Fact-checked by Grok 2 weeks ago

Advertising to children

Advertising to children refers to paid forms of commercial communication from identified sponsors, disseminated via mass media and digital platforms, intended to persuade young audiences—typically those under 18—to prefer and request specific products or brands, often influencing parental purchasing decisions.^[1] In the United States, children encounter over 40,000 television advertisements annually, with total daily exposure across all media exceeding 3,000 messages, while influencing approximately $200 billion in family spending each year.^[1] This practice has expanded from traditional 30-second spots to immersive techniques including product placements, advergaming, and social media integrations, amplifying marketers' access to minors amid rising screen time and device ownership.^[2] Children's vulnerability stems from underdeveloped critical reasoning, particularly the recognition of persuasive intent, which remains limited even in adolescence; meta-analyses confirm that advertising exposure causally boosts positive brand attitudes across age groups, with standardized mean differences indicating moderate effects regardless of format or developmental stage.^[3] Empirical evidence links such exposure to increased pestering for advertised items, heightened materialism, and parent-child conflicts over purchases, while experimental and observational studies associate food advertising with preferences for unhealthy options, contributing to dietary patterns implicated in childhood obesity.^[1]^[3] Conversely, advertising for nutritious products can enhance consumption of wholesome foods among preschoolers, suggesting potential informational benefits when content aligns with health objectives, though the majority of child-directed ads promote high-sugar, high-fat items.^[1] Regulatory responses vary globally, with countries like Sweden and Norway prohibiting advertisements targeting children under 12, and Quebec enforcing a ban on child-directed commercial messages since 1980, often yielding reduced exposure to junk food promotions.^[1] In contrast, the U.S. relies on self-regulation and the Children's Television Act of 1990, capping ads at 10.5-12 minutes per hour during children's programming but lacking comprehensive curbs on digital or unhealthy food marketing, prompting ongoing debates over efficacy and the trade-offs between commercial speech and safeguarding immature consumers.^[1] These divergences reflect unresolved tensions between empirical demonstrations of influence and arguments for parental responsibility or market-driven information flow.

Definition and Scope

Forms and Channels of Advertising

Television advertising remains a primary channel for reaching children, with U.S. children aged 2-11 exposed to approximately 40,000 commercials annually as of the mid-2000s, predominantly promoting food, toys, and entertainment products.^[1] Broadcast and cable networks often schedule ads during children's programming blocks, featuring high-sugar cereals, fast food, and licensed character toys, though regulatory limits like the Children's Television Act of 1990 cap commercial time to 10.5-12 minutes per hour on weekends.^[4] Radio and print media, including magazines targeted at youth such as Highlights or comic books, supplement this with audio spots and illustrated promotions, but their reach has declined relative to visual formats.^[5] Out-of-home and packaging-based advertising targets children through billboards near schools, in-store displays with eye-level shelving for sugary products, and branded packaging that integrates logos into everyday items like cereal boxes or clothing.^[6] Product placement embeds brands within children's media, such as toys appearing in TV shows or movies, blurring content and commerce; for instance, cross-promotions tied over 120 food and beverage products to popular media in 2009, up from 80 in 2006.^[2] Character licensing extends this by affixing popular figures from cartoons or games to unrelated products, enhancing appeal through familiarity and endorsement effects.^[4] In-school marketing involves sponsored materials, vending machines stocked with branded snacks, or curriculum integrations like pizza sales funding field trips, exposing children to commercial messages during educational hours without parental oversight.^[7] Techniques include incentives like free samples or contests tied to brands, often for unhealthy foods, raising concerns over commercial influence in non-commercial settings.^[4] Digital channels have proliferated since the 1990s, encompassing advergames on brand websites, targeted ads on YouTube and apps, and social media influencers promoting products via unboxing videos or endorsements.^[8] Platforms like Instagram and TikTok allow micro-targeting of 13- to 17-year-olds based on interests, with stealth forms such as embedded promotions in user-generated content evading traditional disclosure rules.^[9] Mobile apps and online clubs further integrate ads into interactive experiences, where children encounter pop-ups, rewarded videos, or data-driven personalization during gameplay.^[4] By 2023, these methods increasingly blend advertising with entertainment, complicating children's ability to distinguish persuasive intent.^[10]

Target Demographics and Market Size

The primary target demographic for advertising to children encompasses individuals aged 0 to 12 years, with intensive efforts concentrated on ages 2 to 11, during which children develop early brand recognition—often as young as 3 to 4 years—and exert substantial influence on household purchases through mechanisms like pester power, where they request products seen in ads, leading to parental acquiescence in an estimated 30-50% of cases depending on product category.^[11]^[4] This age range aligns with developmental stages where children view over 25,000 television advertisements annually in traditional media alone, supplemented by digital exposure, and begin to differentiate ads from programming around ages 7 to 8, though younger children remain susceptible to implied endorsements.^[11] Advertisers also indirectly target parents of infants and toddlers (ages 0-2) via product placements emphasizing parental decision-making, but direct appeals escalate with school-age children who control or influence discretionary spending.^[12] Demographic segmentation further considers gender, with toys and apparel often differentiated (e.g., dolls for girls, action figures for boys), and socioeconomic factors, as higher-income families report greater child-driven expenditures on premium brands.^[13] In terms of market size, U.S. advertisers spent approximately $17 billion on marketing directed at children in recent years, a 170-fold increase from $100 million in 1983, driven by recognition of children's aggregate influence on over $200 billion in annual family spending across categories like food, toys, and entertainment.^[11]^[7] Sector-specific data from 2023 shows baby and kids product advertisers alone expending over $1.5 billion through November, a 20% year-over-year rise, predominantly allocated to digital video and social platforms where children aged 8 and older average more than seven hours of daily screen time.^[13]^[14]^[2] Globally, the children's advertising landscape is dominated by digital channels, with the kids digital advertising market valued at $3.4 billion in 2023 and forecasted to expand to $25.9 billion by 2033 at a 22.5% CAGR, fueled by platform algorithms targeting minors on sites like YouTube and TikTok, which captured the majority of child ad views in surveys from 2024-2025.^[15]^[16] This growth outpaces traditional media, though total global expenditure remains opaque due to fragmented reporting, with social platforms deriving billions in revenue from child-targeted ads—$11 billion across six U.S. platforms in 2022 alone—indicating robust advertiser investment.^[17]

Historical Development

Pre-20th Century Origins

In the 18th and 19th centuries, children held minimal economic agency within households, with purchasing decisions controlled by adults and scarce products manufactured specifically for juvenile use.^[18] Advertising during this era remained rudimentary, relying on print media such as newspapers and trade cards that emerged as early as the 1700s, primarily to inform parents about family goods including occasional children's clothing or literature rather than directly soliciting young buyers.^[19] These promotions lacked intent to cultivate child consumers, as societal norms positioned youth as dependents without independent spending power.^[18] By the late 19th century, the rise of youth-oriented periodicals introduced nascent forms of child-proximate advertising. The Youth's Companion, a magazine founded in 1827 and widely read by American children, incorporated advertisements from the 1890s onward for items like toys, bicycles, and educational aids, embedding commercial messages within content designed for young readers.^[20] Such placements represented an evolution from parental mediation, offering incidental exposure to children through illustrated appeals in familiar formats, though still subordinate to adult oversight.^[20] This period saw no widespread psychological targeting of children, with marketing efforts constrained by limited mass distribution and cultural views of childhood as preparatory rather than consumptive. Early regulatory sentiments, including critiques of commercialization's intrusion into youth, coexisted with these developments, foreshadowing 20th-century debates.^[21]

