After reading a blog post about twitter screening their users through identification, a couple of thoughts came to my mind. First of all, this implementation will really benefit alcohol brands, such as Bicardi as they would not be wasting valuable advertising resources on individuals under the age of 21. Alcohol brands’ target market are individuals aged 21+, thus, it would not make sense if the ad was being advertised to a 12-year old who, by law, is not even allowed to drink alcohol. This screening process can enable alcohol brands and create an incentive for them to further position their advertisements towards their target market as they know that individuals out of their target market will be unable to view their ads.

Secondly, it is important to point out that what younger audiences view on the internet can easily influence the decisions they make in real life. For instance, if a 12-year old sees an ad on the internet of their favorite celebrity endorsing the advertisement of beer, they may have the misconception that “beer is good” and would want to drink it though the law prohibits he/she to do so. Thus, it would not be a good idea for children to be exposed to this sort of advertisement. Overall, I believe what twitter is doing is a start towards the right direction and they have my full support.

Source: Twitter Identification Image