To summarize....

After a semesters worth of blogging on marketing to children, I have discovered many trends and tactics in reaching younger target markets. Currently, one of the growing mediums for reaching children is through the Internet website, especially through virtual worlds. Along with any emerging mediums for reaching target audiences comes controversy. During the time period for which I maintained this blog there were developments in regulating advertising to children. Other countries have expressed their concern about the detrimental effects of marketing to children and have begun to regulate advertisements directed at children in their own country. Despite attempts to protect children against the effects of advertising, it seems that the only new news I have seen during the semester as I have continued my blog have been negative. Most of the news within my category was filled with companies who have contributed to the negative effects of marketing to children. As each individual company has been publicly shamed for their advertising to children, a trend in self-regulation has seemingly emerged as positive public relations for the company.

There is no doubt that if you are a marketer attempting to reach children you are considering creating a virtual world. The success of virtual worlds directed at children has created virtual worlds to become a vital part in any advertising campaign directed at children. One company that has had the most success with this alternative medium is Webkinz. Anywhere store that sells toys is considering a Webkinz an essential product to be stocked in their store during the holiday season. Webkinz products have been successful because they incorporate what children love the most a toy and an Internet outlet. Webkinz products are stuffed animals that are sold with an ID card that gives a child access to a Webkinz virtual world. As the success of Webkinz grows, the trend in marketing to children has become mimicking Webkinz. Barbie, Disney, and many larger toy companies have followed suit and created their own virtual worlds for children.

As companies are beginning to find more ways of reaching their target audience of children, many countries have developed a growing concern for the effects of these advertisements. In European countries such as Britain the government has already added regulations on advertising to children into their legal system. Presently, one of the headline stores in marketing to children was Australia’s effort to begin to regulate the advertising of junk food to children. As Australia began its journey to regulate marketing to children news broke that Britain’s regulations were failing. This was not good news for Australia since the plan was to adopt Britain’s current regulations. In recent news Australia has considered regulations such as a 9pm restriction. This will not allow companies to market junk food, which falls under a certain category, on channels that children watch before 9pm. As the idea of regulating advertising gains momentum, it seems there are many flaws that must be worked out. Countries are waiting to see how other countries regulations fair before adopting their own.

Finally, many companies have been in the media lately due to their unethical marketing efforts towards children. Despite the bad press some companies are receiving, many are turning this negative image into a positive public relations effort. In order to maintain their current consumers, many companies that have been shamed by their unethical marketing efforts have now vowed to self regulate. One company in particular that was getting their brand into the news was Kellogg. Kellogg had received a lot of bad press based on their marketing for some of their cereals that contain high amounts of sugar. To counteract the bad press, Kellogg decided to include facts about the sugar, calories, fat, and sodium on the front of their cereal boxes. Kellogg also promised to no longer use licensed characters on their cereal products that would fall into the junk food category. Many other companies have followed the lead of Kellogg to avoid lawsuits that each company was threatened with. These other companies include McDonald’s and General Mills.

Throughout the time period that I maintained my blog I began to notice all of the advertising to children around me. Through articles and the children I work with at a local elementary school I was able to see the actual influences advertising can have on children. Along with myself, many others including parents and teachers have growing concern for the effects advertisements have on children. In an attempt to halt advertising aimed at children advocacy groups attempted to bring lawsuits against major companies. As a result of their threats main of these major companies are beginning to self-regulate their advertising to children. Along with the idea of self-regulation, countries are making their own attempt to stop marketing to children. Currently Australia is attempting to regulate junk food advertising on children’s television programs, modeled after the regulations Britain already has in practice. Despite efforts to stop marketing to children on television other emerging mediums seem to be reversing these efforts. One of the most popular new mediums for reaching children is creating virtual worlds.

Politically correct marketing to children

With all of the negative press companies who market to children are currently receiving, ideas of using advertising positively have begun to emerge. One idea for using advertising to influence children in a positive way comes from Jane Lane an advocate for racial equality. The idea is to use advertising to influence children in broader ways. The advocate suggests that companies currently use advertising to convince children to want their product, why can't these same principles be used to open up conversation about social issues. The idea is that by creating advertising that center around these issues such as race that they will no longer be taboo subjects to our children. Using advertising that focuses on different social issues will allow children to be more open about the topics and thus more educated.

Lane points out that from a young age children are taught different colors. Therefore they recognize and identify these objects by their color. It is contradictory to ask a child to identify the color of a car, but then tell them to refer to different people by their color is improper.

Not only will this help to break down barriers in discussions on these topics, but Lane argues that the openness will allow children to feel better about who they are as a person. It is hard to identify how children learn about race since the topic is currently treated as something that is inappropriate to discuss. Because children are not allowed to discuss this openly they create in opinions about the topic. The goal of creating advertising surrounding these topics will allow for a more comfortable open discussion about this topic.

I feel that this idea may be a good idea in theory, however I don't believe advertising the topics to children is the proper medium. I think that this might be successful if these discussions were brought up in the classroom instead of on the television screen. I also don't know how these advertisements would be created. It is a hard message to get across without being confusing.

Information for this post provided by Children need to know that skin colour is not a taboo subject

The Year of the Wii.

This years most popular present for the holiday season, no surprise here, is the Nintendo Wii. If parents did not plan ahead and purchase this gaming console in October the chances of finding one now is nearly impossible. This is just another year where the toy of the holiday season has left parents scrambling to find the one toy their child can't live without.

