Back Are we losing our children to ads?
D. Murali
JULIET B. Schor's Born to Buy, from Scribner (www.simonsays.com) is not for babies; but aimed at baby lovers. Which, I'm sure most of us are. So, it would hurt to know that the child has now been commercialised. Marketers have "set their sights on children" — not for the odd trinket and toy as in those good old days, but also for the big money that this niche group can yield by influencing buying decisions.
"Children have become conduits from the consumer marketplace into the household, the link between advertisers and the family purse," writes Schor. Though underestimated, your little kid may be a larger repository of "consumer knowledge and awareness" than you are, and may be among "the first adopters and avid users of many of the new technologies." More important, he or she is "the most passionate" in the household, "closely tethered" like the other children to `products, brands, and the latest trends.'
Schor cites Marin Lindstrom's opinion that 80 per cent of all global brands now require a `tween' strategy — targeted at `tweens,' or children from first grade to age twelve. That "40 per cent of urban tweens worldwide are strongly attached to particular car brands, and 30 per cent of their parents ask them for advice on car purchases," are among Martin's findings.
If you were to sit with your child and talk brands, you'll be amazed at the number of brands even a first grader can evoke. 200 is Schor's count, talking of children in the US; she writes that the 8-13 age-group watches TV for more than three-and-a-half hours a day, imbibing about 40,000 commercials annually and making "approximately 3,000 requests for products and services each year." I guess the Indian average may be more.
"It's a war out there," declares Schor, comparing the lingo of marketing with that of warfare. Such as, viewing consumers as `targets', calling printed materials `collateral,' and labelling impromptu interviews as `intercepts,' not to speak of `viral marketing,' `eyeballs' and `top of mind.' There's not much doubt about who's winning this war, writes the author, and gives an example: "When Nickelodeon tells its advertisers that it `owns kids aged 2-12,' the boast is closer to the mark than most of us realise."
According to James McNeal, the total ad-spend directed at the US children has crossed $15 billion — a 150 times jump from what it was about two decades ago. And kids are responding, by becoming shoppers earlier than their parents did. "Six to twelve-year-olds are estimated to visit stores two to three times per week and to put six items into the shopping cart each time they go." Again, Indian numbers, at least in the urban segment, should be more.
What is depressing is the amount of specialised research that companies unleash on children. "They've gone anthropological, using ethnographic methods that scrutinise the most intimate details of children's lives. Marketers are videotaping children in their private spaces," laments Schor. Quite shockingly, "Researchers are paying adults whom kids trust, such as coaches, clergy, and youth workers, to elicit information from them"? Prying happens online too.
"Corporations have infiltrated the core activities and institutions of childhood, with virtually no resistance from Government or parents," informs Schor, and adds, "The long-term consequences of this development are ominous." Ugly truths stare at us from tables that depict `youth mental and addictive disorders,' `psychosomatic outcomes,' `depression and anxiety,' and so on. Are we losing our children to ads?
The last chapter springs a hope that childhood can be decommercialised, though the job is not going to be easy. Some of the changes that Schor proposes involve Government regulation of ads and marketing. "A good place to begin is to require full disclosure in children's marketing," suggests the author. More important, there are things that families can do, but the parents have to `walk their talk,' points out Schor, because "highly materialist kids are more likely to have highly materialist parents."
A book that children can gift to their overworked dads and moms, for everybody's sake.
Book courtesy: Landmark (www.landmarkonthenet.com)
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