Controversial Interests

No matter where children are or what they are doing they’ll always find some sort of advertisements. It can be when their casually watching television, reading a magazine or just playing games on their computer. Advertisements are different forms of communication whose purpose is to make their product known to the public. Marketers aren’t partial to certain people; they target anyone and every age group, but recently there has been an upsurge of advertisements aimed towards children. In Eric Schlosser’s article, Kid Kustomers, he demonstrates how child advertising has boomed by the tactics marketers use to get children to want and demand certain companies’ products.

One of the most successful marketers is quoted in the article “Get kids to nag their parents and nag them well”(260). In the initial few sections, he discussed the present time effects of the advertising on youngsters. Through this he contend that, previously, there weren't numerous child based marketing organizations that concentrated exclusively with respect to children and have their own kids' divisions, while now, they have huge amounts of organizations that makes a whole advertising division for the

Some companies even target little children just because they know that they are innocent and that they are most likely going to go to their parents to buy them the product that they want. In some occasions the parents are going to buy the product because they want the best for their children; which might not be the right thing in these type of situations. Most parents do not know that the companies are targeting their children and they give no importance to what they are doing. The only thing that the parents are thinking are that they are choosing the best for their children by satisfying them. Most children in this century already know what each brand is or what is trending before even learning how to add or subtract. In this type of situation I strongly agree on what Barber said that “... parents can refuse to relinquish their gatekeeping roles and let marketers know they won't allow their kids to be targeted anymore.” Moreover it explains that parents should not let their children believe what social media or producers say that they need. It is their job to teach children to know what they need on their own and not what producers tell them they

What is ethics in marketing? It is widely considered as a very broad and misconcepted topic of discussion. However the underlying theme of business ethics in general is the link between making profit for the company and for the company to be aware of the effect on many areas of society of their marketing strategies. To be considered ethical, a business must develop morally sound strategies and work toward integrating a moral system into their companies from management to employees. Marketing towards children is a widely discussed and debated topic. Clay (2000) refers to the fact marketing can make a large profits for companies but from a psychological standpoint it affects the way children view themselves and the world around them, and even their view on their own future. For example, psychologists at Berkeley found that in

Children are easily influenced, and this can be taken advantage of in the commercial industry. Thy have the desire to fit in and do what is considered “cool”. Many people believe that people use this desire to their own benefit in order to create profit. While it’s true children are easily manipulated by commercials, these commercials and be beneficial to the child's development. Commercials can be used to bring good ideas and good life skills to children that will lead them to being a successful adults. Commercials aimed at children are ethical because they can reinforce positive behaviors and good ideals. This is shown through articles, press and reports.

To begin, a child’s brain is has not yet developed enough to make their own conscious decisions. For large companies or organizations, “Children are easy prey for advertisers” (Source C), rather than adults. So, in theory, a company should amend its advertising to a more beneficial system for the community. As David Benady stated, “ Advertising and marketing could encourage children to eat healthily, participate in sports and read books” (Source B), which is entirely true. With the combination of children's naiveness and companies marketing techniques, a child could easily be sucked into eating healthy rather

Eric Schlosser’s essay, “Kid Kustomers,” concludes and makes several strong points about the marketing on children. He starts his essay with a brief comparison that “twenty-five years ago, only a handful of American companies directed their marketing at children,” whereas today, “children are being targeted by phone companies, oil companies, and automobile companies…” He emphasizes and stresses the importance of having “Kid Kustomers,” because one important marketing strategy is to aim to “increase not just current, but also future, consumption.” Schlosser learns that ad agencies target children because they make up a majority of their sales. Throughout the essay, Schlosser not only gives marketing tips but also discusses the 7 different types

