Totally wild junk food and ben 10: appropriate advertising for children’s television

Author Al Marshall Published 12 October 2009

The debate about the advertising of particular classes of products during children’s television hours is ongoing. In some national markets no advertising is allowed during these hours while in other markets particular product categories are excluded from advertising. In still other markets there are no limitations: any product can be advertised during children’s television hours.

There are obviously some product categories where advertising during these hours is highly unlikely because these products are simply not targeted to children, and a business case for advertising expenditure cannot be made. In other cases the product may have children as a secondary audience, and the decision may simply be made to focus on adults as the primary audience.

But with some product categories children are very much the primary target audience, in terms of purchasing, consumption or both. Tweens and teenagers in particular can have substantial purchasing power in developed country markets. Moreover, tweens have ‘pester power’ in influencing their parents and other adult peers to purchase for them.

In Australia fast food marketers have been singled out for particular attention, while in other national markets confectionery and soft drink marketers have been singled out. Criticisms have been particularly focused on these product classes given the growing obesity problem among Western nations (children included), with downstream problems like diabetes and heart disease.

Health experts argue that good health, nutrition messages and habits should start early; ads targeting children that encourage them to purchase (or influence purchase) and consume fast foods, confectionery and/or soft drinks are a direct challenge to such messages and habits – ultimately leading to poor health outcomes. Furthermore, children are perceived as particularly vulnerable to such advertising.

Advertising, as one of the types of marketing communications, is typically perceived by those seeking advertising restrictions as a powerful influence on consumers. It is seen as a particularly strong influence on children since children are not perceived as possessing ‘defense mechanisms against the often subtle (but sometimes not so subtle!) influences of advertising.

Another school of thought argues that children are entitled to a childhood free from marketing influences. These critics of children’s advertising tend to be absolutists in the sense that they oppose any advertising during children’s television hours. They tend to see advertising targeted to children as intrinsically bad. The social harms are seen as extending beyond health outcomes.

The relativists only tend to single out particular product categories for criticism, and believe that not all advertising is harmful to children. Their thinking tends to accept that all people (children included) live in a commercial world and this is unavoidable. Early socialisation of children may even be desirable since skills in dealing with marketing messages can be developed.

The battleground between these ideas of what children should be exposed to and what is good for them is an ongoing one, and the current debates about fast food, confectionery and soft drink advertising during children’s television hours illustrate varying important ideas about the impact of advertising, its role in society, the rights of children, and the responsibilities of parents and marketers.

So what’s your take on fast food, confectionery and soft drink advertising during children’s television hours? What did you think about it during your own childhood, and do you think it is appropriate for the children of today?