Influence from a Young Age
Even at the age of one or two, children find themselves in a "culturally defined observation post high atop a shopping cart" seeing for the first time "the wonderland of marketing" (McNeal, p.23). Children as young as three years old can express brand awareness and make the connection between what they see on television and what appears on store shelves. Studies show that nearly three quarters of four year olds "often or almost always" ask for a specific brand (Fischer et al, p.89). McNeal says that this stage marks the beginning for marketers, "for it signals the beginning of the child's understanding of the want-satisfaction process in a market-driven society."
Marketers recognize a minor as a full-blown consumer once the child can select and purchase an item without the assistance of a parent. By age of four or five, McNeal's studies show that children can locate items in a store, pick them off the shelf and pay for items. By age eight, children make most of their own buying decisions (Raphael, p.60). This establishment of independence carries on into the teen years, forming the foundation for lifelong consumerism.
Advertiser Focuses
Advertisers seek to make children into children of their product or brand. The research mentioned above is not lost on advertisers. Former Toys 'R' Us CEO Mike Searles says that: "If you own the child at an early age...you can own the child for years to come" (Sahin, 2003). Companies try to form habits at the youngest age possible, creating lifelong consumers with strong memories of a particular brand.
Advertisers benefit from the impressionable state of children. Young children, especially, hold little capacity for discerning between "good" or "bad" brands, or pointing out potentially harmful products. Advertisers chase minors for a favored spot in their memory that can last for years. "The great thing about them is that their memory banks are relatively empty so any message that goes in gets retained" says Peter Mead, the chairman of the advertising agency Abbott Mead Vickers (Cohen, p.49).
Another important element in advertising to children involves the use of the child idiom, which is a way to reach children in their own language. Stephen Kline points out in his article Limits to the Imagination: Marketing and Children's Culture; "Marketing people know and accommodate this [popularity of products through importance level] by designing within television campaigns a saturation factor. Because of limited memories, children must be repeatedly exposed to the toy or brand name. They must also see other children play with them (in ads and real life) and become aware of the popularity of the item through peer as well as television pressure. Reach figures from eighty to ninety percent of market and five repeated exposures are considered the minimum to get recognition in the children's market and establish effective peer pressure. The importance of the idea of saturation is that it provides the means of engaging children's social perceptions."
Advertising can create a fantasy world for children where harmful substances such as cigarettes and alcohol are appealing. Budweiser beer ads in the late 1990s captivated children with cartoons of frogs, penguins and lizards, making them kids' favorite ads year after year (Kaplan, p.41). Advertisers reap the benefits of the insecurity of teens and pre-teens, where having the right name brand clothes or trendy car can play a significant part in becoming popular. Brands act as stamps of authenticity, genuineness or group membership.
Advertisers often use sexuality as a sales tactic. Many clothing companies such as Guess use male and female models in suggestive positions and clothing to make being sexy desirable. These types of ads subtly incorporate promises of being sexier if you wear particular clothes or buy certain products.
Advertisers also sensationalize products, adding to the product fantasy world. Nike and Reebok have aired campaigns in recent years showing athletes performing impossible acts while wearing the "right" shoes. Food makers have turned to coloured and flavored foods. Ore-Ida, a unit of Heinz, appeals to children with blue French fries in cinnamon and chocolate flavors. Children can dip these fries into Heinz's new "Mystery Color Ketchup" (Hellmich, 2002). Victor Strasburger (2001) found that junk food advertising "is very effective in increasing the children's requests for junk food and for trips to fast food restaurants and in changing the fundamental views of healthy nutrition."
Strasburger (2001) notes the relationship between food advertisements, unhealthy eating practices, and obesity: "More than fifty percent of adults are now overweight, and the number of overweight children has doubled in the past two decades. The prevalence of type II diabetes, previously thought to be almost exclusively an adult-onset disease, has increased dramatically among children and teenagers as well." Strasburger goes on to say that half of all advertisements that children view are for food, especially sugared cereals and high-calorie snacks.
Marketers, through their advertisements, vigorously encourage children to seek happiness, well-being and self-esteem through product consumption. Children are taught the morally questionable ideal that material objects enable them to be cool, funny and popular. Children are "highly vulnerable to pressure to conform to group standards and mores" (Strasburger, p.55). Without the pervasiveness of advertising, children could gain greater understanding of the social acceptance that does not come with a materialistic string attached. Clearly, the prevalence of marketing to children can lead to terrible consequences. Marketers, parents and society in general must decide when marketing crosses the line morally and leads to physical and mental harm to children.
Suggestions for Addressing These Concerns
Marketers must recognize the consequences of their aggressive marketing to younger and younger audiences. However, parents must take primary responsibility for protecting their children from predatory marketing practices. Parents can limit their children's television watching time or video game playing. Parents should encourage children to participate in physical activities, whether organized sports or just playing outside in the backyard. Parents must monitor movies, magazines, Internet use and other media exposure. As adults, parents have the ability to distinguish between positive and negative influences, and values that they support and those that they do not. Parents should also involve themselves in proactive change in their communities. One example for parents is to create support networks that provide activities for children away from the influences of the corporate world.
Advertising can and does affect children. Children are vulnerable to the persuasive techniques of know-how marketers. Parents must consider their moral obligation to provide safe, nurturing environments for their children. This requires tough, ethical decisions about the level of exposure children have to advertising and corporate influences. Parents must work to shape a new political and social environment to protect children from advertising and marketing. Implementing some of the suggestions above can help reverse the damage inflicted on children at an early age by marketing, and better prepare them for making sound decisions as adults.
Conclusion
This paper began with a description of how marketers have influence over young children and ended with suggestions on how to stop this control over young minds. Using the language of the child, sensationalizing products, and taking advantage of their vulnerable minds are all effective ways marketers' ambush children through advertisements. Nevertheless, to help diminish this problem parents ought to limit and monitor what their children are viewing or playing with, and encourage them to participate in physical activities, or any activities that are set away from the claws of marketers. However, this might help reduce the problem but new areas of the ethical debate will also continue to grow. Some of these new issues are the controversies that are arising from the growth of the Internet and of global marketing. Both the government and parents need to be aware of this continuing debate as these new issues arise. The boundaries in media and advertising are rapidly changing. Children and adults need to be able to recognize the intensity of advertisements over young intellects, therefore, they can prevent themselves and others from being sucked into the corporate community.
