A brief history of advertising to children

Nolan Cramer

nc948418@ohio.edu

 

Brands trying to appeal to children is not a new concept. For decades companies have tried various methods to get products to children, whether that be through the use of anthropomorphized cartoon mascots or strategic product placement.

One of the most controversial and successful advertising campaigns targeted towards a younger audience was Joe Camel, created by R. J. Reynolds. The cartoon camel was portrayed in a variety of situations including playing billiards, race car driver and presidential candidate. He would usually be portray holding a pack of Camel cigarettes with the word "smooth." The advertising campaign ran from 1987 to 1997.

Picture source: Stanford University

A 1991 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed the connection children were forming between Joe Camel and cigarettes. Researchers conducted a study with 229 preschool children. They found that 30% of 3-year-old and 91.3% of 6-year-old children associated Joe Camel with a picture of a cigarette. At the time among the 6-year-olds, Joe Camel was almost equally as recognizable as a silhouette of Mickey Mouse.  

However, Joe Camel was not the only cigarette campaign to target younger audiences. The Marlboro Man was a popular icon from 1954 to 1999 created by the Leo Burnett Worldwide. And for decades celebrity endorsement of cigarette brands were the norm.

In 1997 the Federal Trade Commission charged R. J. Reynolds for causing "substantial injury to the health and safety of children and adolescents under 18." The charges eventually led to the discontinuation of Joe Camel and legislation was passed banning the use of cartoons in cigarette advertising.

Another widely used form of advertising directed at children is product placement in television shows and movies. Product placement is a practice where brands pay production companies to use/feature its brands in TV or films. The practice is considered to be controversial by many due to the inability of children to distinguish between what is product placement and what is not.

One of the most common types of product placement targeted at children comes in the form of unhealthy food and beverage advertising.

In 2017, researchers conducted a study to see if product placement influenced the choices children made. A group of 114 children between the ages of 9 and 11 were broken into two groups. One watched a movie with a lot of product placement — which in this case was cheese balls — and another group who watched a movie with no product placement. The study concluded that the children who watched the movie with high product placement of cheese balls, were 3.1 times more likely to choose cheese balls as a snack over those kids who watched the low product placement movie.

Some European countries such as the UK, Norway, Belgium, Greece and Denmark advertisers are either restricted or banned from advertising to children. However, in the United States generally just have to comply with the FTC's truth-in-advertising regulations, which prevents deceptive advertising practices.

The closest the United States has come to regulating advertising to children was in 2013 when Congress enacted the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, better know as COPPA. The act regulates which information/date the operators of websites and other digital services (including advertisers) can collect about children under the age of 13 years old.