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A Dissertation on Use & Abuse of Children in Advertising: The Legal Perspective

By Shashikant Bhagat Nalsar Pro ID No. MLH39_09

A Project Paper Submitted in Partial fulfillment of P.G. Diploma in Media Laws for Module IV (Advertisement & Law)

January 2010 Nalsar University of Law (Nalsar Pro), Hyderabad

Table of Contents

Sr. No. 01. Introduction: 02

Heading

Page No. 3-5 6-7 8-11 12-12 13-16 17-17 18-24 25-25 26-26

Parental Influence

03. Advertising in Different Media 04. Marketing Techniques 05. Specific Health Related Areas of Concern Facts & Cases

06. Advertising in Schools 07. Public Perception 08. Conclusion 09. Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

Introduction Advertising is a pervasive inuence on children and adolescents. Young people exposed to advertising on the Internet, in magazines, and in schools. This exposure may contribute signicantly to childhood and adolescent obesity, poor nutrition, and cigarette and alcohol use. Media education has been shown to be effective in mitigating some of the negative effects of advertising on children and adolescents. From a childs point of view, what is the purpose of TV advertising? Is advertising on TV done to give actors the opportunity to take a rest or practice their lines? Or is it done to make people buy things? Furthermore, is the main difference between programs and commercials that commercials are for real, whereas programs are not, or that programs are for kids and commercials for adults? As proved in several cases. Some children are able to distinguish between programs and commercials and are aware of the intent of TV advertising, whereas others are not. There is a general concern of parents and other societal actors, that TV advertising may have a negative, intended or unintended, influence on children Specifically, TV advertising may lead a child to select material objects over more socially oriented alternatives, potentially increase parent-child conflict and may lead to a more disappointed, unhappier child as proved by Goldberg and Gom in1978. One of the reasons behind this parental concern is that children can be exploited more easily if they do not understand the differences between television programming and commercials and if they do not know the selling intent of commercials. If children understand the intention of commercials and are able to distinguish them from programs, however, the potential effect of advertising might be reduced. First, understanding of TV advertising allows children to use cognitive defenses, such as producing counter arguments and alternative situations. Secondly, the recognition of the difference between programs and commercials allows them to avoid the break or commercials by switching to another channel. Hence, whether or not children have an understanding of TV advertising is an important issue to investigate, both from the parents standpoint as understanding may prevent negative influences on the well-being of their children, and from the advertisers standpoint as it will alter the effectiveness of their TV commercials.

However one must understand and realize by now that it is not only about the

1 average child viewer that we are concerned about but also the strategies used by the advertiser and the portrayal of children in these advertisements and the final message they are conveying.

On the issue several European countries forbid or severely curtail advertising to children; in the United States, on the other hand, selling to children is simply business as usual. 1. The average young person views more than 3000 ads per day on television (TV) on the Internet, on billboards, and in magazines. 2. Increasingly, advertisers are targeting younger and younger children in an effort to establish brand-name preference at as early an age as possible. 3. This targeting occurs because advertising is a $250 billion a year industry with 9, 00,000 brands to sell and children and adolescents are attractive consumers. Teenagers globally spend $155 billion a year, children younger than 12 years spend another $25 billion and both groups also inuence perhaps another $200 billion of their parents spending per year. 4. Increasingly, advertisers are seeking to nd new and creative ways of targeting young consumers via the Internet, in schools. Childrens understanding of TV advertising can be decomposed into: 1) Their ability to distinguish between programs and commercials. 2) Their ability to comprehend the selling intent of advertising. To some extent, these two components are related in a hierarchical manner, as comprehension of the selling intent of advertising implies that one is aware of a certain difference between commercials and programs, whereas the opposite does not necessarily hold. It has been shown that most children aged between 5 and 8 years can discriminate between programs and commercials and/or comprehend the purpose of the commercials.