In addition, the growing parental fears in society have caused parents to be more worried and cautious and even more protected over their children. As the increase in awareness that children are at risk of crime, assault and kidnapping by unknown people. Also due to increased road and train travel and traffic dangers, children are more likely to travel with their parents or carers. Rather than on their own. Secondly , to support that families have become more child centred is the children’s consumer market as children are now target audiences for many business such as , mother care , toys R Us , Nike , adidas and the music industry (especially) focus on the childhood market. Encouraging children to consume all of their products and parents to satisfy their children’s wants, this is “pester power”. Where the children pester their parents into buying them games, toys, music and so on. As the aim is to please the children, this would effectively say that

Marketing and branding a product is a very practical practice for any business that wants to generate revenue, and ultimately become successful. Corporations have a plethora of methods to attract consumers to their products that they use to appeal to all demographics in order to maximize their profits. However, there is one demographic in particular that draws the majority of the attention from large corporations from its sheer size alone, children. During the course of this essay, information will be drawn from the views of Naomi Klein, Ann DuCille, “The Merchants of Cool” documentary, and Episode 14 Season 5 of The Simpsons “Lisa Vs. Malibu Stacy”, regarding methodologies of marketing that business use to make profits, that actually end up negatively affecting children.

Many people believe that everything is black and white, especially when it comes to advertisements. What many don’t understand is that everything has an underlining meaning. Every advertisement has been thought out thoroughly to catch the attention of the consumers it is aiming towards. Advertisements aiming towards children has definitely been a topic that many people can’t seem to wrap their mind around. It’s been a topic that many have exposed because of the way marketers are willing to manipulate children in ways that only benefit their own. This whole issue began after the progression of marketing to children during the late 70s and early 80s with the advertisers’ intentions of making children lifelong consumers of products.

With the use of behavioral psychology corporations are able to manipulate children by using market techniques aimed at attracting young children’s attention. Veldboom highlights the fact that even adults fall prey to such marketing tactics which promote impulsive spending. Young children who are not yet mentally developed have no defense against these motives. The paper goes on to site Psychiatrist Susan Linn who describes the marketing tactics as “precisely targeted, refined by scientific method, and honed by child psychologists...”. It is made clear by Veldboom that children are not only falling prey to tactics used on adults but that they are being exploited directly because of their inability to reason properly. According to Juliet Schor, an expert on consumerism and economics, children aged four to twelve account for nearly $670 Billion dollars of revenue. With such a large bulk of revenue in one area corporations based on the ideals of consumerism are motivated to attack these children in order to sell their

For many years, corporations have targeted adults, but as the years progressed their main focus and targeted audience have been children. Countless corporations often focus their products such as toys, clothes, and drugs to children in order to increase their own economic gain. In Juliet Schor’s article, “ Selling to children: The Marketing of Cool”, she mentions how products are accepted and interpreted by children in today’s society. However, in Eric Schlosser article, “ Kid Kustomers”, he emphasizes on the constant antagonizing strategies through ads and televisions shows to target kids. Although Juliet Schors and Eric Schlosser are both speaking about corporations marketing to children, their articles differ quite significantly. While they both speak about corporation and their marketing directed to children, Schor maintains her focus on how society perceived these products as cool or geeky, while Schlosser focuses his article on the negative way corporations have marketed their products to underage children.

Today I was asked to write my opinion on two contrasting statements about children and advertisment. My opinion is simply all for it with the tought of if it isn't broken why fix it. T his essay will touch on these three points of the economic impact, the effects on our children, and how the advertising industry has changed. I hope you enjoy.

Marketing to children is not a new phenomenon; however, there have been many ethical debates on its rightness; is advertising to children a gentle persuasion of the innocent or a sinister threat to our society? There’s too much as stake if we remain silent and simply assume that marketing companies have our children’s best interests at heart; the truth is they don’t. This paper will explore to implications of marketing to children and the overall effects it has on our society. I will argue that advertising to children is a social problem. In the first part of my paper I will discuss why advertising to children is ethically wrong, I will then discuss what has changed; this will be followed by a discussion as to why it is a social problem and finally, I will conclude my paper by discussing what should be done to change it. Please note this paper is written in the first person as I have children and I have a vested interest in this topic.

    Children are marketed to in many different ways including brand licensing and product placement. Brand licensing