Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Banning Junk Food Ads to Fight Childhood Obesity

This week I chose to explore the blogosphere to see what is being discussed about one of the most controversial topics in children’s advertising and one of the biggest epidemics that effects children today; child obesity and the advertisement of junk food. Childhood obesity has become a growing concern over the years, especially in America, and it was curious to me that not many laws have been passed to prevent children from being exposed to junk foods that promote the problem. Public schools have taken most junk foods off of their grounds in hopes of bettering their student’s health but despite their efforts childhood obesity continues to be on the rise. Kids have the most access to junk food when they are at home and they desire these foods in part because they have seen them on television and influence their parents to buy these unhealthy foods for them. As stated earlier, this is a growing problem in America, but not much has been done to put bans on junk food advertisements aimed at children yet in the states, so the blogs I examined on the topic were from other countries, Canada and Ireland in this case, and here we can see how the American system of shielding children from bad health habits is lacking in comparison with other countries who are working to take an active stance against companies who are advertising to their children. I chose to comment on two blogs that discuss the issue. The first blog is called Weighty Matters and discusses conditions that people suffer from which can be controlled or eliminated by simple lifestyle changes. It is written by a former family physician from Canada named Yoni Freedhoff and in her post entitled “Children’s Junk Food Ad Ban in Ontario?”, she discusses the movement to create a ban on all junk food ads aimed at children in Canada and the resistance that is coming from the companies that create this ad. The second blog is by James Doorley, chairman of the Consumers Association of Ireland, and is called An Irish Consumerist. In his post entitled “Time to drop junk food advertising aimed at children”, he pushes for a law that would ban advertisements of junk food to children before 9pm on television. I have read both of their posts and have made my comments available not only on their respective sites but also have posted them below for your convenience.

“Children’s Junk Food Ban in Ontario?”
Comment:
First I would like to say that I completely agree with your stance on this issue of junk food advertisements to children. This has become a growing issue over the years and is playing a part in the health of children over the world. Most of these ads are aimed at children who are too young to decipher what is being marketed to them but when they see these brand logos on television, such as the Trix rabbit as you refer to, and then they see the same logo when they go to the grocery store with their parents, they are going to chose the product that they are most familiar with and the product that gives them the good feeling that they associate with their afternoon cartoon shows. Obesity among children is probably a larger issue than underage smoking and drinking, and there are bans on advertising cigarettes and alcohol to children, but there are hardly any actions being taken to prevent children from eating foods that could ruin their health for the rest of their lives, but maybe that is because every one eats and food is not seen as being as threatening as cigarettes and alcohol, but therein lies the problem. Food is being overlooked as an issue that should be controlled in most countries because people do have the right to eat whatever they want, but foods that are so unhealthy that they can lead to major health issues should be examined and their production should be reconsidered for the sake of not only children but for adults who suffer from obesity also. There is no legitimate reason to feed a child cereal that is high in fat and sugar as their first meal of the day, and not only should companies rethink their reasons for producing such a product, but parents should also have a role in what their children consume and teach them healthy eating habits in the home so that they can learn to apply these same habits in their lives outside of home. I think it is a great way to get people involved in this issue by providing information on how they can help as you have in your post because there are people out there that are concerned about this topic but aren’t sure if there is much they can do about it and you are letting them know that where there is a will, there is a way. I appreciate your post on this issue and look forward to returning to your blog in hopes of reading more of your insights.

“Time to Drop Junk Food Advertising Aimed at Children”
Comment:
Your position as the Chairman of the Consumers Association of Ireland is clearly reflected throughout your post on this issue of junk food ads for children in the authority that you seem to have over the issue and the depth of knowledge that you display in the field. This is an issue that I wish was discussed more often in the United States and that actions such as these would be implemented as well because childhood obesity should be a concern of parents and the companies who are providing these foods on the market. Others have suggested that ads that are promoting junk foods and that are aimed at children should be banned from television and I believe that your suggestion to ban all junk food ads before 9pm is an equally valid proposal. Ideally companies would stop production on these products that are so high in fats, salts and sugars, but being that these products bring in high revenues for their respective companies and when eaten in moderation they don’t pose any severe health risk, it is improbable that it would be a legitimate suggestion for them to stop producing them. Getting rid of all junk food ads, at any time of the day, would be my suggestion because even after 9pm children can still see these ads, and not only are children at stake but adults too and these ads can promote bad health in households as a whole. I agree with your argument that parents play a role in childhood obesity because they have the majority of the buying power when it comes to the foods in their home and because of this power they should actively use it to provide foods that promote healthy lifestyles and not give in to what their children request to eat because children at a young age don’t have the ability to distinguish between healthy food and junk food. For parents, the health of their families should be a top priority and as you say, for the government the health of their people should take priority over profits made by big companies. This is an issue that is of concern especially to me because I plan to have a career in the field of advertising and getting myself involved in the issues of this market before starting my career has given me a bigger picture of the ethics of advertising and I look forward to returning to your blog in hopes of reading more on this topic.

