What are the morals of marketing? Is that even a concept in marketing?
I'm sure that for some companies, the morals of their marketing companies are very close to the company values. Those are the companies I respect. But in a world where sex and violence are increasingly present in advertisements and other media, where should the line be drawn?
The thing is, this type of marketing works. Ask me to talk about a car advert, and I'll tell you about the Twingo Advert, which contains a girl who gets a job as some kind of sexy dancer.Ask me about a shoes and the first thing that comes to mind is the Reebok EasyTone advert with the many female posteriors on display. To be honest, I don't mind this advertising. It's entertaining, appeals to our instinctual desires, and well, it's more interesting than a car driving along exotic roads for sixty seconds...
(A brief aside for something that annoys me - For anyone who objects that these adverts are an objectification of women, tell that to the women who are accepting the money to do it. They don't seem to think so. Or perhaps they do. Either way, It's not sexist. If half naked men were as profitable, I'm sure they would be all over the place - Feel free to disagree in a comment if you can present your reasoning reasonably).
But to be honest, modern advertising techniques isn't what bothers me.What bothers me is the tried and tested method of advertising targeted at children. Who was it that first decided to take advantage of the impressionable mind of a child? In my opinion they should be tried for crimes against humanity. The process of child-targeted advertising is quite simple.
1: Air advert showing latest toy/cereal/thing with some cartoon character or exciting action scene etc.
2: Child sees advert. Want's object.
3. Child goes to parent and asks for it.
4. Parent finds it hard to refuse due to emotional bonds between parent and child.
5. Child either recieves or doesn't recieve object.
6. This leads to either spoilt brat, or child who resents parents.
OK, so perhaps number 6 only occurs in extreme circumstances, but the whole techniques just seems wrong on the most basic level. Children are the future of our race. They should be nutured, cared for, and raised to be the best of humanity. Why then are we exploiting them? Why are we using them to manipulate the real target audience, parents, in a way that a standard advert never could? The biggest question is perhaps, why are we allowed to? Governments across the world have the power to ban child advertising.
But will they? No. Because if companies lose profits, the governments would lose tax. And they would lose a lot of profits if this form of advertising was denied them. We can try to change the world, but when money gets involved, what's right isn't quite as important. Well, maybe that's just my perception, and governments have different reasons. But the fact remains that they still permit it. We can describe child-advertising as much as we want. We could even go so far as to say it's almost slavery, using coercion on unconsenting minors to get them to act as the corporation desires. Actually, when I say it like that it sounds quite like rape. But I doubt it makes a difference.
But what about you? If, having read this post, you were now offered a job in the marketing department of a large toy-firm, how would you change the world? How would you stop the violation of these children's human rights? I don't an expect an answer. No-one could answer a question like that until they were in that position. But I hope that one-day, some of you might help to stop this immoral and cruel manipulation of our children.
The Written Assassin
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