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Ethical Advertising

The Ethics of Advertising to Children is not a new concept, and is a highly debated topic among parents, government officials, and advertising companies. Ethics is defined as a set of moral principles that govern someone’s behavior, or how an activity is conducted. Advertising is defined as a type of communication between a buyer and a seller. Ethics in Advertising is defined as a set of well defined principles which govern how communication can take place between a seller and buyer. Ethical ads tell the truth, and don’t make any false claims ^[1].

Child Advertising

Child advertising is defined as the act of advertising products or services to children as defined by national legislation and advertising standards. Child advertising is often the subject of debate because of its influence on children and how impressionable they are at such a young age^[2]. Children can be easily manipulated due to their low ability to comprehend the objectives of advertisers ^[2]. Advertising to children can involve celebrity endorsements from actors or characters from popular television shows for children, product placement in movies or television, tie-ins between movies or television shows and fast food restaurants or toy action figures ^[3].

Children and TV

Commercial advertising to children began with the advent of television and cable, which allowed programmers to develop channels specifically for children^[4]. Upon the growth of the Internet, the amount of advertisements directed towards children grew^[4]. Now, a majority of American children have televisions in their bedrooms, as well as unsupervised access to computers. This allows for companies to advertise products and services to children in the absence of parental monitoring or supervision^[4]. Children between the ages of 6 and 11 years old watch on average about 28 hours of television per week ^[2]. Due to this, they are exposed to between 20^[2] and 40 thousand commercials annually^[4]. Although the rise of streaming services in recent years has saved children of the 2010s from over 150 hours of commercials each year ^[2], children are highly impressionable and easily influenced by all media. For example, many adults can recite commercials that aired in their childhood word-for-word many years later. For Generation Z, that may be Reese’s Puffs, Kars4Kids, Empire Carpets, or the ShamWow. Between the ages of 4 and 5 years old, children can’t even distinguish commercial content from the main program, leading to their attention on both aspects, whereas adult attention to commercials decreases with age^[5]. Children can recall commercial content with as little as a single commercial exposure, and this strengthens with repeated exposure, leading to product preference^[4].

Children and Psychology

It is well known that children’s brains are not fully developed in comparison to the brains of adults. Because of this, children below the ages of 4 to 5 years old can’t make the distinction between entertainment programs and advertisements ^[4]. Children under 8 years of age lack the ability to recognize the fact that advertisements intend to persuade their viewers^[4], and don’t fully understand the intent of advertisements until they are at least 11 years old^[2]. Evidence has shown that judgments and behaviors related to consumption are influenced by implicitly acquired associations rather than through consciously acquired persuasive information, and advertising targeted at children often implicitly persuades in this same way^[6].

Effects of Advertising to Children

Children are easily influenced by advertisements, particularly if they involve a celebrity they know, a character from a movie or television show, or an animated promotional character^[2]. Children are more likely to select a product if it is sponsored by a celebrity, regardless of if the product is healthy or unhealthy^[2]. In a study of 181 children, those who saw ads for potato chips featuring a popular UK sports figure ate far more potato chips after seeing the ad than children who saw advertisements for the same products with no celebrity involved^[7]. Furthermore, the children who saw the advertisement with the celebrity specifically ate more of the brand that the celebrity was eating. This shows that children are strongly influenced by commercials, endorsements, and brand-names. Advertisers use this to their advantage and target young children in an effort to establish brand-name preference at an early age ^[3]. Furthermore, product preference emerges after only a single exposure to a product advertisement, and strengthens with further exposure^[4]. These preferences affect a child’s product purchase requests, which lead to influencing a parent’s purchasing decisions. Often, parent-child conflicts occur due to a parent denying their children a product purchase request that was precipitated by advertising^[4].

