Summary Of On Campus It's One Big Commercial

Are Companies Unethically Targeting College Students?

Many companies are paying college students to push brands onto their peers. They are doing this by using “Brand Ambassadors” (Singer 837) or college students who are paid to represent a brand. In the essay “On Campus, It’s One Big Commercial” by Natasha Singer, Singer argues that companies are immorally targeting college students by using college students to advertise their products to their peers. Singer effectively conveys the message that companies sometimes push themselves onto people in unethical ways in “On Campus, It’s One Big Commercial” by using anecdotes, bandwagon, and also negative diction.

Singer uses anecdotes throughout her essay to help convey her message that companies

Using this example helps to convey her message by making it seem like the big companies are making these students break school rules. She also gives an example where brands extending to colleges can be good, because Target hosts an event at some colleges where a “fleet of busses” (841) will take the majority of the freshmen to Target to pick up some last minute supplies. They have a big event at Target, with a “D.J. … between clothing racks” (843) and “Target's mascot… joins in with Carolina’s Rameses the Ram” (843) to hype up all of the arriving students. They also have people handing out Mac and cheese yelling “Mac and cheese, everyone!” (843) so that the students feel welcomed. This is an example where the company goes straight to the college, and can help out both the college as a whole, and also the company. This also creates ethos for Singer, because she is showing how even though she generally does not agree with companies targeting colleges, sometimes it can be a good thing and she understands both sides of this. However, even some students “expressed some concerns” about the way companies are starting “marketing campaigns” (845) on the campus. She uses