What

Consumerism. Companies are realizing it's a trend on which they can capitalize, so it's being used as a tool to make money. And kids that would rather go to the mall to have an identity sold to them than develop one of their own are just feeding into it.

I was actually thinking, when I mute the TV but leave it on so I don't feel so godawful alone, that a lot of kids cartoons have a generic goth/punk/we saw Invader Zim a couple times character. Is that just to make tiny gothtots watch the show, then?