1 Parental influence

One must consider this very important factor as children unlike adults dont have the ability to make decisions and thus have to generally obey and take their parents stand on several issues. This could be due to the fact that children look up to their parents and subconsciously mimic their lifestyles, habits and several other such tendencies and also imbibe a similar mind-set as to that of their parents as circumstances have proven to be severe conditioners in such situations Parents are generally concerned about the (social) well-being of their children. This well-being, from the parental point of view, might be adversely affected by marketing effort directed at their children. In particular, TV advertising on food causes parental concern. In response, parents may try to mediate and control their childrens TV viewing and/or discuss advertising content and intent with their children. Parental control of TV viewing is expected to lower the number of hours a child watches TV and thereby the cumulative experience a child has with TV advertising, which in turn might have a negative effect on the childs understanding of TV advertising. This way, as intended by the parents, control of TV viewing may lower the total effect of TV advertising on the child, but it may also have the opposite effect. Frequent parent-child interaction on TV advertising will most likely not have an effect on the number of hours a child watches TV, but it may have a positive effect on a childs understanding of TV advertising. Evidence of the effectiveness of these attempts to lower the total influence of TV advertising on the child is somewhat mixed, but most studies find no or rather small effects of parental concern. Research has also shown that children younger than 8 years of age are cognitively and psychologically defenseless against advertising. They do not understand the notion of intent to sell and frequently accept advertising claims at face value. In other words they are unable to understand the persuasive factor in the advertisement as well as accept all claims in the advertisements to be true thereby accepting the advertisers word to be true and absolute. In fact, in the late 1970s, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of the United States of America held hearings, re-viewed the existing research, and came to the conclusion that it was unfair and deceptive to advertise to children younger than 6 years. What kept the FTC from banning such ads was that it was thought to be impractical to implement such a ban.

1 However, some Western countries have done exactly that: Sweden and Norway forbid all advertising directed at children younger than 12 years, Greece bans toy advertising until after 10 PM, and Denmark and Belgium severely restrict advertising aimed at children.

But, in India one must note that theres no such restrict on advertisers as theres the lack of presence of an ombudsman which is an unbiased and detached party with the sole purpose of regulation of material broadcasted. Such organizations are: 1. FCC U.S.A 2. OfCom Office of Communication United Kingdom But, in India the advertisers have a self regulatory body called the Advertising Agency Association of India one must however note that such an organization would never hurt its chances and thus would never pass any such legislation which would impede the message it delivers.

1 ADVERTISING IN DIFFERENT MEDIA

Television Children and adolescents view 40,000 ads per year on TV alone. This occurs despite the fact that the Childrens Television Act of 1990 (Pub L No. 101 437) limits advertising on childrens programming to 10.5 minutes per hour on weekends and 12 minutes per hour on weekdays. However, much of childrens viewing occurs during prime time, which features nearly 16 minutes per hour of advertising. A 30-second advertisement during an ODI match played by India now costs about Rs. 2 Cr. but reaches about 8-10 crore people. Similarly, an ad during the Indian Premier League costs even higher because of the popularity of the 20-twenty format and the huge audience willing to watch these matches. An ad on Set Max during IPL-II cost about Rs 6 Cr. The main reason for the appeal of this medium is the diverse nature of its availability. The number of channels and the genre they cater to is also a major concern. If one were to view the Cartoon Network (a part of Turner Broadcasting Service (TBS); channel with highest TRP ratings among kids channels) in a day then one would note the following ads for sure: 1. Funskool, Mattel and Hasbro urging kids to buy their toys and stimulating them with attractive graphics and other scenarios. 2. McDonalds advertising their Happy Meal and trying to lure kids with promises for free toys. 3. Surf and Tide explaining the kids to dirty their clothes and justifying it to them and thus pushing their products in the way. 4. Chocolate manufacturing firms such as Cadbury, Nestle and Hersheys, trying to push their products. 5. Ads for clothing brands like Gini & Joni Kids collection, Weekender kids and several more.

Movies

1 An investigation found that violent movies, music, and video games have been intentionally marketed to children and adolescents. Although movie theaters have agreed not to show trailers for A-rated movies before U and U/A rated movies in response to the release of the report, children continue to see advertising for violent media in other venues.

For instance, M-rated video games (Mature), which according to the gaming industrys own rating system are not recommended for children younger than 17 years, are frequently advertised in movie theaters, video game magazines, and publications with high youth readership. Also, movies targeted at children often prominently feature brand-name products and fast food restaurants. In 19971998, 8 alcohol companies placed products in 233 motion pictures and in 1 episode or more of 181 TV series. For instance one must note the major trend in films to endorse brands, the soft drink drunk by the heroine in the teen-targeted movie Mera Pehla Pehla Pyar (MP3) was Pepsi or Shah Rukh Khan drove a Bentley in the movie Billu (Barber) or Hrithik Roshan drinking Bournvita in Krrish and Koi Mil Gaya clearly with an aim to influence the young minds.

