If you were to believe what you see in commercials you would think that teens do nothing but go shopping, eat fast food, go clubbing, and hang out on the street or at the beach. Well, I don’t know about you, but here at Culture Spy many of us have jobs and all of us go to school. A lot of our other time is devoted to other pursuits such as sports, art, music, even reading. Bet you’ll never see a teen doing that in a commercial!

Sure we sometimes do go shopping, eat fast food, go clubbing, and hang out at the beach or on the street, but not with the frequency you see our TV counterparts doing these things. But that’s not what the ad agencies would like us to believe. They always show teens hanging out in these same places doing these same things. Why? Because they want us to think that’s what we should be doing. They don’t want us to be doing homework, because that won’t make them any money. They want us to be eating their fast food, shopping at their stores, sunning ourselves at the beach while wearing their latest swimgear, or hanging out on the street wearing while their latest gym shoes. Check it out for yourself.

Look at the images on the right to see a selection of TV commercials featuring teens and see how many different locations you can spot.