Advertising and Marketing to Children: Exploitation or Socialisation?

This article discusses some of the views on advertising and marketing to children from both sides of the argument and takes a position that marketers should accommodate the views of those who disagree with them and not be content to just lobby against them. The author believes that rather than just attempting to continue bombarding children with the advertising message they should, in partnership with primary/elementary schools teach children how to understand and deflect the marketing and advertising message, in other words ‘free children's minds’. Marketers should also ‘free their minds’ and examine whether they have fully taken on the marketing concept or are really manipulating the minds of their customers.