Advertising to children - Its role and relevance in the Irish market

The economic and social significance of the children's market has been widely documented (McNeal 1992; Carey 1998) and has garnered the attention of a diverse group of interests comprising marketers, educators, parents and policy-makers. There has been growing recognition that children may act as both a mediating force/trigger of household purchasing decisions as well as acting as customers and consumers in their own right. From a marketing perspective, an illuminating statistic indicated that in the year to July 1999, 179 new products were launched in the British market targeting the child market while a relatively paltry 92 new products were launched in the adult market (Killgren 1999). This paper examines the debate on the effects of advertising on children and poses a number of research questions from a European perspective.