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Children today live in a world full of brands, writes the German newspaper Die Zeit. And many companies seek to reach children through their parents, to mould the consumers of tomorrow.

Ben is two years old and almost 65 centimetres high. As he runs along the street, the cars dwarf him. It's not, strictly, his world, but he knows all the different brands, Die Zeit says...  "BMW, VW, Mitsubishi, Mercedes...".

Finn and Henry, both 6 years old, are fooling around on the back seat of the car. "Don't be so loud or we're going to have an accident", their mother shouts. "Super", says Finn, "then the car will go to the scrap dealer and he'll turn it into a real car, a BMW."

Jette, 5, loves Nutella spread and doesn't know of any other brand.

Traditional German Barbie

Because the actual number of these mini-consumers is going down as a result of demographic trends, it is now a question of survival for companies to sell ever more products to ever fewer children. Marketing managers can't afford to be squeamish, so they spend millions to establish themselves in the consciousness of youth.

Some might see it as a form of seduction of minors and a collective attack on taste. That's why companies like Ferrero and Haribo, Kraft Foods and others prefer not to disclose how much they spend on advertising. There are no official figures, "but the sums continue to increase", says Axel Dammler, one of the most well-known researchers into children's and youth markets, from the company iconkids & youth. And increasing advertising expenditure means increased advertising pressure. Why should we be any different from the United States. There, in the year 2002, companies spend $15 billion on advertising products for young people - more than ever before.

SMS ads, school sponsoring, internet campaigns: advertisers continually add new methods to reach the innermost corner of the lives of children and adolescents. They want to be there. Capture clients. To sell.

Nike, for example, pursues young people as far as the virtual world, providing "equipment" for players in the computer game NBA Live 2004 - just like in the real world. The virtual players wear boots that are recognisably Nike-branded and Electronic Arts, the world's largest games developer, aggressively markets this kind of advertising. "Games reduce stress and stimulate the senses", making those within the game "especially open to emotional appeal." Forrester, the market research company reckons this form of advertising could be worth as much as 1 billion dollars over the next two years. Just to place a company's logo in the online version of Sim City, the chip company Intel paid more than 2 million dollars.

This heightened advertising pressure prompts even companies such as the German railway service, Deutsche Bahn, to develop a comprehensive PR programme aimed at children - although today's 3 year-olds will not be blessed with full freedom of choice for a further 15 years to decide whether they want to buy a Mercedes or a rail card. It's all about "building trust and sympathy", says Irene Liebau, head of strategic communications for the railway. Two characters, Oli and Danny, are intended to become the young faces of the network over the next 2 years. 200,000 copies of the first picture book, Oli fährt Bahn, have already been sent or handed out to families. Because the rather bald-looking "squirt" was only designed to appeal to small children, the Bahn then added Danny. Danny shows children how to play "ICE Commander" in the internet and drive several trains at the same time. It's just a game, or is it? Ultimately, the company is trying to win in the battle for children's minds when it comes to decisions like car or train, air or rail.

When targeted marketing first took off, it seemed everything was possible and that advertisers were all powerful. The American Clyde R. Miller wrote, in 1946, that it: "takes time, but if you want to stay in business for any time, then just think what it can mean for your company in terms of profit if you can train millions of young people, drill them to buy your product, just like soldiers are drilled. Get them to act when they hear the word 'march". These words were seized on from then on by market researchers sent to spy out children's souls, psyche and sensitivity.

People in marketing departments today know that the word "mama" crosses children's lips later than the shriek they emit when they recognise something - a brand logo, for example. Children of up to 6 years old dream of animals, which makes a dog the easy choice.

And they know how to whine in seven different ways. The American professor James McNeal describes the lowest form of whining as one of asking, followed by a more lasting, disappointed and energetic form, to which "then I'll ask my father" is often added. Demonstrative screaming and crying in public is near the top of McNeal's scale, while the child's last and most powerful weapon is threatening the parent with eternal hate.

Despite all the research that has been undertaken, however, no single, magical form of advertising has yet emerged. It's still not possible to target  a whine. The work of McNeal and others, however, show how important little children are for advertisers seeking to communicate with their parents. That's because it is the parents who hold the real power in questions of what to buy and business' most important partner when it comes to ushering children in to the world of consumption. They, the parents, have the money. They pay for the Barbie doll, the toy digger and - with some pride - the BMW bike ("just like dad's"). "The way the parents consume has an especially significant effect on their children", says Stefan Aufenanger, a child psychologist at Hamburg University.

According to German official statistics, parents spend up to half of their monthly income on their children - including a proportion of the costs spent on rent and furniture. Depending on their level of income and the number of children they have, this can be anywhere between 255 and 865 euros.

Thus Ferrero concentrates on suggesting to parents that they might do something good for their children and, at the same time, stuff their whining mouths. Ferrero advertised its Milchschnitte confectionery bars as having "an extra portion of milk" and was so successful that 58% of 6 to 13 year-olds today admit to eating one or more Milchschnitten per week. Similar advertising approaches are taken by Danone, for its Fruchtzwerg yogurt ("Milch einfach mal anders" - "Milk, but different") and Ferrero itself, which promotes its Kinder-Pingui product as being a "milk dessert with bite". Both form part of the weekly diet of 48% of children. All in the name of good health - they're good for the bones, you see.

Sweet chocolate bars and fatty snacks play such an important role in children's daily life that the government health minister, Renate Künast, is pushing to have more information on nutrition distributed in kindergartens and schools. "When I was a child, you only ate when you were hungry. Today, food is everywhere, all the time", she says.