Food Advertising Effects

Many food products advertised on television are unhealthy, and many argue that this could link to a child’s long-term health^[2]. Research suggests that there are strong associations between increases in advertising for non-nutritious foods and the rates of childhood obesity^[4]. Due to this, the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative was implemented in 2007 in the U.S. to decrease the amount of advertising of non-nutritious foods and subsequently, childhood obesity rates^[2]. Candy companies Mars, Hershey, Kraft, and Nestle all pledged not to advertise candy to children, but this only applied to kids channels. Kids ended up still being exposed to these ads on programs that were popular for wider ranges of people^[2]. McDonald’s was also accused of deceptive marketing practices to children through the lure of toys as an inducement to buy Happy Meals ^[8].

Eating Disorders & Mental Health

Advertising is particularly influential in the lives of children and young people in comparison to adults. American advertising uses female models who are very thin, as well as men who are very muscular, which may contribute to the development of distorted body self-image and abnormal eating or exercise behaviors in young children^[3]. Furthermore, advertisements lead children to associate the concept of happiness with the act of consuming products or services, which can lead to frustration or even depression in children^[9].

Drugs & Alcohol Advertising Effects

Advertising to children has had an affect on the likelihood that an adolescent smokes, drinks alcohol, or uses drugs. A third of adolescent smoking can be attributed to tobacco advertisements and promotional materials^[3]. Children who are exposed to cigarette ads are more likely to become smokers than those who are not, and several studies have found that there is a substantial relationship between a child’s viewing of tobacco and alcohol ads and having a positive attitude towards the consumption of these products^[4]. One of the reasons for this is that some commercials have high brand awareness and use promotional characters such as the Budweiser Frogs and Joe Camel. These characters allow for children to have positive attitudes towards these brands and therefore these types of products, which contribute to youth smoking and drinking^[4].

Ethics of Advertising to Children

Advocates against advertising to children believe that there is no moral, ethical, or social justification for marketing any product to children, regardless of if it is a healthy or unhealthy product. They believe that even advertising healthy foods to children is problematic, and children should be able to develop a healthy relationship with nutrition on their own, and find their own balanced diet. These advocates believe that advertising trains children to choose foods based on celebrity endorsement, product placement, and promotional characters, rather than what is in the product^[10]. Furthermore, they believe that it is important to teach children critical thinking skills, and to help them learn to distinguish between the entertainment and advertisement, and understand the motives behind advertising. They also believe it is naive and disingenuous to depend on children to protect themselves from advertising^[10], especially because children may be deceived by images or messages that likely wouldn’t deceive adults^[11]. It is argued that while advertisers may have a right to advertise products and services to young children and it is not against the law, it isn't necessarily the right thing to do, and can be unethical on certain occasions ^[12]. At this point in time, there is no evidence that advertising is beneficial for children, or even adults.

Blurring the Line Between Advertisements and Entertainment

As children interact more with different and new types of media, the line between an advertisement and entertainment becomes blurred ^[13]. Commercials have been increasingly focused on entertaining the child watching, to hold their interest in the product ^[13]. Advertisers also make games like puzzles, word searches, or online games to advertise their product or products to a specific age group ^[13]. Advertisements that are disguised as entertainment can be very influential and harmful because according to research if children are not properly educated in advertising literacy, about three-fourths of them will not be able to recognize advertisements within games ^[14]. Children could be influenced by products by playing a game and not know they are being influenced, which can lead to ethical concerns, as children are easily manipulated by media ^[2]. When advertisements are disguised as entertainment, “children are at a disadvantage” in their interactions “because they lack the sophistication needed to understand differences between commercials and programs and the persuasive intents of commercials” ^[14]. Because children tend to not recognize advertisements, they are less likely to critically think about the products being advertised and continue to interact with the advertisement as if it were a game ^[14].