Print Media

1 According to the RNI there are more than 50 magazines in India that are now targeted at children and the youth. Young people see 45% more beer ads and 27% more ads for hard liquor in teen magazines than adults do in their magazines globally. Despite the government's agreement with the tobacco industry in 1998, surrogate advertising of tobacco firms in the youth-oriented magazines amounted to $217 million in 2009.

One must realize that the youth are very impressionable when it comes to perceiving messages broadcast via a particular medium and thus find magazines and comics very trustworthy at their age. Ads of chocolates, confectionery items, sweets, toys, cartoons and other children entertainment industry related companies find such magazines to be an ideal place for advertising. The development era has ensured that todays children dont read mere magazines like Champak or Chandamama or comics like Chacha Chaudry but are now exposed to a whole set of youth magazines like Chatterbox, Just another Magazine (JAM), Gokulam and to comics like Tinkle digest, Archie Comics, and the whole International range of comics from Detective Comics (DC) and Marvel and these publications are now littered with ads and other such promotional material. With the entry of computer help and gaming magazines in India like PC Quest, Game Force, Computers @ Home and Digit the publications have moved even to the digital platforms of their readers homes. Movie promos, free software demos and demos of games are doled out for free on complementary CDs and DVDs which children are excited to exercise and later purchase.

The Internet

1 An increasing number of Web sites try to entice children and teenagers to make direct sales. Teenagers account for more than $1 billion in e-commerce dollars, and the industry spent $21.6 million on Internet banner ads alone in 2002.

More than 100 commercial Web sites promote alcohol products. The content of these sites varies widely, from little more than basic brand information to chat rooms, virtual bars, drink recipes, games, contests, and merchandise catalogues. Many of these sites use slick promotional techniques to target young people. In 1998, the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act (Pub L No. 105277) was passed, which mandates that commercial Web sites cannot knowingly collect information from children younger than 13 years. These sites are required to provide notice on the site to parents about their collection, use, and disclosure of childrens personal information and must obtain veriable parental consent before collecting, using, or disclosing this information. With the advent of networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Orkut, MySpace and blogging websites like Blogger, BlogSpot and several other such interactive sites there has been an astronomical rise in the time spent by children over the net. Consequently this has become an exciting proposition for advertisers and as a result the number of specific ads has increased over the last decade. The specific ads era, ushered in by Google ensures that only ads of items you are interested in, appear on display thus clearly implying that it becomes increasingly difficult for kids to separate information from advertisements and so on.

MARKETING TECHNIQUES Advertisers have traditionally used techniques to which children and adolescents are more susceptible, such as product placements in movies and TV shows, tie ins between movies and fast food restaurants, 18 tie ins between TV shows and toy action gures or other products, 7 kids clubs that are linked to popular shows, and celebrity endorsements.

1 Cellular phones are currently being marketed to 6- to 12-year-olds, with the potential for directing specic advertisers to children and preteens. Coca-Cola reportedly paid Warner Bros. Studios $150 million for the global marketing rights to the movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, and nearly 20% of fast food restaurant ads now mention a toy premium in their ads.

Certain tie-in products may be inappropriate for children (e.g., action gures from the World Wrestling Federation or an action doll that mutters profanities from an R-rated Austin Powers movie). Childrens advertising protections will need to be updated for digital TV, which is in place today. In the near future, children watching a TV program will be able to click an on-screen link and go to a Web site during the program. Interactive games and promotions on digital TV will have the ability to lure children away from regular programming, encouraging them to spend a long time in an environment that lacks clear separation between content and advertising. Interactive technology may also allow advertisers to collect vast amounts of information about childrens viewing habits and preferences and target them on the basis of that information. Along with this is the fear of using digital environment to create virtual reality the digital computer and online games created have transformed the entire scene. It has become nearly impossible to separate children from such games as they begin to be more steeped in virtual reality than real existence.

SPECIFIC HEALTH-RELATED AREAS OF CONCERN Tobacco Advertising

1 Tobacco manufacturers spend $30 million/day ($11.2billion/year) on advertising and promotion. Exposure to tobacco advertising may be a bigger risk factor than having family members and peers who smoke and can even undermine the effect of strong parenting practices.