20th Century Expansion via Mass Media

The advent of commercial radio in the 1920s marked the initial surge in mass media advertising directed at children, as broadcasters adopted sponsorship models and promotional techniques like jingles, mascots, and premiums to engage young audiences at home.^[22] Programs such as adventure serials became vehicles for brands, with cereal companies leading the charge; for instance, General Mills sponsored Jack Armstrong, All-American Boy starting in the early 1930s, integrating product plugs and decoder rings to incentivize purchases and listener loyalty.^[23] Similarly, Captain Midnight, airing from 1938 to 1949, promoted Ovaltine through secret codes and premiums, exemplifying how radio serials blurred content and commerce to cultivate early brand affinity among children.^[24] This radio-era foundation transitioned to television after World War II, where the medium's visual appeal amplified direct appeals to youth. The Howdy Doody Show, debuting on NBC on December 27, 1947, pioneered nationally televised children's programming, drawing up to 20 million viewers weekly by the early 1950s and incorporating sponsor messages for products like peanut butter and cereals amid puppet-driven narratives.^[25] Television ownership exploded, with U.S. households equipped with sets rising from under 10% in 1950 to over 90% (approximately 52 million sets) by 1965, enabling unprecedented reach into family living rooms.^[26] Programming tailored to children proliferated, as daytime broadcast hours quadrupled and weekend slots expanded tenfold across the 1950s, filling with cartoons and live shows that commanded high youth viewership.^[26] Milestone programs like ABC's The Mickey Mouse Club (launched October 3, 1955) exemplified the shift, backed by 20 major advertisers contributing $500,000 each and accessing 90% of American children through integrated promotions for toys and snacks.^[26] Advertising expenditures reflected this momentum, with total TV ad spending leaping from $12 million in 1949 to $128 million in 1951 and surpassing $1 billion by 1955, much of it funneled into child-targeted spots amid recognition of youth as both direct buyers and parental purchase influencers.^[26] By the mid-1960s, annual advertising investments in the children's market exceeded $50 million, driven by market research quantifying kids' brand recall and pester power, solidifying mass media as the dominant channel for shaping juvenile consumption patterns.^[26] This expansion relied on techniques like demonstrative visuals and fantasy elements in spots, which studies later noted differed from pre-1950s radio approaches by emphasizing product performance over narrative embedding.^[27]

Digital Transition from the 1990s Onward

The proliferation of personal computers and dial-up internet access in households during the early 1990s facilitated the initial foray into online advertising directed at children, with brands leveraging rudimentary websites hosted by children's media outlets such as Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network to promote toys and snacks through banner ads and interactive content.^[28] The first clickable internet advertisement appeared in 1994 on HotWired.com, marking the dawn of digital marketing, though child-specific targeting emerged soon after via kid-oriented portals that integrated product placements and simple games to extend television campaigns.^[29] This shift was partly driven by regulatory constraints on broadcast advertising, including the 1990 Children's Television Act, which limited commercial time on TV, prompting marketers to explore unregulated online spaces where engagement metrics like page views could be tracked more granularly.^[30] By the late 1990s, advergames—online video games created or sponsored by brands to embed product promotions—gained traction as a stealthy technique, particularly among food companies circumventing TV ad restrictions; for instance, between 1990 and 1998, snack brands rapidly adopted these formats to foster brand loyalty without overt sales pitches.^[31]^[32] Concerns over data collection from young users prompted the U.S. Congress to enact the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in 1998, effective April 2000, which mandated verifiable parental consent for operators of websites or services directed at children under 13 before gathering personal information, thereby curbing unchecked behavioral targeting but not eliminating embedded advertising in games or content.^[33]^[34] Self-regulatory bodies like the Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) adapted guidelines in the 1990s to address online privacy and disclosure, emphasizing clear separation between ads and entertainment to mitigate deception risks.^[35] The 2000s accelerated the transition with broadband internet adoption, enabling richer media like streaming video and sophisticated advergames that blurred lines between play and promotion; food industry websites, for example, featured advergames on over 70% of child-targeted sites by 2006, often promoting high-sugar products through rewards systems mimicking real purchases.^[36]^[31] Platforms such as YouTube (launched 2005) and early social networks introduced user-generated content and influencer endorsements, allowing brands to reach children via peer-like recommendations rather than traditional spots, with digital ad spend on kids' media rising as TV viewership fragmented.^[1] This era's innovations, including in-game advertising and app-based promotions, expanded market reach, with the kids' digital advertising sector valued at approximately $2.9 billion by 2021 and projected to grow at a 21.8% CAGR through 2031 due to mobile and data-driven personalization.^[37] Despite COPPA's safeguards, enforcement challenges persisted, as operators exploited loopholes in age-gating and anonymous data use, underscoring ongoing tensions between innovation and child vulnerability.^[38]

Types and Techniques

Product-Focused Advertising Categories

Product-focused advertising to children encompasses categories where marketers directly promote tangible goods appealing to young consumers' preferences and pester power, with toys, food and beverages, and apparel emerging as dominant segments based on children's influence over household purchases.^[39] Surveys indicate that children most frequently sway parental decisions in these areas, reflecting targeted campaigns via television, digital media, and in-store promotions.^[39] Toys and games constitute a primary category, often featuring licensed characters from media franchises to drive impulse requests; brands like Lego and Fisher-Price lead in advertising spend within this space.^[40] These products leverage children's developmental interest in play, with ads emphasizing novelty and social appeal to expand category demand beyond brand competition.^[41] Food and beverage advertising to children overwhelmingly promotes nutrient-poor items, including sugary cereals, snacks, candy, and fast food, which comprised the majority of television exposures in analyses of child-directed programming.^[42] For instance, non-participating companies in self-regulatory pledges aired ads for candy in 6-8% of spots viewed by young children, alongside higher volumes for sweetened beverages and salty snacks, contributing to preferences for these over healthier alternatives like fruits or water, which accounted for only 4% of food-related ads.^[42]^[43] Industry pledges, such as those limiting ads to "better-for-you" products under company-defined criteria, have not eliminated exposure to high-sugar items like fruit snacks categorized separately from candy.^[44]^[45] Clothing and footwear form another key category, where ads highlight trendy designs, character tie-ins, and peer conformity to influence children's self-expression and parental budgets.^[39] These campaigns often intersect with food marketing through cross-promotions, such as branded apparel linked to advertised snacks or toys, amplifying overall product visibility.^[46] Beyond these, ancillary categories include personal care items like diapers (e.g., Huggies) and early electronics, though they receive less child-directed emphasis compared to core play and consumption goods.^[40] Overall, such advertising prioritizes high-margin, repeat-purchase items, with food dominating airtime due to its direct appeal to children's taste preferences over nutritional value.^[47]

Persuasive Methods and Psychological Tactics

Advertisers targeting children exploit developmental limitations, including immature persuasion knowledge and a reliance on emotional rather than analytical processing, to foster positive brand attitudes. A 2022 meta-analysis of nine experimental studies demonstrated that unhealthy product advertising elevates favorable attitudes with a standardized mean difference of 0.397 (p = .001), an effect observed across both digital and traditional formats regardless of children's partial awareness of ads.^[3] These tactics often bypass critical reasoning by eliciting unconscious affective responses, as young children under age 8 particularly struggle to discern selling intent from entertainment.^[1] Promotional characters, such as licensed cartoon figures or spokes-characters, represent a core tactic by creating parasocial attachments that transfer positive feelings to the product. In a 2014 systematic review of 37 studies analyzing over 8,000 television food commercials, promotional characters appeared in a substantial portion, enhancing memorability and preference through association with fantasy and familiarity.^[48] Similarly, celebrity or peer endorsements invoke social proof, depicting products as normative among admired figures or groups, which leverages children's developing theory of mind and desire for belonging—studies show this boosts brand liking by signaling peer acceptance.^[3] Emotional appeals centered on fun, excitement, and sensory pleasure (e.g., taste themes) dominate children's ads, prioritizing immediate gratification over rational evaluation. The same 2014 review identified these as among the most common techniques in food advertising, with fun appeals appearing frequently to evoke joy and override skepticism.^[48] Premium offers, including giveaways, contests, or bundled toys, further exploit reciprocity and scarcity principles, creating urgency that prompts "nag factor" requests to parents; empirical tests confirm such incentives heighten short-term desire and purchase intent in children aged 6-12.^[48] In digital contexts, advergames and embedded brand placements integrate persuasion into interactive play, blurring commercial boundaries and diminishing intent recognition—for instance, children exhibit 40% lower awareness of persuasive aims in gamified ads compared to overt television spots.^[3] Repetition reinforces familiarity, which children interpret as endorsement, amplifying attitudes via mere exposure effects documented in longitudinal ad exposure experiments.^[3] Nutrition or health claims, though less emotionally driven, appeal to children's simplistic causal reasoning by implying direct benefits, often without qualifiers that older consumers might scrutinize.^[48]

