Child Advertising

Child Advertising

In recent years, marketing companies have adapted to the changing society and have found innovative techniques to advertise their products to a younger, more vulnerable market. Since Reagan's deregulation, which was initiated in the 1970's opened the floodgates to advertisements; marketing industries have been on the rise. Marketing companies have begun to play a major role in the lives of children, especially those under twelve, incorporating advertisements into their everyday lives. Today, the average child can't go a single day without viewing an ad on television, in a magazine, on the Internet, or even in school. For advertisers, children are merely business opportunities, used to expand production and increase profit. Ads are aimed at manipulating their target market, and snuck into places where neither parent nor child is aware they are present. Companies use numerous tactics to market to such a young audience and generally get away with it through several rationalizations. Though these advertisements provide the marketing industries with major gains in profit, there are numerous negative consequences that pose a threat to the overall well being of the child. With more and more health issues arising in today's society, the blame is placed on many advertising companies; presenting the question of whether or not they should be allowed to continue targeting such a young audience. Today the youngest members of society are being exposed to more advertisements than ever before, ultimately benefiting the marketing industries that promote them but consequently harming the young people who view them.

Advertising plays a major role in the lives of children as it influences their perspective of themselves and those around them. Children are immature beings who tend to want what others have in an attempt to seem "cooler". This concept of being "cool" is represented through advertising, as it paints a certain picture for what children should want and what everyone else their age has. The mind set of the majority of children under the age of twelve is that if you don't have the new things advertised on TV, then you are inferior to your peers who do posses them. Children tend to see things on television, then immediately want and ask for them because they seem so appealing. This benefits advertisers who recognize children are easily influenced by advertisements on a daily basis, as they view more than 3000 ads per day on television, on the Internet, or in printed materials (Strasburger 1). Another reason is that children are easily manipulated based on biological factors, where research has proven that children under the age of eight 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" (Strasburger 1). This gives reason to why child obesity is on the rise; children don't have the knowledge or reasoning to decide for themselves what food is healthy or unhealthy. They simply want what looks more "taste appealing" in ads and choose the better looking foods, ones with higher sugar and fat content, when they should be eating the less advertised, healthy foods. Advertisers aren't stupid, they are fully aware that these children are at an age where they are will buy whatever they think will help them fit in and seem "cool" regardless of how it affects their health. The message that advertisers are sending to children is that if you don't have a particular product than you are inferior. Dan Cook states it similarly saying that children have a "feeling of inadequacy if this or that product is not in their possession" (Cook 207). Since children view over 40,000 advertisements annually on television alone, it's influence on children and how they perceive themselves and those around them is inevitable.

As mentioned before, advertisers are not unintelligent; they know exactly what they are doing and utilize various techniques to attain their consumer goals. Such techniques have been tested and re-tested to find the most useful and effective methods to reach their audiences. "Advertisers over the years have blindly felt their way around the underside of the American psyche, and by trial and error have discovered the softest points of entrée, the places where their messages have the greatest likelihood of getting by consumers defenses" (Fowles 62). This gives reason to why advertisers have recently begun to target younger audiences, going so far as to establish brand-name preferences at birth. "Marketing efforts aimed at children are fueled by much well-funded research into the cognitive and behavioral effects of advertising on very young subjects" (Connor 6). Advertisers are directing their products to the most vulnerable viewers both consciously and vigilantly. "The younger the age at which brand awareness is established, the stronger the brand loyalty will be as the child grows" (Connor 1). This concept of branding is a method used to create positive associations and recognition with a company name or label, intending to establish a lifelong customer. However, this is not the only technique advertisers use. Other methods include, product placement, blink testing, micro-targeting, and fine-tuning. All of which are utilized to maximize the effect the advertisement has on the subjects. Product placement is one technique that requires advertisers to pay a fee to have their products embedded and displayed into films and shows. For example, children who watch movies and see kids eating brand name goods like Doritos or Cheetos will want to go out and eat them themselves. In this sense, children are being exposed to advertisements without even knowing. Another technique marketing companies rely on is the "nag factor," where children see a product they want and continually insist on their parents buying it until they eventually give in. With this, advertisers promote products that will generate the greatest appeal to children,