“What do you call a consumer who wants to buy everything you have, doesn’t care what it costs and is less than five feet tall? A marketer’s dream? Nope. You call them kids.” (qtd. in Marwick)
Advertisement and marketing campaigns targeted at children have come a long way since making their first appearance in 1952, when Mr. Potato Head was first advertised on television. (Kelly) Today, ‘pester power’ has become a common term that is used to describe situations where children are persistently pestering their parents for “commercially available treats”. (Kelly) Children lack the cognitive development as well as knowledge to fully understand and differentiate between a marketing tactic and pure entertainment, let alone being able to make an informed decision regarding a purchase or product. That is the very reason why I personally believe that marketing campaigns designed to encourage pester power is an unethical business practise. However, that may also be the very reason why marketers target children – to utilise their naiveness, since any business’ only social responsibility is to use its resources to increase its profits, as Milton Friedman outlined in “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits”.
Works cited:
- Kelly, Jon. “BBC News – Is Mr Potato Head to blame for ‘pester power’ ads?.”BBC – Homepage. N.p., 30 Apr. 2012. Web. 11 Sept. 2013. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17871107>.
- Marwick, Robin. “Target market: Children as consumers – AboutKidsHealth.” About Kids Health. N.p., 30 Oct. 2010. Web. 11 Sept. 2013. <http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/En/News/NewsAndFeatures/Pages/Target-market-children-as-consumers.aspx>.