“When Alan Roberto Lima was growing up in Vila Aliança, a notoriously violent favela on the western outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, only the community’s elite could afford mobile phones.

“The bandits and the big businessmen,” said Lima, 33, whose family has lived in the community since 1962, when the government evicted thousands of slum dwellers, including his mother, from the city centre and packed them off to housing estates such as Vila Aliança. Today things have changed. Just as the heavily armed drug traffickers have seized control of the slums since the 1980s, so too have mobiles.

“Cell phones are just like cellulite – any old bum has it,” said Lima, who pays R$140 (£40) a month for his Nextel radio phone with 400 free minutes and which helps him run his beachwear business, which produces over 1,000 pairs of Bermuda shorts each month for the chic boutiques of Ipanema and Copacabana.

Brazil is at the forefront of the mobile phone revolution. According to figures released last month by Brazil’s telecommunications regulator, Anatel, 1.3 million new mobile phone users were registered in January 2009 alone, taking the total number of users in Brazil to 151.9 million out of a total population of 190 million. On the frontline of the mobile phone’s charge in South America are the red brick shanty towns of cities such as Rio and São Paulo. Mobile phone companies are increasingly targeting the slums in search of new customers.

“Without my mobile, my business would become unviable,” said Lima, whose family business helps dress Rio’s fashionable beachgoers.”

The report is somewhat akin to a soft ‘moral panic’ stating that young people who are kings of the digital age are costly to keep, pragmatic, lacking idealism and generally lost or confused in a world of endless choice, much of which is bought on by their being endlessly online. The internet and social media is in part blamed for young people’s lack of reflexivity and a ‘look at me’ culture, meanwhile the growth of social contacts via Orkut has fuelled increased party attendance and this is blmed for increased drinking and drug taking amongst Brazilians.The article however also seeks to criticise teens for having lost the sense of revolution that their parents exhibited, worrying only about getting into stable employment and receiving a good salary.
The shift in power relations due to adoption of technologies is also seen as a factor behind how young people now increasingly control household spending behaviour and the fact that young people are now 5 times more expensive than 30 years ago.
The article which starts by drawing comparison to Holden Caulfield’s crisis of 2 generations ago ends with a list of recommendations to parents on how to raise their children with reference to such issues as – how to get them to answer the phone, or stop exposing too much of their lives online!

If you would like to know more about our own extensive and less sensationalist research report into Young Lives across South America – please click here

TWRAmericas have recently completed a major study of Trends among young consumers (ages 15-19) in Brasil across various cities and with youth of a variety of ages.

The study looked at a range of issues inclusing young peoples values and influences, the role that media and new technologies play in their lives, as well as the role of brands and advertising within their own youth cultures.

The research involved a wide range of qualitative methodologies – from focus groups to online interviews and digital ethnography

If you would like to know more about the project or to see some of the findings please get in touch and we’ll send  a copy of the Vidas Jovens DVD Report to you.

Samsung launched their action “Its Hot, Its Cold” by putting a block of ice in front of the luxurious Shopping Morumbi with the company’s products inside. The promotion will giveaway products to the consumer that hits – or near – the date, time and exact minute when the cube has completely melted. Through infrared laser sensors, an alarm will be triggered when the ice thaws.

The promotion was made in partnership with the interactive agency Digital One in partnership with Dudinka.

Use water responsibly!

I may be being a touch sensitive given that as a result of severe floods here in the south of Brazil, i Iike many people was without water for some time – nothing in comparison to the thousands of people who have lost lives, property, loved ones etc – HOWEVER… I’m not sure that the timing of my discovering this outdoor advertisement on a bus shelter from a water company promoting more conscientious consumption of water is the only thing that left me dumbfounded. In case you can’t see from the photo the shell of the advert contains water itself in the bottom half. Not only the water but the electricity required to keep the water circulating within the plastic case of the poster seem to go against the theme of the message. It did get my attention though!

discussion group on stage -

Tuesday – presentation 1

presentation 2

presentation 3

To mark the UN Environment Day, TWRAmericas undertook a series of discussion groups with Brazilians to look not only at the issues as they relate to consumers in Brazil but also broader issues of sustainable development and ethical consumerism. The groups approached a broad range of subjects including current behaviours and responses to a range of ‘green’ advertising and activities by brands. Their are a series of 5 video clips with the thoughts of the participants. Please feel free to add your own own comments or thoughts on the issues discussed.

In this third section of clips respondents discuss a range of green advertising and its influence on their behaviour as consumers.