Two unique and large longitudinal studies have found that approximately one third of all adolescent smoking can be attributed to tobacco advertising and promotions. In addition, more than 20 studies have found that children exposed to cigarette ads or promotions are more likely to become smokers themselves. Recent evidence has emerged that tobacco companies have specically targeted teenagers as young as 13 years of age. However, in India there has been a blanket ban on cigarette advertising but the concept of surrogate advertising has been potent enough in conveying the message to the people at large. ITC doesnt advertise its cigarettes but Wills club lifestyle and several other such named ITC products only arouse the childs curiosity and thus make him find out that it is a cigarette manufacturer. Soon, the very purpose of the ban on cigarette smoking is defeated as the public though not viewing these ads but is aware of similar named products and thus is also aware of the other products.

Alcohol Advertising

Alcohol manufacturers spend $5.7 billion/year on advertising and promotion. Young people typically view 2000 beer and wine commercials annually, with most of the ads concentrated in sports programming. During prime time, only 1 alcohol ad appears every 4 hours. Yet, in sports programming, the frequency increases to 2.4 ads per hour. Research has found that adolescent drinkers are more likely to have been exposed to alcohol advertising. Given that children begin making decisions about

1 alcohol at an early ageprobably during high school exposure to beer commercials represents a signicant risk factor.

The same surrogate advertising scenario is of major concern in this scene too as people must note and observe that liquor manufacturers especially the UB group advertises only soda and non-alcoholic beverages but so strategically that the viewer is aware of the alcoholic products they manufacture. In the popular IPL theres even a team called the Royal Challengers Bangalore clearly informing the public that the only thing actually royal about them is the beverage manufactured by their team owner Royal Challenge.

Drug Advertising Just Say No as a message to teenagers about drugs seems doomed to failure given that $11 billion every year is spent on cigarette advertising, $5.7 billion per year is spent on alcohol advertising, and nearly $4 billion per year is spent on prescription drug advertising. Drug companies now spend more than twice as much on marketing as they do on research and development. The top 10 drug companies made a total prot of $57.9 billion in 2008-09, more than the other 490 companies in the Fortune 500 combined. Is such advertising effective? A recent survey of physicians found that 92% of patients had requested an advertised drug. In addition, children and teenagers may get the message that there is a drug available to cure all ills and heal all pain, a drug for every occasion (including sexual intercourse).

Food Advertising and Obesity Advertisers spend more than $2.5 billion/year to promote restaurants and another $2 billion to promote food products. On TV, of the estimated 40 000 ads per year that young people see, half are for food, especially sugared cereals and highcalorie snacks. Healthy foods are advertised less than 3% of the time; children rarely see a food advertisement for broccoli. Increasingly, fast food conglomerates are using toy

1 tie-ins with major childrens motion pictures to try to attract young people. Nearly 20% of fast food ads now mention a toy premium in their commercials. Several studies document that young children request more junk food (dened as foods with high-caloric density but very low nutrient density) after viewing commercials. In a particular, earlier study, the amount of TV viewed per week correlated with requests for specic foods and with caloric intake. At the same time, advertising healthy foods has been shown to increase wholesome eating in children as young as 3 to 6 years of age.

Sex in Advertising Sex is used in commercials to sell everything from beer to shampoo to cars. New research is showing that teenagers exposure to sexual content in the media maybe responsible for earlier onset of sexual intercourse or other sexual related activities. What is increasingly apparent is the discrepancy between the abundance of advertising of products for erectile dysfunction (ED), (between January and October, 2004, drug companies spent $343 million advertising Viagra, Levitra, and Cialis) and the rise in advertising for birth control products or emergency contraceptives like i-pill on the major TV networks.

This instills a false sense of security in minds of the young who feel their sexual activities will be of no consequence as they would be covered up by these drugs which is consequentially leading to a morally challenged youth in the world. Ads for ED drugs give children and teens inappropriate messages about sex and sexuality at a time when they are not being taught sex education in school.

1 Research has denitively found that giving teenagers increased access to birth control through advertising does make them sexually active at a younger age.

One must note that these ads above discussed, though are not broadcast on television or national media in India however make it in to India via spam in email. The number of ads in a youths inbox for ED drugs is huge and children have constantly been traumatized across the country for having what they feel are inadequate organ sizes. These teens are at a confusing stage in their life cycle totally unaware of their new bodily trends and are further surprised and stressed at such sort of information as they are particularly in India devoid and starved of any form of sexual education or instruction. Global advertising also frequently uses female models that are anorectic in appearance and, thus, may contribute to the development of a distorted body selfimage and abnormal eating behaviors in young girls. This is also a major concern further because people globally are surprised with the portrayal of women as mere objects of sexual fantasy and thus their portrayal in poor light is a major problem as these ads lead a child to feel that woman are no humans but objects to fulfill ones needs!