When Sabine, 4, and Mara, who is half her age, head out of the front door, they have a choice of two toy dolls' cars, a bicycle, a tricycle and a toy car. In toys, too, they have an excess of choice. Their mother is a doctor, their father a freelance artist, the family lives in Paderborn and typifies today's well-educated household. Belonging to this social level implies a lot: the children have many more toys than they need. It's a consequence of historically-unique levels of wealth and it affects the children who are growing up in them. According to the Bundesbank, Germans have investments amounting to 6.8 billion euros, an increase of 50% since the beginning of the 1990s.

So kindergarten attendee Jonas and his friend, Sabine, are not unusual cases. Their "fleet" takes up half of a double garage. 3.4 million children under the age of 10 years old live in Germany and, for many of them, the 4-2-1 model applies. Four grandparents, two parents - all concentrating their attention on an only child. 6 year-old Jens from Cologne even has six grandparents.. his original grandmother and grandfather divorced and then both remarried. So as not to overload him, his parents intervene at Christmas time and keep some of the presents from reaching him. He gets no more than three.

The fact that many grandparents - and some parents - overload their offspring, as a result of these demographic and financial developments, has not passed companies such as the clothing brand Guess, which has produced a range of expensive children's fashion wear. Today's 2 year-olds can be dressed up to previously unheard-of degrees just like little dolls, while 6 year-olds can be turned into sex symbols in school skirts. Guess has its models, all still with their milk teeth, pose on skate boards wearing batique skirts and sand-washed jeans. Diesel children look far cooler ("for successful living"). The youngest child featuring in the company's campaign is 4 years old and wears a grey-green skirt and a blouse snatched up around the breast. Old enough to dream of a successful life? The little one perhaps not, though her parents certainly are. Tom Tailor, Speedo, Escada and DKNY. A five year-old girl with curly hair can now appear in public in a backless ruched shirt, while babies just a few months old and still in nappies can be dressed up in a dark grey rain jacket, with pockets on the arms.

It would be a mistake to believe that the advertising only appeals to the well-off. Levels of wealth have only a certain influence on the basis of consumer behaviour, says Axel Dammler, who, with his firm iconkids & youth, has produced many trend studies. "Such habits are formed among children irrespective of social class. They like to have things. Mother feels prettier with her new shoes. You can still consumer for prestige when you're poor."

Consumption serves as an important source of self esteem for children growing up, says the sociologist and educator Klaus Hurrelmann, from Bielefeld University. In principle, this is not dangerous. "However childhood, and puberty to an even greater extent, are critical phases in which it is important to develop a healthy self confidence." A fixation on consumption can become a sort of way out when children "grow up in financially-pressurised circumstances, or are not doing well at school." The numbers of those in danger cannot simply be estimated by looking at how many children are receiving social support, but the figures do provide an insight - and they are not small. Around one million children depend on financial help from the state - around 6.8% of the age group and almost double the number in the population as a whole, according to the "Armutsbericht" (Poverty Report) issued by the government.

Nobody really knows how many children consumer as a way of gaining self confidence, or how many go into debt in their quest for brands for the same reason. It's probably "only a small minority, but it's growing", says Hurrelmann.

The older a child becomes, the greater the advertising pressure. Campaigns are directed straight at the child and the parents are phased out. As soon as children understand the essence of money, the relationship between paying and possessing, in the eyes of the marketing manager they have moved on to the next stage of their consumer lives. They become buyers. And their wealth is significant. 6 to 13 year-olds have 5.6 billion euros available to them to spend yearly, when one takes into account pocket money, savings and cash gifts. Almost two-thirds of them can do what they want with their money, according to the consumer survey, Kids-Verbraucheranalyse.

Whoever wants to get their hands on this money turns to the television. Companies compete for placing around specific programmes, not for advertising blocks. Entire cartoon series are developed with the aim of selling products which are suited to them. The programme serves as the advertising.

Television remains the main medium, according to Christopher Schering, who has developed many multimedia campaigns with his company, Cobra Youth. "The commercial channels especially have served to strengthen consumer consciousness among children over the past 20 years", he says. In a recent study from the two state channels, ARD and ZDF, it was shown that 83% of 6 to 13 year-olds watch television every day, or almost every day. 39% have their own set. If, as did the music channel MTV, you ask about the "sources of cool", that is, where children learn from, TV is among the three most important sources.

It's on the television screen that consumers are presented with fulfillment. It is there that "the emotional strength of advertising is at its greatest", says Stefan Aufenanger. That doesn't mean that all customers will only want to buy one brand, as Clyde R. Miller once hoped, because most children are well practiced in the art of analysing advertising and its objectives.

Over the long term, the television has a different effect. Studies have shown that today's young people have a fundamental orientation towards consumption and that how things are presented plays a far greater role than 20 years ago. This can only be understood in the context of a world in which the lack of material goods is only a problem for the minority. Within this environment, the television contributes to "forming tastes and developing style sensitivities", says Hurrelmann. So it's understandable when Hamburg schoolkids, like Nina, 14, say that they only wear their Nike shoes because they look good, or when Katrin, also 14, works on two days a week just to be able to buy the shoes she wants. Or when 16 year-old Paul enthuses about the iPod. The Hamburg schoolboy has after one of these pieces of digital music equipment for 6 months now. And he says: "Whether or not it's got the Apple logo on it is all the same to me. The iPod just looks good - and you can store loads of music."

Finally, what children and adolescents think about their environment is the greatly derived from their education and the pressure of advertising. More than 70%, according to the Bravo Factor Jugend study, believe that appearance is more important than character.

And they also say that fashion and the way they design their own lifestyle means almost as much to them as does their family.