This is something I feel links strongly to the wider issue addressed by the Archbishop of Canterbury in his Christmas speech. British children are being 'forced to grow up too soon' and actually touched on advertising as one of the main factors in causing 'misery and exploitation' for many British children.
To quote the speech:
"We do our level very best to turn you into active little performers and consumers as soon as we can, we shall test you relentlessly in schools, we shall bombard you with advertising, often highly sexualised advertising, we shall worry you about your prospects and skills from the word go, we shall do all we can to make childhood a brief and rather regretable experience, on the way to the real thing, that being independence"
Everyone is vulnerable to advertising, but unfortunately it is the young who suffer most. From the moment a child gains the smallest freedoms within society, they are restricted, pressured and moulded. Marketing forces children to feel inadequate without the very latest product (something which is also compeltely unsustainable). This is however precisly what business needs, it demands it - to keep firms ticking over, people need to buy goods and spending money - it keep business good. That is why firms are spending millions on advertising campaigns.
Children need protection from advertising. Kids have lost their freedom to business and marketing campaigns. We are unlikely to see a change, its too fundamental to our economy and those of most developed nations.
It's very clear where our priorities lie. They certainly aren't in the best interests of the next generation.
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Bit of a random rant on advertising, but I feel its a particularly prominent issue at Christmas. Love is the best present any child will recieve.
In the mean time, here's some brilliant subvertisement work from Dr. D:
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