In this blog I will be looking at Ethical Marketing and how Corporations can and should carry out their marketing activities responsibly, I have also chosen to focus primarily on the area of marketing towards children and how some corporations have targeted them as a vulnerable market in some cases.

Children today are now exposed to the marketing activities of corporations and their brands from a very young age, through TV commercials, online advertisement and social networking. Research has shown that children under the age of six simply don’t understand the idea of advertising, yet by the time they understand its meaning their childhood may have already been shaped by brands, mascots and logos. In 2006, American food and beverage companies spent £77million to market their products to children online; questions have to be asked as to whether this is ethical. With rising obesity problems among children in developed nations it could be argued that these marketing campaigns have taken advantage of young consumers.

Furthermore the new trend among online games available in the app store has seen options for players to improve the game by simply buying upgrades continuously. Games such as “Clash of the Clans” and “Modern War” are free and primarily targeted at youth, yet “Clash of the Clans” was earning a crazy £2.4m per day by mid April 2013. The problems lies in how these upgrades are paid for, once a parent agrees to buy them once for their kids, the kids will have their parents Credit Card on their apple account until it is actively removed. I have heard many horror stories of kids spending hundreds on these games that cannot be completed. Some corporations need to seriously evaluate their ethical adverting policies.