Empirical Effects

Cognitive Development and Understanding

Children's comprehension of advertising is closely tied to cognitive developmental stages, particularly Jean Piaget's framework, which posits that children under approximately 7 years of age—during the preoperational stage—possess limited operational thinking, leading them to perceive advertisements as integrated entertainment or factual information rather than distinct promotional messages with persuasive aims.^[8] This developmental constraint impairs their ability to differentiate commercial content from non-commercial programming and to attribute ulterior motives to advertisers.^[49] Empirical research substantiates that recognition of selling intent typically emerges around 7–8 years, coinciding with the transition to Piaget's concrete operational stage, where about 90% of children aged 11–12 demonstrate this awareness in contexts like television food advertising.^[49] A meta-analysis of prior studies confirms age as a primary predictor of such understanding, though results vary based on measurement techniques, such as verbal versus recognition tests, with younger children consistently showing deficits.^[50] Theory of mind capabilities, which develop in preschool and elementary years, further correlate with elementary school children's grasp of persuasive intent and symbolic brand associations.^[8] Even as basic intent recognition improves, nuanced critical evaluation lags; a 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis found children's advertising comprehension remains superficial, with limited attribution of persuasive tactics—evident in only 40% of 11–12-year-olds—and no reliable buffering against attitudinal influence across ages 9 to 15.^[3] In digital environments, such as advergames or embedded promotions, developmental vulnerabilities persist longer, as children struggle to identify hybridized content, exacerbating comprehension challenges into adolescence.^[8]^[3] Full skeptical processing, reliant on advanced executive functions, often does not solidify until late adolescence.^[8]

Behavioral and Health Outcomes

Exposure to food advertising has been associated with increased consumption of unhealthy foods among children, contributing to elevated risks of obesity and related health issues. A systematic review of experimental studies found that food advertising cues lead to higher caloric intake in children, with meta-analytic evidence indicating an average increase of approximately 45-60 kcal per exposure session in laboratory settings.^[51] Longitudinal data from cohort studies further link greater television viewing, which includes ad exposure, to a dose-response relationship with childhood obesity, where each additional hour of daily TV corresponds to a 2-5% higher obesity prevalence after controlling for confounders like physical activity.^[52] These effects are particularly pronounced for high-sugar, high-fat products marketed via child-targeted channels, with randomized trials demonstrating sustained preferences and purchase requests persisting up to 24 hours post-exposure.^[53] On behavioral fronts, advertising exposure correlates with heightened materialism in children, as evidenced by meta-analyses synthesizing over 20 studies showing a moderate positive association (r ≈ 0.20) between ad viewing and materialistic attitudes, often manifesting in increased parent-child conflicts over purchases.^[8] Pester power—children's nagging for advertised items—rises significantly following exposure, with field experiments reporting up to 30% more requests for promoted brands compared to non-advertised controls.^[54] Links to aggression are less direct and primarily tied to violent content within ads or surrounding programming rather than persuasive elements alone; cross-sectional surveys indicate minimal independent effects of non-violent commercial advertising on aggressive behaviors, though heavy overall media diets amplify risks.^[55] Causal inferences remain tempered by methodological limitations in much of the literature, including reliance on short-term experiments that may overestimate real-world impacts and challenges in isolating advertising from broader screen time effects. Peer-reviewed critiques highlight small effect sizes (Cohen's d < 0.3 for dietary changes) and confounding variables like socioeconomic status, suggesting that while acute behavioral responses occur, long-term health trajectories are influenced more by family habits and access than ads in isolation.^[56] Nonetheless, consensus from public health bodies, drawn from replicated findings across cultures, affirms that reducing exposure via restrictions yields measurable declines in unhealthy intake, as seen in Quebec's ad bans correlating with 10-15% drops in targeted food consumption among youth.^[57]

Positive Contributions to Consumer Education

Advertising contributes to children's consumer education primarily through its role in consumer socialization, the developmental process by which individuals acquire knowledge, attitudes, and skills for functioning in the marketplace.^[58] Mass media, including television and digital advertising, serves as a key agent alongside parents and peers, exposing children to product information, consumption norms, and basic marketplace dynamics from an early age.^[59] Empirical reviews spanning decades of research demonstrate that ad exposure increases children's factual knowledge of advertised products, such as features, availability, and variety, thereby building foundational awareness of consumer options. Brand recognition, a core outcome of repeated advertising, emerges rapidly in early childhood, with studies showing that children aged 2 to 3 years can identify familiar logos like those of fast-food chains or toys, fostering differentiation between offerings and an intuitive grasp of market competition.^[4] This early familiarity aids in learning to evaluate alternatives based on perceived attributes, as evidenced by longitudinal data on consumer development stages: perceptual (ages 3–7, focused on basic recognition), analytical (7–11, involving attribute comparison), and reflective (11+, with abstract evaluation).^[60] For example, experimental evidence indicates that advertising boosts recall of product benefits, such as nutritional claims in food ads, which can inform parental discussions on value and selection.^[61] Beyond information dissemination, advertising indirectly supports skill-building in areas like preference formation and request negotiation, where children practice articulating desires and justifying choices within family budgets—processes central to economic literacy.^[62] Targeted campaigns, such as those promoting educational toys or safety features in children's products, have been linked to heightened parental awareness and informed purchasing, extending educational benefits through household interactions.^[8] However, these gains depend on cognitive maturation and parental mediation, as unguided exposure primarily emphasizes persuasion over critical analysis until later developmental stages.^[3] Overall, while commercial intent drives advertising, its empirical role in imparting marketplace knowledge aligns with socialization theory, equipping children for future autonomous consumption.^[63]

Criticisms and Defenses

Alleged Harms to Vulnerability and Well-Being

Critics contend that children possess inherent cognitive vulnerabilities that advertising exploits, particularly due to immature understandings of commercial persuasion. The American Psychological Association's 2004 task force report highlighted that children younger than 7 to 8 years typically fail to distinguish advertising from entertainment or recognize its selling intent, leading them to accept promotional claims at face value and increasing susceptibility to undue influence.^[64] This developmental limitation, rooted in limited perspective-taking and source evaluation skills, is evidenced by studies showing that awareness of persuasive intent rises gradually, from about 43% in first graders to 94% by fifth grade, with younger children exhibiting higher trust in ads.^[64] Such vulnerabilities are alleged to foster parent-child conflicts through heightened "pester power," where children make repeated purchase requests prompted by ads. A 2003 review by Buijzen and Valkenburg analyzed multiple studies and found small to moderate positive associations between television advertising exposure and children's nagging behaviors, which in turn correlate with family disagreements over denied requests.^[65] These dynamics are said to strain familial relationships and contribute to children's disappointment when expectations go unmet, though the review noted no direct empirical link to broader unhappiness.^[65] On well-being, advertising is claimed to promote materialistic orientations that undermine psychological health, especially among vulnerable subgroups. A longitudinal study of 466 children aged 8 to 11 found that lower initial life satisfaction predicted increased materialism only among those frequently exposed to advertising, suggesting ads may reinforce possession-based coping mechanisms that perpetuate dissatisfaction.^[66] Further research indicates advertising exposure elevates materialism via heightened desire for promoted products, with a 2013 longitudinal analysis showing this mediated effect persisting over time in preadolescents. These patterns are alleged to erode self-esteem and life satisfaction, particularly in lower socioeconomic contexts where ad-driven ideals clash with reality, though effect sizes remain modest across reviewed datasets.^[67]

Evidence-Based Counterarguments and Parental Role

Empirical research indicates that children's comprehension of advertising's persuasive intent develops earlier than commonly portrayed in critiques, with a majority recognizing the selling motive by ages 7-8 and up to 90% by ages 11-12, challenging claims of inherent cognitive defenselessness.^[68] A meta-analysis of studies on advertising intent further reveals variability in understanding influenced by measurement methods, suggesting that younger children's apparent naivety may stem from assessment artifacts rather than absolute vulnerability.^[69] These findings undermine process-based arguments for deeming child-directed advertising inherently unfair, as similar persuasive techniques in non-commercial contexts, such as public service announcements or parental influence, are not similarly condemned despite lacking profit motives.^[70] Critiques of alleged harms like increased materialism or obesity often rely on correlational or short-term experimental designs that fail to establish causation amid confounding factors such as overall media exposure, family socioeconomic status, and lifestyle habits.^[70] For instance, while some studies link ad exposure to preferences, real-world purchase behaviors show no significant independent effect after controlling for parental oversight and household norms. Advertising can also foster consumer socialization by informing children about product options and market dynamics, potentially enhancing decision-making skills without necessitating outright harm.^[8] Parents play a pivotal role in mitigating potential advertising influences through active mediation strategies, such as discussing ad content and intent during co-viewing, which peer-reviewed studies demonstrate effectively reduces undesired outcomes like pestering or uncritical preferences.^[71] Concept-oriented communication—encouraging critical evaluation of ads—proves particularly efficacious in bolstering children's advertising literacy and curbing materialism-linked effects, with experimental evidence showing diminished persuasion susceptibility post-intervention.^[72] Restrictive measures, like limiting exposure, complement these but are less impactful alone; comprehensive parental involvement, including modeling skeptical consumption, addresses root vulnerabilities more robustly than regulatory bans, which overlook familial agency and may yield unintended economic burdens like reduced access to child-oriented content.^[73]^[3]