ADVERTISING IN SCHOOLS

Advertisers have slowly but steadily inltrated school systems around the country. The 3 Rs have now become the 4 Rs, with the fourth R being retail.Ads are now appearing on school buses, in gymnasiums, on book covers, and even in bathroom stalls.

1 More than 200 school districts in the US have signed exclusive contracts with soft drink companies. These agreements specify the number and placement of soda-vending machines, which is ironic given that schools risk losing federal subsidies for their free breakfast and lunch programs if they serve soda in their cafeterias.

In addition, there are more than 4500 Pizza Hut chains and 3000 Taco Bell chains in school cafeterias in the US. However the scenario in India is different but in urban schools one can find such machines of Horlicks, Bournvita and Boost installed at schools and also the new trend of fast food joints on school premises has been a major concern. Recently, posh urban schools across the country have had retail outlets of Caf Coffee Day and Barista installed in their premises clearly indicating that students in school are no longer safe from blatant consumerism. School advertising also appears under the guise of educational TV: Channel One. Currently available in 12 000 schools across the world, Channel One consists of 10 minutes of current-events programming and 2 minutes of commercials. Advertisers pay $200 000 for advertising time and the opportunity to target 40% of the worlds teenagers for 30 seconds. According to a recent UN report, Channel One now plays in 25% of the Worlds middle and high schools and generates prots estimated at $100 million annually.

Public Perception This article was present on the worldwide web and is an article which duly summarizes our analysis: Children, Advertising & Target: Why Kids Want So Much This item was written by Savita Iyer-Ahrestani. a freelance financial journalist from The Netherlands who blogs for Working Parents.

1 Almost all the American parents I have met while living overseas say that the two things they miss most about the States are online shopping and Target (TGT), which in our times have become pretty much one and the same thing.

In the four years that I have lived outside the US, I, too, have missed the convenience of Target and its panoply of both store and online choices. But like every other American expat parent Ive met, I also have a real fear of returning to that world of temptation, for I remember all too well setting out on shopping trips to buy, say, a pack of batteries, and returning home with all manner of things I had no intention of getting in the first place. The greatest fear I and the fellow Americans Ive met overseas share is the impact of the easy consumer culture that Target et. al. stand for on our children. Living overseasparticularly in The Netherlands, which is a very basic, no-frills-atall kind of placeour kids have been shielded from the I wants and I needs that the world (myself included) associates with America. How easily can it ensnare these kids once they get back to the States? I asked Allison Pugh, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Virginia and author of Longing and Belonging: Parents, Children and Consumer Culture, what advice she had for me, taking my two tabula rasa childrenaged eight and five and with no recollection of America (they left the US in 2005)back to New Jersey in a couple of months. Good luck, she said with a laugh. I told her my favorite European vs. American story: A French grandmother I know went to the States for her granddaughters (whose father is American) birthday. As the French and many other European grandparents do, she took one very exquisite and quite expensive dress for the little girl. But it was completely overshadowed by the American grandmother and her armfuls of gifts, tossed into a corner without a second glance. The French grandmother said she had never felt so embarrassed in her life.

Im quite frightened about the onslaught of mass consumerism-even though theres a recession, I still feel that American children want and get so much more than children I have seen in Europe, I told Pugh. Should I be afraid of this? Yes, she says, there is definitely something to be scared of. The whopping $17 billion thats spent on advertising geared specifically toward childrenthe giant monster that American parents Ive had discussions with overseas are really afraid ofis certainly something to fear (I dont think I have seen ads for kids stuff on Dutch TV, come to think of it). But although advertising certainly fuels kids needs

1 and wants, Allison argues that it cant be held wholly responsible for the impact of consumer culture on children.