Child Advertisement Laws

Most countries have restrictions on advertising to children, and some have even banned it completely. In the UK, Greece, Denmark, and Belgium, advertising to children is restricted in some way or another. In Norway and Quebec, advertising to children under the age of 12 is illegal^[2]. In Greece, advertisements for toys are banned until after 10pm^[3]. As of 2009, the European Union has put laws into place restricting advertising to children. These include that programs under 30 minutes cannot have any advertisements, product placement in children’s television shows is prohibited, advertisements cannot exploit minors’ trust in adults, show minors in dangerous situations, encourage minors to persuade parents to purchase goods or services, or exhort minors to buy products or services by exploiting their inexperience or credulity ^[2]. In the U.S., the Federal Trade Commission determined in the 1970s that advertising to children under six years old is unfair and deceptive, however, they did not ban these types of advertisements because it was too impractical to implement^[3]. However, the Children’s Television Act of 1990 was put into effect decades later, limiting advertisements to children to 10.5 minutes per hour on weekends, and 12 minutes per hour on weekdays^[3].

See Also

• Advertising ethics online
• Targeted Advertising (Online)

References

1. ↑ Juneja, P. Ethics in Advertising. Management Study Guide. 2018. https://www.managementstudyguide.com/advertising-ethics.htm
2. ↑ ^{2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13} Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. “Advertising to Children.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5 Mar. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising_to_children.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6} Communications, Committee. “Children, Adolescents, and Advertising.” American Academy of Pediatrics, Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, 1 Dec. 2006, https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/118/6/2563.
4. ↑ ^{4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11} American Psychological Association. "Advertising and Children." 2 Feb. 2004. http://www.apa.org/pubs/info/reports/advertising-children
5. ↑ Guttmann, A. “Attention Paid to Commercials in the U.S. by Age 2019.” Statista, 7 May 2019, www.statista.com/statistics/996014/attention-paid-to-advertising-in-the-us-age/.
6. ↑ Nairn, Agnes, and Cordelia Fine. “Who’s Messing with My Mind?” International Journal of Advertising, vol. 27, no. 3, 2008, pp. 447–470., doi:10.2501/s0265048708080062.
7. ↑ Pinto, Renita Tisha. “Celebrity Endorsement: Impact of Celebrity Endorsement on Kids.” IndiaTimes, 29 Mar. 2013, www.indiatimes.com/health/healthyliving/celebrity-endorsement-impact-of-celebrity-endorsement-on-kids-239970.html.
8. ↑ O'Brien, Gael. “Marketing to Children: Accepting Responsibility.” Business Ethics, 31 May 2011, https://business-ethics.com/2011/05/31/1441-marketing-to-children-accepting-responsibility/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThere%20is%20no%20ethical%2C%20moral,at%20a%20Conscious%20Capitalism%20Conference.&text=Marketing%20to%20children%20is%20inherently,in%20their%20lives%2C%20Linn%20says.
9. ↑ Projeto Criança e Consumo. “Why Advertising Is Bad For Children.” Edited by Patricia Calazans, vol. 3, 2009, doi:http://ljournal.ru/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/d-2016-154.pdf.
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1} Watson, Bruce. “The Tricky Business of Advertising to Children.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 24 Feb. 2014, www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/advertising-to-children-tricky-business-subway.
11. ↑ “Advertising to Kids and the FTC: A Regulatory Retrospective That Advises The Present.” Federal Trade Commission, 30 July 2013, www.ftc.gov/public-statements/2004/03/advertising-kids-and-ftc-regulatory-retrospective-advises-present.
12. ↑ Paine, L., Brenkert, G., Weisskoff, R., & Kimmel, L. (1984). Children as Consumers: An Ethical Evaluation of Children's Television Advertising [with Commentaries]. Business & Professional Ethics Journal, 3(3/4), 119-169. Retrieved March 11, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/27799842
13. ↑ ^{13.0 13.1 13.2} Moore, E. S. “Children and the Changing World of Advertising.” Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 52, (2004), pp. 161-167. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:BUSI.0000035907.66617.f5
14. ↑ ^{14.0 14.1 14.2} Soontae An , Hyun Seung Jin & Eun Hae Park. “Children's Advertising Literacy for Advergames: Perception of the Game as Advertising”, Journal of Advertising, vol. 43, no. 1, (2014), pp. 63-72. DOI: 10.1080/00913367.2013.795123