Transcript 1 March Lecture: Children/Kyle Asquith

Advertising to Children
MIT 3214 - March 1, 2010
Kyle Asquith, PhD Candidate
MIT 3214 – March 1, 2010
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Advertising to Children
• Children represent three distinct advertising audiences:
1. Direct purchasers.
2. Purchase influencers.
3. Future branded consumers.
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Early Children’s Advertising – Radio Era
• Clubs, contests, and premiums.
• Consumer socialization.
• Example: H-O Oats’ Bobby Benson
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Wrigley’s Chief
Lone Wolf Tribe
Club – 1934.
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Television Era
• Post-war economic expansion.
• Toy industry grows: Mattel founded in 1945; first Toys R
Us opened in 1957.
• Mickey Mouse Club, Howdy Doody, Roy Rogers.
• Mattel Burp Gun
• Roy Rogers – Sugar Crisp
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Role of Parents
• Parents as mediators,
gatekeepers.
• Appeals to the values of
parents, esp. gender roles.
• Children as sales agents –
pitching to parents, but
without “pestering.”
• Child improvement ethos.
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1980s-1990s Boom
• De-regulation.
• Emergence of “program-length commercials.”
For example: He-Man, Care Bears, My Little Pony.
• Product licensing and character marketing.
• New media options: Nickelodeon, YTV.
• Competition from other media: video games, Internet.
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Social / Demographic Factors
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1980s affluence.
Baby boom echo generation.
Women in labour force = guilt money.
Divorce rates = guilt money.
Longer life spans = “six-pocket kids.”
• “Skippies,” “Tweens.”
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Bratz and Promotional Culture
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Integrated, multi-media, multi-platform marketing.
Corporate synergy.
Promotional culture.
Consumer socialization,
beyond Barbie.
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From Gatekeeper to Anti-adultism
• Parents positioned in a different manner.
• Consumer culture a place where “kids rule”—mischief
and rebellion celebrated.
• Examples:
– Planet Lunch
– Chips Ahoy
– Post Cereal
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Anti-adultism and Fun Foods
• Pester power, anti-adultism, and distancing “food foods”
from “adult foods.”
• Pitting kids against parents.
• Product packaging: fun food communicated by shape,
colour, packaging, graphics, etc.
• In all areas of supermarket.
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Food and In-School Advertising
• Sponsored educational materials (SEMs).
• Exclusive pouring rights.
• Incentive programs: for example, Pizza Hut “BookIt!” or
McDonald’s Seminole Country Florida report cards.
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Food Industry Responses
• Method 1: Internal standards/guidelines.
• Cadbury Canada “Marketing Code of Practice,” Campbell
Soup “Global Guidelines for Responsible Advertising to
Children,” Kellogg “Worldwide Marketing and
Communication Guidelines,” etc.
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Industry Responses
• Method 2: Product innovations and healthy choices.
• Discourse of “innovations.”
• Product labeling practices: for example, Kraft’s “Sensible
Solutions” or PepsiCo’s “Smart Spot” icons.
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Industry Responses
• Method 3: Corporate philanthropy.
• General Mills “Champions for Healthy Kids Grants” or
“Presidential Active Lifestyle Awards.”
• Hershey Track and Field Games.
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Industry Responses
• Method 4: Blame parents as gatekeepers.
• Asserting the role of parents as gatekeepers.
• Food advertisers can only “support” parents and
caregivers in this regard.
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Quebec Consumer Protection Act
• Effective April 30, 1980. First such law of the twentieth
century.
• Advertising to persons under 13 prohibited.
• Whether or not an advertisement targets someone under
13 is determined by: type of goods advertised, tone/how
presented; time and place shown.
• Exceptions: promotions for children’s shows, in-store
and display advertising.
• Supreme Court challenge in 1989 by Irwin Toy.
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ASC Children’s Code
• Advertising Standards Canada (ASC).
• Broadcast Code for Advertising to Children developed in
early 1970s out of fear of government regulation.
• Advertising Standards Canada, the Canadian advertising
industry self-regulatory body, enforces the code.
• CRTC requires that all broadcast advertisements be precleared by the ASC, based on the Children’s Code.
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OWL Magazine
• Founded by non-profit group: Young Naturalist
Foundation
• Purchased by Bayard in 1997
• Shift from nature, animal and science magazine to
consumer magazine
• Comparison 1982, 1992, 2002
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OWL Informational Content
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OWL Instructional Content
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