Nintendo has said to have been producing approximately 1.8 million Wii consoles per month. This has seemingly come nowhere close to the actually demand for the product. Parents in last attempt efforts have resorted to make daily calls to local gaming stores, waiting in line anytime there is a hint of a shipment, and searching Ebay for a seller asking a reasonable price for the gaming system.

Although the hype is currently surrounding the Nintendo Wii, this year is no different then another. It seems every year the kids across the United States decide on one particular toy that they NEED for Christmas and challenge their parents to find one. Every year there seems to be one toy with an extremely high demand and a low supply available.

The idea has turned itself into almost a comedy. One movie that captures this concept of a parent attempting to hunt down the present that their child just can't live without is called Jingle All the Way. Arnold Schwarzenegger joins hundreds of other parents as they attempt to be one of the lucky parents to find the Turbo Man doll.

Every year there is the one toy that every child needs. Other toys like the Nintendo Wi that have created as much buzz around the holiday season include the Tickle Me Elmo, Furbies, Cabbage Patch dolls, etc. This is just another holiday season where parents are turned into maniacs in an attempt to make their children happy when on Christmas morning.

Inspiration for this post provided by All Wii want for Christmas

Commercial Free Programming

This week ABC in Australia announced that the government would be providing the broadcasting station with 82 million in funds to provide a commercial free channel for children. The 82 million would be provided over the next four years, if the government is re-elected. These funds will pay for the Australian programming stations as well as production costs for the channel.

The government chose ABC to provide the nation's youth with the commercial free channel because of the already existing trust that families, especially parents have in the broadcasting company. The ABC brand has provided Australia with over 50 years of non-commercial children's content. This will be another addition to the programming the company already offers.

This channel is being develop to give parents a channel that they can allow their children to watch without having to worry about influential marketing. The channel will provide 15 hours of programming during the day. The channel's content will target children up to the age of 17 years old.

This idea for a commercial-free channel comes after discovering the ban on junk food advertisements that Australia is pushing to adopt failed in the U.K. The Australian government is now concentrating on providing parents with options.

For now Australia is working out other alternatives to banning junk food advertisements. The Australian government has not completely ruled out the idea, but feels it needs further analysis and restrictions. One idea was to ban junk food advertising on children's channel before 9pm.

Information provided by New ABC kids channel 'boon for parents'

Some good news for a change...

Recently Tampax and Always announced that they would be partnering up with organizations to provide necessary products to school age girls in sub-Saharan Africa. Tampax and Always are joining forces with organizations called HERO and Protecting Futures to provide these girls with products to help them during their menstrual cycle.

These girls cannot afford tampons or pads many have resorted to staying home instead of attending school. To help positively affect the education and lives of these girls these companies will be providing them with the products the girls need to attend school during their menstrual cycle.

After noticing that many girls were missing about 4 days of school every 4 weeks these organizations realized that the were absent due to their menstrual cycle. Their families do not have the money to buy products such as tampons and pads. Without these necessary items the girls from sub-Saharan Africa were feeling embarrassed every time they got their period and had to attend school. As a result, instead of being embarrassed, they would simply not attend school. For these girls to miss approximately 4 days of school every 4 weeks could equal out to as much as 20% of their school days.

Not only was this time of the month embarrassing for her, but the facilities provided by the school lacked of clean and private sanitation.

This new partnership will begin with an advertising campaign released by Tampax due to come out this fall. The campaign will promote puberty education in support of these young girls in Africa.

As stated by Michelle Vaeth, Protecting Futures Program Director for P&G "There are lots of reasons kids miss school, being a girl shouldn't be one of them." Sounds like a good slogan

I think this story is inspiring because with all of the news circulating about how detrimental junk food advertising is to children, here is a company who is truly proving they care for their customer. Tampax and Always have been excluding from the media in the war against advertising to children, and instead of laying low they decided to set an example.

Inspiration for this blog post provided by Tampax and Always Launch Protecting Futures Program Dedicated to Helping African Girls Stay in School

Why we don't trust corporations with our children

Not only do we think the way fast food markets advertise to children is appropriate, but our view on drug companies advertising does not stray very far. While fast food companies are drawing children in using recognizable cartoon characters, drug companies are misrepresenting their products to attract children.

This year, before schools opened up in September, some televisions tuned into to view a drug company advertise their sleeping drug to school age children. The commercial boasted "it's back to school season", implying that students heading back to school are the perfect candidate for their sleep agent.

First and foremost, only school age students with SEVERE sleeping issues should be taking drugs to help them with pills. They are too young to be turning to pills to cure their problems.

Second the side effects that are associated with this product include depression and thoughts of suicide. For those adults reading this blog post, remember back to when you were still in high school. I think it's safe to say that this age is difficult and confusing enough with including increased chances of depression. For children, it seems as though it is easier for them to get down on themselves and hard to bring those feelings back up.

Along with using unethical advertising companies are also becoming hard to trust based on their products. Take for example the latest recall by Mattel that included more than 300,000 products was due to the use of lead paint to craft these toys.

With companies as large as Mattel and numbers as high as their latest recall, how can we trust companies to look out for our well being as well as our children's. It seems impossible to protect against the unethical actions of corporations and difficult to believe they are taking every measure possible to keep their consumers safe. As adults we may have somewhat of an advantage over our children and must work hard to protect them from the unethical ways of corporations.

