The children are surrounded by advertising of all types addressed specifically to them. Let’s see what strategies can adopt parents to cope with marketing risks and transform commercials into growth opportunities
The relationship between childhood and advertising, already the subject of many reflections in the past decades, has become even more relevant with the spread of thematic channels for the little ones and the consequent Increase in commercials aimed at children from 0 to 6 years and their parents. Such advertisements – which concern products for the care of childhood, nutrition, toys, clothing – in recent years have increasingly “surrounded” childhood, through television screens or analog posters, but also through the web, portals as YouTubesocial networks and apps.
Childhood in the sights of the commercials
Usually the commercials like children: among the reasons there are brevity (which favors the maintenance of attention), the repetitiveness, the simplicity of the messages, the presence of music and bright colors or captivating rhythms. Aware of this charm, Companies have long been resorting more and more often to Kid Marketing. It was detected as children, already in the first years of life, know some brands and begin to form consumer tastes who will tend to maintain as adults.
Among the main strategies there is for example the nag factor (“Axillo Factor”), thanks to which Advertising are indirectly addressed to children so that with their insistent requests they become “persuaders” of the parentsconditioning the purchase behaviors. Other techniques are the intentional emotional involvement, before rational, of the little ones, but also the use of the playful dimension to capture attention and establish a relationship between children and products.
Advertising tries to promote the feeling that one’s experience can be enriched by having a product and that it can satisfy a desire; However This desire is never fully satisfiedIndeed, it is constantly fed, especially in children.
The risks of early exposure to advertising
The widespread presence of advertising messages in children’s life is the bearer of a series of “risks” who, if faced with awareness, can turn into opportunities. One of the most debated is The relationship between exposure to spot and childhood obesity. The advertisements of snacks and snacks, foods created specifically for pleasure to children, “mitize” these products, which are consumed to a growing extent precisely with the increase in exposure to television. The parent should inquire about the properties of food and, without necessarily demonize industrial products, offer a wide variety of choice, stimulating the taste and promoting, also through good example, the consumption of healthy and natural foods.
Another risk is linked to the advertising of games, which often resort to the aforementioned marketing strategies to make the child feel “incomplete” without that particular product. Thus there is a risk of “devaluing” the importance of game and toyimmersing them in the logic of the market and fueling the figure of the “tyrant child”, that is, a child who dictates the rules and habits within the family and to whom the parents cannot say no.
Less explicit, but equally relevant, are The risks related to the exposure of children to a substantial number of stereotypes. The tendency of advertising to resort to common sense to create familiarity with the product can trigger an insidious vicious circle, strengthening economic, social and cultural ideologies. Think of those commercials that place the emphasis on gender belongingconnoting girls and boys according to specific attitudes and associating them different products. However more frequent the commercials that consider the difference as a resource of our society are increasing, the case of advertising is not rare in which it is underlined how the girl “will think about getting beautiful”, while the baby “will think about making goals”.
What if it were an opportunity? Play and educate yourself with advertising
According to the perspective of the Media education, It is desirable to reflect on media content, filter and select them in order to acquire a critical and creative thinking at school and in the family (gradually, already from childhood). Also with respect to the commercials, as compared to TV and the touch screenyou can identify some useful suggestions for the parent:
- Contain exposure times. The child should receive stimuli different from the screens, therefore it is appropriate to try to limit times and places of use; Furthermore, the commercials should not be considered as a simple interlude, but as attempts to “capture” by marketing. Before 3 years, in addition to limiting the use of TV and other devices to the maximum, it is useful to choose content and channels without advertising.
- Do not leave the child alone. It is desirable that the adult always actively accompany the vision of the commercials: for example, since the child manages to verify, the reflection on the differences between the commercials and the other programs can be stimulated. It can also gradually try to explain what the purposes of advertising are, how it increases the costs of the products and emphasize some characteristics neglecting others.
- Play with the spot. The parent can invite the child to choose a single advertising and try to “read” his narrative strategy, observing it together carefully, to understand why they like, what are the characters present, such as music and what the colors. Following, one might ask the small thing to expect from the product and, if you consider it useful, to purchase; Subsequently, we will try to understand together which details reflect expectations and which they betray them.
- Create a spot. Making the child active is a strategy useful also in the face of advertisements: for example, the parent can suggest the child to invent an advertising for an object that is already present at home, identifying what are the characteristics to be highlighted and which ones to be hidden; Making drawings, photos, videos and experimenting in a creative and critical way.
These are simple suggestions that can obviously be adapted from family to family, from context to context, from tool to tool: however much they are activities designed for children over 3 years old, The awareness of the risks and opportunities related to advertising is desirable first of all in each parentso that he becomes a promoter of a conscious use of the commercials and favors in children, from early childhood, adequate consumer education.
