The Importance Of Marketing To Children

On a global scale, the children’s market is worth over one trillion dollars (Nairn 54). Advertising to children is how companies and advertisers make most of their money. Children and teens are surrounded by advertising in everything they see and marketers are getting stealthier as time goes on. Marketing to children should not be allowed because it is manipulative. Social pressure is a major issue created by advertising directed toward kids. Those representations create a world where children believe that what they are seeing is normal and everyone has that product, so they should too. “Marketing to children […] tells young people that having the latest brands or sporting the latest hairstyle is their ‘right’ because ‘they’re worth it’ and encourages a culture that ‘you are what you own’” (Nairn 56). Young children start believing that they need to have certain items that they see because the advertising tells them that they deserve it and that their lives will be so much better than what they are currently experiencing. This encourages children to think it is completely okay to buy everything they see for the sake of keeping up with having new items and fitting in. One of the hardest obstacles for children to overcome is fitting in. Not every child is the same and neither is his or her situation; one girl could have the newest pair of Vans that …show more content…
Social pressure is dramatically increased because of the perceived norms advertising creates which make children want to fit in. Child obesity is more likely to occur when advertisers appeal to children, misrepresent facts, and kids beg for the items they see. The impressionability of kids makes them have unrealistic expectations and grow up believing misleading information. “Such advertising subsidises the cost of these services at the cost of our children’s values, sense of well-being, health and integrity (Beder