Marketing And Children

American children are consumers of media and are exposed to a plethora of messages on a daily basis, most targeted directly at them (Neeley 2004). And there are not just one, but at least three groups who are out to take advertising to children out back for a spanking! One example of marketing towards the youth market is the Kellogg's website "Fun-K-Town". The site is devoted solely to kids and their "favorite" breakfast brands through the use of games. The site is looked at in depth below.

Section 1: Marketing or Entertainment

You might think a lot of money goes into putting together a website such as this, especially with a decent selection of games. The truth though, is that these games cost less than more traditional forms of advertising (Linn 2005) and kids are spending more time on the web these days, so it only makes sense to utilize the format's potential. Costs are kept down more because, while there are a number of games on the site, it is very minimal in the graphic department and the games are very simple. Perfect for the targeted demographic. I have to wonder how much fanfare Kellogg's put around the launch of this site. As was mentioned in the outline for this assignment; "This website did not launch itself without a press release...". That may be true, but the company doesn't make it very easy to find! What was easy to find though were a few reviews of the site. The review are mixed and from what I read seem unbiased. Most of the reviews were average, while a few were very high, some even gave the site awards for things like "Site if the Day". As I had expected, especially with the company getting sued, most of the reviews I read brought up the amount of advertising that is on the website. This fact didn't really seem to changes reviewers perception of the site though.

From an entertainment stand point, this site should prove entertaining to the very young audience that it is aimed at. A good number of games are on the site gives children,

who seem to have a knack for short attention spans, many other options if they grow tired of a game. The site groups the games by brand as opposed to by type or by name, giving the children the ability to easily pick out their favorite product and play games the only feature the characters from that brand.

While the site should prove to be entertaining to it's targeted demographic, I find the site to be more advertising than entertainment. Even thought the site is full of games, the amount of advertising is almost sickening and the fact that it is laid out by brand serves as a way to reinforce brand loyalty at a very early age. Technically I am going with the site being both advertising and entertainment, but I think it is decidedly clear that Kellogg's has this site up for monetary purposes more so than kids entertainment. One site that reviewed "Fun-K-Land" even started the article with a highlighted warning about the amount of advertising. There just seems to be too much there for the site to be viewed another way.

Section 2: Influence

"Children start to identify frequently seen characters and may begin to demonstrate desire for those characters and related products that they see..."(Neeley 2004) This leads directly into a topic that I brought up in the last section: Being able to choose by brand instead of type or name. This creates an automatic opportunity for the child to either show their loyalty or decide it. While children are not yet at a point that they can completely understand the concept yet (Kinneging 2004), at the very least the roots for future loyalty can be set. While I am sure that this site has the ability to sell product (I was dying for a Pop-Tart after doing a little Slalom),I doubt that any of the games will have the ability to change brand attitudes, if for no other reason than that the games just aren't that powerful or memorable. There definitely seems to be the potential for the site to make children want to eat more cereal. For on it worked on me, but mainly because you can't get away from food while

visiting the site. The site is based on Kellogg's foods and every game is as well. You are always a character from a brand within the company and in a good number of games you are actually looking for cereal.

Another interesting take on the influence the site can have is when you put it side-by-side television. Television has been the main source of advertising to children for quite sometime, especially on Saturday mornings, but that has always been a time when children were getting bombarded with all kinds of different messages. So many, that before age six most children's brains don't even know what to do with all the messages (Neeley 2004). The "Fun-K-Town" has one message eat Kellogg's. If that's not specific enough, just pick out any game and there you have the perfect formula: A child having fun with one brand message planted right in front of their eyes. I think that can be an influence...

Section 3: Ethics

Now we get to the debated part. Neeley wrote, "Ongoing debate about the efficacy and ethics of advertising to children has existed since the early days of television...Although public opinion suggests that spokes-characters influence young children's product desires, academic research has generally failed to demonstrate this effect." I would have to argue that whether effect has been demonstrated or not has nothing to do with whether or not advertising to children is ethical. The ethical questions raised by this website are of a different nature, I believe. For the most part the items with their own games aren't the best of cereals (health wise). I think the ethics in question here should deal with why a company with such a great opportunity isn't pushing healthier foods with games as well. The site tries to save a little face with the "Sportsplex"