Advertising and children
Today’s Advertising
Generation Alpha is growing up in front of screens, and where there are screens, there are ads. Companies treat children like consumers/shoppers. They are constantly serving them ads. You can’t scroll on Facebook for 10 seconds without seeing an ad. Even when kids are watching television, and no, I am not talking about the breaks, they see ads in the form of product placement. Children are often used as a way to influence parents’ buying decisions.
kidfluencers
With the growth of online platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Tiktok, and YouTube, advertisers have found new and creative ways to reach consumers. Influencers are one of the most popular ways to reach children. YouTubers are often paid to promote products on their social media account. For example, when a company wants to promote a new toy, they will contact a kidfluencer who does a lot of toy reviews. Companies can advertise more precisely because it is easier to reach their target group. Children put a lot of trust in their favourite influencers. They value their opinion and look up to them. Watching them almost every day gives the feeling that they know them and can trust them.
Insight Strategy group studied the impact of kidfluencers on children and found out:
1. 8 out of 10 would watch a TV show or movie if it featured an influencer they know.
2. 77% trusts YouTubers recommendations over traditional commercials.
3. More than 53% have asked their parents for a toy because they saw it on Instagram or YouTube.
Ethical Question: Do children know the difference between what advertising is and what just an opinion is?
Kids don’t always know if a video is sponsored or not. It’s important to inform children about advertising and how to be critical and detect sponsored content online. The EU legislation and the industry's self-regulatory organizations have also taken the necessary steps to create more advertising clarity.
Kids don’t always understand that advertising is not designed to shape them into happy and healthy adults. It has only one goal, and that is to sell more products. Some companies even intentionally take advantage of young people’s insecurities and their desire to fit in. All because advertisers care about what’s best for their company, and not what’s best for kids. One of the things that kids learn because of this constant stream of advertising is that buying more leads to more happiness. Basically, the more ads kids see, the more materialistic they become.
Who is protecting children against unethical advertising?
The recently amended EC Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) demands that all programs and content on streaming services must inform their viewers of sponsorship agreements and product placements in all transparency. The AVMSD also allows member states even to ban sponsorship from children's programs.
In the last few years, UNICEF has done a fantastic job, building together with industry stakeholders. They succeeded in establishing the industry toolkit on children and digital marketing. This toolkit builds on UNICEF's discussion paper series Children's Rights and Business in a Digital World. It offers companies practical guidance on analyzing and improving their impacts on children's privacy and rights of expression online. The toolkit was developed over a year, and multiple consultations were held with a range of companies, civil society organizations, academics, policymakers, and UNICEF colleagues.
What should brands do?
Brands can use their social channels and TV airtime to create a more meaningful connection with kids. They can inspire, empower them, and demonstrate more positive values. Some brands have already tried and succeeded to create ethical ads. A perfect example is Dove and Cartoon Network. In the last years, Dove has built its brands with empowerment-empowering women to love their bodies, themselves and empower girls to be kind on social media. Dove wants to inspire young females to have more self-confidence and be happy with their bodies.
Dove has worked with Cartoon Network’s Steven Universe a show to support their purpose, while named after a male character. It is all about feminine energy and power. The campaign Dove and Cartoon Network created online episodes in which different Steven Universe characters discuss their insecurities and issues related to body image and self-confidence. Kids can find the episodes on their favourite place, YouTube, or the website van DOVE.