Nursery World - Stop making the children targets

By Vicki Shotbolt, communications director, National Family and Parenting Institute Marketers are after our children, and Christmas brings even more pressure. Evidence suggests that marketers and advertising agencies target children both in their own right and to reach adults.

Evidence suggests that marketers and advertising agencies target children both in their own right and to reach adults.

In 2001, advertisers spent 161m on selling chocolate and sweets in the UK, and 34m was spent on ads for crisps and snacks, much of it directed at children, while just 10.2m was spent promoting frozen and fresh vegetables and 5m on fruit.

Parents face enormous pressure to make purchases because of what their children have seen, and although parents do their best to resist, they face extra tears and aggravation when they do. Product tie-ins cause particular irritation; the release of any new film or children's TV programme is accompanied by endless branded products. Parents tell us that marketing is targeting children at a younger and younger age, and they are aware that their younger children are more susceptible to advertising than their older children.

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