But kids do have income increases and their highest years of earning ahead of them. That has to be worth something.

How visible are AOL Instant Messenger ads to you these days? ;)

Point. But I'm not going to discount the non-zero effect they likely still have on my reasoning for choosing certain brands when all else is equal.

that's a fundamental misunderstanding of marketing. you probably subconsciously remember some of the ads, and even assimilated some of those messages into your psyche without realizing it. these probably manifest in ways like when you want to buy something and can't help but seem partial to a particular brand even though you're not sure why.

It will be worth something when they actually spend those dollars. Until then, we are talking about potential. Remember the dotcom days, lots of potential.