Information for this post provided by Consumer mouse that is roaring

Junk Food Ban Failed

Recently in the news, there is much discussion of Australia banning junk food advertisements. Australia was set to follow the lead of the U.K. The U.K. started a ban on advertising unhealthy food to children six months ago. The ban prohibited foods that were high in fat, salt or sugar from being advertised during programs aimed toward or with a "particular appeal" to children under the age of 10.

The problem in the regulation comes from the term particular appeal. If a program is mostly viewed by adults then according to the regulation advertisers are still allowed to advertise during the program. This means soap operas and game shows that adults and children may watch together are an appropriate way of advertising. Also this allows advertisers to advertise around children's programs if the programs prior to and after have mainly an adult audience.

In Britain, the government has banned airing advertisements around the Bratz program which consists of about 128,000 child viewers. Programs such as the Bratz which are aimed at children fall under the advertising ban. However, Britain's most popular soap opera "Coronation Street" is available for companies to advertise during. "Coronation Street" has about 704,000 four to ten year old children watching.

Because the most popular shows with children and adults are typically aired before 9pm, new legislation is being considered to change the regulation. Advocacy groups are pushing for the regulation to extend the ban to incorporate the time 9pm before marketers can advertise junk food. This change will increase the effectiveness of the ban drastically. The current ban on junk food reduces the exposure of junk food ads to younger children by about 51%. If the ban were to include the 9pm clause the exposure would be reduced by 89%

Before Australia considers adopting this regulation on advertising junk food to children, they must analyze the successes and failures of Britain's current regulation. From the statistics they may feel that changing the regulation to extend the ban to 9 pm would be more effective. Australia needs to make sure that there are also no loop holes around advertising to children, such as advertising during adult programs. I feel that this may be effective if they did some research before adopting the regulation.

Information for this post provided by UK ban on junk food ads not working

Shrinking Hemlines

Have you been to a local middle school lately, or even an elementary school? As many of us know, girls wearing revealing clothing has been a problem for high school age girls. This problem is no surfacing as young as while girls are in elementary school. Children are easily influenced by other girls around them and what they see on TV. At these ages it is also important for children to feel as though they fit in. When everyone around them is wearing mini skirts and tube tops, girls feel the pressure to follow suit.

Shows such as Cheetah Girls and dolls such as the Bratz don't do much in convincing girls to dress more conservatively. The dolls and actresses in these shows are typical scantily clad. Being that these characters are aimed to attract girls in middle school and elementary school, marketers need to be more responsible. Marketers are aware that these characters are idolized by young girls and need to influence them to respect their body instead of telling them to flaunt it.

Not only are children influenced by characters they see on TV, they are bombarded with it in any clothing store. It seems as though it is difficult to take children shopping for respectable clothes when there are so many stores that sell these revealing styles. Companies such as "Pimpfants" that sell "baby beaters" and "junior pimp squad" t-shirts should not be incorporated in a department store. These companies are influences the tastes and preferences of these young children.

This week was the week of Halloween. Although I didn't get any trick or treaters my mom called me up to recap the night. The first thing out of her mouth was, "You wouldn't believe what these girls were wearing". She went on to describe a list of costumes that for the most part consisted of mini skirts, tank tops, and animal ears. My thought is that if they are wearing this revealing clothing at such a young age, it can only get worse. I don't think these children are going to start wearing more conservative clothing as they grow up. Instead I can only imagine that they will strive to be sexier than each other and as these girls grow up we will be seeing a lot shorter skirts and shorts, if that possible.

Inspiration for this post provided by Are Young Girls Dressing Too Revealingly?

Controversial Manhunt 2

Manhunt 2, a video game produced by Rockstar set to be released this Halloween, has stirred up a lot of controversy. Currently in the video game market there are plenty of violent games, however, none have seemed to cause this much commotion. As critics of the video game have mentioned there is no difference in the amount of blood or violence in Manhunt 2 then other video games that are currently on the shelves. The main problem with this violent game is that it is being produced in a Wi version.

For those of you who don't know, Nintendo Wi is an interactive video game system that is played with a control stick. To play the game the player must simulate the action using the control stick.The problem with Manhunt 2 being released in a Wi version, is that children who purchase this video game will be simulating stabbing people to win this game.

Along with simulating stabbing others, the games original rating of Adult only was lowered to Mature. This has sparked a lot of debate considering advocacy groups feel that children should not be permitted to purchase this game. Although the video game industry claims to want to keep their product out the hands of children, they will not allow legislation to control who purchases what video games. On top of their lack of commitment, they act in ways such as lowering the rating of Manhunt 2 that seem to contradict their statements.

Despite no specific link between violent games and the behavior of children, studies have shown that children who are exposed to violent games tend to be more aggressive. Because of no direct links between video games and violence, the industry does not feel pressure to regulate the retail of their games.

Since there is no reason for the video game industry to self-regulate and hold themselves to a certain standard to protect children, parents must regulate their children. Parents should be aware of the video games their children purchase and research each game to see if it is suitable for their child. In most cases parents have the final purchase decision, with the price of video games being so high, and the parents must be able to chose games that are fitting for their child's age groups.

Inspiration for this post provided by Manhunt 2 topic of the night on news media

Advertising Online

With drama circulating about advertising to children on line, companies are simply switching to a different medium to reach their target. This is an easy solution for marketers considering the increasing amount of time children are spending on the computer. With children growing up learning to be computer savvy, Marketers are finding this to be an easy transition as marketing on television is becoming increasingly difficult.

