The Use of Children in Advertising and the Impact of Advertising Aimed at Children

The use of children in advertising and advertising's impact on children is examined in this paper. Children have long been perceived as an effective ‘vehicle’ to create rational and emotional appeals for different target audiences, but research undertaken to evaluate advertising's impact on children has shown that its effect on them is largely negative. Although question-marks hang over the validity of such research, there are moral issues involved in using children in advertising and in advertising's influencing children's behaviour. Research at Strathclyde University would tend to indicate that the impact on children of cigarette advertising is greater than one would imagine it to be. It is suggested here that because present advertising of cigarettes, already limited to non-TV media, has such a great impact on children, all advertising likely to influence children, even if not aimed at them directly, should be more carefully scrutinized.