M4 Position Paper

M4 Position Paper

The Impact of Advertising on Children

Introduction

Advertising aimed at children has been a debatable topic. Although marketers have targeted children for decades, recent trends have heightened their interest in child consumers. Firstly because the children’s power to influence their parents purchasing decisions has significantly increased in recent years, and secondly digital interactive technologies have opened new routes to a growing media space just for children and children’s products. The increase in marketing to children has caused many consumers to question the impact of these advertisements. Many businesses claim advertising to children can have a positive effect on such a young demographic, but numerous studies

According to Statista, global spending on advertisements to children in 2016 amounted to 0.6 billion U.S. dollars, and is projected to reach 4.2 billion U.S. dollars by 2019. (Statista, 2017) Children's influence on purchases have become so relevant that the term “Kidfluence” was created. In 2018, Viacom released data based on a national study of how children impact what parents buy, and how much money they spend. According to the study, three in four parents say their children influence family purchasing decisions causing them to spend about sixty percent more when their kids are involved, and sixty percent of children are aware of the household budget. Also eighty-seven percent of children remember TV commercials, seventy-seven percent of children ask to buy products advertised on TV, and seventy-three percent of parents will purchase these requested products. (V Staff, 2018) Since children and adolescents are heavy media users, marketers have adopted newer technologies, media marketing and advertising campaigns, using both television and newer media as direct pathways into children’s homes and lives. Some of these pathways include cell phones, iPods, and game platforms. “And “advergames” integrate products such as cereal and candy into online video games to sell products to youth.” (Calvert,

Researchers in communication and marketing, as well as psychologist apply three stages of Jean Piaget’s theory to explore this. These three stages are preoperational thought (perceptual stage), concrete operational thought (analytical stage), and formal operational thought (reflective stage). The stage of preoperational thought is for children between the ages of two and seven. During this stage children are bound more by feelings and focus on properties such as product looks. Children in this stage rely heavily on their sensation and perception. "Sensation refers to the immediate response of our sensory receptors (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, fingers, skin) to basic stimuli such as light, color, sound, odor, and texture. Perception is the process by which people select, organize, and interpret these sensations." (Solomon, 2018, p.76) They also very much believe that imaginary events and characters are real. This age group buys into these fantasies. In this stage children are at an extreme disadvantage in understanding the aim in advertisements, and therefore incapable of making informed purchasing decisions. The next stage, called concrete operational thought, is geared towards children ages seven and eleven. In this stage children understand the world more realistically, gaining the ability to analyze