In the past few years, competition between suppliers of consumer goods has become more and more intensified due to the advancement of media technologies and the innovations of products. One popular controversy raised by this trend is the question “are advertisements targeting children ethical?” Nowadays, we are exposed to an excessive amount of commercials in our daily routine, from the websites we visit, the TV channels we watch, or even on the buses we take. While adults may be able to correctly interpret the truthfulness in advertisements and evaluate their needs and wants with the costs of consuming certain products, children tend to be more vulnerable and often misinterpret these commercials. Such phenomenon leads to various problems, with rising child obesity being the primary, as a large portion of these commercials advertises unhealthy foods such as candy and fast food.
From businesses’ point of view, children are important targets not only pocket money, but also because they have tremendous influence on their parents’ purchasing behaviour. Although parents are the final decision makers and can make better judgement, after all, they want to fulfill their children’s wishes as much as possible. Understanding such mentality, businesses spend billions of dollars per year on marketing towards children through celebrity endorsements and product placements on TV shows and music videos etc. Some even hire psychologists to assist them in marking children.
Whether such actions are ethical or not are open to discussion. From a personal point of view, advertisements are undoubtedly necessary for businesses to introduce their products’ values to children. As long as they are not untruthful about the products they should not be prohibited. After all, a products’ value depends on how it is perceived by the consumers, and advertisements enhance such perceptions. Having that said, I believe that parents should direct more attention on the products for their children. Moreover, they should educate their children proper values regarding materials.
Additional Statistics: http://www.apa.org/topics/kids-media/food.aspx?item=1