In her bookbased on her doctoral dissertationPugh says that childrens desires stem less from striving for status or falling victim to advertising than from their longing to join the conversation at school or in the neighborhood. In turn, parents answer this yearning to belong by buying the particular goods and experiences that act as passports in childrens social worlds, because they empathize with their childrens fear of being different from their peers. They want their kids to belong, and this continues even under financial duress. Pugh studied children and parents from different socio-economic classes and found this pattern to be the same. Its okay to give into the conversation every now and then. Pugh says, and as a parent bringing my kids to a new place, I would be inclined to want to help them belong to that place as much as I can. But Pugh also says that shes quite pessimistic about individual kids abilities to withstand the pressures and fight against materialism and handle their differences. Parents are afraid of their children being excluded and left out, but ultimately the solution will come from us not just talking the talk and walking the walk about difference, but actually celebrating it, in terms of ethnicity, social class, and all kinds of other differences, Pugh says. Many middle-class American parents Ive met like to say theyre not materialistic, that they dont buy their children anything. Yet when you walk into kids bedrooms theyre often filled to the brimwith stuff thats rarely even touched. I find thiswhich Pugh says is the honorable thing to saymore pronounced among Americans than any other race Ive met, so despite my discussion with her, I am still nervous about my childrens return to the US.

As, we can summaries from the article that branding and advertising over the media has created a vicious cycle as a human beings wants never end. This further creates an impressionable perception in the eyes of the viewer especially if he has been brought up in those circumstances. No, wonder the global recession happened in America not because of poor accounting or banking policies but because of the inability of the average US citizen to save. He has forgotten saving and lives on credit all thanks to the

1 massive consumerism cycle that has been started and will end only when the entire country bankrupts or the cycle is broken.

This becomes further important to us as our policymakers have increasingly mimicked the American success model and no wonder our children are no longer far behind and could soon end up the same way. Thus it is essential to note that we must prevent our childrens minds from being addled and destroyed by a massive attack of consumerism.

The second article to be now discussed will analyse the paradigm shift in the mindset of the average American. The article is by, Rebecca Clay a reporter for the Washington Post Ever since he first started practicing, Berkeley, Calif., psychologist Allen D. Kanner, PhD, has been asking his younger clients what they wanted to do when they grew up. The answer used to be "nurse," "astronaut" or some other occupation with intrinsic appeal.

1 Today the answer is more likely to be "make money." For Kanner, one explanation for that shift can be found in advertising."Advertising is a massive, multi-million dollar project that's having an enormous impact on child development," says Kanner, who is also an associate faculty member at a clinical psychology training program called the Wright Institute. "The sheer volume of advertising is growing rapidly and invading new areas of childhood, like our schools."

According to Kanner, the result is not only an epidemic of materialistic values among children, but also something he calls "narcissistic wounding" of children. Thanks to advertising, he says, children have become convinced that they're inferior if they don't have an endless array of new products. Now Kanner and several colleagues are up-in-arms about psychologists and others who are using psychological knowledge to help marketers target children more effectively. They're outraged that psychologists and others are revealing such tidbits as why 3- to 7-year-olds gravitate toward toys that transform themselves into something else and why 8- to 12-year-olds love to collect things. Last fall, Kanner and a group of 59 other psychologists and psychiatrists sent a controversial letter protesting psychologists' involvement to APA. In response, at its June meeting, APA's Board of Directors acted on a recommendation from the Board for the Advancement of Psychology in the Public Interest and approved the creation of a task force to study the issue. The task force will examine the research on advertising's impact on children and their families and develop a research agenda. The group will look at the role psychologists play in what some consider the exploitation of children and consider how psychology can help minimize advertising's harmful effects and maximize its positive effects.

The group will also explore implications for public policy. Task force members will be chosen in consultation with Div. 37 (Child, Youth and Family Services) and other relevant divisions. Unethical practices? The letter protesting psychologists' involvement in children's advertising was written by Commercial Alert, a Washington, D.C., advocacy organization. The letter calls marketing to children a violation of APA's mission of mitigating human suffering, improving the condition of both individuals and society, and helping the public develop informed judgments.

1 Urging APA to challenge what it calls an "abuse of psychological knowledge," the letter asks APA to: Issue a formal, public statement denouncing the use of psychological principles in marketing to children.