Building on the Future: Corporations Look to Make Employees out of Today's Students

Marketing not only takes place through media channels and public advertisements, but also in lesser-suspected areas such as a high school classroom. Companies have been known to advertise their products within schools to generate new customers in the student body, but now some corporations are looking to gain the students interest in the company itself with the hope that they will consider being a future employee with the business. Marketing lesson plans and even a few year-long courses in a subject which offers training in the field of the corporation’s business are being offered at some high schools and middle schools across the nation. There are differing opinions on this kind of education that is designed to produce future employees; from one perspective the schools benefit from the funding, another opinion says the education that students receive suffers because employees are being formed instead of focusing on a well rounded education, and through the arguments the well-being of students is the most highly debated aspect of the issue. The students can benefit from these courses in a few ways but it can also be seen that these companies who may or may not be interested in their actual education are manipulating students into a job position. Taken as a whole, classes conducted by corporations should be allowed because not only do they expose students to the working world which can further a their education, but the classes and programs also open students up to opportunities they may not have otherwise.

In-school marketing has been a growing concern for The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. The CCFC holds events to prevent companies from marketing directly toward young people because they are an impressionable market and can be taken advantage of. The Wall Street Journal reports on classroom marketing in the article entitled “High School Classes Scripted by Corporations”, which is posted on the CCFC website. The report calls attention to the situation of corporations imposing their brand on students and attempting to mold them through exposure to the company’s field of work. Groups such as Deloitte LLP have used lesson plans in high schools that show students different lines of work that they may be interested in upon graduation, these lines of work including several positions available with Deloitte. This program does not hide that the company is looking to interest students with the offers that they make available to their employees, but the companies that have these school programs do more than that. In most cases they offer classroom materials that accompany their lesson plans and design valuable professional development courses that can benefit a school and would be hard for teachers to turn down.

Similar to the Deloitte agenda, Project Lead the Way is a program that is designed to interest students in engineering and provides eight full-year engineering courses for high school students and five ten-week units in areas such as robotics for middle school students. Project Lead the Way has been sponsored by engineering companies such as Lockheed Martin who have made it clear that “increasing general interest in math and science for all students is not [their] goal. Nudging students toward Lockheed…is”. The engineering field has especially made an effort with these high school programs to ensure a steady workforce because in the past years overall interest in the career of engineering among college students has been quite low and corporations are expecting work shortages in the coming years. Corporations are trying to get a grip on the future workforce in order to ensure their survival, and interesting students in their programs has worked for them so far. Students who have been involved in the courses have taken one or more and many of them have expressed interest in majoring in engineering in college based on what they have learned in the Project Lead the Way program.

Disputes over these programs come about in many forms, mostly with concern for how students are being positioned by the businesses. Schools are in the position to decide what is taught to their students and should keep in mind that their job is to build upon a student’s education, not to appease companies who make them offers. Lead the Way’s vice president of operations, Niel Tebbano, has said that these kinds of programs are what schools need; they show students how their education is applied in the work force, which make their work seem more valuable to them. On the other hand some of these programs are intensive and are designed “to start training students for professions that often require university degrees”. Programs like this can be beneficial to students by expanding their academic world but they can also end up being a distraction from other subjects and hold their focus on future work rather than the education they are receiving presently.

These kinds of courses are using students to interest them in companies that they may or may not have heard of before, but students at a high school level have the ability to know what they are and are not interested in. Classes offered by corporations can open doors for students and get them accompanied with a business that they may have never known they’d have an interest in otherwise and so far these classes have not been shown to distract from other coursework. These programs are all optional and solely available for students who may be interested. In some cases students and young people are seen as being passive in their decisions and easily influenced, but I do not believe that this is one of the cases in which there should be an excess of concern.

