Why do kids whine to their parents about not having the latest action figure or cool gadget? There is a simple answer: marketing directed at children. This issue has long been present as society has entered the Value-Based Marketing Era.
It is not right to take advantage of children who do not have the analytical skills to filter out information that adults would consider a scam or hoax. Joanna Pachner and Alicia Androich offer some solutions to mitigate this ethical issue while realizing that it can never totally be abolished.
Approaching companies with solutions on “doing the right thing” will not work. Marketers have found more and more cleaver ways to push an idea into your head regarding a product or a brand without you even knowing it. There is nothing stopping them from inventing new ways to attack the young consumer.
Advertising to children has proven to be effective especially with the introduction of mobile advertising. It is often the case that a 5 year old can navigate an iPhone with greater ease than their parents. This gives companies a chance to catch the child’s eye with a flashy ad revolving around a popular toy, and in no time the parent will have it downloaded to keep their kid quiet while they are doing grocery shopping.
In the end, it is all just business, however, companies need to ask themselves what they define as right and wrong.
(http://www.marketingmag.ca/news/marketer-news/kids-in-play-24973)