In the past, marketing to children was a relatively low-budget affair, mostly
concerned with toys and sweets. In the past decade or so, as electronic
equipment has swelled, and especially as televisions and computers have
moved into children’s bedrooms, it has become a multimillion-pound business.
Children are now targeted not only through TV ads, but via internet pop-ups
and e-mail as well as through product placements in programmes and on
websites. The electronic media allow plenty of opportunities for the two
great learning devices: imitation and repetition.
KIDS ARE GROWING OLDER YOUNGER
One popular marketing strategy is KAGOY (Kids Are Growing Older Younger),
exploiting children’s natural yearning to be more grown-up. To begin with,
this latches on to pretend play: instead of using their imagination and a
few dressing-up clothes, today’s children are encouraged to want all sorts
of paraphernalia, from fully equipped hairdressing salons to
mini-briefcases.
KAGOY has also affected the dolls that little girls covet. As well as Barbie
with her accessories, there are now the streetwise, precocious Bratz dolls.
The Bratz Secret Date Collection, marketed to six-year-olds, pairs each
Bratz girl with a Bratz boy, and includes two champagne glasses and “tons of
date-night accessories”.
All this attention to fashion opens the flood-gates for much more spending.
There is now a massive fashion industry for children of all ages, with
styles that are increasingly adult, including “sexy” underwear for little
girls. Little wonder small children now have problems with body image
(nearly three quarters of seven-year-olds in a recent survey said they want
to be slimmer because they believe they will be more popular).
I always wonder whether the mothers who buy sexy clothing for their preteenage
daughters and let them go out plastered in make-up are the same mothers who
protest stridently about paedophiles . . . and whether they ever make the
rather obvious connection.
GOTTA CATCH ’EM ALL
Another successful ploy is to turn children into rampant consumers by homing
in on their natural urge to collect things. Pokémon’s slogan, “Gotta catch
’em all”, sums up the strategy, and there are now endless ranges of
collectibles to covet.
What’s more, by emphasising natural differences in the interests of boys and
girls, the marketeers exaggerate gender distinctions. Girls are directed
towards girly-pink cutesy animals, fashion dolls and grooming products. Boys
are lured to the mechanical, quirky, and competitive.
When you link collectibility to fast-changing fashion, you create endless
opportunities for consumption. So now every film made for children spawns a
vast array of consumer items – and no sooner has one collectible craze
reached its peak than another begins.
THE CULTURE OF COOL
This marketing maelstrom affects children in another, very worrying way. The
culture of cool it creates now rules the playground, so children’s
friendships and relationships are influenced by what they own. The wrong
brand of food in your lunch box or a supermarket-label sweatshirt on your
back can be social suicide.
Marketeers have also identified that it’s natural for little boys to want to
push the boundaries of acceptable behaviour. So they sell to boys using the
concept of “edgy cool”. This encourages an antiauthority stance that’s at
odds with the sort of behaviour parents and teachers try to encourage. But,
as with KAGOY, the nature of marketing means constant upping of the ante –
and the definition of “edge” is becoming increasingly antisocial.
Playground culture has always existed, and it’s always had a bit of an “edge”.
But in the past, it used to be children’s own private world. It was
influenced a little by children’s books, comics and the media, but the
children themselves maintained control. In many ways, it was an important
part of growing up and learning how to leave the family nest. This organised
invasion by marketing men is something completely new – and, from my point
of view (as a parent and a teacher), very sinister.
KIDS AS CUSTOMERS
There are three key reasons for business to invest heavily in marketing to
children:
1. Guilt money
Parents who fear that they’re not spending enough time with their kids often
try to make up for their absence with expensive gifts or lots of pocket
money. For marketeers it’s a win-win situation. The parents have to work
harder and longer to earn money to assuage their guilt. This means children
spend more time with their electronic babysitters, so the marketeers can
groom them to ask for more “must-haves”.
2. Pester power Since children are now so well versed in “what’s hot
and what’s not”, they’re having ever greater influence on a range of family
purchases. Harassed parents often give in to pester power to keep the peace
on shopping trips.
3. Brand loyalty If marketeers can win children for a brand when very
young, they tend to stay loyal for life. So the aim is to get them
recognising logos by 2, asking for products by brand name by 2½, and
dedicated brand users by 3½. It’s easy to convince children of 8 or under
that a certain brand can make them happier and more successful.
YOU ARE WHAT YOU OWN?
Psychologists employed by companies now work on ways to convince children that
their lives will be better if they own a certain product.
