Even though I have no faith whatsoever in the advertising industry, they still continue to amaze me with their audacity. They would have babies sucking on Oreo cookies if they had their way ("Oh, relax. It's safe").

A good book that examines this trend (I think it was this book - I've been reading a number of advertising and anti-advertising tomes lately) is Paco Underhill's Why We Buy.  There was a section on how sell-out psychologists have told marketers that early branding will pay off as the consumer ages. Such research is behind product lines like Sony's "MyFirstSony".

It reminds me of a Tom Tomorrow cartoon that said that advertisers would send promotional messages directly into our brains if they could.

Adbusters is the only the way our kids can Stay Free!