Undermining Parents, Exploiting Kids
There is no demographic to which marketing is more effective than children. They represent a once and future market with a combined purchasing power unseen in earlier generations. In the U.S. it is estimated that children (up to age 12) command $40 - $50 billion in direct purchasing power, and influence another $670 billion in family purchases annually.
But unlike adults, children do not understand advertising’s persuasive intent —and even just one 30-second commercial can influence the brand preferences of children as young as two.For this reason child psychologists are increasingly calling into question the ethics of marketing to children at large.
As scientific evidence continues to mount that McDonald’s marketing to kids is no less than commercial exploitation, more and more professional and health associations are going on record about their concerns as well. The American Academy of Pediatrics, for one, has asserted that, “advertising directed toward children is inherently deceptive and exploits children under eight years of age.”
What’s most insidious is that the manipulation of children in this case translates not only into a child’s favorable impression of Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets, but into their eating unhealthy amounts of each. As the former Director General of the World Health Organization has noted, “these marketing approaches matter for public health. They influence our own – and in particular our children’s – patterns of behavior. Given that they are designed to succeed, they have serious consequences for those at whom they are targeted.”