More for the Bitty Buyer: Additional resources and websites on Advertising and Children

The web has offered more links for the Bitty Buyer to explore the field of marketing and Advertising to children and provides extensive information on the topic and various relevant subtopics that would be of  interest to readers of the Bitty Buyer Blog. Ten new sources were found and I have provided them in the Linkroll. These links expand upon information covered in The Bitty Buyer and also give information on new topics that may be of interest.

            One group of sites that have been provided are sites that cover general advertising and marketing from a business perspective and include news links, media and blogs on their respective topics. The Interactive advertising Bureau and Adweek were similar in their websites. They both give lists of links to news updates and events in the field of advertising and are highly interactive with video available. The Media Channel site is similar but the layout is very busy and reminiscent of a newsroom in its design. Blogs and videos are also featured at this site.

            The second group of sites are informational about a cause, usually a cause focused on media and children in some way and these sites are geared toward parents in order to help them to know how to deal with their child in a media influenced society. The National Advertising Review Council, National Institute on Media and the Family, Campaign for a Commercial free Childhood, and the Shaping Youth organization, all have sites that promote their organizations and give detailed information about them, what they promote and how to join them. The National Advertising Review Council’s site is informative but the layout is a bit disengaging because the news links don’t include any media or graphics. The Shaping Youth website offers links to other issues between children and the media such as body image, childhood obesity, and consumerism which I feel would be of interest to those who would like to expand on the topic of children and media.

            The final group of sites are from ad agencies who have sites that are geared toward companies who are looking to advertise their products to children.  Just Kid Inc. is a company that advertises children’s products and the website is bright, interactive and attractive. The design of the website itself  gives off a feeling that this company has authority in their field and would be an attractive resource for companies looking to market their brand. Planet News and Views is a group which provides in-school marketing and has links for advertisers, teachers, clients, and products, which are the target audiences for this website. Berenter Greenhouse and Webster had the most engaging and interesting site of this bunch because of its use of animation in the intro to the site. This company markets especially for women, mothers and children and also seems to be an authority in their field.

These resources in the Linkroll have been provided to more fully engage those who wish to read further into the world of advertising to children and I feel that these sites are the best to aid in that search.

Advertising for the Nintendo Wii: Nintendo Modifies Advertising Campaign for Kids

Nintendo Wii’s are some of the most popular toys for children to have in 2008 and they continue to sell out from shipment to shipment. There are waiting lists that people can put their names on knowing that they could be waiting for up to a year to actually receive their console, but they are willing to do so because the Wii is the “it” toy of the time. While Wii’s are seen as being kid friendly and encouraging active play in the video game market that had previously been condemned for making children lazy, some of Nintendo’s advertisements have been criticized as being potentially misleading to children. The Children’s Advertising Review Unit has examined a commercial from Nintendo’s ad campaign and has called the company’s attention to the commercial and how it could be seen as confusing to a child. Nintendo has taken CARU’s opinion on the commercial and has agreed to remove it from their advertising campaign, but this incident brings up the general ethical issue of children and advertising and whether or not it is ethical to advertise to children. Although Nintendo has consented to revise their marketing plan, not all companies change their advertisements according to what CARU thinks should and should not be included in product commercials. Advertising seems to be an ongoing problem when it comes to children, but companies are becoming more aware of their power on children’s decisions and thoughts and they are starting to actively take a part in preventing confusing advertising directed at children.

The commercial that was in question from Nintendo was for their new game called Mario Party 8, which is one of the gaming system’s top selling and most popular games for children. The commercial depicts a group of children playing the game at a slumber party and has a caption which informs the viewer that the game and the console are sold separately. CARU was concerned with the ad for the main reason that children may be confused about what it is they are purchasing when getting a Nintendo Wii. Most children are not able to read the caption or are not paying attention to what it is saying during the commercial because they are focused on the action that is taking place. Because of this they may not be aware that in order to play Mario Party 8 there are various things that need to be purchased besides the Nintendo Wii. In order to play the game the way that it is depicted in the commercial, a Nintendo Wii, Mario Party 8 game, and separate game controllers must be purchased. From the commercial a child may assume that with either the Nintendo Wii or Mario Party 8 itself that all these things are going to be included and may be disappointed if they request these things from their parents and they end up receiving something other than what they saw in the advertisement.