Debates on Causation vs. Correlation

Critics of child-directed advertising often cite experimental evidence demonstrating short-term causal effects on preferences and choices, such as laboratory studies where exposure to food ads leads children to select higher-calorie options over healthier alternatives.^[74] Longitudinal models have similarly inferred causal links to increased materialism, with one 2014 analysis of Dutch children aged 8-12 showing advertising exposure positively predicting materialistic values over time, controlling for prior levels.^[75] Natural experiments, like Quebec's 1980 ban on ads targeting children under 13, provide quasi-causal evidence; a 2012 econometric study found the policy reduced fast-food consumption by approximately 13% among affected households, using cross-border comparisons with non-banned regions.^[76] These findings underpin claims of broader harms, including contributions to obesity, as synthesized in epidemiological reviews applying Bradford Hill criteria to assert causality from cumulative exposure data.^[77] Defenders counter that much of the evidence remains correlational, plagued by endogeneity and omitted variables, such as parental feeding practices, socioeconomic status, and overall screen time, which confound ad exposure with underlying family behaviors predisposing children to poor outcomes.^[78] Population-level associations between ad viewing and obesity, for instance, may reflect reverse causality—obese children spending more time watching TV and thus encountering ads—rather than ads driving weight gain, with limited rigorous tests isolating "but-for" effects amid ethical barriers to randomized trials.^[79] The U.S. Federal Trade Commission's 1978-1981 inquiry into child ads ultimately declined a proposed ban, citing insufficient proof of pervasive causal harm despite staff concerns, emphasizing instead that correlations do not equate to sole or primary causation when parental mediation and other environmental factors dominate long-term influences.^[41] Econometric critiques further note small effect sizes in policy interventions like Quebec's, where reductions in consumption were modest and potentially attributable to concurrent shifts in availability or pricing rather than ads alone.^[80] Methodological debates highlight reliance on observational data in public health literature, where self-reported exposure or aggregate metrics fail to disentangle ad-specific impacts from program content or peer effects, weakening causal claims for sustained behavioral changes like habitual overeating.^[81] Instrumental variable approaches, such as leveraging ad regulation variations across regions, offer stronger inference but remain rare and contested; for example, while some difference-in-differences analyses support ad bans curbing requests for junk food, they struggle to rule out spillovers or anticipation effects.^[82] Proponents of bans argue cumulative experimental and quasi-experimental evidence meets causal thresholds for policy action, yet skeptics, including FTC commissioners historically, stress overinterpretation of short-term lab effects translating to real-world pathology, advocating parental responsibility over regulatory overreach absent gold-standard proof.^[1] This tension persists, with recent reviews acknowledging advertising as a "contributing factor" to obesity but not the dominant driver, underscoring the need for more granular causal research amid biases in advocacy-driven syntheses.^[83]

Regulations and Standards

Global and National Legislation

The World Health Organization (WHO) issued guidelines on July 3, 2023, recommending that member states adopt comprehensive, mandatory policies to restrict the marketing of foods high in saturated fats, trans fats, free sugars, or sodium to children up to age 18 across all media, including digital platforms, using nutrient profiling models to identify unhealthy products.^[84] These recommendations emphasize evidence from systematic reviews showing marketing influences children's preferences and consumption, but they are non-binding and vary in implementation by country.^[85] No universal treaty enforces global standards on child-directed advertising, though UNICEF supports aligned efforts through toolkits promoting legal restrictions on unhealthy food promotions.^[86] In the European Union, the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (2018/1808, revising 2010/13/EU) requires member states to protect minors from harmful audiovisual content, including by limiting or banning advertisements for unhealthy foods during programs targeting children or when child audiences exceed thresholds, with implementation deadlines set for 2020 onward.^[87] Countries like Sweden and Norway enforce near-total bans on television advertising to children under 12, while others, such as the UK, align with the directive through national rules prohibiting high-fat, sugar, and salt (HFSS) food ads before 9:00 p.m. on television starting October 2025 and extending to online platforms.^[88]^[89] The United States lacks federal legislation specifically prohibiting advertising to children, relying instead on the Federal Trade Commission's enforcement of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act against unfair or deceptive practices in child-directed marketing, with historical inquiries (e.g., 1978 staff report) highlighting concerns but no bans enacted.^[90]^[41] Related laws like the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (1998, updated 2025) address data collection from children under 13 but do not regulate ad content directly.^[33] Canada employs a mix of self-regulation and provincial laws; nationally, Ad Standards administers the Broadcast Code limiting child-directed ads to two minutes per half-hour, while Health Canada proposed amendments in 2023 to the Food and Drug Regulations restricting ads for foods exceeding sodium, sugar, or saturated fat thresholds primarily directed at children under 13.^[91]^[92] Quebec's Consumer Protection Act (1978) bans all commercial advertising targeting children under 13 across media, enforced by the Office de la protection du consommateur with fines up to CAD 3,000 per violation.^[93] Australia has no mandatory national legislation restricting unhealthy food advertising to children, depending on voluntary industry codes under the Australian Association of National Advertisers, despite calls for statutory reforms amid evidence of persistent exposure on digital platforms.^[94] In contrast, countries like Chile (2016 law) and Mexico (2020 front-of-pack labeling with ad restrictions) mandate comprehensive bans on child-directed promotions of unhealthy foods, covering television, cinema, and schools, with nutrient thresholds defining eligibility.^[95]

Industry Self-Regulation and Ethical Guidelines

The Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU), established in 1974 and administered by BBB National Programs, serves as the primary self-regulatory body in the United States for advertising directed to children aged 12 and under across television, digital media, and other platforms.^[96] CARU's guidelines, revised most recently in 2022, mandate that child-directed ads be truthful, non-deceptive, and free from unsubstantiated claims, with specific prohibitions on exploiting children's credulity, such as through unfulfilled promises of product performance or exaggerated depictions of toys interacting independently.^[97] Advertisers must also ensure clear separation between promotional content and entertainment, avoiding formats that blur distinctions, like host-selling or embedded product placements, to account for children's limited ability to recognize persuasive intent before age 8.^[97] In the food and beverage sector, the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI), initiated in 2007 under the Council of Better Business Bureaus, requires participating companies—representing over 90% of U.S. child-directed food ad spend—to limit marketing to children under 12 to products meeting uniform nutrition criteria, such as caps on added sugars (no more than 8 grams per serving as of 2013 updates) and alignment with USDA dietary guidelines.^[98] These pledges extend to digital channels, prohibiting ads on child-oriented websites or apps unless products qualify as "better-for-you," with monitoring involving annual audits and public reports; by 2023, CFBAI had shifted criteria to emphasize whole grains and limits on saturated fats, though compliance relies on voluntary disclosure.^[98] Globally, self-regulation draws from the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Framework for Responsible Marketing Communications, which stipulates that ads to children avoid encouraging overconsumption, unsafe actions, or nutritional imbalance, with adaptations by over 80 national self-regulatory organizations coordinated through the International Council for Advertising Self-Regulation (ICAS).^[99] For instance, in Europe, the European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA) enforces codes prohibiting child-targeted ads for high-sugar or high-fat foods during peak viewing hours, based on nutritional profiling systems like the UK's nutrient profiling model, which scores products on energy, fats, sugars, and sodium content.^[99] In 2021, major global food brands, including those under the International Food and Beverage Alliance, committed to restricting high-fat, sugar, and salt product ads to audiences under 13 across 50+ countries, verifiable through third-party monitoring.^[100] Ethical guidelines emphasize children's developmental vulnerabilities, such as incomplete executive function and susceptibility to pester power, recommending age-gated content and parental controls in digital self-regulation; CARU, for example, advises against collecting personal data from children without verifiable consent under COPPA-aligned standards.^[97] Enforcement typically involves complaint-based reviews, with CARU resolving over 90% of cases through advertiser modifications rather than referrals to the FTC, though empirical assessments indicate limitations: a 2023 peer-reviewed analysis found CFBAI ads often promote products exceeding independent health benchmarks, correlating with persistent child obesity links.^[98] Similarly, a 2019 cross-national study of 22 countries revealed that self-regulatory regimes exposed children to 48% more unhealthy food TV ads than statutory restriction systems, attributing gaps to lax verification and lobbying influences in industry-led bodies. Proponents counter that such systems enable rapid adaptation to emerging media, like in-game ads, without stifling economic speech, as evidenced by CFBAI's reported 20% reduction in sugary cereal placements from 2007 to 2019 baselines.^[98]