Advertisers are capitalizing on youngsters interest in online sites by advertising on popular websites and virtual worlds. Habbo Hotel, a popular virtual community that allows teenagers to chat and play games, has begun to patrol their websites. Habbo Hotel, along with other online websites, have begun to have issues with advertisers bothering members while attempting to advertise their products.

Habbo Hotel's policy is simply that it is no acceptable. They have advertiser's that help by sponsoring their virtual community, but these advertisers are chosen based on strict rules and guidelines.

With predictions, such as half of the children are expected to be a member of at least one virtual world by 2011, it is no wonder marketers are taking advantage of this new medium. As stated in an earlier post, many companies are beginning to create their own virtual worlds to promote their brand along with their products.

As companies begin to create and invade virtual worlds directed at children, parents need to become more involved and aware of how their children are using the Internet. The connection advertisers have to children in these virtual communities is stronger than any other medium used to advertise to children. Advertisers are able to easily gather information about these children while attempting to sell them products.

Information for this post provided by Online Marketers Aim for the Kids

Kellogg takes a new approach

After recently being selected by the Parent's Jury as the recipient of the Smoke and Mirrors" awards for their Coco Pops commercials Kellogg has decided to change how they market their products to children. Kellogg has made the decision to self-regulate their marketing efforts to children.

Their plan starts with no longer advertising their products to children under 12. The only advertising they will be doing for their products will be if their particular product meets the nutritional guidelines set for calories, sugar, fat and sodium. Along with doing away with most of their marketing efforts aimed at children, Kellogg has vowed to no longer use licensed characters to promote their products.

Kellogg's plans to weed out their marketing is set to be put into affect in the next year or so. These changes are being made because of threats of a lawsuit against Kellogg and Viacom. The lawsuit was over the their marketing directed at children. The lawsuit will be dropped if these companies both change their approach to marketing to children.

Along with ending their marketing for certain products that don't fall into the nutritional guidelines, Kellogg plans to reformulate some of their current products so that they do meet the guidelines.

Kellogg's efforts are not the first of their kind. Last fall 10 food and beverage companies announced that they will begin to self-regulate their advertising to children. McDonald's and General Mills, a large competitor of Kellogg, were among the 10 companies. It seems as though it was only a matter of time before Kellogg followed the trend of self-regulation.

These efforts by Kellogg and other large food and beverage companies are affecting other companies views on self-regulation. I feel that if other companies will have to eventually change their ways to conform with industry standards or they to could receive threats of lawsuits due to their advertising to children.

Information for this post provided by Kellogg to Curb Marketing of Foods to Children

Finding a Balance

Doing what sells or doing what's right. Many marketers have been faced with this question, yet most are more concerned with what sells. Despite the urge to sell more products at any cost, few companies are beginning to change how they target young markets. Some advocates argue that advertising to children is unethical and should be banned. Others however are taking a different approach.

Self-Regulation seems to be a current trend in marketing to young children. While companies are receiving a lot of criticism from their marketing efforts to children, some are taking advantage of this and making some good press for themselves. Companies such as Chuck E. Cheese, Fisher Price, MGA, Entertainment, etc. have begun to "self-regulate" when creating marketing targeting children.

Fisher Price has said that they test their marketing before implementing it. Not only do they use focus groups made up of children in the targeted demographics, but they also test the marketing on parents. That way they can hear reactions about their campaigns before they begin to air.

MGA Entertainment self-regulates differently than Fisher Price. Their self-regulation sets guidelines for the content that must be including in their advertisements as well as what they cannot use. The said that their marketing cannot over promise. Also the content must include a full description of their products and must not misrepresent the product.

Despite these efforts, some parents still don't see this as enough. In this case, brands remind parents that protecting their children is their own responsibility and not the responsibility of the brand.

I personally feel that for companies to make an effort at all to protect their young markets is admirable. Simply because they are not obligated to. They are recognizing current concerns of parents and helping to ease their concern by implementing self-regulation. At least these companies are making an effort, even if it is to shed a little light on their company. I agree that parents must be the person that ultimately protects their children from this marketing and as a parents they need to praise companies that help them carry out this responsibility.

Information for this post provided by How Can You Advertise to Children Responsibly?

Corporate America Crowds My Space

The new trend in reaching young adults is through social networks. The social networks most often used to target these audiences are MySpace and Facebook. Companies are creating entire campaign based off these social networks. Another popular trend in reaching these younger markets are using student ambassadors to help their campaign.

Companies such as Burger King, JP Morgan, Chase have begun to capitalize on the accessibility to their target audiences through these social networks. Burger King created a profile on MySpace for their infamous King character. The King that is featured in Burger King commercials has a profile that represents his and the company. Members of MySpace are able to friend the King. Burger King admits to winning over its 120,000 friends with free episodes of 24 and American Dad. Chase chooses Facebook as an alternative online advertising location.

JP Morgan along with other companies have begun to realize how effective student ambassadors are. Student Ambassadors help companies to promote and bring excitement to their campaign among their younger markets. Over 300 student ambassadors were hired by JP Morgan that helped create events that featured food and game to create a buzz for their company.

