Unethical Food Marketing to Children

         Dr Gursharan Singh Kainth

                                            Director

                                    GAD Institute of Development Studies

   14-Preet Avenue, Majitha Road

  PO Naushera, Amritsar-143008

(Emails: idsasr@indiatimes.com,kainthgs@yahoo.com)

Marketing ethics is the area of applied ethics which deals with the moral principles behind the operation and regulation of marketing. Some areas of marketing ethics namely, ethics of advertising and promotion overlap with media ethics. Business ethics has been an increasing concern among larger companies, at least since the 1990s. It is a difficult subject because of a fine line between aggressive good business and business practice that is harmful to one party or another. Although ethics has certainly become a hotly debated topic of discussion, but most marketers believe that they are honestly presenting what they have to sell to consumers. Unfortunately, most of them have not explored just what consumers believe about their products and compared those opinions to the realities of product delivery. Ignorance is no excuse for mistakes, and ethical breaches cannot be excused because marketers were ostensibly unaware of their deceptions. Some unethical behaviour happens because the violator just doesn’t understand where the line is. In a global marketplace success attracts competition and competition forces all players to do any things they might not otherwise do. This happens to be the mantra in a market-driven economy and it is the single most common reason why some marketers believe that virtually any means are justified by the end. Market economies demand success and promise rewards commensurate with effort, often regardless of the intent of that effort.  Ethics can sometimes take a backseat to the need to please. All are looking for the same thing: Profitable Revenue. They are ethical professionals who want to operate accordingly, but compensated for financial results. We are all shocked (if not surprised) by the blatant and intentional forms of ethical violations that are becoming more common today, but more subtle types are the most insidious. Trust between buyer and seller can be seriously damaged in either case, but the subtle unethical actions can do considerable damage to valuable brand equity before anyone notices that something is not quite right. And, if such actions are intentional, the violators are every bit as culpable. Whatever be the type or motivation, ethical behaviour is now permanently on the minds of customers in virtually all industries, including food. Major corporations increasingly fear the damage to their image associated with press revelations of unethical practices. Marketing ethics and marketing law are related subjects. Relevant areas of law include consumer law which protects consumers and antitrust law which protects competitors - in both cases, against unethical marketing practices. Regulation extends beyond the law to lobbies, watchdog bodies and self-regulatory industry bodies.

Marketers have been among the fastest to perceive the market's preference for ethical companies, often moving faster to take advantage of the shift in consumer taste. This results in the expropriation of ethics itself as a selling point or a component of a corporate image.The selective marketing is used to discourage demand from undesirable market sectors or disenfranchise them altogether. Marketers across the world and even in India are targeting children for marketing of their products. Kids represent an important demographic to marketers because they have their own purchasing power, they influence their parents' buying decisions and the adult consumers of the future. Parents today are willing to buy more for their kids because of trends such as smaller family size, dual incomes and postponing children until later in life mean that families have more disposable income. Moreover, guilt play a significant role in spending decisions as time-stressed parents substitute material goods for time spent with their kids. Today's kids have more autonomy and decision-making power within the family than in previous generations. Kids are more vocal about what they want their parents to buy. Marketing to children is all about creating pester power, because advertisers know what a powerful force it can be. Pester power refers to children's ability to nag their parents into purchasing items they may not otherwise buy. Pestering or nagging can be divided into two categories—"persistence" and "importance". Persistence nagging -a plea, that is repeated over and over again, is not as effective as the more sophisticated importance nagging. This latter method appeals to parents' desire to provide the best for their children, and plays on any guilt they may have about not having enough time for their kids.

Children are a lucrative market and their main products are unhealthy food, fashionware and entertainment goods. Food companies are desperate for sales and growth and if they can use ‘health’ to sell junk food, they will. Children have been bombarded with advertisements on Burgers and Cola of Pizza and cola.Brilliantly marketed highly salty foods are being deliberately targeted for our children's lunchboxes. The liking for salty foods is a learned taste preference set in childhood and so encouraging children to eat high levels of salt sets the seeds for vascular disease, increasing the risk of developing stroke and heart disease later in life. High salt intakes have also linked to osteoporosis, stomach cancer, asthma and kidney disease.Their preference for any meal is high on fat, sugar, and salty species and low on nutrients. Influences created by marketers on children may be harmful but the one created on food and hygiene is the worst. The issue of excessive food marketing to kids is fast becoming a hotly debated topic. Marketing to children under age eight is unethical because young children don’t have the critical thinking skills to evaluate media messages. Children under 12 spend more than of their own or influence family spending decisions but are not capable of resisting or understanding marketing tactics at younger ages  At older ages competitive feelings towards children are stronger than financial sense. The use of marketing practices targeted at children to sell highly salted products is unethical marketing practice. Ethical practices are aimed to ensure a sustained market. Although promotional techniques are used to encourage usage by a particular target audience, they should not be used on those that are vulnerable and at such a crucial stage of health and development.

