It is observed that now-a-days children are breaking new grounds in advertising. After selling health drinks and detergents for years, the young ones are now trying to influence big investments of decision makers at home and in business. Children are making the adults buy. So grabbing adult attention through kids is a sound strategy. It is clear, featuring children helps companies get rid of boring and cliché methods, especially when the product carries a serious image.
According to a senior psychiatrist “Commodification of child psyche is an unhealthy pattern. Many a times they don’t even have insight about the product they are promoting. It’s a kind of child labour.”
Children appearing in the advertisements, posters or photos can attract more customers and help the buyers know more about the product. However, if the children commercials involve sexual contents, the advertisement should be banned. Kids are innocent and pure, the society should not use their innocence to earn money immorally.
Youngsters featuring in advertisements become popular and they face many comments and criticism. However, they are not mature enough to accept criticism in the right spirit. This is because children are not mature enough to think what they want or is the thing beneficial to themselves they simply accept everything that their parents arrange for them. Nowadays advertisements are made specifically in such a way that they draw the attention of children. The marketing messages are aimed directly at the children.
It is bad for their mental development. Besides, children waste their precious time by featuring in commercials. As a result of this, children may not have enough time to focus on their studies and their academic result may get affected. Once they feature in commercials, pressure will be imposed on them for meeting the standard of the advertisement or dramas. Besides, they and their families may also need to face criticism from the society. It is too early for kids to undergo too much pressure and increased workload. They should spend their own with their friends and families, but not bear the pressure. Parents should also assess the advertisement whether it is suitable for their children, such as the message or products involved in them. Moreover, it is important that the parents should guide their children to allocate more time on studies and provide them support and encouragement. Finally children should be allowed to feature in commercials but with strict laws to specify the contents to protect them.
Vinod Chandrashekhar Dixit
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
