It is unarguable that a business should not lose sight on ethics while running its business activities. The interplay within a business and its stakeholders are so delicate, that slightest ethical misjudgement done by a business may cause harm towards its stakeholders, both internally and externally. The act of advertising is essential in the marketing activity of a business, however, due to the increasing transparency of the media, a business could advertise its product to an unintentional market segment.

This could be a good thing, for it expands the market segment, on the other hand it could also be harmful if unintentionally reaches a market segment that is not appropriate for your brand. The issue of advertising and its effects on children has long being argued due to the some of the harmful effects that could arise such as disrupting children’s brain development. Nevertheless, it is arguable from businesses’ point of view that they have no control of whom could view their advertisements due to the high accessibility of the media in this generation. Knowing the fact that there is a lack of control in the media distribution, businesses should consider this while producing its advertisements in order to be ethically responsible for the well-being of children. Businesses could benefit by being ethically responsible from experiencing enhanced brand image in the society. However the extent of how advertisements should be produced in regards of being ethically responsible for the children’s well-being is still open for discussion due to the lack of research on children’s brain activity.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/sep/16/how-far-is-too-far-when-it-comes-to-advertising-to-children