Children of middle-class Indian takes important decisions in the home, thereby contributing majority to household budget contours. From buying white goods and cars, to cell phones and grocery and even insurance policies, children under the age of 13 are deciding which brands their parents should or should not buy. They are now not mute spectators in major purchase decisions. Even in items not directly concerning they have strong preferences. Children are known to have strong tastes and preferences, and advertising surely has an impact on them.  Pester power is considered to be worst when it is used to decide the food that is to be consumed. Pester power had created havoc in their lives. The day long wining by the child to get a particular toy or gizmo that his friends have or he has seen in an advertisement could be very straining for a parent who has a high demanding job. Children have mastered the knack to continuously asking for what they want and change their persuasion techniques from pleading to crying to threatening. Parents who are tired or stressed feel the easy way out is to give in to the child’s demands thus contributing to increasing the ‘Pester Power’

Shift in target audience has happened on account of the fact that in middle and upper income families, television has come to occupy prime space. TV viewing has even replaced dinner table conversation. Nuclear families, working parents and latchkey kids in the metros mean that children get to spend very little time with either parent. Many spend their free time watching television or surfing the Internet. Driven by guilt, parents tend to lavish gifts on their children a little too often, and they give in to the demands of children more easily than they would have otherwise. In the absence of a family support system and reliable domestics, parents find themselves unable to discipline children. The result is: Most children in today's upwardly mobile families find it difficult to take 'no' for an answer. And buying decisions often do not reflect the requirements of the family; they are based more on the whims and fancies of immature children who might grow up to be unreasonable adults.

The practice of extending children's marketing from television to the schoolground is also controversial. School used to be a place where children were protected from the advertising and consumer messages that permeated their world—but not any more. Budget shortfalls are forcing school boards to allow corporations’ access to students in exchange for badly needed cash, computers and educational materials. Corporations realize the power of the school environment for promoting their name and products. A school setting delivers a captive youth audience and implies the endorsement of teachers and the educational system. Marketers are eagerly exploiting this medium in a variety of ways. The systematic targeting of children by the food industry who wish to habituate children to highly salted processed foods is immoral, parents need to be more aware of these tactics and make sure that their children eat more healthy foods with far less salt. There is a need for reduction in the amount of salt in processed foods and for food manufacturers to conduct themselves in a more socially responsible manner. Marketing practices that enable food producers to sustain longer-term growth should not be at the expense of our children's health. Children worldwide are frequently the target of marketing strategies to promote the consumption of foods and beverages that are high in fat, sugar and salt, but of poor nutritional quality. Furthermore, the continuing legacy of deprivation and poverty leaves a large proportion of the world’s children especially vulnerable to the development of obesity and related disorders, when exposed to the promotion and adoption of “western” diets high in fat, sugar and salt.

The synergy of marketing executives and psychologists is becoming increasingly common. The goal is to explore and understand the psyche of children and direct products to children based on the results. The research includes observation, dream interpretations, interviews, and the creation of kids’ clubs. There is an ethical defect in this marketing trend. Not only is it invasive, it is manipulative and far too noticeably resembles brainwashing to be ethically acceptable. Marketers are manipulating the innocence and newness of a child’s mind to create brand loyalty. Excavating the minds of children for the purpose of controlling their behaviour as consumers is unethical. Is it bad to use marketing tactics to encourage kids to pester their parents to buy products that are good for them? This new generation of marketers will have to answer that question.