The point, of course, is to sell products, not to ensure children’s welfare.
MONEY CAN’T BUY ME LOVE
We adults are usually well aware how marketeers constantly target us, and most
of us just use ads to help us with consumer choices. But young children
aren’t so sophisticated. If they absorb the message that “you are what you
own” at an early age, they’re being set up for a lifetime of consumer-driven
unhappiness. Studies suggest that once people’s basic material needs are
met, real happiness comes not from owning more and more stuff but from:
strong, satisfying relationships with others opportunities to be creative
the satisfaction of personal achievement a personal belief system that gives
meaning to your life
FIGHTING BACK
First of all, take control of the media in your home. Then talk to your child
about marketing, consumerism and the difference between life-style and
quality of life. Above all, talk about what really makes your child happy.
© Sue Palmer, 2007. Extracted from Detoxing Childhood, to be
published by Orion next week (£9.99). It is available from Times BooksFirst
at £8.99, free p&p. Call 0870 1608080 or log on to timesonline.co.uk/booksfirstbuy
Selling to kids: how it’s done
1. A company called Dubit recruits children on the web to be “Dubit
Informers”. The kids keep the company up to date on street trends and
promote the latest “cool” products in return for cash payments. The tag-line
reads: “Promote brands on the street for free stuff, prizes and cash”.
2. In late 2006, children visiting Wal-Mart’s Toyland website were
shown how to e-mail their parents a list of the items that they wanted for
Christmas (an update of the traditional letter to Santa, but of course based
on buying from Wal-Mart).
3. To create interest in a new snack product, an advertising agency
“seeded” its promo figures (mutant fruit characters) at teeny-bopper
concerts. They also featured the characters on websites visited by young
teenagers, and on gifts of clothing to TV presenters. The idea was to make
the characters popular with teenagers so that younger children (the ad
agency’s target group) would see them as “cool” and want to buy the product.
It worked.
‘Can I have, can I have . . .’
‘Lots of times you get home and it’s “Can I have, can I have . . .” whatever
character it is. You open it up and they don’t like it. They purely wanted
it for the picture’
‘I have lost count of the number of tantrums I have had in Asda because I
won’t let the girls have a cereal just for the free gift’
‘I feel like I have to keep saying no because obviously with two children, not
working, I just haven’t got the money. And they want this and I’m forever
going “No, no, no, no” and what the kids must think of me: “Oh I hate Mum
because she never buys me anything.” It does get really upsetting’
‘I need to ask if the advertising industry are comfortable spending millions
of pounds to target children direct and then saying it’s up to Mum and Dad
to stand up to them’
Quoted by kind permission of the Family and Parenting Institute (www.familyand
parenting.org), from their publication Hard Sell, Soft Targets, 2004
Detoxing the consumer culture
BE WARM
When children first start watching commercial stations, play “Spot the
advertisements” to help them to learn the difference between entertainment
and marketing.
Talk to your child about advertising, products and brands. Watch adverts
together and discuss how the marketeers target people’s hopes, fears and
needs.
Record favourite programmes and teach how to fast-forward during ads.
Do consumer testing with your child and friends. Try “blind tests” of food and
drinks (eg, cereals, ketchup, soft drinks), mixing famous brand products and
supermarket own-labels. Can they tell the difference and how much does
advertising influence their guesses?
Involve children in making consumer decisions that use marketing information
wisely, along with other considerations.
Let them help to make shopping lists and discuss food choices.
Discuss other family purchases (cars, holidays), listening respectfully to
their contributions, and involving them in reasoned choices.
Limit exposure to consumer culture by doing other things with your children:
family outings, activities and hobbies, making things, and so on.
BE FIRM
Monitor what children watch on TV, films and DVD – keep home entertainment in
a shared area of the house and watch with them as often as possible.
Keep an eye on ads and marketing, watch out for trends and be aware how
marketeers target children.
Limit young children’s viewing to noncommercial stations, such as CBeebies, or
selected DVDs.
Demonstrate your distaste for predatory marketing to children – let your
children know that marketeers are only interested in their money.
Never give in to pester power. The earlier you make a stand on this, the
better – but whatever the age, once you’ve decided, be firm. If you stick
with it, your child will eventually realise it’s not on.
Don’t fall into the “guilt money” trap – presence is much more important than
presents.
Have clear, fair guidelines on money and spending. Decide what you will/won’t
pay for on a regular basis, then agree on levels of pocket money. If
children want something extra, teach them to save or wait for
birthday/Christmas/other regular present-giving time.
