Biting the Hand That Feeds: Burger King's Adman Calls for Ban on Marketing to Kids
Kudos to Alex Bogusky for firmly touching the third rail of advertising: The fact that companies should not be advertising to children under the age of 8 because kids that age don't understand that advertising isn't "real." Bogusky, whose red-hot agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky handles Burger King (BK)'s account, wrote a surprisingly thoughtful essay on his blog that will be greeted by howls of rage at child specialist agencies such as Wonder Group, C3 BrandMarketing and The Geppetto Group (yes, Geppetto was the puppetmaster in Pinocchio).
One of the things you will absolutely never hear ad agency folk talk about is the age at which children are finally able to understand the difference between advertising and entertainment; and that ads are arguments, not facts or commands. The reason advertisers stay silent on this issue is that there are huge sums of money at stake, even though the FTC established in the 1970s that under-8s aren't cognitively capable of understanding what's being targeted at them:
A 1978 report by the Federal Trade Commission expressed alarm over the effects of advertising on children under the age of 8 - that is, those who are unable to perceive that the purpose of TV advertising is to sell. The report expressed particular concern for the youngest children: "It appears that a large proportion of preschoolers think that the persons or animated figures on TV are addressing them personally and that the animated figures are real and in some sense appropriate for emulation."(Another old study from Europe found the same thing.) Here's how much money was funneled into kid marketing in 2009, per Ad Age:
- North of $900 million was spent on the kids' upfront TV buying season alone.
- Nickelodeon grossed $833.87 million.
- Disney XD grossed $82 million.
- Cartoon Network grossed $230 million.
As we took on the BK account, we politely offered that we could not work on that part [kids] of their marketing. And in subsequent years declined multiple invitations to work on the kids business.
Bogusky isn't innocent here, as he admits. BK awarded its kids marketing account to Pitch Inc. on the same day Bogusky published. (Coincidence!) While his "King" character may be technically targeted at adults, it's hard to believe that a man in a giant mask and costume who causes mayhem wherever he goes is unappealing to children. And he claims to have been "livid" that a spot featuring SpongeBob Squarepants, which he says was targeted at adults (!), was re-engineered by BK for kids. (The ad was pulled, he adds.)But put that aside. Bogusky has this to say about Pitch and its new client (and by extension his client):
... when it comes to advertising to children, it's much more difficult to find any redeeming value created by the activity. In fact, to the contrary, it is easy to see how destructive the process is to most of us.
... [Their brains are underdeveloped and] this leaves them fundamentally and developmentally unequipped to deal with advertising in the way an adult can. If you sit with a child and watch TV commercials, you will notice how vigorously effective the messages are. "I want that." "Can I have that?" "I need that." These words come out of their mouths with seemingly every message, and they mean it and they believe it and they are defenseless against it. And that is the issue.He then calls for his own industry to lobby Congress for an end to advertising to the under-8s, such as exists in some European countries. That's going to make him popular at the October gathering of the Association of National Advertisers -- not.
Enjoy this rare moment of complete honesty from an agency chief. You will not see its like again soon.
Related: