children are consuming is expanding. And there's a lot of evidence that they have a lot of influence over what their parents buy." The advertising directed at this age group encourages them to want to be like teenagers, with the emphasis on being cool." (Los Angeles Times, June 27, 2002)

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Let's go shopping together! "That togetherness makes the [mother / daughter] pair a new type of marketing target. In an age when many tweens - the demographic once defined as 8-to-12-year-olds but today often pushed down to 6 or younger - might feel inclined to follow the acts of cute kids turned edgy young adults (think Lindsay Lohan), some entertainment promoters and product marketers are directing more of their pitches at both parents and children." Pitches to tweens target parents, too

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