why age 12 – 34?

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Last weekend I was training in Hershey, PA at a large EV FREE church- a fun group of people. In the training, I was sharing some statistics about MTV and mentioned their target audience of 12-34 year olds.

Interesting- a very cool guy that worked for Hershey (yes, in the city of Hershey, PA there are an abundance of Hershey employees. They even gave me chocolate!) was talking to me about why MTV uses age 12 as their starting point. This guy works in the marketing department at Hershey and he said that anything marketed to anyone under 12 qualifies as being marketed to kids (as in “little kids”). He said that once you market to kids (under 12), the government gets really involved, checking safety, etc. (he hinted that it was really a pain to deal with)

It’s interesting, because MTV doesn’t hesitate to show blatent sexual situations, violence (Jackass), bad attitudes… you name it. (I don’t have to give examples… just turn the channel on at random… you’ll see). My guess is that if they admitted that their target audience was under 12, then the government could possibly intervene. Let’s put it this way. If Hershey is told that they have to be careful how they advertise Reeses Puffs cereal because kids might assume they’re healthy… imagine the scrutiny that MTV might have to subject themselves to for their typical broadcasts.

Hmmmmmmmm.