In today’s world advertising plays a big role in society, where children have become a primary target (Barbaro, 2008). This brings up the question, whether advertising to children is ethical, since many children under 8 do not have the cognitive ability to decrypt and understand the true motive of advertisements (Calvert S. L., 2008, p. 205). Today, children are heavily bombarded by advertisements in various forms whether they realize it or not, since children now use technology from a young age where advertisers easily have direct access to them (Calvert S. L., 2008, p. 207). This paper will argue that marketers focusing on young children as consumer is a social problem the needs to be addressed and that advertising to young children should
…show more content…
A lot of the media consumed by children promote material negative behavior and products which is ultimately harmful to a youth’s development (Tepperman, L, 2014, p. 65). School aged children are heavily influenced by peer groups, as this where they begin an important chapter in their social life. As many youth long for a sense of belonging in their social circles, they develop insecurities which marketer’s target, enticing them with the belief that their products will help their social status (“The Marketing of Products to Children”). Furthermore, youths are under constant branding of products which associate itself with being cool or fun. There was a study done that found that as children grow older they become able to recognize the persuasiveness of advertisements, but they maintained a strong belief in brands. (Moore, E. S., 2000). Children have a great appeal to brand as they are being endorsed by many branded characters or celebrities they have grown up watching and aspire to be and fall into the marketer’s traps. In addition markets have further implanted ads into media sources children use by specifically targeting them based on personal preferences. The ads being marketed to children based on preferences disguise themselves in such a way which would make using specific brands as a form of personal expression (“The Marketing of Products to Children”). Thus, the immense advertisement children face, market to the vulnerabilities a child might have, making them naively purse a fake sense of
A lot of the media consumed by children promote material negative behavior and products which is ultimately harmful to a youth’s development (Tepperman, L, 2014, p. 65). School aged children are heavily influenced by peer groups, as this where they begin an important chapter in their social life. As many youth long for a sense of belonging in their social circles, they develop insecurities which marketer’s target, enticing them with the belief that their products will help their social status (“The Marketing of Products to Children”). Furthermore, youths are under constant branding of products which associate itself with being cool or fun. There was a study done that found that as children grow older they become able to recognize the persuasiveness of advertisements, but they maintained a strong belief in brands. (Moore, E. S., 2000). Children have a great appeal to brand as they are being endorsed by many branded characters or celebrities they have grown up watching and aspire to be and fall into the marketer’s traps. In addition markets have further implanted ads into media sources children use by specifically targeting them based on personal preferences. The ads being marketed to children based on preferences disguise themselves in such a way which would make using specific brands as a form of personal expression (“The Marketing of Products to Children”). Thus, the immense advertisement children face, market to the vulnerabilities a child might have, making them naively purse a fake sense of