Marketing aimed at children is a social evil

Ads can affect mental and moral health

Dipankar Gupta

The Child Labour Act of 1948 provides a comprehensive rationale for opposing advertisements aimed at children. In this act, anybody under the age of 14 will not be permitted to work in any occupation that harms the physical, mental and moral health of the child. Now it does not take too much imagination to make the link between provisions of this law and the reasons for opposing child-targeted commercials. These ads affect a child’s mental and moral health and these may have delayed physical implications too.

The mental and moral health of the child is precious in the Indian law and in the UN charter as well. It is this aspect of a child’s well-being that is undermined by advertisements that hype children to buy this or that product. There are overt and covert ways of selling to kids and they all need to be put under a scanner. Overt advertisements are relatively easy to identify but the covert ones are equally mischievous.

Children cannot clearly distinguish between fact and fiction. This is why, they are blessed with greater imagination and wonder than the average adult. Instead of training this cherished trait in areas that are really rewarding, commercials satiate and exhaust a child’s mental facility. This retards their innate capacity for innovative imagination, which is driven from within. This surely amounts to adversely affecting the mental health of a child.

As children are not fully aware of the distinction of utility and brand name, it is all a question of signs for them. The essential worthiness or lack of it is lost sight of. In this sense, children become the ultimate consumers. They can, therefore, easily lose touch with reality and become dissatisfied with their immediate circumstances.

If this were a problem with an adult, then that person would be in all likelihood certified and remanded to a correctional home. Why then should we assume than children can be unaffected on a long-term basis by these advertisements?

This instance is another case when a child’s mental health is assaulted, and if you look closely, this has an effect on the moral health as well. As children can easily become the ultimate consumers, advertisements specifically designed for them also create tensions within the family.

The grown-up members have a clearer idea of what is possible and what is not, of what is real and unreal, and what is affordable and what is simply not worth the money. Most children find these distinctions difficult to comprehend and advertisements complicate the situations further.

This is yet another instance of how advertisements can have a negative effect on both the mental and moral health of the child. If there is a growing tendency of juvenile delinquency, then advertisers must surely take part of the responsibility for the outcome.

The author is sociologist with JNU

Targeting kids not evil; it’s a social tool

Sameer Suneja

Marketing is one of the terms in academia that does not have one commonly agreed upon definition. Even after a better part of a century, the debate continues. In a nutshell, it consists of the social and managerial processes by which products, services and value are exchanged in order to fulfill an individual’s or a group’s needs and wants. These processes include, but are not limited to, advertising. As consumers we all have needs, irrespective of the age bracket we belong to. By this philosophy, all consumers are equal.

It is the role of the marketer to identify these needs specific to the target group and develop propositions that fulfill these needs and aspirations. It is also the marketer’s role to create awareness about these propositions and differentiate between the varied product-offerings in a cluttered market place. In the winding aisles of hypermarkets today an infinite number of brands and products co-exist. At every instant, the consumer must make an informed choice about the brand that she wishes to buy.

It is a well documented fact that children are far more aware, exposed, and knowledgeable today. This is the result of growing forms of media, both in traditional media, with hundreds of channels, books, comics and magazines as well as the emergence of electronic media.

Parents are increasingly seeking advice of their children while buying electronic and luxury items – not just because parents want to encourage participative decision making but also on account of the fact that their kids could actually know more about RAM and processor speed.

Family structures are also changing rapidly with more mothers leaving home to work. With the emergence of nuclear families, this implies children start making independent decisions in and around home at an early age. Increasingly, absent parents are willingly giving their children the right to choice.

All this pre-supposes the fact that children are well informed about various product and service propositions so that they can make the right choices from a relatively young age. And hence marketing to kids is far more relevant today than it ever was.

Advertising is only one of the facets of marketing and it is true that it can hold tremendous sway over children. A catchy jingle that promotes brushing twice a day or washing hands before meals could be more effective than it being preached incessantly by parents.

However, advertising that deliberately distorts facts, misinforms consumers or builds false expectations should definitely be struck down. I do believe that as marketers we have a moral and social responsibility to protect our children. Marketing to kids is hardly a social evil and is more of a social tool as long as marketers do not exploit it.

The author is marketing head of Perfetti VanMelle India