Marketing Towards Children

An Argument Against Current Marketing Practices Towards Children

Marketing ethics deals with the morality of principles and techniques that companies use to advertise and promote their products. An important issue concerning this deals with the ethics of marketing to children, as there are many concerns when it comes to this topic. Marketing to children only is unethical because children are naïve, impressionable, and lacking knowledge and experience, they make easy targets for marketers. Children are at a stage in their life called proximal development. At this stage, children take in elements of their environment and use in their life. In other words, they take in what they see and hear, and view the substance as fact. They are not
yet able to distinguish the truth from fiction, and are unable to see through the schemes and ploys marketers use to sell their products. An example of this is when marketers advertise on children’s programming in the afternoons and on kids’ networks such as Disney, Cartoon Network, and Nickelodeon. At such times, parents are usually not there to watch with their kids, so marketers are able to bypass parental supervision and market directly to the kids. Children are unable to spot the manipulations that marketers use in their advertising, and as a result, the ads create desires for the children to obtain those products at all costs. In order to market ethically, marketers must adhere to the principle of balance. The power of their marketing must be equal to the level of the consumer’s ability to comprehend and weigh the arguments towards the marketer’s product. Since children are unable to weigh those arguments, marketing to children inevitably leads to exploitation in the vulnerabilities of the children. Alarmingly, a recent trend shows marketers hiring more and more psychologists to create ads for children. Since psychologists know the way a child’s mind works, they are able to help marketers make ads that are aimed directly at children and are able to succeed in influencing them to a greater degree. Since such a practice is clearly morally irresponsible, the American Psychological Association has raised alarms on it, and the committee asserts that no psychological principles should be used when marketing to children. Marketing to children also raises some alarming social problems.
Since children are at the proximal development stage as mentioned earlier, they tend to take values that are forced upon them by marketers and make it their own. An example of this is the many marketing ploys that make children feel less about themselves if they do not have a certain product or conform to the “accepted” behavioral standards. Kids nowadays do not feel “cool” if they do not have a cell phone or an iPod. Being on the football team or the cheerleading squad is being seen as more hip than being in the chess club. Marketing is not only selling a product, it is selling an idea. And as such, experts are saying that such practices are creating an increasingly materialistic outlook in today’s children. Since children are impressionable and are unable to tell right from wrong, marketers have a distinct advantage in marketing to this group. Whether companies are selling tobacco products or toys, marketers are always targeting the most vulnerable market – children. Such practices are unethical and need to be more closely monitored and regulated. 1. Smith, C. (2010, February 23). Ethical issues when marketing to children. Retrieved September 23, 2010, from
http://sac.edu/students/library/nealley/pathfinders/meb_APA.htm 2. Clay, R.A. (2000, September). Advertising to children: Is it ethical? Retrieved September 23, 2010, from http://www.apa.org/monitor/sep00/advertising.aspx 3. Committee on Communication (2006, December 1). Children, Adolescents, and Advertising. Retrieved September 23, 2010 from http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/118/6/2563