Enforcement Challenges and Recent Reforms

Enforcing regulations on advertising to children faces significant hurdles, particularly in the digital realm where distinctions between content and promotion blur. Stealth or disguised advertising, such as influencer endorsements and embedded product placements in videos or games, exploits children's limited ability to recognize persuasive intent, complicating detection by regulators.^[10] The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) highlighted in a 2023 staff report that younger children under 11 often fail to differentiate such ads from entertainment, leading to potential deception without clear disclosures, yet monitoring vast online platforms remains resource-intensive.^[101] Self-regulatory bodies like the Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) rely on voluntary compliance, which studies show inadequately curbs unhealthy food promotions, as companies frequently exceed guidelines on volume and appeal.^[102] Cross-jurisdictional inconsistencies exacerbate issues, with advertisers routing campaigns through less-regulated regions to evade national bans on junk food ads.^[103] Industry lobbying further impedes enforcement, as seen in efforts to dilute outdoor advertising restrictions on high-sugar products near schools, where definitions of "unhealthy" foods prove contentious and subjective.^[104] Regulators like the FTC encounter evidentiary challenges in proving causation between ads and child behavior, compounded by the scale of data-driven targeting that circumvents age-gating via inferred profiles rather than verified identities.^[105] Limited budgets and technical expertise hinder proactive surveillance, allowing non-compliance to persist despite statutory frameworks like the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).^[106] Recent reforms seek to bolster enforcement through privacy-linked prohibitions and stricter platform obligations. The European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA), fully applicable by February 2024, bans targeted advertising to minors based on profiling and mandates age-assurance measures, with non-compliant very large online platforms facing fines up to 6% of global turnover; updated guidelines issued in July 2025 emphasize child-friendly safeguards against manipulative designs.^[107] ^[108] In the US, FTC amendments to COPPA finalized in April 2025 expand requirements for verifiable parental consent and prohibit certain data uses for ads, effective June 2025 with compliance by April 2026, aiming to reduce behavioral targeting of children under 13.^[109] ^[110] Several US states, including those enacting age-appropriate design codes by 2024, now restrict data sales and personalized ads to minors up to 18, shifting enforcement toward opt-in models and risk assessments.^[111] These measures prioritize systemic platform accountability over reactive case-by-case actions, though ongoing evasion via AI-driven personalization tests their efficacy.

Current Trends and Future Outlook

Rise of Digital and Data-Driven Advertising

The proliferation of smartphones and internet-connected devices has shifted children's advertising exposure from traditional television to digital platforms, with U.S. adolescents aged 13-17 spending an average of 8.4 hours daily on entertainment media in 2023, much of it online. This transition accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, as remote learning and lockdowns increased screen time for children under 13 by up to 2 hours daily, enabling greater ad delivery through apps, games, and streaming services.^[13] Global spending on kids' digital advertising has expanded rapidly, valued at approximately $3.4 billion in 2023 and projected to reach $25.9 billion by 2033, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.5%.^[15] In the U.S., ad expenditures targeting babies and children rose 20% in 2023 to over $1.5 billion, with digital channels capturing a growing share due to platforms like YouTube and TikTok, where children encounter personalized content feeds.^[13] Social media firms derived nearly $11 billion in U.S. ad revenue from youth users in 2022 alone, including $2.1 billion from those aged 12 and under, driven by algorithmic recommendations that integrate sponsored content seamlessly into non-commercial experiences.^[112] Data-driven techniques have amplified this rise by leveraging behavioral tracking, such as app usage patterns, search histories, and social interactions, to tailor ads in real-time.^[83] By 2024, over 95% of U.S. adolescents owned smartphones, with 45% online "almost constantly," facilitating persistent data collection that enables micro-targeting— for instance, serving toy ads to children based on prior video views or game play data.^[113] This personalization extends to in-game advertising and influencer partnerships, where embedded promotions in free-to-play apps reached millions of young users monthly, with interactive formats like rewarded videos boosting engagement rates by up to 30% compared to static banners.^[11] Among younger children, digital penetration is evident: 40% of U.S. children aged 8 and under owned a tablet by age 2 in 2025 data, correlating with heightened exposure to algorithmically curated ads on platforms optimized for short-form video.^[114] Teenagers encountered ads at a rate of one every 10 seconds while scrolling social feeds, equating to 420 per hour, often fueled by data analytics that predict preferences from cross-device tracking.^[115] These trends underscore a market evolution toward surveillance-based precision, where advertisers exploit vast datasets to circumvent traditional age gates, though empirical studies indicate varying efficacy in influencing purchases due to children's limited financial autonomy.^[3] Projections suggest continued growth through emerging technologies like augmented reality ads in metaverse-like environments, potentially doubling market penetration by 2030 if regulatory constraints remain limited.^[37]

Policy Shifts and Market Projections

In recent years, regulatory frameworks governing advertising to children have trended toward greater restrictions, particularly in digital and food-related domains, driven by concerns over privacy, obesity, and behavioral influences. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission finalized amendments to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) rule on January 16, 2025, mandating parental opt-in consent for third-party advertising targeting children under 13 and prohibiting the sale of their personal data for monetization purposes, aiming to curb data-driven personalization in kid-focused ads.^[116] Similarly, a leaked White House policy roadmap from August 2025 under the Trump administration outlined potential new limits on marketing unhealthy foods to children, signaling a prospective federal push against junk food promotions amid chronic health debates.^[117] Internationally, jurisdictions have enacted or updated codes emphasizing self-regulation alongside enforcement. Canada updated its approach on April 25, 2023, with Health Canada issuing guidance to restrict food ads primarily directed at children under 13, followed by Ad Standards implementing a new Code for Responsible Advertising of Food and Beverage Products to Children effective June 28, 2023, which bans misleading claims and promotes healthier messaging.^[118]^[119] In Australia, the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) introduced tightened rules under its Children's Advertising Code on December 1, 2023, prohibiting ads that exploit children's credulity or encourage poor dietary habits.^[120] The United Kingdom delayed but advanced high fat, salt, and sugar (HFSS) ad bans, with restrictions on TV and online placements to children under 18 set for October 1, 2025, following parliamentary briefings in July 2025.^[121] These shifts reflect a global pivot, as noted in 2024 analyses, toward age-appropriate digital safeguards, including prohibitions on targeted ads and data sales for minors, though enforcement varies and often relies on industry compliance amid fragmented state-level U.S. laws.^[122]^[123] Despite intensifying regulations, market projections indicate robust growth in child-targeted digital advertising, fueled by platform proliferation and data analytics, potentially outpacing traditional media declines. The global kids digital advertising sector, valued at approximately US$2.9 billion in 2021, is forecasted to reach US$21.1 billion by 2031, expanding at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.8%, with platforms like social media and gaming apps driving revenue through interactive formats.^[37] Alternative estimates project the market hitting USD 8.24 billion in 2025 alone, propelled by advanced targeting tools, while North America could see USD 30.35 billion by the forecast period's end at a 22.8% CAGR.^[124]^[125] Another outlook anticipates USD 25.9 billion by 2033 with a 22.5% CAGR from 2024, underscoring resilience via mobile and streaming channels that evade some broadcast-era bans.^[15] These expansions occur even as policies tighten, suggesting advertisers' adaptation through non-regulated vectors like influencer partnerships and in-app experiences, though privacy rules may temper data-dependent growth in the long term.^[126]