Over the summer I worked for a marketing firm and helped them develop a campaign for ESPN GameDay. They were creating Hometown Heroes events in locations of large college football schools. To help promote these events we showed ESPN how they could use Facebook to advertise, but most importantly how they could use student ambassadors and their access to Facebook to advertise at a low cost. We showed them how to create groups and events. All they would need are student ambassadors at each respective school with a lot of friends on the social network to create the buzz.

Social Networks have been growing in effectiveness and companies are just realizing the potential on these sites. MySpace has over 100 million members most of them under the age of 30. With these numbers at the marketers fingertips companies need to learn how to use these networks at their advantage.

Information for this post provided by Marketing to Kids Where They Live

HD Radio, Satelite Radio...Bus Radio?

While searching for information on the latest news in Marketing to Children I stumbled upon an article from Palm Beach County. Apparently the county's school district is considering an alternative option to normal radio on buses. Their plan is to equip 200 of the district's 645 buses with what they refer to as "Bus Radio". The "Bus Radio" will play preprogrammed Top 40 songs with “age-appropriate content,” public safety messages and commercials.

The district's reason for the "Bus Radio" is to help prevent student fights and disruptions. The district feels that by removing exposure to offensive and sexually explicit lyrics on local radio stations they will see a lower rate of student fighting. My response...how?

How does the district feel that by changing what the students listen to on the bus to and from school will have a significant affect on their behavior. I'm not sure how long children in Palm Beach County are typically on a bus for, but the longest I remember being on a bus was about 15 minutes, so half an hour total. The children are exposed to this music in the car to school, they download it on their computers on to their iPods which they bring with them on the bus. I personally think that they are wasting their money trying to impress the parents of the district.

Another thing I found to be interesting was that the same school district has recently allowed advertising on the bus. Their rules for advertising...ads are OK as long as they don’t promote tobacco, alcohol or condoms. I find it contradictory that they are trying to "protect" the students from music, but they are allowing advertisers manipulate them by placing ads in their buses so that they receive a cut of the profit.

Inspiration for this post provided by Commercial Alert

Marketing to Children....virtually

As many adults have gained an interest to the virtual world ofSecondlife, children are mimicking that interest. Children are not yet on Second life, but they are on Webkinz. Webkinz is an virtual world made exclusive for children that purchase Webkinz products. To gain access to this virtual world a children must purchase a Webkinz stuffed animal. Each animal comes with an ID tag that gives the child access to the virtual world.

The popularity of this virtual world for children has sparked other advertisers. Many advertisers have begun to create virtual worlds to attract their young target markets. Many also are doing so through product purchase. In these cases, most often, a child is more interested in gaining access to their virtual world than the toy, but understand they must purchase it anyways.

Other companies that have followed Webkinz lead include Disney and Mattel. Mattel introduced their "Barbie Girl" site in April. The site now boasts 5.5 million registered users. In August Mattel put our a Barbie Girls mp3 player/flash drive. The device, which is also doll shaped, allows Barbie Girl members to access additional features. Disney's "Penguin Club" has about 1.6 million monthly users. With stats such as that it is no wonder the virtual world cost them $700 million.

These virtual worlds are so successful because children are learning at a young age to use the Internet. At the school I work at many parents admit that their children are better with computers than they are. The children I work with are as young as four years old. Anything that let's children practice and improve their computer skills exciting to them. Also anything that involves animals, which most of them do, are instant favorites. Although I don't know much about the set up of Webkinz, from what I understand children fed, play with and take care of pets. Sounds similar to the ever popular Tamagotchi...

Inspiration for the post provided by The Hottest Thing in Kids Marketing? Imitating Webkinz

And the award goes to....

The Parent's Jury just held it's third annual Children's TV Food Advertising Awards. The Parent's Jury is a parent's group concerned with aggressive junk-food marketing. These annual awards consist of three main categories. The three categories are "Pester Power", "Smoke and Mirrors" and "Parent's Choice".

It is no surprise that the winner of the "Pester Power" award was given to McDonald's. In fact, this is the third year they were chosen as the award winner. If you didn't pick up on it, this is only the third year of the Children's TV Food Advertising Awards, indicating that McDonald's has won this award all throughout. This year McDonald's was selected because of their use of SpongeBob SquarePants toys to lure children to their restaurants. The SpongeBob SquarePants toys were given away in their happy meals.

McDonald's main reason for being chosen was because of their continuous unethical practices in manipulating children. As mentioned in an early blog post, children prefer food that is wrapped in a McDonald's wrapper. Despite receiving this award for the third year in a row, McDonald's states that they have reduced their advertising directed at children by 60 percent. McDonald's also has changed their happy meal options to include apple slices and water, as healthy options for children.

The recipient of the "Smoke and Mirrors" awards went to Kellogg's cereal for their Coco Pops commercials. The "Smoke and Mirrors" award goes to companies that market unhealthy food options as nutritious. Kellogg's took the prize when they marketed their Coco Pops cereal as having 55 percent wholegrain. The fact of the matter is the cereal contains 28 grams of sugar, which was left out of advertisements for this product.

Finally the winner of the "Parent's Choice" award went to Woolworths. The took the award for their Fresh Fruit Kids ad . The ad featured a young girl eating fruits, vegetables, and cheese.

Although these awards help show advertisers that we are against manipulative marketing to children, this will do nothing to change their ways. They know their advertisements work and will continue to exploit the children because they are easily influenced. Along with these awards to show marketers we want a change, the government needs to stare making changes governing advertising to children.

