Children and Ads

Facts

Ads and Children: Two Aspects

Using Children

Targeting Children

Some TV Network Guidelines for Childrens Advertising

Must not over glamorize product Mom No exhortative language, such as Ask mom to buy Generally no celebrity endorsements Cant use only or just in regard to price Generally no comparative or superiority claims No costumes or props not available with the toy Three-second establishing shot of toy in relation to child No shots under one second in length

Colgate, for e.g., targets young children in the age group of 5 to 12 and offers free cartoon booklets along with toothpastes. Pepsodent vies for the same consumer segment and depicts some children relishing snacks, confectionery and sweets, while others are scolded by their mothers for having done the same thing. This advertisement makes children believe that consumers who use Pepsodent are immune to any tooth decay because of the superior quality of the product. This claim is unauthenticated and attempts to mislead children.

Marketing contributes to many problems facing children today 1 Marketing directly to children is a factor in the childhood obesity epidemic. Marketing also encourages eating disorders, precocious sexuality, youth violence and family stress and contributes to childrens diminished capability to play creatively. 2, 3 As young children are developing their gender identities, they are flooded with ads for products promoting sexualized stereotypes. There are 40,000 Disney Princess items on the market today. 4 Violent movies, like Spiderman and Transformers, market toys that promote violence to boy Very young children cant distinguish between commercials and program content; even older children sometimes fail to recognize product placement as advertising. Marketers often denigrate adults and exploit older childrens desires to fit in with their peers and rebel against authority figures as a selling point for their products.

There is a growing movement to protect children from marketing In recent years, organizations and coalitions including the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood have formed to stop the commercial exploitation of children. National and international public health organizations, including the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, World Health Organization, and the Institutes for Medicine have called for restrictions on marketing to children. 21 A 2007 Wall Street Journal poll showed that 64% of people surveyed believe that popular characters from television and movies should not be used to sell products to children. About half believe that marketing should be prohibited to children under 12. 22 On the national level, legislation has been introduced to restore the Federal Trade Commissions authority to regulate marketing to children. Several states have passed legislation to restrict junk food marketing in schools.

How Marketers Target Kids Kids represent an important demographic to marketers because they have their own purchasing power, they influence their parents' buying decisions and they're the adult consumers of the future. guilt can play a role in spending decisions as time-stressed parents substitute material goods for time spent with their kids.

Here are some of the strategies marketers employ to target children and teens: 1. Pester Power- Pester power" refers to children's ability to nag their parents into purchasing items they may not otherwise buy. Marketing to children is all about creating pester power, because advertisers know what a powerful force it can be. 2. The marriage of psychology and marketing 3. Building brand name loyalty- Marketers plant the seeds of brand recognition in very young children, in the hopes that the seeds will grow into lifetime relationships. According to the Center for a New American Dream, babies as young as six months of age can form mental images of corporate logos and mascots. Brand loyalties can be established as early as age two, and by the time children head off to school most can recognize hundreds of brand logos. 4. Buzz or street marketing 5. Commercialization in education Contests and incentive programs: for example, the Pizza Hut reading incentives program in which children receive certificates for free pizza if they achieve a monthly reading goal; or Campbell's Labels for Education project, in which Campbell provides educational resources for schools in exchange for soup labels collected by students.

6. The Internet

Using Children in Ads

McDonalds

Volkswagen
Pepsodent Diapers

Kingfisher Airlines
Duracell

The issues:

Children between 2-14 performing for hours on sets,

sometimes equivalent hours to adults. Hampering the overall growth of these young actors especially in terms of education and bonding with their age-group. In later part of their life, the adolescents find it hard to adapt to normal life since they have already seen the glamor in there pregnable stage of life.

Effect of Ads on Children

The impact of - Family, Religion and Education

has noticeably decreased over time. Single most influencing factor is television. It was found that children between the age of 2 and 11 watch an average of 21.5 hours of TV a week and may see between 22000 and 25,000 commercials a year.
(Brand Equity: Nov 2011)

Both parents work in a single family

Children are left to themselves for the whole week

At weekends parents try to make up for the week.

 Advertisers are targeting this mentality of consumers

to drive in the sales. Affecting children and attracting them towards their products.

But what are the consequences?

The issues
Children have impregnable minds. These

advertisements affect them tremendously. Television viewing which frequently limits childrens time for vital activities such as playing, reading, learning to talk, spending time with peers and family, storytelling, participating in regular exercise, and developing other necessary physical, mental and social skills, It has become the major source of information and entertainment and mostly guides their thinking and living patterns.

 Media heavily promotes unhealthy and mal

nutritious food like instant food, junk food and sachet packed food.

When children see smart and attractive models eating junk food, they feel it will good for them, hence long queues in McD and Pizza Hut at weekends.

At other times, creating problems for children like

depression, low self-esteem and other issues that come from not having what they want.

It is a war between marketers and the family where the marketer is using is money and resources to entice children and the family its strength and values to protect the children. We can continue to hope the family wins.

References
[1] Alan Thein Durning, How Much is Enough: The Consumer Society and the Future of the Earth, ed.
Linda Starke, Worldwatch Environmental Alert Series (London: Earthscan, 1992), p. 120. [2] Amy Aidman, `Advertising in Schools', (University of Illinois, Illinois: ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education, 1995); David France, `This lesson is brought to you by...', Good Housekeeping, Vol. 222 (February 1996) [3] Sian Powell and Bernard Zuel, `Marketers' influence over young challenged', Sydney Morning Herald, 3 September 1993 [4] Leonie Lamont, `Challenge to children's advertising', Sydney Morning Herald, 28 May 1996; Kerry Sunderland, `Corporate Sponsorship in the Classroom', Youth Studies Australia (Autumn 1994), p. 25. [5] Betsy Wagner, `Our class is brought to you today by...advertisers target a captive market: school kids',US News & World Report, Vol. 118, No. 16 (1995), p. 63; France, op.cit.; Rhoda H. Karpatkin and Anita Holmes, `Making schools ad-free zones', Educational Leadership, Vol. 53, No. 1 (1995). [6] Tom McGee and Kevin Heubusch, `Getting Inside Kids' Heads', American Demographics, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1997). [7] T. L. Stanley, `Kiddie Cars', Brandweek, Vol. 36 (23 October 1995)