References

[1]
Children, Adolescents, and Advertising | Pediatrics - AAP Publications
Advertising is a pervasive influence on children and adolescents. Young people view more than 40 000 ads per year on television alone and increasingly are.
[2]
[PDF] Advertising to Children and Teens: Current Practices
In the past, advertising to children and youth consisted primarily of 30-second TV ads; now it includes product placements, immersive websites, advergaming, ...<|separator|>
[3]
Advertising and Young People's Critical Reasoning Abilities
Nov 15, 2022 · Evidence shows that the attitudes of young people were influenced by advertising. Critical reasoning abilities did not appear to be fully developed during ...
[4]
Food Advertising and Marketing Directed at Children and ...
Youth-oriented marketing channels and techniques include television advertising, in-school marketing, product placements, kids clubs, the Internet, toys and ...
[5]
Advertising: how it influences children and teenagers
Nov 15, 2024 · And advertising works on children. For example, the more TV a child watches, the more toys that child is likely to want and ask for. This is why ...
[6]
How Marketers Target Kids | MediaSmarts
Packaging, brands and display advertising. The ads that kids see most often are actually the old-fashioned ones: brand labels and packaging (screens – all of ...
[7]
Marketing to Children: Tips, Tactics, and Taboos
Jul 9, 2020 · While advertising has a long history of its own, commercial marketing to children has developed more recently, with the widespread adoption of ...
[8]
[PDF] The Effect of Advertising on Children and Adolescents
For example, a review of research found a consistent relationship between advertising exposure, materialism, and parent-child conflict.6. Furthermore, a meta- ...
[9]
The digital world is built on advertising. How do we help kids ... - CNN
May 18, 2021 · Advertisers can reach teens through social media, and on some of those platforms they can target kids ages 13 to 17 based on interests such as ...
[10]
[PDF] Protecting Kids from Stealth Advertising in Digital Media
Sep 14, 2023 · Stealth advertising blends ads with content, making it hard for kids to discern them, especially in digital media, and can lead to harms.
[11]
The Truth About Marketing to Children: Facts and Figures
May 22, 2025 · Advertisements viewed by children annually, 25,000+ on TV alone ; Age when children recognize brand logos, 3-4 years old ; Children's weekly ...
[12]
Advertising to Children - Marketing Made Clear
Jan 29, 2025 · Advertising to children targets both the child and parent, using different messages and media, and requires ethical considerations due to ...
[13]
https://www.statista.com/topics/10038/advertising-to-children-in-the-us/
[14]
Q4 2023 12 for '24 - Baby & Kids - MediaRadar
Dec 27, 2023 · MediaRadar's data sample estimated over $1.5 billion was spent by baby & kids advertisers through November 2023. That's a jump of 20% YoY compared to the $1.3b ...
[15]
Kids Digital Advertising Market Size, Share | CAGR of 22.5%
The kids digital advertising market is projected to reach USD 25.9 billion by 2033, with a CAGR of 22.5% from 2024 to 2033.
[16]
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1336506/media-where-us-children-have-seen-or-heard-ads/
[17]
The Costs of Targeted Advertising on Children and Mental Health
Nov 4, 2024 · Targeted advertising on children is not new. In recent years, however, this kind of advertising has grown more potent than ever.
[18]
Commercialization and Advertising Aimed at Children
In the 18th and 19th centuries, children did not make economic decisions in the family and few products specifically for them even existed.<|separator|>
[19]
https://www.history.org.uk/publications/resource/9463/how-can-old-advertisements-be-used-in-the-primary
[20]
Children's Advertisements in The Youth's Companion from 1890 to ...
This paper shall demonstrate that at the turn of the 19th century, the advertising strategies used in children's advertisements published in The Youth's ...
[21]
The children's market in context | David Buckingham
There is a long history of marketing to children, which can be traced back well into the nineteenth century; and campaigns to restrict and regulate it ...
[22]
Advertising Facts for Kids
Oct 17, 2025 · They soon used advertising techniques like slogans, mascots, and jingles on radio in the 1920s and early television in the 1930s. Mass media ...
[23]
A Century of Radio Stories: History of Radio Commercials
Oct 26, 2022 · Radio commercials began in the 1920s when it became clear radio reached large audiences.
[24]
1930s & 1940s Cereal Premiums - Sharing The Past
Jul 9, 2015 · Captain Midnight was an adventure radio serial broadcast from 1938-1949. The program was about Captain Jim "Red" Albright a World War I US Army ...
[25]
The Howdy Doody Show (TV Series 1947–1960) - IMDb
Rating 7.6/10 (294) The first nationally televised American children's TV program and a prototype for what followed. Buffalo Bob Smith hosts while the puppet, Howdy Doody, stars.Full cast & crew · Filming & production · Episode list · Overview<|control11|><|separator|>
[26]
[PDF] Childhood and the mediatization of marketing, 1955-1965
There is a long history of marketing to children, which can be traced back well into the nineteenth century; and campaigns to restrict and regulate it, while ...<|separator|>
[27]
“We'll Be Back in a Moment”: A Content Analysis of Advertisements ...
May 31, 2013 · Some of the differences are due to the television technology and technical standards of the 1950s, but others illustrate growth in advertisers' ...
[28]
The Evolution of Kids' Media Consumption Habits. | Kadence
The introduction of cable and satellite TV in the 1990s revolutionized children's media consumption. Channels like Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network offered ...
[29]
Digital marketing for Kids
The idea of "digital marketing" first appeared in the 1990s. The very first advertisement on the internet was shown in 1994. Today, digital marketing is a super ...
[30]
Look Boys and Girls! Advertising to Children in the 20th Century
May 5, 2011 · Early ads used stories, contests, and clubs. Later, TV, comic books, and fast food with toys were used. Internet ads also emerged.
[31]
[PDF] Advergaming and the Online Marketing of Food to Children - Report
Advergames are a particular form of “branded entertainment” which is the insertion of a brand within an entertainment property (e.g., product placement in film, ...
[32]
Advergaming: How Brands Have Powered Up Through Video Games
Aug 26, 2024 · Between 1990 and 1998, snack brands - who had had their advertising wings clipped by the US Children's Act of 1990 - leaped into the - nowhere ...
[33]
Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule ("COPPA")
COPPA imposes certain requirements on operators of websites or online services directed to children under 13 years of age.
[34]
[PDF] Guide to Navigating COPPA | IAB
COPPA is a US federal law regulating collection of personal information from children under 13 by online services, enforced by the FTC.
[35]
CARU in the 90s and 00s: Privacy & the Internet
May 22, 2024 · The arrival of Y2K accelerated the pivot to online advertising and experiences, and new challenges in children's privacy compliance.<|separator|>
[36]
Characteristics of Food Industry Web Sites and “Advergames ...
Food companies use Web sites to extend their television advertising to promote brand loyalty among children.Missing: rise online kids
[37]
Kids Digital Advertising Market Growth Analysis till 2031
The global kids digital advertising market was valued over US$ 2.9 Bn in 2021 · It is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 21.8% from 2022 to 2031 · The global kids ...
[38]
[PDF] How the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ... - LAW eCommons
COPPA was enacted to prevent businesses from abusing children's privacy, and this article reviews its history, requirements, and impact on businesses and ...
[39]
Top Kid-Influenced Product Categories Articles - Marketing Charts
The categories in which kids are most likely to influence their parents' spending or spend their own money: toys and games; clothes and shoes; food and drink; ...
[40]
Top Baby & Children Advertisers
MediaRadar's Top Baby & Children Advertisers list consists of brand leaders like Lego, Fisher-Price & Huggies are among the top advertisers.
[41]
[PDF] Advertising to Kids and the FTC: A Regulatory Retrospective That ...
This article explores the history of these efforts. It does so in light of current attention to childhood obesity and suggestions for a ban on ads directed to.
[42]
[PDF] Food and beverage TV advertising to young children
Other types of products advertised most frequently on children's programming by non-CFBAI companies included candy (6e8% of ads viewed) and fast-food ...
[43]
[PDF] Trends in Television Food Advertising to Young People: 2017 Update
Overall, TV ads for the healthiest product categories (bottled water, fruits and vegetables, and yogurt) represented just 4% of food-related ads viewed by both ...Missing: type | Show results with:type
[44]
Trends in Children's Exposure to Food and Beverage Advertising on ...
Aug 22, 2024 · Companies pledged to advertise only better-for-you products (using individual company-defined nutrition criteria) in child-directed programming.
[45]
