Advertising to children

Many people in Texas are often surprised when we visit at how seriously our kids take the commercials.  When we’ve been there, they’ve told me things like, “Mamma!  You should buy this cereal because they said on t.v. that it’s really good for you!”   or    “Mamma, you have to take us to Chuck E Cheese because the t.v. says that awesome parents take their kids there!”

In Sweden, it is against the law to advertise to children under the age of 12.  So my kids only see kid commercials when we visit the states.

It’s actually pretty nice.  For Christmas, they mostly ask for things they are truly interested in and not what advertisers tell them is the hottest toy.  We give them the toy store catalogue and they simply mark what looks good to them or they also ask for a lot of books or games they’ve played at school.

Here is a bit from Wikipedia if you are interested:

In Quebec, Sweden and Norway, advertising to children under the age of 12 is illegal.

Advertising shall not cause moral or physical detriment to minors, and shall therefore comply with the following criteria for their protection:

a. it shall not directly exhort minors to buy a product or a service by exploiting their inexperience orcredulity;

b. it shall not directly encourage minors to persuade their parents or others to purchase the goods or services being advertised;

c. it shall not exploit the special trust minors place in parents, teachers or other persons;

d. it shall not unreasonably show minors in dangerous situations

In addition:

e. Children’s programs may only be interrupted if the scheduled duration is longer than 30 minutes

f. Product placement is not allowed in children’s programs.

g. The Member States and the Commission should encourage audiovisual media service providers to develop codes of conduct regarding the advertising of certain foods in children’s programs.