Ending Corporate Exploitation Of Children

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.

In today’s media obsessed society, youth is greatly influenced by advertising. For example, Marketing to kids gets more savvy with technologies is how they ,“Online games like Webkinz show ads on the site draw youth to buy the product or just to look at it for ‘money’”. Because this tactic works, the ads are an excellent at make youth to talk about this and be annoyed. In Facts about Marketing to Children, it says, “Children pack 8.5 hours of media a day’, is what the Facts about Marketing to Children says.” Because children are on the media so much it is easy for marketers to advertise and get children to buy the product. “ Anne Lappe says that when her daughter grows up, and goes to a movie, the character might have a soda or fast food.”

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

“Congress should ban advertising that preys upon children, it should stop subsidizing dead-end jobs, it should pass tougher food safety laws, it should protect American workers from serious harm, it should fight against dangerous concentrations of economic power (Schlosser). People must wonder how is it that a fast food company has so much customers. Advertising is the answer. The power advertisers have to be able to influence so many people 's decisions and affect people’s lives especially the lives of young children is incredible. Advertisers know just who to target and they research how too. In Eric Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation, Schlosser explains to the readers how advertisers use techniques to draw in customers. A technique used is the “cradle-to-grave” which focuses on children to make them lifelong consumers. Like many researcher, Schlosser, has found that advertising to children when they are younger makes them be loyal to the company, and a child 's “brand loyalty” may begin as early as the age of two (43). Fast food advertising reaches out and harms families everywhere. This is why it is crucial that the people to make changes in their lives and change the way fast food is affected us.

Commercials through television and radio aimed towards children are ethical because it helps build healthy ideals. Through commercials, children can see that doing certain things are good for you! They can see that it is what they should do. “Advertising and marketing techniques could encourage children to eat

Advertisements are everywhere. They are a major part of modern day society. Whether it be a television commercial, an internet banner, or a billboard, advertisements influence people of all ages, but they affect a certain age group much more than others. Children ranging from toddlers to teenagers are exposed to thousands upon thousands of advertisements each year. Some of these advertisements are damaging to children, while others are a positive influence. Advertisements can either be used as a tool or a weapon. Food advertisements and manipulation strategies are both positive and negative, and how companies use them decides whether or not marketing to children is ethical.

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

Companies are continuously in search of innovative marketing techniques by encouragingly establishing individuals to purchase their advertised products. As intelligent as marketing companies are, they are indeed aware of the fact that adults are more likely to watch an advertisement and detect why they should or should not purchase such product. In such instances where the company cannot reach the focus of an adult, parent, or parental figure, marketers will target young children and teens in their advertising campaigns. Advertising campaigns targeting the youth have significantly impacted the ethical consideration in the children’s market through media, ethics, as well as food advertising to children.

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.

In today’s society, the food and beverage industry is faced with an ongoing ethical dilemma because they are far more concerned with making money than providing a good, safe, and healthy product for consumers. The biggest victims in this unethical marketing scheme are children. Children are the least informed and most influenced of all potential consumers (5). Although children usually don’t directly purchase these products themselves, their desires strongly influence their parent’s decision on what to buy and what the child will eat. Most products geared towards children are unhealthy, processed foods that are high in sugars and low in nutritional content (6). This has led to a rise in childhood

Food advertisements, if focused at the right people and in the right places, are a complete success. These features, some of which are commercials, seduce society into buying food that we necessarily do not need. Many advertisement companies, especially those about food, are directed to children because they know that if you grab the kids you have their parents. While brands are using fun cartoons like “Trix Rabbit” and “Toucan Sam” (Green, 2007, p. 49) supermarkets are taking these items and placing them right in front of the children, at their level, advertising the “Fun foods” (Elliot, 2008, p. 259-273). They do this so the kids will use their, “pester power” (Scholsser, n.d., p. 2) to get what they want. A series of studies have been performed on children and television advertisements. An article states, “These studies have generally linked children's television viewing to negative health effects” (Korr, 2008, p. 451). Amongst these negative effects is a higher level of childhood obesity (p. 451). Similarly, in another study performed by a group of researchers, kids were asked to explain the television commercials that they remembered the best. The answers given were then compared with their diets. Interestingly, the items those children remembered best, chips, sweets, and sodas were a huge part of what they ate (Hitching & Moynihan, 1998, p. 511-517). However, some authors argue that television producer’s, even though their

Children soldiers are a tragic occurrence that robs the youth of this world their childhood, and sometimes even their life. I saw an add that is protesting child soldiers, the add was funded and made by the War Child charity. This ad depicts a grenade front and center, but instead of a run of the mill grenade this one is one is made out of balloons. There is also child-like writing at the bottom that says: “It’s easy to convince children that hitting is a game. Help stop the exploitation of children soldiers, text “GUNS25 E2’ to 70070”. The ad has a stark black background that gradually becomes lighter as it gets closer to the balloon grenade, highlighting the grenade. This ad could have been produced as a poster, a magazine ad, or distributed online (how I found it). The surface level purpose of this ad is to protest against children soldiers. With closer inspection the ad draws attention to the childhood some children are being robbed of. The use of clever advertisement tactics, such as the gradient of the background color that draws your eye to the center and the use of childhood icons (balloons), make it a successful and powerful ad. I feel as though this ad is quite powerful in its use of simplicity and allusions to childhood while protesting a tragedy that is happening all over the globe.

Advertising today focuses on specific targeted demographic groups. There is a direct focus on marketing products to young consumers. This age group sees the commercials, but does not really understand the directed message. This can have an adverse effect on the way children interpret and understand the message being presented to them. 'The average American child sees more than 40,000 commercials a year, and advertisers spend more than $12 billion annually marketing to them?double the amount of 10 years ago.' (APA-1) Children watching television are exposed to every channel running commercials that are sending out a mature message to an immature audience. There needs to be something done to