Children in the Commercial World
Posted by Dave Lawrence on March 23, 2010
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On Wednesday 17th March I was a guest speaker at the seminar entitled ‘Children in the Commercial World’. This was hosted by the Westminster Media Forum whose remit is to facilitate debate of key social issues to help inform policy making. It was extremely well attended with a mixture of both commercial companies, charities, lobby groups and politicians. all of which boded well for stimulating and construct discussions. However I was quickly disheartened to witness the chasm of opinion between those that support the involvement of children in the commercial world and those that are vehemently anti-brand and called for nothing short of the termination of all kids brands and media channels.
Industry groups such as the Advertising Standards Association and ISBA were present and helped to highlight how tightly-regulated the kids marketing sector already is and how seriously brand owners take their moral reponsibilities. Sadly this seemed to aggravate rather than appease the anti-brand extremists and as such the debate tended to go round in circles rather than finding common ground for us all to agree on and move forwards.
On the basis of this experience I sense that the kids marketing debate will rage on in political circles and further underlines the importance for companies to ensure that their kids marketing activities leaves little scope for future lobby group and media attacks.
Hi Dave
Great sentiments
Sadly I agree with you in that it seems both sides are world’s apart.
Maybe we can be the mediators!
Best
Nic