Is Advertising to Children Ethical?

In the early 1990s when my brother was in his early teens, he got captivated by the CD player (then an amazing new invention, now an almost obsolete product). For weeks and weeks he nagged my parents to buy one. Finally my parents gave in and negotiated a deal with him that if he finished reading the Bible cover to cover then they would buy a CD player for the family. And because of my brother's obsession, persistence, and diligence, our family became the proud owners of a costly Sony stereo system. His first CD purchase was a Mariah Carey CD. Mines was Yanni: Live At the Acropolis.

I finished watching the documentary "The Corporation" this morning, and found out about an interesting study done called "The Nag Factor - Parents, Nagging kids, and Purchase Decisions". This study was done in 1998 by Initiative Media North America, one of the largest purchasers of advertising in North America ($12 billion spent in 2001).

For three weeks, parents were asked to write down every time a children nagged for a product - when, where, and why. This study was not done to help parents cope with nagging, but to help corporations help children nag their parents for products more effectively. What they discovered in the study was that 20-40% of purchases made for children would not have occurred if the child did not nag their parents for the products.

Lucy Hughes, Vice President of Initiative Media and the Co-creator of the Nag Factor said this, "They (children) are tomorrow's adult consumers, so start talking to them now, build that relationship when they are younger, and you've got them as an adult." She continues by saying, "Someone asked me, 'Lucy, is it ethical? You are essentially manipulating those children.' Well, is it ethical? I don't know. But our role is to move products. And if we know that we can move products with a certain creative execution, placed in a certain media vehicle, then we've done our job."

Susan Linn, Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard said this in the documentary, "It's not that products are bad or good, it's the notion of manipulating children to buy products. You can manipulate customers into wanting and buying your products. It's a game. Marketers are playing to children's developmental vulnerabilities. It's not wrong to make things for children, but it's different when you are selling toys directly to the children."

I'm going to be a father in December and I'm wondering what I should (or can) do to protect my children from the manipulation of corporations. I'd rather not have my children convinced that their lives will be better and happier if they owned the latest Justin-Bieber-in-a-Pokemon-suit doll. Should I disallow my children to watch television or go on the internet? Keep them away from other children that are brainwashed by television and internet advertisements? Move to a small town in the middle of the Yukon Territories where corporations have no presence?

There isn't anything wrong with educating a potential customer on the benefits of your product. But is it okay to educate your customer only on the benefits and not tell them about the risks and drawbacks? What about exaggerating the needs the products fulfills, as Listerine did when it invested the disease "chronic halitosis" which helped to increase sales 70 times (read the full story here)? Where do you draw the line? It's already very difficult to determine what ethical advertising to adults it. I can't imagine trying to determine what ethical advertising for children is.

How can advertising directed at children be God-honoring?