The issue of the Nintendo Wii commercial is relatively small because it is a simple misunderstanding of an advertisement and Nintendo cooperated in CARU’s decision about the commercial and they agreed to pull it from their advertising. In the field of marketing and general media that children are exposed to there can arise other problems that are basically like this but can end up being more severe for a child if they are not aware of all that is included in a particular purchase. Companies like McDonalds are becoming better at informing parents and children what is included in their meals with nutrition facts on the outside of Happy Meal boxes but it has been a long road to get to the point where companies are willing to disclose all information to their consumers, especially companies that deal with small children as one of their main markets. Companies that use children as a market usually depend on them for most of their revenue, and as a profitable market they should be respected in their position and should be given all information in and advertisement so that they can make an informed decision about their purchase. Ads that are made for children and designed in a way that is comprehensible to them will not only help them to better understand different toys and services that they can purchase, but it will also help them to grow into smart consumers who will know how to make well rounded decisions about future purchases. Corporations play a large part in the development of young consumers and should not only provide quality products but also market these products to their younger audiences in a conscientious manner.

Resouces for The Bitty Buyer: Linkroll Sites for Further Research on Children and Marketing

This week I searched for resources on the web which were pertinent to my blog’s topic of children and marketing. I found ten excellent resources during my search which expand upon my topic in different ways and focus on certain aspects of my topic in more detail than I can cover in my blog. These resources are included in my linkrolll and can be accessed from there. One of the first sites that I encountered was called Advertising in the Media and it’s a very simple site of a list of links that could be could resources for teachers and students who are interesting in learning more about advertising in the media and the general effects of it on society. This site as I said before is very simple in that it does not use any graphics and the layout is straightforward which makes it easy to use but this is also somewhat of a drawback because the site itself is not very attractive or aesthetically pleasing for its user. Otherwise the content is valuable for the topic and could be a beneficial resource for an advertising student. The next two sites for the American Advertising Federation and the American Marketing Association were very similar in their goals but their layouts made them differ in positive and negative ways. Both of the sites give detailed information about their goals educate the public about marketing and advertising through their research and links to different news studies. The difference in the format of the sites makes a difference in the overall experience of them. The American Advertising Federation has a visually simple site and easy to navigate with clear and comprehensive links while maintaining its professionalism. The American marketing Association site, on the other hand, has lots of links to relevant sources but it’s a bit confusing and maybe even overwhelming when first finding the site. With the American Psychological Associationn’s site I directly linked to the page on children because it gives a long list of topics to choose from that deal with children that would further someone’s interest in children and the different kinds of things that can effect them mentally besides advertising. Visually this site is a bit boring, the colors are simple and the graphics aren’t very engaging but the simple structure makes it easy to navigate and find relevant information quickly. MarketingProfs was a visually engaging site and I was immediately interested when I came to the page because of the color scheme and the different kinds of media and graphics that are available. There are graphics, videos, and various links which make the site not only visually appeasing but interactive for its user. The content is very focused on marketing in the news which seems to be updated quite often.
A unique part of this site is an area where you can input your email address on the homepage which will sign you up for the website and allow you to receive newsletters about marketing events in the news through email. A site that was more suited towards parents who are interested in preventing their children from becoming victims of persuasive marketing was the New American Dream site which offered tips for parents to follow so that they could help their kids to understand commercials. This would be a useful site for parents, but for others it is somewhat useless. 4Kids Entertainment and the Gepetto Group sites were similar in that they are both sites created by marketing groups who focus on helping companies to learn how to market and brand their products based on case studies that have been run by both groups. Both sites are extremely well done and the animation and graphics can get a bit distracting at times from the actual information being offered. The Gepetto Group’s site was especially animated which overpowered the little bit of information that was given. The last two sites, the Children’s Advertising Review Unit and Comercial Alert, were the most relevant to my blog and spectacular finds because they directly further upon information that my blog addresses. The Children’s Advertising Review Unit is specifically designed to review different advertisements that are put out for children and the group assesses if these ads are appropriate for children to view. An interesting section of this page is the “complaint” section where a user can report an ad that they have seen which they thought was inappropriate and was directed toward children that are under the age of 12. Comercial alert is dedicated to protecting people, not only children, from commercialism. This site is visually not engaging and could use work on the visual design. Overall these resources were rich and valuable finds which I feel will add to the overall experience of The Bitty Buyer.

