Sample Essay On Consuming Of Kids

The 2008 Consuming Kids film presents the analysis of the changes that occurred in child marketing practices of businesses during the past century and the current situation in this area in the times of increased governmental deregulation. The film features professional opinions of child psychologists, sociologists, researchers, activists and business insiders, who argue that children are victims of marketers, who use the lack of federal regulation to promote unhealthy consumption patterns and to sell products, which may threaten children’s lives and well-being.
According to the authors of the film, the primary interest in child marketing lies not only in their buying power, as children spent about $40 billion a year on various products including gadgets in 2008, but also in their influence of adult spending that equated to about $700 billion in that same year. However, children did not always influence the companies’ incomes in the previous decades, as their advertisements and other marketing tools were regulated by the Federal Trade Commission. But by 1984 the television became totally deregulated by the government, granting the businesses the chance to profit from the 852% increase in kid spending that happened only in nearly three decades. Marketers started using heavy product placement in kids’ movies and cartoons, developing and selling products before the creation of films and cartoons and using the Internet and, in particular, social media to fully capture children’s attention. After negative media influence became a hot topic, businesses started creation pseudo-positive educational and entertaining media that would supposedly help a child learn while playing and subsequently succeed in school. Researches have shown that such media did not actually provide any educational benefits, as television and the Internet shorten child’s attention span essential for school studies regardless of such media aims.
The major problem with modern child marketing is its deregulation, which does not allow to legally question the means the companies use to promote their products. Another issue is the ethical side, as businesses are aware of the harm they bring in the lives of modern children, but still choose to protect themselves with the help of Constitution instead of improving their business strategies and implementing childcare into them.