In Australia, their government is fighting to put an end to these deceptive advertisements targeting children. They are expected to ban the use of licensed characters to market junk food to children. This means characters such as SpongeBob SquarePants or Shrek will not appear on McDonald's commercials and perhaps be banned from their infamous happy meals. Also they are trying to ban advertising confectionery, sweetened breakfast cereals and fast food restaurants from children's programs.

These measures although harsh, are the only way to stop children from being targeted. Also these may lead to companies such as cereal companies and fast food restaurants to begin make their products healthier. Advertisers are aware of child obesity problems and have done nothing to stop it. Even tactics such as the Children's TV Food Advertising Awards held by the Parent's Jury have not shamed them into changing there ways. If they refuse to change because of ethical reasons, we must make them change based on legal ramifications.

Information for this post from Parent's Jury

Read a book or watch a movie.

It seems that most children these days would agree with the latter. Most students are growing up disliking, even hating, to read. Although where I work we do have a few children that stick there nose in a book all day, it seems that getting children to read anything is a challenge. When we do invite the children to pick up a book, older students tend to pick books meant for younger readers or they pick books such as "Where is Waldo". It seems that marketers are beginning to understand this trend and are supplementing the act of reading with a task a simple as watching a movie.


MGM has recently been producing "Cliff Notes Ultimate Study Guide". This ultimate study guide is a package deal which includes a movie and the cliff notes that go with the corresponding book. Chris Franchino, the marketing director at MGM, doesn't see it as a bad idea. He thinks that students who purchase and use these products are doing work. What he is missing is that it is just another way of teaching children that there is a way around reading. Instead of playing to the children's dislike of reading they should be creating products that encourage reading. Even if they are products such as books on CD's or through iTunes.

Despite my feelings towards MGM's "Ultimate Study Guide" they are also reproducing movies meant for younger children to include a caption option. These new products are part of their Follow Along series. This caption option is easily turned on by a parent and plays the movie as normal with captions that go along with the words. As the characters speech the words that they have said light up in yellow. I feel that this caption option is will be a successful tool for children learning to read. As the children watch their favorite movies they learn to associate written words with the words spoken in the movie.

Inspiration for this post came from Principled Discovery

It's 2007, do you know where your children are?

In an age where everything we do is online, how careful do we need to be? Many people have begun to upload and share their photos online. Photo sharing started mainly between photographers and teenagers. However, this trend has quickly caught on and now is being used by even the most computer illiterate people. My mother the other day sent me a link to the photos she uploaded. This coming from the woman who needs to call me at school when she is having trouble logging into her email. Everyone has caught on to photo sharing on the Internet and many have used sites such as flickr to do so.

So back to my question, how careful do we have to be? Recently there have been many stories of people, including marketers, taking pictures of children off these sites. Personally, I feel that these people have no right to reuse a photo of a child other than that of there own, but these people are not socially responsible enough to recognize that. The people we are talking about range from marketers all the way to sex offenders, because they don't see the wrong in it, we must take our own action to stop it. That means using security settings to protect our photos against these kind of lurkers on the Internet.

Even on flickr there are settings that allow you to protect the pictures that you post. The strictest setting flickr offers is Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works. This means that people are free to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work as long as they attribute the work and do not use it for commercial purposes or alter, transform, or build upon the work. Although this setting protects against using your photos for commercial purposes, as you can see they can still be used for other things.

My recommendation, post photos on sites that password protect your photos, a site that is by invitation only, or a site that you can change the settings to make restrictions against who views your photos. Facebook even has a setting which members can switch to so that only their friends are allowed to view their pictures. As long as you trust the people you are friends you should have no reason to believe that these photos will be reproduced.

Inspiration for this post from SlackerMama.com

Should publishers "think pink"

The other day I stumbled upon a blog that discussed how some publishers are publishing gender specific books to children. This seems to make a lot of sense from a marketing standpoint. Some books may relate more to a particular sex, so why not market them in that fashion. The books are being published with pinks and purples to attract young girls and primary colors to attract young boys. So what's the problem. Boys will do anything to avoid being associated with the color pink.

Boys are mortified at the thought of holding a pink book or toy, wearing pink clothing. The boys who are not, are picked on by other boys because of it. I have worked with children for a large part of my life and I recall one little boy who came in wearing pink shoes. That day one of the older kids called him a girl and when he said he was a boy, the older boy replied "Boys don't wear pink". To this day I have never seen those same pink shoes on his feet. It is horrible that boys feel that they cannot associate with pink or else they will seem like a girl, however that is a stereotype that exists, that marketers need to recognize.

Currently in the U.K. girls already read more than boys. With boys being mortified by the "girlie" colors it is no wonder they are not picking up as many books. Girls have no problem taking a book marketed towards boys adorned in the primary colors. Boys are judged by their peers based on the color books they choose and girls can choose which everyone they want without an comments.

Marketers need to understand how what they read and how much they read affects them. By producing books that turn boys away from reading them, they are doing these boys a disservice. Understanding issues that boys face when it comes to portraying themselves as masculine, publishers need to reduce the number of books they publish as gender specific. Also parents need to be aware of there boy's phobia of "girlie" colors and provide them with plenty of books which the boys deem acceptable to read.

Information for this post was provided from the Learned on Women Blog

Nickelodeon moving into the Electronics Aisle

Nickelodeon has been around as long as most of us can remember. Along with the multiple channels now owned by the Nickelodeon enterprise, they also sell merchandise based on cartoon characters from their hit television shows. Already strong in the toy industry, Nickelodeon is trying to infiltrate the electronic aisle.

