Advertising Ethics 2

Advertising Ethics 2

One of the most controversial areas of marketing has long been that of advertising to children. Today, advertisers are focusing their ads at younger and younger audiences, many of whom are still in diapers. The reason that adverters are targeting younger and younger children is that they are trying to establish "brand–name preference" at as early of an age as possible. (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2006) Marketers are now using psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists and behavioral scientists as a way of shaping and cementing a child's brand preference. (Barbaro & Earp, 2008) These "child experts" draw from developmental psychology principles in order to persuade children that they need a certain product. (Dittmann, 2004) ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...(Barbaro & Earp, 2008) Car companies know that parents' choices are heavily influenced by their children, when choosing an automobile, so they pitch their ads to be more attractive to children. Advertisers use it to their advantage that, children, before the age of eight, believe that the purpose of commercials is to help them make their purchasing decisions, when in fact commercials are designed to persuade them to buy a specific product, which they are completely unaware of at that age. (Calvert, 2008) As a matter of fact, studies have shown that children lack the analytical abilities and judgment of adults. (Austin & Reed, 1999) Psychologists are being used by corporations as a way of fine tuning their marketing to better communicate with children, for example, they know the differences between a 3–year–old and a 5–year–old. Psychologists know that in order to reach a 3–year–old with a commercial, they need to play the ad more slowly and use round figures rather than angles. (Barbaro & Earp, 2008) Psychologists and others are also informing marketers why it is that children between the ages of 3 to 7 prefer toys that transform themselves into something else, while children between 8– and 12–years–old enjoy collecting things. (Clay, 2000) Kids are tomorrow's adult consumers so marketers believe that

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