The Kids Aren't Alright

Today we discussed media for children. We read an article that described a major shift in the way marketers were allowed to sell to kids. Instead of selling to parents, advertising that their product was good/healthy for children, advertisers have started marketing directly to children so that they in turn will beg their parents for the item the companies are selling.

Companies have now not only targeted kids in general they have started targeting specific age groups. Using the age compression method advertisers have started creating "older young children". They use older children to advertise products so that younger children will want to be "cool" like the big kids and buy the product. For example, Nerf Guns are generally sold to younger kids, but older children are in the commercial.

Interestingly though ads that target boys generally have a much older male in the commercial. Ads that target girls don't normally have girls much older than the age group they were intended for.

These commercials not only target children they teach them that this is what they want. The commercials show them that should want to play with these things in order to fit in. For example, you will never see a boy in a commercial for dolls or a girl in a commercial for guns. Even the colors are gender specific. Boys have blue, grey, and orange in their commercial while the girls are all purple, pinks, and yellow. I think the laws that protected children from a multitude of images in the media should be replaced.