Marketing to Children: Inevitable or Beneficial?

In relation to my first post on the ethical issues of marketing, I would like to address what others have written on the subject in the blogosphere. When it comes to marketing to children there are many different perspectives that are taken on whether or not it is ethical because children can be so easily influenced by persuasive advertisements. There is not a definite answer to whether it is right to advertise toward children or not, but most, including myself, agree that advertising is okay for children as long as there are some limits to it. Companies that offer unhealthy snack foods or use excessively biased advertisements should not be allowed to market to kids because these kinds of products and marketing techniques are not in the best interest of the children. There are certain internet sites that are made by groups who are dedicated to marketing to children and helping others to advertise their products (GeppettoGroup.com & BigOrbit.com), not to say that these sites are the culprits when it comes to overly aggressive advertising, but their specific techniques could be border lining on what is and isn’t appropriate for kids. And there are other sites, such as this blog, that would like to see happy balance between advertising and responsible buying power for children in the marketplace. In this post I will offer my comments on two marketing blogs on similar topics that I came across in the blogosphere. The first is a post by M.C. Milker, a mother and marketing consultant, which she entitled “Report on Toy Fair - What Parents Need to Know”. Her entry discusses an annual toy fair and the new toys that are coming into the market that are made especially for new movies and for internet usage. She argues that these new toys are the products of careless marketing and not only lessen the amount of imaginative play that children can enjoy, but also may backlash against marketers by replacing their toys with internet play. The second blog is called “The Unbranded Kid: Thoughts on Marketing to Children” and is written by J.D. Roth who is the writer of a financial self-help blog called "Get Rich Slowly". Her post analyzes the use of branding to children and how children are ultimately manipulated at a very young age by companies into becoming consumers as they age. My comments have been posted to their blogs and are also offered below.

“Report on Toy Fair – What Parents need to know”
Comment:
To begin with, I would like to say that your blog is not only engaging but it is of particular interest to me in its focus of marketing and advertising to children. It seems from your report on the toy fair that the toy industry is changing to a more interactive kind of play that links toys to the world of media such as television, film an internet, and for the toy industry this is a fairly new concept. From a marketing perspective this seems like an ideal situation to have a toy that is linked to an upcoming feature film because kids are most likely going to want to see the movie and it makes it that much easier on the marketers of the toys because they don’t have to do very much persuasion to get their toys sold. And you being a parent yourself, I can understand why you would be concerned about the drawbacks that these kind of toys can have on the quality of your child’s childhood, being that these toys limit the amount of imaginative play that a child can experience. But, from a different perspective, I wonder if these toys could also have some benefit to them. In a world that is evolving into a highly technology based society, it may be beneficial to introduce children to the world of the internet and get them accustomed to using it at an early age. It could be said that children who do not have internet access or have not been introduced to particular technologies could later be left behind when it comes to classroom learning which has also evolved to include internet based assignments and research. Toys that have internet capabilities could very well be the new learning toys of the 21st century because they introduce children to a world of technology that can benefit them in their future. To what extent these toys are using the internet I am not sure of and I’m aware they you have a much broader perspective on toys and the kinds of toys that are offered at these toy fairs, but there can be some good that comes from these small innovations.

“The Unbranded Kid: Thoughts on Marketing to Children”
Comment:
Yes, sad to say, branding is almost inevitable in a child’s life. As you say, diapers are even heavily branded, and I also had never noticed this because I do not have a child either, but once I began to study marketing there were so many different commercials and ads that are geared toward children that I had never noticed and it was a real eye opening experience. Branding by companies is done in a way that if they can not directly catch you with it, they have other ways to get you exposed. Using an example from your post where you explain that peer pressure at school is one way that branding can be forced upon children is an excellent example of how a company can reach a child who may have never seen television their whole life. Because branding is somewhat unavoidable, I agree with your statement that the only real defense to aggressive branding and advertising is for a parent to “raise their children to think independently”. Responsible spending and knowledge of the marketplace are key to parents when it comes to raising not only a responsible child but a smart consumer. Children are geared toward consumerism at a younger and younger age as marketers constantly come up with new products to fit a need that young children have. And because they are put in the position of a consumer as a young age, product and purchase education has to be taught by parents as soon as children are able to watch a television ad. Most children, even with extensive knowledge of the market and products, are not going to be willing to actively recognize what products they need in relation to those that they want because of issues such as peer pressure as you indicated. It cant be expected that a child is capable of completely responsible spending because the majority of parents aren’t able to block out ads for things that they don’t really need, so in the end it must be accepted that children are going to be somewhat branded, but as long as a parent does their part in educating their child about good spending habits and gives them a general product knowledge, then kids should be okay.

