Marketing to Children Ethical Analysis. Business & Marketing Essay

Marketing to Children Ethical Analysis
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Introduction
In the contemporary competitive business environment, marketing has become an integral part of human life. It has become impossible to imagine an event, magazine, television, radio, magazine, or any social media platform without a commercial. In reality, businesses across the world are spending billions of dollars annually in stimulating, coaxing, and manipulating people to consume their products as well as improve their competitive edge. Most companies are spending nearly 10% of the revenues on marketing their products and services (Watson, 2020). Usually, advertising exploits people's anxieties, produces false needs, and offers fake solutions. By doing so, it raises discontent that leads to consumption. While the degree of impact of advertising on adults may not be necessarily challenging, the consequences can be demoralizing for children (Watson, 2020). In reality, youngsters are more susceptible to this form of influence. Therefore, this study will analyze the ethical concerns of marketing to children in relation to Kantian theory.
Over the years, advertisers used to appeal to the parents, but today they directly charm children. For example, in the United States, an average child sees over 30,000 television advertisements every year, needless to mention the myriad of content they access online, in video games, at the movies, in print, at school, or across the highways (Watson, 2020). Advertising to teenagers has elicited controversial concerns among different players in society. Marketing helps children socialize as consumers, carve out unique identities as they become adults, improve critical analysis, and enlighten them about products. On the flip side, advertising contributes to a series of problems, including obesity, precocious sexuality, and poor impulse control, to name a few (Watson, 2020). For instance, children's exposure to unhealthy food products greatly influenced food inclinations, desires, and diets. Therefore, there are genuine concerns on how marketers approach the young audience.
Children are vulnerable to manipulation by marketers. In his study, Tolman discovered that the environment could influence a child to become anything in the society – “Give me a healthy child from any background, and I will turn him or her anything you want –a scientist, lawyer, politician or even a thief (Biss, 2018).” Although Tolman wanted to apply his theory to human learning, advertisers have widely utilized advertisers to turn children into consumers. This raises ethical questions about whether marketing to children is good or bad.
Most of the adamant concerns have been raised on whether kids represent vulnerable audiences that require protection, methods marketers are using in social platforms, parents and other stakeholders' role in helping children contend with these messages, and the severe implications of advertisements for young people. The short-term and long-term concerns linked to exposure to marketing messages for products that are not healthy for children and the images and messages in advertisements the kids see (Kim et al., 2017). Without any doubt, this condition raises ethical dilemmas on the efficacy and appropriateness of marketing to children.
As kids become more exposed to advertising, numerous apprehensions are growing on marketing to youngsters, explicitly, the impact on cognitive development and consequences of exposure to these commercials. For instance, numerous studies have questioned kids' ability to understand the content of advertisements rather than being manipulated by the commercials. According to Watson (2020), children do not understand the persuasive content until they attain eight years. Therefore, it is unethical to advertise to a child until they reach such an age. In his research, Mizerski (1995), argued that children's cognitive structures at early ages are still formed in the brain, thus making them more vulnerable to influences. For instance, an advertisement endorsed by an athlete or a poster in a school may influence a kid to think they are real. Similarly, argued that children represent a vulnerable group whom marketers exploit. For example, many children do not understand that athletes and other public figures in television commercials are paid to promote products or services.
Likewise, they believe children in promotions are real rather than paid actors, not to mention that they confuse commercials with broadcasts. Research shows that older children do not pay much attention to advertisements and can differentiate ads and TV programs (Mizerski, 1995). Usually, adolescents try to find their own identities and conform to the community's values and standards. This makes them feel insecure as they want to fit in and belong to their peer group. Advertisers exploit them through their anxieties by trying to define the normalcy and appropriate models of adult life. By doing so, the advertiser undermine the vital human values of growth and development.
Kant theory
Kant’s theory is an essential technique in analyzing right and wrong action. It belongs to a series of deontological moral theories that argue that an action's rightness and wrongness do not depend on its impact but on whether it fulfills the duty. Kant believes that there is a supreme principle of morality that he often refers to as a Categorical imperative (Biss, 2018). As such, Kant emphasis that the only right action without qualification is “goodwill.” To act out of “goodwill” is to engage in activities with a sense of duty or moral obligation. Therefore, a moral agent or individual will not perform a specific deed due to the impacts it produces, but the agent believes through critical reasoning that it is the correct thing to do, and he is ordained to do that action.
Besides, the intent in most children's commercials is to increase sales and strengthen competitive advantage, an action that cannot be considered to be good. While advocates of children argue that advertising to children enlightens children to make informed purchasing decisions, this would be the consequences far away from the motives (Lapierre et al., 2017). Marketing to children has dubious reasons that consider children as elements of commercial society. An ethical action or a person's will is only driven by duty and nothing else. That is, there is nothing honorable in doing something because it makes you gain or happy. For instance, if an advertiser encourages digital learning because it is his duty and the right thing to do, he will be acting ethically. However, if the marker encourages online learning intending to sell computers and other gadgets, the act will be unethical.
Categorical imperative
Kant argues that categorical imperatives determine human morals. He argues that laws are unconditional and apply equally to everyone in any situation, irrespective of their goals and objectives. That is, they are commanding as a human being can choose not to adhere to moral conduct (Grenberg, 2011). According to Kant, abiding by the moral “duty” is acting according to the moral law. He reiterates that humans should act only according to the maxim in which they could if the actions became universal law applied to everyone—for example, driving while drunk could be ethical if every person driving drunk is justified. Nonetheless, in a practical sense, if everyone drove while intoxicated, it could lead to accidents and a large number of deaths. However, according to Kantian categorical imperatives, even though humans may be persuaded to act egoistically, their obligation must be driven by humankind's duty. Therefore, any self-destruction actions including murder, stealing, suicide, and cheating are immoral.
Categorical imperative- U...