[PDF] Sweet promises - University of Connecticut
“Candy” is defined as products within Nielsen's candy product categories (candy, candy bars, candy products, website-candy), plus fruit snacks (e.g., Fruit Roll ...
[46]
licensed characters and other promotions on packaged foods in the ...
A total of 397 products were categorized by promotional partner, food category, targeted age group, promotion type, product nutrition, and company policies on ...
[47]
Food Marketing to Children: A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing?
Most of what the industry spends on food marketing to youth promotes unhealthy foods and drinks. Sugary drinks and cereals, candy, sweet and salty snacks and ...
[48]
A systematic review of persuasive marketing techniques to promote ...
This review identifies the most frequently documented persuasive marketing techniques to promote food to children via television.Missing: scholarly | Show results with:scholarly
[49]
Children's understanding of the selling versus persuasive intent of ...
The Persuasion Knowledge Model (PKM) suggests children interpret, evaluate and respond to advertising's influence attempts through a personal 'persuasion ...Missing: scholarly | Show results with:scholarly
[50]
Children's Understanding of the Intent of Advertising: A Meta-Analysis
The author conducts a meta-analysis investigating the extent to which children understand the intent of advertising. The results show several study ...
[51]
Advertising as a cue to consume: a systematic review and meta ...
Evidence to date shows that acute exposure to food advertising increases food intake in children but not in adults.
[52]
[PDF] The Effects of Television Food Advertising on Childhood Obesity
Longitudinal research determined that there is a direct relationship between the time spent watching television and obesity and every additional hour spent ...
[53]
The effect of screen advertising on children's dietary intake - NIH
Dec 21, 2018 · Evidence indicates that screen advertising for unhealthy food results in significant increases in dietary intake among children.
[54]
The impact of characters like Tony the Tiger and other child-targeted ...
This study found that child-targeted ads had a positive impact on children's preferences, purchase intents, pester power and total impact. These results ...Missing: critiques | Show results with:critiques
[55]
[PDF] Effects of television advertising on children
May 2, 2010 · There has been a substantial amount of research on inter-relationships among watching violent films, videos, TV programmes and aggressive ...
[56]
Advertising and Young People's Critical Reasoning Abilities
Nov 15, 2022 · Existing reviews and meta-analyses have shown that children of all ages are impacted by advertising,13–16 but the notion that understanding of ...
[57]
Advertising and child health - PMC - NIH
Jan 9, 2025 · Many of the products most heavily advertised are the unhealthiest: junk food, sugary drinks, alcohol, gambling, tobacco and e-cigarettes.
[58]
Consumer Socialization of Children - jstor
Twenty-five years of consumer socialization research have yielded an impressive set of findings. The purpose of our article is to review these findings and ...
[59]
Consumer socialization in childhood and adolescence: Impact of ...
Parents, peers, and mass media function as socialization agents and constitute the social environment in which children learn to become consumers. This research ...
[60]
The effect of ad integration and interactivity on young teenagers ...
According to John (1999), children's consumer socialization consists of a sequence of three cognitive stages: the perceptual stage (3–7 years), the ...<|separator|>
[61]
Experimental Evidence on the Impact of Food Advertising on ... - NIH
The results indicate that advertising has divergent effects on children's food knowledge and preferences and that food knowledge is unrelated to food ...Missing: socialization | Show results with:socialization
[62]
[PDF] The Role of Advertising in Adolescent Consumer Learning. - ERIC
Advertisers' research interest in consumer behavior has becn growing as more and more contemporary issues relating to public and corporate policy formulation.
[63]
Consumer Socialization of Children: A Retrospective Look At Twenty ...
Aug 9, 2025 · The purpose of our article is to review these findings and assess what we know about children's development as consumers.
[64]
[PDF] Report of the APA Task Force on Advertising and Children
Feb 20, 2004 · Opportunities to advertise to children further expanded with the explosive growth of the Internet, and thousands of child-oriented Web sites ...Missing: 1900s- | Show results with:1900s-
[65]
The effects of television advertising on materialism, parent–child ...
Empirical evidence: Parent–child conflict. Eleven studies have examined one or more causal paths linking advertising to parent–child conflict (see path 2, 2a ...
[66]
Lower Life Satisfaction Related to Materialism in Children ...
Sep 1, 2012 · Lower life satisfaction was found to lead to materialism among children who were frequently exposed to advertising. These findings need further ...What This Study Adds · Results · Moderation Analysis (h4)
[67]
TV adverts, materialism, and children's self-esteem: The role of socio ...
Nov 8, 2020 · This study aimed to (1) quantify differences in TV advertising exposure, materialism, and self-esteem between deprived and affluent children.<|separator|>
[68]
Children's understanding of the selling versus persuasive intent of ...
A majority of children described the 'selling' intent of television advertising by 7-8 years both nonverbally and verbally, increasing to 90% by 11-12 years.
[69]
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/074391569701600202
[70]
Is Child Advertising Inherently Unfair? | Journal of Business Ethics
Nov 23, 2017 · Child advertising is routinely accused of being inherently unfair. This is normally based on the claim that younger children do not understand advertising's ...<|separator|>
[71]
Parental Mediation of Undesired Advertising Effects
Our results showed that active advertising mediation and concept-oriented consumer communication were most effective in reducing the effects of advertising.<|separator|>
[72]
the role of parental mediation and emotional appeals in children's ...
Aug 8, 2025 · This study investigates the role of parental mediation in enhancing children's advertising literacy and evaluates the impact of emotional versus ...
[73]
Banning Ads for Kids: An Old, Bad Idea | ITIF
Jun 25, 2024 · Banning targeted advertising to children would require countless online services to pass their operating costs onto someone else: in this case, parents.
[74]
The power of product: how food advertising affects children's ...
Sep 30, 2025 · Food advertising shapes children's preferences for unhealthy foods, contributing to poor diets and increased risk of obesity and non ...
[75]
[PDF] children's advertising exposure and materialism - Patti Valkenburg
Buijzen, M., & Valkenburg, P.M. (2003). The impact of television advertising on materialism, parent-child conflict, and unhappiness: A review of research.
[76]
(PDF) Fast-Food Consumption and the Ban on Advertising Targeting ...
Aug 6, 2025 · Research has previously found that Quebec's advertising restrictions were associated with a decrease in the likelihood of purchasing fast food ...
[77]
Would Reducing Children's Exposure to Food Advertising Prevent ...
Jun 21, 2025 · Food advertising exposure adversely affects children's food behaviors, and the relationship with obesity meets established criteria for causality.Missing: critiques | Show results with:critiques
[78]
TV ads contribute to childhood obesity, economists say
Oct 21, 2008 · "There is not a lot of evidence that overweight kids are more likely to watch TV than other kids," said Michael Grossman, professor of ...Missing: lack | Show results with:lack
[79]
FTC to Digital Media Advertisers: It's Time to Protect Kids
Oct 24, 2022 · Cooper stressed the need for causal, “but-for” evidence showing that children exposed to advertising behaved differently than a control ...
[80]
Study: Quebec ban on fast-food ads reduced consumption of junk food
Jan 19, 2012 · An outright ban on junk-food advertising aimed at children would be more effective than the current industry-led ban, according to research ...
[81]
A rapid review of the evidence for children's TV and online ... - NIH
Jan 28, 2022 · We conclude that exposure to unhealthy TV and online food advertising is a contributing factor to childhood obesity.
[82]
Restricting child-directed ads is effective, but adding a time-based ...
May 26, 2023 · In this study, we evaluate the impact of child-based versus time-based restrictions of “high-in” food and beverage advertising in Chile.Missing: critique | Show results with:critique
[83]
Impact of unhealthy food marketing on children
Jul 10, 2025 · Research has shown that young children's exposure to food marketing effects their preference, requests and consumption of unhealthy foods.<|separator|>
[84]
Policies to protect children from the harmful impact of food marketing
Jul 3, 2023 · This WHO guideline provides Member States with recommendations and implementation considerations on policies to protect children from the harmful impact of ...
[85]
WHO recommends stronger policies to protect children from the ...
