Marketing Towards Children
An Argument Against Current Marketing Practices Towards Children
Marketing ethics deals with the morality of principles and techniques that companies use to advertise and promote their products. An important issue concerning this deals with the ethics of marketing to children, as there are many concerns when it comes to this topic. Marketing to children only is unethical because children are naïve, impressionable, and lacking knowledge and experience, they make easy targets for marketers. Children are at a stage in their life called proximal development. At this stage, children take in elements of their environment and use in their life. In other words, they take in what they see and hear, and view the substance as fact. They are not …show more content…
Since children are at the proximal development stage as mentioned earlier, they tend to take values that are forced upon them by marketers and make it their own. An example of this is the many marketing ploys that make children feel less about themselves if they do not have a certain product or conform to the “accepted” behavioral standards. Kids nowadays do not feel “cool” if they do not have a cell phone or an iPod. Being on the football team or the cheerleading squad is being seen as more hip than being in the chess club. Marketing is not only selling a product, it is selling an idea. And as such, experts are saying that such practices are creating an increasingly materialistic outlook in today’s children. Since children are impressionable and are unable to tell right from wrong, marketers have a distinct advantage in marketing to this group. Whether companies are selling tobacco products or toys, marketers are always targeting the most vulnerable market – children. Such practices are unethical and need to be more closely monitored and regulated. 1. Smith, C. (2010, February 23). Ethical issues when marketing to children. Retrieved September 23, 2010, from
Marketing ethics deals with the morality of principles and techniques that companies use to advertise and promote their products. An important issue concerning this deals with the ethics of marketing to children, as there are many concerns when it comes to this topic. Marketing to children only is unethical because children are naïve, impressionable, and lacking knowledge and experience, they make easy targets for marketers. Children are at a stage in their life called proximal development. At this stage, children take in elements of their environment and use in their life. In other words, they take in what they see and hear, and view the substance as fact. They are not …show more content…
Since children are at the proximal development stage as mentioned earlier, they tend to take values that are forced upon them by marketers and make it their own. An example of this is the many marketing ploys that make children feel less about themselves if they do not have a certain product or conform to the “accepted” behavioral standards. Kids nowadays do not feel “cool” if they do not have a cell phone or an iPod. Being on the football team or the cheerleading squad is being seen as more hip than being in the chess club. Marketing is not only selling a product, it is selling an idea. And as such, experts are saying that such practices are creating an increasingly materialistic outlook in today’s children. Since children are impressionable and are unable to tell right from wrong, marketers have a distinct advantage in marketing to this group. Whether companies are selling tobacco products or toys, marketers are always targeting the most vulnerable market – children. Such practices are unethical and need to be more closely monitored and regulated. 1. Smith, C. (2010, February 23). Ethical issues when marketing to children. Retrieved September 23, 2010, from