Think of advertisements of food products, breakfast cereals, soaps, shampoos, toys, chocolates, candies, biscuits and many more personal care products and eateries, you can easily remember that in almost all the advertisements either kids are there as models or the advertisers have targeted children by using cute mascots, current favorite celebrities or even animated characters. Targeting children seems to be a perfect recipe for upping the sales and creating a never ending demand in the market.
It is so because the advertisers have realized that children themselves have a huge purchasing power when it comes to purchasing clothing, food and other grooming products for themselves and that they hugely influence the choices of their parents.
The advertisers know very well that once kids begin to pester their parents, nothing can stop them. They settle only after buying their favorite consumer products. The parents also succumb to their kid’s wishes for a variety of reasons, like having enough money to buy them their favorite things, a feeling of guilt for not being able to give them enough time due to respective job pressures, dual incomes and the disbelieve that growing materialism means more happiness. As a result, the industry alluring children for buying various consumer products has grown exponentially.
Advertisers also see children as their future, as well as current, consumers and hence building brand loyalty at a young age makes sense for a profitable business.
The parents need to understand that children do not understand that advertisements are there for upping sale and not for their welfare, especially children in their tween years, and toddlers may misunderstand things fast and may mistakenly begin to believe junk food as healthy food and video games as the only means of entertainment. It is important to explain to children at a very young age what is good for them and what is not so good and set ground rules for purchasing things of their choice.
