The Corporate Assault on Youth examines childhood as a social construction increasingly influenced by corporations and commercialism. Through case studies critical analysis and historical/philosophical research the essays collected here expose the degree to which children are unwitting targets of marketing. With topics ranging from the presence of media branding in schools and school supplies to the subtler ways in which the public education system is influenced by corporate ideologies and purposes this book draws much-needed attention to how educators administrators policymakers parents and children can become aware of and counterbalance the effects of the commercialism that is overwhelming students understanding of the world and their place within it.