Commercializing Children: Laws and Regulations Affecting Advertisements Directed at Children in France, Spain, and Sweden

From a financial perspective there may be no better investment, or more sensible target for advertising than one directed at the interests of children. This focus is perfectly understandable for a firm aiming to maintain a continually expanding and predictable source of profit. What children lack in spending power compared to other age groups, they make up for in potential longevity to consume, as well as their sheer amount of exposure to such advertising outlets, not only in hours spent, but in the various forms of technology to which they are regularly exposed. Children have an uncanny ability to mold the financial choices of their parents from the relatively minuscule purchase of a small toy or candy bar they had seen on television, to suggesting vacation destinations that can cost in the thousands. In many nations, including the United States, firms have interpreted the recognition of the growing influence of children on markets as justification to target them in their advertising campaigns.