Kidfluencers’ rampant YouTube marketing is a minefield for Google
On Feb. 13, JoJo Siwa posted a YouTube video from a Target store, detailing her plan to buy “every single item of JoJo merch” inside. She starts with clothes, piling her own trademarked shirts and dresses into a cart. “I literally got one of everything I could find!,” Siwa says to the camera. “Now, let’s go see if they’ve got toys.”
Siwa encapsulates many of the things that made YouTube the world’s most-watched video site. She dances, sings and screams excitedly into the camera, drawing millions of viewers, mostly young girls. The 15-year-old kidfluencer also highlights how YouTube’s success with children has created an ethical and perhaps even legal minefield for its owner, Alphabet Inc.’s Google.
In addition to shooting quirky videos, Siwa cuts endorsement deals and sells two branded apparel lines with Target, the second-largest U.S. retailer. When she posts clips from the company’s stores, she’s creating content that’s difficult to distinguish from advertising and will likely be watched by hundreds of thousands of impressionable kids.
