ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 26, 1997 TAG: 9703260023
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: MARKETPLACE
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL
In 1995, children just like yours - between the ages of 4 and 12 - spent $11 million.
News to you?
It's not to marketers, selling everything from sugary cereal to off-road vehicles, who are diligently targeting kids. A whole sub-industry has grown up around seminars that teach product pushers how to reach the juvenile market.
That $11million figure, according to the Consumer Federation of America, doesn't include an estimated $200million in annual purchases made by adults but influenced by kids: what cereal the family should eat, what kind of car to buy, where to go on vacation. Nor does it include the dollars that kids will spend after they grow up already loyal to specific brands.
But children's value to marketers isn't just in their money. It's also in their lack of skepticism.
According to several childrens' advocates at last week's Consumer Assembly, that's why adults have to teach kids to read between the advertising lines. Protecting children from being taken in by persuasive and sometimes deceptive ads was the topic of a panel discussion at the Washington, D.C., conference, sponsored by the consumer federation.
"It's almost like there's a bull's eye on my kid and your kid, because they're so valuable to marketers," said Kathryn Montgomery, president of the Washington-based Center for Media Education, a group that has been involved in the fight for educational programming and TV ratings.
Even though kids want us to think they're smart beyond their years, that doesn't mean they know when they're being manipulated, said Charlotte Baecher, editor of Zillions magazine, a version of Consumer Reports for kids.
And marketing efforts now go far beyond the persuasive commercials for toys and candy that air during Saturday morning cartoons, she said. Advertising aimed at kids is becoming more subtle and is cropping up in new places:
Schools. Channel One, a program that gives schools televisions in return for the school airing a certain number of commercials during the day, has introduced commercials into the school day.
Additionally, many companies provide teaching materials to schools. Sometimes, Baecher said, these are objective and noncommercial educational materials. But more often than not, according to a 1995 Consumers Union study called Captive Kids, teachers manuals, posters and workbooks provided by corporations are biased - sometimes not so subtly - in favor of the industry or the company.
The danger, Baecher said, is that kids may take ads seen in school more seriously than the ones they see at home, because anything shown in the classroom carries an air of authority.
The Internet. Many commercial kids' sites disguise attempts to gather marketing information as games or contests, Montgomery said. One popular childrens' site, for instance, tells kids to be good citizens and fill out a "census form" - essentially, a miniprofile that's a gold mine to marketers looking for information on kids' buying habits.
Kids also are vulnerable to Web sites that advertise liquor, she said. These sites often are similar in design to sites for kids, with silly spokescreatures (frogs, pirates), games and eye-catching graphics.
Teaching our kids to recognize these marketing tactics isn't an easy job, especially for parents who sometimes fall for advertising hoopla themselves.
Publications such as Zillions, which feature product comparisons, budget tips and ad reviews - written by readers - are one place to start. The Federal Trade Commission, which monitors advertising for fairness and accuracy, also publishes a free booklet called The Real Deal, aimed at teaching children to be skeptical about advertising.
If your child does fall for a deceptive ad - if he buys that cool new military helicopter he saw on TV, only to discover that it can't really fly under its own power as the commercial showed - you should teach him to complain, said Lee Peeler, associate director for advertising practices at the FTC. Write the FTC, the TV station that aired the ad, and the product manufacturer.
Megan Schnabel covers retail, consumer affairs and advertising for The Roanoke Times. You can reach her at (540)981-3140 or via e-mail to megans@roanoke.com.
LENGTH: Medium: 78 linesby CNB