Think of popular children’s programs today, or from your childhood.

With your
neighbors, draw up a list of all the products linked to these programs.
Ms. Morgan’s 1989 Dream Cereal...
Introduction:
-Children spend over $40 billion annually of their own money and influence
another $700 billion in spending annually. This is roughly the equivalent of the
combined economies of the world’s 115 poorest countries.

-Children are marketed to through brand licensing, product placement, viral

marketing, in schools, DVD’s, video games, the internet, cell phones. Children
are exposed to over 3,000 commercial messages a day.

-In what the industry calls a “cradle to grave” strategy, marketers work to
influence children early, often and in as many places as possible. The goal is not
just to sell products, but to create life-long consumers
Viewing Questions: Part 1
1.) Do you think it is reasonable to believe that people can be transformed, from
the earliest ages, into “life-long” consumers?

2.) Do you believe that there are, or should be, societal or moral reservations
about marketers approaching children at such early ages?
How does Deregulation Impact Advertising/Demand?
The Floodgates Open:
-In the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s youth marketing was relatively confined and
inexpensive. In the 1980’s though,, government regulators and businesses battled
over policies to protect children from advertising.

-The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) tried to ban all advertising aimed at children
8 and under: toy and cereal industries struck back. Congress passed the FTC
Improvement Act, mandating that the FTC would have NO authority to regulate
advertising to children.

-Children’s television was deregulated; deregulation invited television programs to

be made for the sole purpose of selling a toy or product.

-Since deregulation, children’s consumption has grown 35% each year, reaching 40
billion dollars in 2008.
Viewing Questions: Part 2
1.) How has deregulation contributed, specifically, to changes in marketing
since 1950?

2.) Do you feel that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) should be in the
business of regulating unfair and/or deceptive marketing to children?

3.) An increase and growth of media-linked toys and products has influenced a
rapid growth in children’s consumption. Is there special reason for concern
regarding the use of licensed characters to sell products to children?
How does Advertising Impact Children?
How many of these could you
name? (A majority? A
minority?)

How many did you recognize?

(A majority? A minority?)

How do you feel about this

audio clip?
Take out your cell phone, and pull up one of your social
media accounts.

What product is the first ad you see promoting?

How long did you have to search to find an ad?

By Any Means Necessary:

-Given that over five million children between the ages of 8 and 12 now have cell
phones, this has become a prime mechanism for marketers looking to sell
products to kids.

-Perhaps the most lucrative tool is the internet. With more than 40 million kids
online daily, marketers are targeting kids with particular force on social
networking sites.

-One of the reasons that social media is so appealing to marketers is because of

the ability to gather valuable personal information.
Viewing Questions: Part 3
1.) What is the difference between product placement and regular advertising?
Does product placement in films, programs and/or video games qualify as
deceptive advertising?

2.) In what ways might technologies such as the internet and cell phones
facilitate advertising, and increase advertising’s reach? How does this
impact demand?
These ads, developed with agency Memac
Ogilvy & Mather Dubai, use “genuine
Google searches to reveal the widespread
prevalence of sexism and discrimination
against women.” By entering phrases like
“women should” and “women cannot,”
the project turned up sentiment that
ranged from the merely stereotypical
(“women cannot drive”) to the
jaw-dropping (“women should be
slaves”). Since Google’s autocomplete
algorithm takes cues from popular search
terms, each sentence represents a
population that ostensibly holds these
repulsive beliefs, or is at least curious
about their provenance—though that’s a
bit charitable.
Microsoft AI Experiment Under Fire