Nickelodeon already currently sells electronics, however, they are now working on an entire line of electronics fit for their young target audience. Their new electronics line include radios, portable media players, flat screen TVs, etc. These electronics will be based off their popular cartoon characters such as a Spongebob Squarepants flat screen TV in the shape of the sponge character resting on two large plastic feet. Dora the Explorer is another character that will be used within the new electronics line.

These electronics differ from Nickelodeons previous electronics lines because they are using more sophisticated technology. Children usually understand technology better than their parents and they want products that reflect this. Flat screen TVs and digital cameras are the technologies that children want and understand.

Nickelodeon is also being careful to make sure that the sophistication is noted when making purchasing decisions in the stores where they will be sold. When the hit the shelves and Walmart and Best Buy they will be placed in the electronics aisle instead of the toy aisle. Most consumers feel that electronics placed among other toys show a weakness in the technology or quality. By placing these products in the electronic aisle parents and children will feel like they are purchasing quality, advanced technology that suits the wants of the children.

Information for this post was found on SpongeBob Pushes Deeper Into Electronics Aisle

Starbucks Adjusting to Younger Market

While picking up your daily coffee at your local Starbucks, you may notice the number of children that are doing the same. Every time I step foot in a Starbucks there is a high school student in the corner working on homework, a mother with her children, etc. The part of this that is amusing is that customers of all sizes get their Starbucks fix. The kids are tagging along behind their moms with Starbucks cups in hand. Starbucks has recognized this and is changing its previous stance on marketing to children.

Previous to the announcement that they are reevaluating marketing to children, they insisted that they would never market to children. As with many other companies they are recognizing the potential of this market. They are already reaching the children without marketing to them, which is causing some to already accuse them of targeting children. Now they are beginning to develop a way to market to children with drinks and sizes more suitable to their stature.

Their menu now includes chocolate milk and steamed milk that are already favorites of the youngsters. Starbucks is planning on building on to their kid friendly menu and giving them more options. Along with adjusting their drink line to fit into this younger market, they are also looking into merchandise that would be appealing to kids. Preliminary ideas would be to sell teddy bears specific to the brand.

While Starbucks will be changing their position from previously not marketing to children, they still do not want to target children directly. Their goal is to make sure that the parents make the ultimate purchasing decision. They plan on doing this by keeping merchandise directed towards children at the parents level. Allowing parents to bring their children to Starbucks, without having to hear their children beg for the new stuffed animal Starbucks is selling.

Information for this post was found on Starbucks Aim Menu Changes At Young Customers

Fast food giants retargeting children.

The other day I stumbled upon a blog that talked about Burger King taking steps to market healthy kids meals to children. The post I read commented on how Burger King was going to be serving up flame broiled chicken and apple slices cut like the french fries that normally come with their kids meal. The kids meals are going to have 560 calories or less.

The blog then proceeded to express their views on this approach. The blog says that parents should already assume that when they go to McDonald's or Burger King that the meals that eat will be unhealthy. I would agree with this comment a couple of years ago, but with the health kick that the entire nation has embarked fast food restaurants, including the leaders, are adjusting their menus. Most fast food restaurants have already changed or are beginning to change their menus to include healthy options. People who have become concerned about their health are now hearing that the places where they used to practice their unhealthy eating habits are changing their attitudes too. This shows people that they can get a healthy and affordable meal from the fast food restaurants they know and love.

The blog also mentioned that McDonald's was too embarrassed to change their menus to include healthier options because of the Super Size Me documentary. Apparently this blogger has not been watching their television or visiting their local McDonald's lately. McDonald's changed their happy meals for children years ago to include healthier options. Also their latest advertisements focus on a healthy lifestyle which includes exercise and eating healthier.

Recently the Big Mac of the fast food industry has begun to market their healthy choice options to children. McDonald's rolled out an entirely new advertising campaign to be aired on children's channels. These advertisements emphasize the healthy choices that can now be found in McDonald's restaurants. McDonald's restaurants are now serving up fruits and veggies as a substitution for their infamous french fries. Not only do they stress healthy eating, but they are also trying to encourage an overall healthy lifestyle.

This advertising campaign sprung up after McDonald's was receiving criticism about previous commercials that targeted children with their normal greasy options. It has been said that children actually prefer foods that are wrapped in a McDonald's wrappers. The influence the media has on children within the fast food market is apparent. Advertising new food options to children with the McDonald's name is a way of encouraging children to choose these healthy options, while also driving their traffic. Also for parents to see the McDonald's taking steps to improve their options causes them to want to test out these changes.

Comments made on the article expressed the idea that McDonald's intentions are not as they seem. The comments suggest that they are not concerned with the children's health, they are only concerned with making a profit. Personally, I feel that their main concern is making profit, but they chose to include social concerns as one of their marketing tools. For McDonald's this was a good ethical decision and also a great business decision, by showing that they have chosen to sacrifice what has worked in the past for a healthy alternative.

McDonald's not only changed their advertisements but if you go to their website they have an entire section on Food, Nutrition, and Fitness. The section shows parents and children that McDonald's can be applied to a healthy and fit lifestyle.