Problem Child: The Ethical Issues of Children as a Market

Children are seen as one of the most profitable yet fragile markets available in the global marketplace. Profitable because the group not only has a high population, but it is highly influential and easily shaped because children in general are exceptionally susceptible to advertisements and marketing messages. Therein lies the fragility of the market. Children are not an exceptionally loyal market because they are so easily swayed, but because they are so profitable as a market sometimes marketers use aggressive advertisement schemes to keep children's attention on their product. The kinds of marketing schemes used can become an ethical issue when it comes to children because they aren't seen as having enough knowledge to properly decipher and distinguish between persuasion and bias when it comes to aggressive advertising. Children as a market has been a constant debate in business and these issues should be recognized by advertisers when deciding on marketing strategies while keeping in mind the compromising position of the child as a consumer.

Children, kids from the ages 8 and below, have not always been seen as a market for advertisers to target. About 30 years ago children were still seen as being an extension of their parent's spending; children were given money every once in a while, not to spend as they pleased and make conscious decisions about their spending habits, but to save or spend on simple purchases such as candy or small toys. Most purchases were made by parents and few decisions were made by children because parents were given the majority of the decision making power about products.

Today, children are a highly valued market by advertisers for several reasons. The most important reason being that they are actually 3 markets in one; a market unto themselves, a future market, and they play a large part in their parent's market. Kids are their own market in that there are advertisements and marketing plans made to in order to influence their desires. This 15 billion dollar/year market is quite valuable to companies and about 100 million dollars is spent per year on marketing campaigns especially geared toward children. Children as a market have developed their own general needs and marketers have caught on to this market and have developed special marketing formulas especially for kids. Not only are they a market to be utilized now, but they can be shaped into a future market for companies by familiarizing children with their products at a young age so that they will be more inclined to buy a certain brand when they get older and are old enough to be in the company's targeted marketing segment. The average American child sees about 100 commercials daily and these commercials are not only those that are directed toward them, but also those that are made for adults catch their eye from time to time, and this overlap of target markets is not a mistake on the advertiser's part.

The markets of children and adults may overlap at times, but the way that advertisers go about their advertising campaigns has to differ in some ways and take into consideration the fact that adults and children understand commercials and advertisements in differently. The American Psychological Association, APA, has said that children under the age of 8 years old are not able to tell when ads are "truthful, accurate, and unbiased". Kids are not always able to understand the concept of persuasion and because of this they need to be treated carefully and with respect to their position as a child. Comparative advertising and aggressive techniques should be called into question when used to direct the children's market because not only are children easily persuaded, but the company should practice some kind of ethical boundary and limit the aggression when it comes to kids. Some will argue that kids should not be seen as a market at all because of their inability to decipher the true meaning of an advertisement, and others may argue that in the business world it is only fair to be able to market to whomever in order to maximize sales. Being that children are such a valuable market, they should have their own advertisements because as a market they have their own needs for goods and companies should be able to fulfill those needs with their products. But because this market is so valuable, it should also be respected and should not be taken advantage of with unethical and overly aggressive advertisements.

Advertising directly to children has its advantages for kids as their own market. When kids are given their own money, they gain buying power and have great influence over what is produced for them and they can impact the success or failure of a company. They can learn basic skills that will help them as they age on how to be a responsible consumer; "parent-blessed mini-consumers" are those children who have parents who encourage them to go out and spend their money responsibly. These children will learn how to properly read advertisements and learn how, when and where to spend their allowance and what to buy in order to satisfy their needs.

On the other hand, because children are easily influenced by advertisements they can become attached to brands and products that may not be beneficial to them, such as fast food products. Some parents see advertising as big business's way to mold their children into materialistic consumers at a young age. This in turn creates a parent-child conflict because children demand what they want and parents deny them because they know better than to buy into persuasive advertising.

Marketing to children is still highly debated today and the guidelines aren't clear to all companies, so this dispute will most likely continue for years to come. Basic ethics and moral values should always be exercised by companies in any endeavor, but especially when it comes to children because they are not old enough to be fully aware of what influences their decisions.