Topic: “Children should not be exposed to advertising and marketing.” Discuss this statement.
Order Description
In this discussion we will throw desperately needed light onto the practices of a relentless
multi-billion dollar marketing machine that now sells kids and their parents everything
from junk food and violent video games to bogus educational products and the family car.
Drawing on the insights of health care professionals, children’s advocates, and industry
insiders, we will focus on the explosive growth of child marketing, showing how youth
marketers have used the latest advances in psychology, anthropology, and neuroscience
to transform American children into one of the most powerful and profitable consumer
demographics in the world. We will ponder whether we should push back against the
wholesale commercialization of childhood, raise urgent questions about the ethics of
children’s marketing and its impact on the health and well-being of kids.

A useful source that covers both sides of the debate can be found in Advertising and Society
edited by Carol J. Pardun (2014). It contains an article in favour of exposing kids to
marketing: J. Walker Smith “Children are smarter than
we think. Let’s respect them as the consumers they are!”
It also presents a counterargument. See: Dan Panici “Children need more protection from advertising!”

Key References
Lamb, S. and Brown, L.M.(2006) Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters from Marketers’ Schemes, New York: St. Martin’s Griffin.

Brown, L.M. and Lamb, S., and Tappan, M.(2009) Packaging Boyhood. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Gunter, B., Oates, C., and Blades, M. (2005). Advertising to children on TV: Content, impact and regulation. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.