The results of all this aggressive marketing of fast food, soft drinks and candy to children is a Country of Over-Weight Children. Advertisers were doing a big disservice to society as well as to the country. If the younger generation ate wrong/unhealthy food they were likely to be unhealthy adults who would be a big burden on the society spending a lot on health. Government must put restriction on advertisements of unhealthy food and beverages. The pervasiveness of marketing campaigns aimed at children is very high, but what is scary is the skill with which the advertisers are wielding their charm at children. Advertisers are making their pitches to younger and younger audiences. Marketers’ plant the seeds of brand recognition in very young children, with the hopes develop into lifetime relationships. Brand loyalties can be established as early as age two, and by the time children head off to school most can recognize hundreds of brand logos. They have high recall due to either the free bees given with the product or the use of either popular sports stars or film stars in the advertisements. Children should be made aware that most of the food categories advertised by marketers were not good for their health. Nonetheless, they will continue to consume it because most of this category food is highly addictive thus being highly dangerous health wise.

Some countries are taking steps towards protecting children from ads. Many European Governments have placed restrictions on television commercials targeting kids. But in India we do not seem to understand the problem. Unfortunately the Government of India is using children to get its message through to the people. The Indian Revenue Department has shamelessly used kids in their mass message to parents on tax evasion. The results have been quite traumatic for some parents and their children because the children wanted to know if the parents paid “Service Tax”. Any amount of explanation by the parents on the non applicability of the tax could not pacify the children because they though their patents where criminals and likely to be arrested. The children pleaded with their patents to pay up the “Service Tax” and fulfill their duty of being a good citizen. The problem is not just the pervasiveness of marketing campaigns aimed at children, but the skill with which they wield their charms. As advertisers are making their pitches to younger and younger audiences, many of whom are just learning to walk, companies are beckoning to psychologists for assistance.

Examples of unethical market exclusion or selective marketing are past industry attitudes to the gay, ethnic minority and obese markets. Contrary to the popular myth that ethics and profits do not mix, the tapping of these markets has proved highly profitable.Food industry still needed to adopt higher ethical values in their approach to children. It is simply unethical to exploit the vulnerabilities of children by using such kind of marketing on the back of popular children's films and characters. It is perpetuating the commercial exploitation of children. We’re not in a vacuum any more. 100 years ago there were smaller insular communities where a parent could exercise some control. Now we have billion dollar marketing organizations that want to override the sensibilities of parents. Sure a parent can get all Lud dite and shut off the TV but then it would make a kid even worse because of resenting the social embarrassment. But parents have to drive kids around and say no to certain food items. The parents need to take responsibility? The key element in effective marketing communication is persuasion. For a message to be effective, it must be persuasive. It attempts to steer one’s thinking in a direction that will likely benefit the communicator and/or the receiver. This model is all about determining whether the message is indeed persuasive. If it is a neutral message, it has failed to be persuasive and the receiver can take it or leave it for what it is worth (a waste of the receiver’s time). Assuming that the message is in some way, at least a little bit persuasive, the receiver becomes involved in the next step. A persuasive message should be considered just an advertisement.

The industry and government should develop responsible self-regulatory practices for marketing to kids while permitting companies to compete vigorously in the growing market for healthier foods. Food companies and the advertising industry should think about their responsibilities to children, not about their ‘right’ to exploit them. Whether we rely on research or common sense, we know that children are more vulnerable to marketing than adults and that they should be protected because of their vulnerabilities. Children have the right to grow up in a safe and healthy environment. Parents have the right to raise their children without being undermined by corporate marketers; and that the government should restrict commercial access to children. Self-regulation has been a complete failure. The current industry efforts are woefully inadequate. The industry should develop tough and effective marketing guidelines, but when private interests work against the public good like this, government is obliged to act.

There is now an urgent need to establish robust international standards to protect children’s wellbeing by curbing commercial practices which exploit children’s credulity, contribute to unhealthy consumption patterns, and hinder the efforts of parents, governments and society to improve children’s diets. World Health Organization, in conjunction with other UN Agencies and Member States to develop:

 An International Code on the Marketing of Foods and Beverages to

 children setting out the standards which should govern trans-national

as well as national aspects of all promotional activities affecting

 children including novel marketing techniques.

Food, beverage, media, and advertising industries should support a WHO International Code of Marketing as well as government and societal efforts to protect children and reorient all components of commercial marketing, including products, pricing, place and promotion. All stakeholders to ensure that school and other child-focused settings, are freed from commercial influence, and actively promote healthy nutritional standards supporting the goal of reducing consumption of high fat, sugar and salt products. Civil-society, non-governmental organizations and other agencies who advocate for the protection of children from the promotion of unhealthy diets should monitor progress towards this goal independently. Governments must adopt the necessary measures to protect children from commercial communications that encourage unhealthy diets as part of comprehensive efforts to improve children’s diets.