Some timely news articles to consider having your students read:
(See also Advertising AgeAdWeek NYT Advertising)

Ad men use brain scanners to probe our emotional response (Jan 2012)
What advertisers hide in the small print (Dec. 2011)
TV ads have a bigger impact on children's food choice than their parents
Some ads seduce rather than persuade, turning off your brain in the process (Sept.2011)

This Is Your Brain On Ads: An Internal 'Battle' (NPR, June 2011)
They're Wary of Ads and of the Feds (November 2010)

In a World of Ads, Teaching the Young How to Read Them (April 2010)
How couch potatoes watch TV could hold clues for advertisers
Ad Literacy 101  (Sept 2009)
How Brand Savvy Are Tweens? (August 2009)
Teens inhabit 'digital marketing ecosystem,' research suggests
Watching You Watching Ads (July 2009)
TV Food Ads Increase Snacking and Potential Weight Gain in Children and Adults /Link to study
(July 2009)
Diversity in advertising  (March 2009)

Nielsen: Kids Encounter Ads Less Than Adults (October 2008)
Marketing to Millennials (Business Week, August 2008)
Exhibit honors Madison Ave Men & Women (June 2008)
In TV ads, Mom still scrubbing toilets, while Dad gets career
Coming to a marketer near you: Brain scanning
TV Commercials Influence What You Want to Do in Life
Holy Grail of Advertising?
Disney to create lab to test high-tech ads for ABC, ESPN
Babes in Brandland (Oct. 2007)
The Authenticity Paradox and the Perils of Youth Marketing
 

   CBS News Special Reports (May 2007)

Advertisers spend nearly $17 billion each year to attract young buyers.
Check out our Evening News and Early Show series on how marketers target kids.
Stories:
Facts & Resources
Games That Sell
Pitching Young Kids
The Hard Sell: Marketing To Kids
Tween Marketing
Video:
Ad Critic Barbara Lippert
Extended Interview: Susan Gregory Thomas
Katie Couric On Targeting Youth
Pitching To Tweens



Read Any Good Ads Lately?
The Wizards of Buzz
Anywhere the eye can see, it's likely to see an ad
Child-centered marketing causing kids to carry unhealthy food habits into adulthood
Cutting Through Advertising Clutter (CBS, Sept. 2006)
Retailers Woo The Teens
For Toddlers, a World Laden with Advertising (NPR, July 2006)
From Legos to Logos (NEA May 2006)
Marketing to the tween set
Advertising And Youth
Making sense of the media: class helps kids understand advertising

Magazine ads send mixed messages
Tricks advertisers use
Marketers forced to think outside the box in Tivo Age
Here an ad, everywhere an ad

Virtual ads threaten traditional media
Inside the consumer mind
(neuromarketing)
Smells like teen marketing
Teens to marketers: get real

Not Buying It
(Current Health 1, Jan. 2006)
Ads go global at a fever pitch
Marketers' new idea: consumers design ads
Secrets out on marketing's new way in
The Marketing front: the real essence of advertising
Using disease to market foods

Marketing to Seniors
(BW)
Ads: the wallpaper of teens lives

Are our children overindulged?

Saatchi: how technology is changing advertising
Advertisers tap software that predicts consumer behavior

Brand logo awareness by age 2 (study)
Face of advertising ever changing
Viral ads spread through marketing plans
Advertisers forced to think way outside the box

Marketers eye baby boomer/grandparents
What teens want

Advertisers Tap brain science

Oldies but goodies
: boomers have $ to spend
Marketers see babies noses as pathway to profit

Sly marketing creates little consumers

Over 50 & Out of Favor

Ad execs want to track every move (WIRED)
Teens Don't Know Everything
(WSJ)
Risque fashion ads trigger outcry

The future of the 30 second spot

Consumer electronic companies target teens

Do Ads Still Work?

Advertising aimed at kids is playing hide & seek

The art of launching an ad campaign

Online Retailers Pursue Teenagers

Mapping the Mind: Searching the Why of Buy
Minding Nemo Pitches to Kids Feed Debate About a Watchdog
Are commercials really bad for kids?
Do Ads Make Kids Fat?
Buying Into sexy: The sexing up of Tweens
Dad's In Charge, In New TV Ads

You Can Run or Hide; the ads will find you

Marketing's Flip side: the determined detractor
Dematerializing our kids

Tweens: A Billion Dollar market

The Hidden (in Plain Sight) Persuaders
Hey Mom: Is it Ok If These Guys Market Stuff to Us?
Message received
It's an ad, ad world for today's tweens and teens

The Decline of Brands

Stop Trying to Persuade Us

How many ads are we exposed to in a single day
In the crosshairs: Viewers and targeted ads
Every Product Tells A Story
Women riled by sexy Aguilera ads
Blurring the lines: magazines face new pressure as marketers
seek to blend advertising with content 

Teens vs. The Media: Teen Image and Advertising
Tuning out TV
: Advertisers are using a variety of methods to grab consumers' attention
What value is there in studying advertisements?
Ad-versed

Hey Kid, Buy This (Business Week, 1997)