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Jaren:

The articles “Child’s Play: Food Makers Hook Kids on Mobile Games” and “

 

FTC Shines Light On Food Ads, Kids” gives examples of how industry target children and teenagers to market their product lines. Some methods incorporate the interests of young people by incorporating their product with popular items such as mobile application games while others use the music and television avenues to market to them. These articles explore multiple ways firms entice the youth towards their product in order to expand sales.

The ethical dilemmas in this situation revolve around the balance of the interest and wellbeing of several parties that are often connected to the companies that are trying to promote their product lines. Some of these groups include shareholders or owners, the consumer population, and the youth population.

One of the dilemmas that is associated with the targeting of the youth through advertisement is the determination of what extent is product promotion directed to children should be considered exploitation of the life inexperience of children and therefore should be limited. The article “Does Technology Change the Ethics of Marketing to Children” uses The International Chamber of Commerce definition of describing this level of exploitation as taking advantage of inexperience in order to cause harm or violate social values. (Levinson, 2013) There are many groups of people and institutions that believe that there is a level of exploitation that is unethical for one to cross in regards to promoting or advertising products to children.

Another ethical dilemma involved here is balancing the level of power between the firms themselves and the consumer population or recipients of the marketing. This dilemma is linked to the ethical principle described in the “Ethical Issues When Marketing To Children” article as the power balance principle. (Smith, 2010) This principle basically states that it is wrong to execute marketing practices that favors the marketing party over the consumer population. (Smith, 2010) It is clear that the balance of the level of power among all groups requires making sure that the benefits of the firm should equal the net benefits of the recipients of the marketing practices.

There are solutions that can be used in order to settle such ethical dilemmas. These solutions revolve around finding a right type of marketing that can target a younger group without causing harm or the violation of social norms and promoting products while adhering to the power balance principle.

Finding the right approach of marketing that respects social norms and avoids harm is a solution that involves evaluating the content of both the product and the message that is being sent to the recipient. This would require comparing the product itself with society’s standards of what should be available to children; in addition, this comparison would also apply to the type of message that is being delivered to such an audience.

The other solution requires evaluating the benefits of all parties that are related to the advertising campaigns in order to satisfy the power balance principle. This would mean that firms should alter the way they target groups and deliver their messages through their marketing avenues. An example of this is by avoiding such practices that would violate privacy rights or deceive the consumer into thinking the product is something that it is not in order to entice sales. Such practices would put the consumer population at a disadvantage and most benefits would be aimed towards the marketing organizations. Balancing the interests of both the consumer and the firm is essential for satisfying this ethical principle.

Jamie

The games mentioned in Child’s Play: Food Makers Hook Kids on Mobile Games, such as, “Cookie Dough Bites Factory,” “SuperPretzel Factory” and “Icee Maker,” are all examples of companies that take advantage of children through marketing. As Smith said, “children are naive,” and don’t realize the manipulation they are undergoing by the advertising companies (Smith, 2010). Children see the advertisement, in this case, the games, and just from playing along with the game, they have the urge to have the product. The advertising companies “do not realize the financial pressures that come with the purchase of items.” (Smith, 2010) When a child is playing “Icee Maker” at 7:30pm on a Tuesday, and all of a sudden they have an urge for an Icee, are their parents supposed to drive them to the nearest gas station to buy them one? I think not! But, when the child has a melt down about not getting the Icee, parents could be tempted to give in just to make the child happy. The issue with these advertisements is that they are obviously directed towards children and many parents don’t like to tell their child ‘no.’ Marketers understand this is the case sometimes and know that with the help of their ad or new game targeted at children, they can count on these parents saying ‘yes’ to increase sales.

Brands like Kotex and Lego, mentioned by Levinson, show the proper way of marketing. Not only do Lego’s advertisements include a vision of family time in the commercial, it also promotes children using creativity and thinking skills. The advertisement shows kids that playing with Lego’s is a fun activity that can allow their imagination to run wild. On top of that, the fun can actually include their parent(s)!  Kotex uses a technique which allows young women, “the opportunities to express themselves positively.” (Levinson, 2013) Kotex and Lego’s have found a way to market their products not only to children but also to their parents. This is much more ethical than the route the makers of “Icee Maker” and “Cookie Dough Bites Factory” have taken.