Amend APA's Ethics Code to limit psychologists' use of their knowledge and skills to observe and study, mislead or exploit children for commercial purposes. Launch an ongoing campaign to investigate the use of psychological research in marketing to children, publish an evaluation of the ethics of such use, and promote strategies to protect children against commercial exploitation by psychologists and others using psychological principles. "The information psychologists are giving to advertisers is being used to increase profits rather than help children," says Kanner, who helped collect signatures for the letter. "The whole enterprise of advertising is about creating insecure people who believe they need to buy things to be happy. I don't think most psychologists would believe that's a good thing. There's an inherent conflict of interest." Advertisers' efforts seem to work. According to marketing expert James U. McNeal, PhD, author of "The Kids Market: Myths and Realities" (Paramount Market Publishing, 1999), children under 12 already spend a whopping $28 billion a year. Teen-agers spend $100 billion. Children also influence another $249 billion spent by their parents. The effect this rampant consumerism has on children is still unknown, says Kanner. In an informal literature review, he found many studies about how to make effective ads but not a single study addressing ads' impact on children. Instead, he points to research done by Tim Kasser, PhD, an assistant professor of psychology at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill. In a series of studies, Kasser has found that people who strongly value wealth and related traits tend to have higher levels of distress and lower levels of well-being, worse relationships and less connection to their communities. "Psychologists who help advertisers are essentially helping them manipulate children to believe in the capitalistic message, when all the evidence shows that believing in that message is bad for people," says Kasser. "That's unethical." Driving out psychologists Psychologists who help companies reach children don't agree. Take Whiton S. Paine, PhD, an assistant professor of business studies at Richard Stockton College in Pomona, N.J. As principal of a Philadelphia consulting firm called Kid2Kid, Paine helps Fortune 500 companies market to children.

1 Paine has no problem with launching a dialogue about psychologists' ethical responsibilities or creating standards similar to ones used in Canada and Europe to protect children from commercial exploitation. Such activities will actually help his business, he says, by giving him leverage when clients want to do something that would inadvertently harm children. What Paine does have a problem with is driving psychologists out of the business.

"If you remove ethical psychologists from the decision-making process in an ad's creation, who's left?" he asks. "People who have a lot less sensitivity to the unique vulnerabilities of children."Others who have read the proposal point out that psychological principles are hardly confidential. "We can't stop alcohol or tobacco companies from using the basic research findings and theories found in textbooks and academic journals," says Curtis P. Haugtvedt, PhD, immediate past president of Div. 23 (Consumer Psychology) and an associate professor of marketing at Ohio State University in Columbus. "The same issue exists for all sciences: the information is available in public libraries." The problem with trying to regulate the use of psychological principles is that "people acting in ways psychologists find objectionable probably aren't members of APA anyway," says Haugtvedt, who received a copy of the Commercial Alert letter. He believes that having general guidelines as to appropriate uses and areas of concern would be beneficial to all parties.

Daniel S. Acuff, PhD, for example, draws on the child development courses he took during his graduate schooling in education to advise such clients as Disney, Hasbro and Kraft. His book "What Kids Buy and Why: The Psychology of Marketing to Kids" (Free Press, 1997) draws on child development research to show product developers and marketers how to reach children more effectively. To Acuff, the letter to APA is not only an "unconstitutional" attempt to limit how professionals make their living but also a misguided overgeneralization. Since Acuff and his partner started their business in 1979, they have had a policy guiding their choice of projects. As a result, they turn down assignments dealing with violent video games, action figures armed with weapons and other products they believe are bad for children. Their work focuses instead on products

1 that they consider either good for children or neutral, such as snacks and sugary foods parents can use as special treats. The letter to APA fails to acknowledge that psychological principles can be used for good as well as bad, he says.

"I don't agree with black-and-white thinking," says Acuff, president of Youth Market Systems Consulting in Sherman Oaks, Calif. "Psychology in itself is neither good nor bad. It's just a tool like anything else." This article also further discusses the various issues and clearly indicates that USA the pinnacle of global consumerism and the pioneer in mass advertising is now paying the consequences for having followed too much of it. India must take cue from it and formulate a policy to restrict Child advertising before we face an entire generation of people who would spend a huge amount for a luxury car without thinking about the practicality of tomorrows dinner.

CONCLUSIONS

Clearly, advertising represents big business in the Global scenario, and can have a signicant effect on young people. Unlike free speech, commercial speech does not enjoy the same protections under the First Amendment of the Constitution. Advertisements can be restricted or even banned if there is a signicant public health risk. Cigarette advertising and alcohol advertising would seem to fall squarely into this category, and ads for junk food could easily be restricted. One solution that is noncontroversial and would be easy to implement is to educate children and teenagers about the effects of advertisingmedia literacy.

1 Curricula have been developed that teach young people to become critical viewers of media in all of its forms, including advertising.

Media education seems to be protective in mitigating harmful effects of media, including the effects of cigarette, alcohol, and food advertising.

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viii) www.dogpile.com ix) www.google.com