Advertising: Credit Cards

Important Quotes/Statistics:

According to American Demographics magazine, by age 21, a young person will have experienced more than 23,000,000 advertising impressions in their short lifetime. By their senior year, the average college student has four credit cards and nearly $3,000 of credit card debt. By age 30, the debt numbers grow by more than 70 percent to $5,200 of high-interest credit card debt. (Source)

In 2003, the average credit-card debt of U.S. households with at least one card was $9,205, up from $2,966 in 1990, according to the research firm CardWeb.com

INTRODUCTION

This web resource is designed to help educators who wish to
have their students analyze credit card advertising.

Here you will find a sample of ads and questions for you and your
students to begin their examination and study. In addition, the topic
of credit and credit card advertising is one in current event news,
so you will find a number of such articles listed below.

Link to Teaching Standards

Educators and students should review the media literacy “core concepts” 
as well as these critical thinking questions before proceeding. 

Print/download these recent news articles about credit cards: