This Federal Trade Commission campaign aims to educate tweens (kids ages 8 to 12) about advertising so they can become more discerning consumers of information. The goal of the campaign is to boost advertising literacy by:

• Raising awareness of advertising and marketing messages
• Teaching critical thinking skills that will allow tweens to better analyze and interpret advertisements
• Demonstrating the benefits of being an informed consumer

The multi-media campaign involves tweens, their parents, and their educators. It is based on Admongo.gov, which teaches core ad literacy concepts through game play. Other elements of the campaign include in-school lesson plans that are tied to national standards of learning; sample ads that can be used at home and in the classroom; and teacher training videos. What's more, although this campaign focuses on helping tweens analyze commercial messages, the critical thinking skills it teaches can help tweens evaluate non-commercial messages, including editorial content and literature.

This campaign complements the many efforts undertaken by the FTC to protect children in the marketplace. These efforts include enforcing truth-in-advertising laws as they pertain to ads targeted to kids; enforcing the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and related regulations; and promoting better advertising practices by marketers of food, violent entertainment, and alcohol.