Online marketing is now being used to sell back-to-school products to young people, specifically using social media technologies.

JupiterResearch found that companies in the USA were beginning to take advantage, with JC Penney's latest internet marketing strategy one of the most interesting.

Its marketing department has created an online game, labelled DorkDodge, in which a girl has to, well, dodge a load of dorks until she gets to her "dream date" - presumably the high school football captain.

All of this is intended to market JC Penney's new line of clothes, as well as having the unintended effect of causing numerous young men to be ridiculed for looking like one of the dorks in the game.

However, JupiterResearch did not think social media and other so-called Web 2.0 products will help with direct sales.

"The back-to-school season has grown in importance for retailers and leads into the all important fourth quarter sales period," said JupiterResearch's Patti Freeman Evans.

"With the shaky economy expected to impact the amount of money consumers spend on back-to-school shopping, retailers are using social media to capture the attention of younger consumers."

But with kids spending more and more time online isn't there a risk that they are getting exposed to just a little too much online marketing?

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