Jul 3, 2023 · The guideline recommends countries implement comprehensive mandatory policies to protect children of all ages from the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic ...
[86]
Taking Action to Protect Children from the Harmful Impact of Food ...
Food marketing negatively affects children's food preferences and consumption, contributing to obesity. UNICEF-WHO toolkit guides legal measures to restrict it.
[87]
Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) - EUR-Lex
It aims to create and ensure the proper functioning of a single European Union market for audiovisual media services, while contributing to the promotion of ...
[88]
05 Children - ASA | CAP - Advertising Standards Authority
Advertisements must not condone, encourage or unreasonably feature behaviour that could be dangerous for children to emulate. Advertisements must not implicitly ...
[89]
Junk food ad ban legislation progresses to curb childhood obesity
Dec 3, 2024 · Ads on television will only be allowed past the 9pm watershed from October 2025 as part of plans to curb childhood obesity.
[90]
Children | Federal Trade Commission
If you advertise directly to children or market kid-related products to their parents, it's important to comply with truth-in-advertising standards.
[91]
The Broadcast Code for Advertising to Children - Ad Standards
Advertising directed to children is acceptable on a limited basis (maximum two minutes per clock half hour/four minutes per clock hour) in and adjacent to ...
[92]
Policy update on restricting food advertising primarily directed at ...
Apr 25, 2023 · Health Canada intends to amend the Food and Drug Regulations to restrict advertising to children of foods that contribute to excess intakes of sodium, sugars ...
[93]
Advertising Directed at Children
Sep 10, 2024 · The Consumer Protection Act prohibits commercial advertising that targets children under the age of thirteen.
[94]
Australia's lack of regulation of unhealthy food marketing to children
Jun 5, 2025 · There is currently no Australian Government regulation to specifically protect children from unhealthy food marketing.
[95]
Marketing regulations - Global Food Research Program
May not advertise during children's programming (TV, cinema, online) or when child audience share >20%; · May not advertise on TV from 6 a.m. – 10 p.m. (2018 ...
[96]
Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) - BBB National Programs
CARU monitors all child-directed media to ensure that marketing and data collection and management practices are compliant with CARU's self-regulatory ...
[97]
[PDF] Self-Regulatory Guidelines for Children's Advertising - AWS
CARU's Guidelines focus primarily on the substantive content of child-directed advertising and apply to any company that advertises products or services to ...
[98]
Are U.S. food and beverage companies now advertising healthy ...
Oct 4, 2023 · The U.S. food and beverage industry self-regulatory program, the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI), was launched in ...
[99]
[PDF] GLOBAL FACTBOOK OF ADVERTISING SELF- REGULATORY ...
Jan 1, 2022 · SROs are independent bodies set up by the advertising industry to apply standards aimed at ensuring that advertisements are responsible from an ...
[100]
Major food companies agree new self-regulatory controls on food ...
Aug 3, 2021 · Eleven of the largest global food and drinks brands have agreed to further restrict advertising to children of products high in fat, sugar and salt.Missing: bodies | Show results with:bodies<|separator|>
[101]
FTC Staff Paper Details Potential Harms to Kids from Blurred ...
Sep 14, 2023 · FTC Staff Paper Details Potential Harms to Kids from Blurred Advertising, Recommends Marketers Steer Clear · Do not blur advertising · Provide ...
[102]
Problems and Solutions in Food Advertising to Children
Sep 29, 2022 · The report found that, broadly, companies failed to self-regulate when it comes to advertising unhealthy food and beverages to young people.
[103]
Challenges and solutions to banning the advertisement of unhealthy ...
Oct 24, 2024 · Banning the advertisement of unhealthy products involves many challenges due to the existence of key players with different roles and missions.Missing: kids | Show results with:kids
[104]
Bans on outdoor junk food ads derailed by industry lobbying
Apr 9, 2025 · Plans to ban junk food adverts from bus stops and billboards to protect public health are being stymied by advertising industry lobbying.
[105]
The ABCs at the FTC: Marketing and Advertising to Children
Marketing and advertising to children touch on several different FTC issues. I'll try to walk you through these with a brief introduction to the Commission's ...<|control11|><|separator|>
[106]
FTC Discusses Growing Concerns over Digital Advertising to Youth
Oct 20, 2022 · FTC pays “particular attention” to advertising to children because of their greater vulnerability to deception and evaluates these advertisements from a child' ...
[107]
The impact of the Digital Services Act on digital platforms
The DSA bans targeted advertisement to minors on online platforms. VLOPs have taken steps to comply with these prohibitions. For example, Snapchat, Alphabet's ...
[108]
European Commission Makes New Announcements on the ...
Jul 22, 2025 · On 14 July 2025, the European Commission published its final guidelines on the protection of minors under the Digital Services Act (“DSA”) ...
[109]
Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule - Federal Register
Apr 22, 2025 · The Rule requires that operators provide direct and online notice to parents and obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting, using, or ...Missing: reforms | Show results with:reforms
[110]
FTC's 2025 COPPA Final Rule Amendments: What You Need to Know
Aug 5, 2025 · The new Rule becomes effective June 23, 2025, with a compliance deadline of April 22, 2026. The following is a snapshot of changes that the FTC ...
[111]
5 Key Takeaways | Marketing to Kids: New U.S. Privacy and Social ...
Oct 17, 2024 · With increasing scrutiny on how companies handle personal data of children under 18, several new laws are reshaping the legal landscape.
[112]
Targeting kids generates billions in ad revenue for social media
Jan 2, 2024 · Harvard study is the first to offer estimates of the number of youth users on these platforms, and how much ad revenue is attributable to ...
[113]
Media Use and Screen Time – Its Impact on Children, Adolescents ...
A 2016 study linked increased screen time with poor sleep quality and behavior problems.<|separator|>
[114]
The 2025 Common Sense Census: Media Use by Kids Zero to Eight
Feb 26, 2025 · The key findings show that digital media habits for children age 8 and under are evolving. Forty percent of children have a tablet by age 2.
[115]
Protecting Children In the New World of Online Advertising
Teenagers on average are seeing one ad every ten seconds while scrolling through their feeds, equivalent to 420 advertisements per hour, and researchers are ...Missing: rise statistics
[116]
FTC Finalizes Changes to Children's Privacy Rule Limiting ...
Jan 16, 2025 · The final rule requires parents to opt in to third-party advertising and includes other changes to address the emerging ways that consumers' ...
[117]
Trump administration to explore limits on advertising unhealthy ...
19 ago 2025 · A leaked draft of a White House policy roadmap addressing chronic health reveals the potential for new regulation on children's marketing.
[118]
Think of the kids: New restrictions on food and drink advertising to ...
In addition, on April 25, 2023, Health Canada provided a policy update on restricting food advertising primarily directed at children. The new Code for the ...
[119]
New Restrictions on Advertising Food and Drinks to Children | Blakes
18 jul 2023 · On June 28, 2023, Ad Standards' new Code for the Responsible Advertising of Food and Beverage Products to Children (FBA Code) took effect.
[120]
AANA releases new rules under latest Children's Advertising Code.
The new AANA Children's Advertising Code, set to come into effect on 1 December 2023, includes tightened restrictions on advertising to children.
[121]
Advertising of HFSS food and drink to children
4 jul 2025 · The government said it would legislate to restrict advertising of HFSS foods to children. This briefing summarises current regulation.
[122]
2025: A global shift towards digital regulation for children
Dec 16, 2024 · This year is set to deepen the global dialogue on safeguarding young users, introducing more sophisticated mechanisms for online identification ...
[123]
State and Federal Developments in Minors' Privacy in 2025
Jul 25, 2025 · Targeted Advertising and Sale of Data: Now common across age-appropriate design code acts are prohibitions on the sale of minors' data and the ...
[124]
Kid Digital Advertising Market Report 2025 (Global Edition)
The global kids Digital Advertising market size will be USD 8240 million in 2025. Increasing growing utilization of cutting-edge digital marketing tools is ...
[125]
Kids Digital Advertising Market- Industry Analysis and Forecast ...
The market size of the Kid's Digital Advertising Market in 2024 was valued at USD 5.86 Bn. 1. Research Methodology 1.1 Research Data
[126]
2023 U.S. Advertising and Privacy Trends and 2024 Forecast: Focus ...
Feb 1, 2024 · In 2024, we expect that policy and legal actions related to advertising and privacy will continue to focus on protecting children and teens.