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Children and Advertising

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Submitted By ck78
Words 2012
Pages 9
Children and Advertising Advertising is used by organizations as a marketing tool to create brand awareness, persuade consumers, and motivate them to buy. For organizations, consumers play a huge role in helping a firm determine the creation and implementation of an advertising campaign. In an article in Advertising Society and Review the author notes that, “American children view an estimated 40,000 commercials annually” (O'Barr, 2008). Thus, children have the potential to actively participate in family buying decisions. In order to successfully design an advertising campaign towards children, organizations must understand children’s role as consumers, the effect they have on the advertising industry, and how advertising to children helps businesses achieve their objectives. For advertising to children to be advantageous, advertisers must recognize a child’s buying behavior and purchasing power. Advertising to children is defined as using various advertising mediums to promote toys, food, music, films, and clothing to young consumers. Marketers refer to these young consumers as Generation Y. This generation that makes up approximately 28.6% of the population includes toddlers, tweens and teens. Generation Y makes up three distinct markets that include: 1) the primary market 2) the influence market – parental yielding and 3) the future market (McNeal, 1998).
Within the primary market, advertisers must see children as an audience that has the capability to purchase based on their own wants and needs. In many instances, children act as firm decision makers. Children have the potential to determine a need and act upon that need by planning, performing and evaluating purchases. In the book, kidfluence, the authors find that children ages 4 to 12 spend $11 billion to $30 billion and teens spend between $94 billion and $153 billion (Sutherland &

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