Advertising of Kids or for Kids

In Spain, as in France and Italy, cartoons are kids’ favorite. Pokemon, Gormiti, The Penguins of Madagascar and Sponge Bob are those that are most accepted.

(MADRID, Spain) - Television advertising can have a negative influence on children. According to a recent study conducted by Ipsos MORI for UNICEF UK, television advertising tangles kids in a consumerist mode of thought, from which they are unable to get out.

Given the findings of the report, UNICEF’s British Division has asked the UK Government to consider reforming the current rules regulating television advertising for children of less than 12 years of age in the country.

It is not the first time that the restriction of advertising for children in the UK is supported. Earlier this year a report stipulated the Mothers' Union appealed to limit ads near schools.

Moreover, television programs that target children are still children’s favorite, according to the international study "Kids TV Report", carried out by the French institute of market researchMédiamétrie with data from Eurodata TV Worldwide.

Italian children of ages 4 to 14 are those who spend more time watching TV, with a daily average of 2 hours and 46 minutes. They are followed by Spanish children between 4 and 12, who spent an average of 2 hours and 38 minutes a day in front of the screen.

In Spain, as in France and Italy, cartoons are kids’ favorite. Pokemon, Gormiti, The Penguins of Madagascar and Sponge Bob are those that are most accepted.

Finally, after the social complaint for using children in their advertising campaigns, Weetabix will no longer recruit children for them. This is what Sally Abbott, head of marketing for the company, explained.

The exploitation of children in advertising campaigns is against the Declaration on the Rights of the Child which establishes that “States Parties recognize the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.” (Translated by Gianna A. Sanchez Moretti).

Author and journalist Clemente Ferrer Roselló, a prestigious Spanish advertising character, presents a fascinating personal and professional career fully devoted to the world of communication in its varied dimensions. He earned a PhD in Information Sciences from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, BA in Advertising from the Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona Master in Marketing from the School of Marketing Studies in Madrid.

He has been Associate Professor of Business Management at the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Navarra and a contributor to the Madrid daily ABC. He also spent several years teaching, both in the Official School of Advertising as the School of Information Sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid. In 1985 he was awarded the Gold Master, granted by the Senior Management Forum and AMPE Prize 1996 to the "long and brilliant career advertising."