The articles discussed in this blog can be found at these sites:

The BK to Introduce Fast Foods to Kids

McDonald's Launches Healthy Eating Children's Ads

Marketing to Children

Despite all of my previous posts, this blogs main intention is to discuss marketing to kids. I feel that this is an important topic because of how easily influenced children are by the world around them. I work at an elementary school and I see on a daily basis how they are manipulated by their environment. One day a student walks in with a pair of Heelys shoes or a brand new tamagotchi and the next day every student has one. Marketers understand the potential of this market, however, I don't always feel that they are as sensitive as they should be when dealing with children.

Marketing to children is a $15 billion market, and continually growing. Marketers understand the size of this group and the rewards they can get from targeting them. That is why 80% of global brands employ a "tween strategy" to reach this market. This is an important market for advertisers because they understand that if they can make their product the "it" product, then it will fly off the shelves. Children are constantly helping marketers by using word of mouth to promote their product. If marketers can get children talking about their product then they are likely to see sales increase shortly after that.

Despite the potential marketers see in marketing to children, they must also be aware of how easily influenced children are by their advertisements. Issues marketers are currently facing are child obesity, depression, sexual issues, etc. A marketers worst nightmare would be to see reports that their product or advertisement has attributed to one of these issues. Being attributed to exploiting on of these issues will quickly change parents opinions on purchasing the product for their children. Marketers must constantly think about these issues and be aware how their product and advertisements come across to their markets. Marketers also can use these issues to capitalize on their product. If they sell healthy food alternatives for children then they can exploit products that don't or simply sell their products based on being healthier for children.

When marketing to children advertisers must combine a sense of responsibility while accomplishing their goals, to reach that audience. It is important to make their product look appealing, while being ethical in this process. Children are very vulnerable and can be persuaded very easily, however the parents make the final decision on whether the children receive the product. Taking all of this into consideration, it is important for advertisers to make their product appealing to children while making sure parents feel comfortable making the purchase for their children.

Information for this post came from Facts About Marketing To Children

The Problem with Men...

The second article I read for my Audience Research course was titled "Targeting Young Males" from Media. This article basically described how difficult it has become to target young men and how marketers are developing new methods of reaching them. Young males are not watching as much television as they used to. Instead they are spending most of their time playing video games. Many companies are trying to reach young males through alternative marketing because television ads are becoming less effective for this audience. Advertisers are placing their product in video games now to hopeful reach young males in that manner. The most difficult part about advertising in video games is making the product fit in and seem natural. Gamers don't mind it when the product fits in with the environment but otherwise it becomes a nuisance.

The article discussed two products in which the brands made an effort to reach this audience in unique ways. The first product they discussed was the Toyota Scion. Scion has developed alternative ways to get the attention of young males such as setting up test drive stations outside of music stores, traveling art shows, etc. The marketing objective was to target customers who hadn't previously owned a Toyota.

I found this kind of ironic since over the summer my 25 year old brother purchased a Scion. When I called him after reading this article he disappointed me by telling me that he had seen a television ad. He went on to tell me that he bought the Scion because he had the ability to customize the car. The car has tons of different options that make this car appealing to young males for example fog lights, spoilers, ground effects.

The other product the article discussed was Axe. Axe was one company that was featured in video games. Axe also sponsored celebrity events and parties to create brand awareness.

Reaching the Tween Audience

For my Audience Research class I was assigned two articles to read and analysize. The first article I read was called "Buzz Focus: Cracking the Fickle Tween Code" from OMMA. This article was very concise and to the point. It did not touch on how to reach tweens through every medium, but it did clearly point out the key ways to reach that target market. The article made four distinct points on the best ways to market to the tween audience. The first point is that tweens do like advertisements, especially for introducing new products. Tweens also like to see a celebrity using a product on their own, rather then endorse it. Email is not an ideal medium to reach tweens. Email is a way to connect to friends for tweens. Finally tweens like to try products before they buy them. They love to get samples.

I really felt like I could relate to this article. As a 20 year old, I can still remember how I made my purchasing decisions in my "tween" years. I agree with this article that tweens are not fooled by sponorships. The example the article gives is that Jessica Simpson has probably created more of a buzz about True Religion jeans than she did when as the spokesperson for Proactiv. I know that I did not base my buying decisions of how advertisers used in their commercials. Instead I read my gossip magazines which snapped pictures of my favorite celebrities and usually commented on what brands they were wearing.

Podcasts

For my first blog entry I was told to write about a couple of podcasts I listened to as an assignment for a class. The podcasts I watched were Marketing Edge by Albert Maruggi and Across the Sound by Joseph Jaffe.

After listening to both of the podcast, I would probably only recommend the Marketing Edge to other people. I think the biggest downfall for Across the Sound was that it was over an hour long. I do not have the time our patience to become a regular listener of an hour long podcast. Marketing Edge was under fifteen minutes which meant that the podcast was more concise and to the point. Also Marketing Edge was much more structured. Maruggi definitely planned out his podcast which kept the podcast more focused. As Jaffe says in his Across the Sound podcast he was discussing whatever came into his mind, which made it less structured and harder to pay attention.

I personally do not prefer this medium. I feel that I would appreciate the idea more if there was something visual to go along with it. I tend to be a visual learner along with the majority of this country and would follow along better even if the video to go with it was just the host of the podcast speaking. Without a visual to follow along with, I would prefer to just read this information, rather then listening to it. I had trouble paying attention during both of them and found myself constantly backtracking because I missed something.

Stacy