In the book “Chew On This” by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson, chapter two, entitled “The Youngster Business,” discusses Walt Disney’s and Ray Kroc’s idea on selling and manufacturing to the youth. Though selling to children is not an ethical tactic, the authors make the claim that making products geared towards children is a better way to sell your product. Children have not yet learned that money does not grow on trees. Parents may not have the money to pay for certain necessities already, but their children want them to go out to eat multiple times per week. It is not fair for the parents to have to drive all the way to a restaurant so their son or daughter can finish his collection of toy racecars. So, for these reasons, and many others, I do not think gearing your products towards kids is an ethical idea.
“During the course of a year, the typical American child watches more than 40,000 TV commercials. About 20,000 of those ads are for junk food: soda, candy, breakfast cereals, and fast foods. That means children now see a junk-food ad every five minutes while watching TV and see about three hours of junk-food ads every week (44).” For fast food companies today, it is extremely easy to make people notice your product. They can go towards the younger viewers (which is the most popular choice), or go to the new adults who don’t have money and need a quick meal. Most of the ads that I have personally seen have been directed more at everyone. They show their product staged to look attractive and have regular people enjoying it. The usually cheap price is always shown to make sure you see how inexpensive it is. Using my own experience with fast food companies and the text from the book, I can say that some tactics that companies use are ethical and some tactics are not. But, without a doubt, these tactics are working and now names like McDonald’s and Taco Bell are regular names in most family households.
While I do not agree with certain companies’...