Marketing to Children

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Marketing to Children
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Childrens exposure to commercials

• watch an average of 3 to 4 hours of TV per day
• 1 after-school activity for 6 to 17 year olds
• spend 1500 hours in front of the TV annually
• 900 hours in the classroom
• average child sees gt 20,000 commercials each year
• American children will have viewed 360,000
  commercials on television before graduating high
  school
• Food and toys are the two most commonly
  advertised products.

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Concerns related to children watching commercials

• Most children younger than 6 do not understand
  that the purpose of advertising is to sell a
  product
• Children up to age 8 cannot distinguish
  advertising from regular television programming
• Children who watch 4 or more hours of TV a day
  are more likely to believe advertising claims
  than children who watch TV less often
• 9 out of 10 food ads on Saturday morning TV are
  for sugary cereals, candy, salty snacks, fatty
  fast foods and other junk food.

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Regulation of commercials aimed at children FTC
regulation

• 1970's, FTC proposed a regulation banning
  advertising of candy and sugared cereals on shows
  targeted to children under 13
• Calling FTC a "national nanny," Congress in 1980
  prohibited the FTC from issuing rule

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• FTC has brought individual actions based on one
  of two theories
• Ads might deceive children, even though they
  would not have the same effect on adults
• toy ballerina standing alone and twirling
• toy vehicle appearing in the ad to operate under
  its own power
• Ads showing children engaged in activities that
  are potentially hazardous, even though adults
  might reasonably avoid injury
• cooking hot foods
• using a blow dryer next to a sink filled with
  water

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Industry self-regulation

• CARU Guidelines
• NAD dispute resolution process

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1990 Children's Television Act (CTA)

• Enforced by the FCC
• Requires broadcast stations to serve the
  educational and informational needs of children
  16 and under
• Requires stations to carry at least three hours a
  week of such programming
• FCC Rules adopted under CTA limit commercial time
  during children's programming to
• 10.5 minutes per hour on weekends
• 12 minutes per hour on weekdays

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"Program Length Commercials"

• FCC Rule
• Entire program is counted as commercial if
• program associated with a product and
• commercials for product air during show
• Compliance with FCC Rule considered in
  determining whether to renew license

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Marketing junk food to children
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• Obesity the major health issue of the day
• tobacco of the 21st century
• 2000--diet and physical inactivity accounted for
  400,000 deaths
• 16.6 of total
• 200--tobacco caused 435,000 deaths
• 18.1 of total

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• Smoking rates are dropping
• Americans are increasingly overweight
• Obesity likely to overtake tobacco as the leading
  cause of preventable deaths as early as 2005
• March 10, 2004 House passed bill protecting food
  industry from lawsuits based on weight issues
• Key sponsor of bill is from district home to
  Darden Restaurants
• Owner of Olive Garden and Red Lobster

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• Food companies spent 15 billion on advertising
  to children in 2002
• Up from 12.5 billion in 1998
• Advertising used to be limited to Saturday
  mornings
• Now its everywhere
• television
• movies
• school

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• Promotional tie-ins and licensing have become
  significant marketing tools
• Rugrats Fruit Snacks
• Flintstones Jell-O
• Scooby-Doo cheddar crackers/macaroni cheese
• 2003--45 of fruit snacks had licensing
  agreements
• 1996--10

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• Advertisers use characters from shows to market
  products on television
• SpongeBob SquarePants used to sell Kraft Macaroni
  and Cheese, Popsicles and fruit snacks
• SpongeBob SquarePants show--more than half the
  commercials are about food
• The programs have become advertising for the
  food, and the food has become advertising for the
  programs

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• Some companies deny marketing to children
• Coke says it targets teens and adults
• 2001--Coke signed tie-in with Harry Potter
  character
• Increase in food marketing parallels increase in
  childrens weight
• Since 1980, number of obese children doubled to
  16

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• Where does the responsibility lie?
• Food companies?
• Parents?

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