Research Paper on:
Pester Power; Why Marketing to Children is Big Business

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
a great deal of attention paid to the way in which children are being targets by the producers of junk food and unhealthy snacks. With worries over the health  of children the morality of targeting children has become a controversial issue. Marketing appears to be one of the targets of the House of Commons Health Select Committees Inquiry into  Obesity that is currently taking place in the UK (Marketing (a), 2003). With 10% of six year olds now being classified as obese (Harrington, 2003), the concern this raises can  be understood. However, it is not only a moral or ethical issue, it is also a financial issue. The cost of providing  healthcare to the overweight is higher, and for the companies that make the products there is a need to market them or suffer losses in sales. When money becomes an  issue there are many interested parties. When it came to the banning of advertising of tobacco product there was a more straightforward argument, children should not have been smoking them  anyway. However, when it is Kelloggs advertising a packet of Coco Pops, of Coca Cola advertising a fizzy drink the line between ethical an unethical is much harder to distinguish.  With Debra Shipley seeking to introduce new controls on marketing to children she may be seen as trying to create a nanny state, or as a godmother to save childrens  health. Her proposal is to ban marketing that places advertisements for "high-fat, high-sugar and high- salt-content food and drinks during pre-school television programmes and related scheduling" (Harrington, 2003).  In response to these concerns Coca Cola have announced that they will no longer aim any advertising at the under 12s (Marketing (b), 2003).