Childhood Under Siege: How Big Business Ruthlessly Targets Children

Joel Bakan

Aug 2011 · Random House

About this ebook

There is now an estimated 1 trillion dollars of buying power in the hands of children.

Tens of millions of children world-wide are prescribed psychotropic drugs today, compared to close to none in 1980.

Food and drink industries spend billions each year marketing junk food to children.

This is the story of how big businesses are transforming our children into obsessive and narcissistic mini-consumers, media addicts and pharmaceutical industry guinea pigs. In this insightful and chilling exploration, Joel Bakan throws a brilliant light on the ruthless manipulation of children and on our failure to protect them.

About the author

Joel Bakan is professor of law at the University of British Columbia. A Rhodes Scholar and former law clerk to Chief Justice Brian Dickson of the Supreme Court of Canada, he holds law degrees from Oxford, Harvard and Dalhousie Universities. An internationally renowned legal authority, Bakan has written widely on law and its social and economic impact. He is the author of the bestselling and critically-acclaimed The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power.