ABSTRACT
Commercial marketing to children is by no means a new phenomenon. Indeed, historical studies show that children have been a key focus of interest at least since the inception of modern mass marketing (e.g. Cook, 2004; Cross, 1997; Denisoff, 2008; Jacobson, 2004). Nevertheless, in recent years, children have become increasingly important both as a market in their own right, as decision-makers within their families and as a means to reach adult markets. Marketers are targeting children more directly and at an ever-younger age; and they are using a much wider range of techniques that go well beyond conventional advertising.
