Sexualization of Children - The Sad Truth of Corporate Vampires

Introduction

Corporations who target children in their marketing campaigns are of primary concern in this paper as they demonstrate high levels of social negligence. The topic of this essay is the relationship between children and the market and how corporations continue to profit from these unethical practices. It’s important to first protect society’s children and then expose the villain. According to the film, Consuming Children, there is no way to fight a 5-year-old in terms of what their preferences are, and the responsibility of parents cannot be obsolete, third parties are also responsible for the effects of allowing corporate tactics aimed at children. In this essay, therefore, I argue that the villain in this story is the network of corporations that consist of expert marketers, psychologists, researchers and highly paid executives. I will further note how unethical it is for corporations to target children because of their obvious vulnerability and inability to choose. In the first part of this essay, I will explain the lack of ethics when marketing children under the age of 2. I will, then, discuss ‘tweens’ and will conclude with the causal desensitization of society to childhood sexuality.

0 to 2

Corporations often talk about their ‘guerilla marketing’ being the best of all strategies. Guerilla marketing is the complete ransacking of people’s personal preferences and their replacements with illusions of needs and wants, namely, objects (Hutter, K., & Hoffmann, S., 2011). Nevertheless, the truth is that since the 1970s, corporations have been playing an implicit and one-sided game with consumers, targeting their sub-conscious and generating a natural need for their products. Unable to see past the bright colours, the high pitch voices, and computer-generated graphics, children under 2 years of age cannot simply make the decision that a product/brand is of their liking or not. They are unable, most importantly, to reject the offer presented through advertisements. Unlike babies and toddlers, adult consumers are presented with advertising, they are able to consciously accept or reject the offer based on their personal likes and dislikes. Children under 2 years of age are unable to reject that offer because the marketers are conditioning their personal preferences unknowingly and voluntarily.

Tweens

Tweens are the result of baby marketing. After a lifetime of branding, children have the illusion that their identity is directly linked; even dependent on, the brands they have seen all of their lives. When marketers declare a campaign will last from “the cradle to the grave”, they are not joking (Consuming Kids). Their main objective is to have children become consuming tweens. Tweens are a corporation’s best friend, not only because they are impulsive spenders but also because they are demanding and manipulative. Not being a part of the popular culture at that age, anywhere from 6 to 12, could cause severe self-esteem and identity issues. Thus, parents face the hardest task in regulating their impulsive buying habits. Denying to a child in a matter that may hinder their personality or development is impossible as parents, and marketers know this. They decidedly and consciously target human instincts, tying consumers to products for survival at the deepest, most human, level.

Childhood Sexuality

Society has become unpredictable. Social negligence on the part of corporations is a influencing factor in the desensitization of childhood sexuality, something that makes our society a perverse one. Why should children be the scapegoat to earn cash? Why should their vulnerability be played in such a way as to maximize profit for one party alone or ever? This is the irony behind this story, children used to make money without earning a penny but only spending and becoming enticed by the consumption process. Lastly, why is this socially acceptable? The concept of children being sexualized in the media is as unethical as the worse societal ills, not that there are many unethical practices anymore in our society. The lack of boundaries in terms of ethics and morals has devalued our actions so much so that our children are a part of the sexualization development in society. It is as popular in our culture as computers or cars. It has, in fact, become a commodity. Something that in earlier years would be a taboo, a bad concept, yet we continuously sell it as if it is completely normal.

The media uses children and the boundaries are non-existent. Children in the womb are sold music and even equipment to listen to the music. Children in the womb are already expected to like colours and brands as they arrive into our world. The media does not care if it means changing the cognition of these children, as long as they make a buck. While parents may be able t influence their children, the exposure to branding is so abundant and pervasive that unless the parents go into complete isolation, there will be no escape from the branding and targeting (Halford, J. C., Gillespie, J., Brown, V., Pontin, E. E., & Dovey, T. M., 2004). The children will be affected in more than one way and to deeper levels that their parents were ever conditioned. Corporations and the media take zero social responsibility for the effect this is and will have on our society now and forever. The irreversible damage of condition cognition to only certain levels of development will affect the way our governments run, our capitalist demands will increase and sexuality will take unprecedented levels of disgust.

Conclusion

This essay argued that the villain in this story is the network of corporations that consist of expert marketers, psychologists, researchers and highly paid executives. Through an extensive demonstration of baby and tween tactics for profit making, this essay was also able to show how unethical these practices are. The primary focus of this essay was childhood and the complete social negligence by corporations and the media, taking absolutely no responsibility for ruining this generation’s cognitive and moral code. The responsibility lies heavily on corporations, but since they are unwilling to cooperate and boycott children advertisements and targeting for consumption, it is up to parents and educators to change the direction our society is taking. This essay showed that corporations target babies as fetuses, children as early as 1 years old and consider 6-year-olds tweens to sell more and more glitter.

Bibliography

‘Consuming Kids’ A Film from www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY9LaCbrWXM

Halford, J. C., Gillespie, J., Brown, V., Pontin, E. E., & Dovey, T. M. (2004). Effect of television advertisements for foods on food consumption in children. Appetite, 42(2), 221-225.

Hutter, K., & Hoffmann, S. (2011). Guerrilla marketing: The nature of the concept and propositions for further research. Asian Journal of Marketing, 5(2), 39-54.