Tough Love?

29th October, 2009

For years advertisers have been using children to tear at the heartstrings of viewers. Such advertisers as NSPCC, Worldvision, Cancer Research to name but a few have cleverly incorporated the one thing guaranteed to bring a tear to your eye. But of late, I have noticed an alarming shift in the way children are used. Not only are the stop smoking adverts frightening children but now we have the "green" advertisers on the bandwagon. A child is more inclined to watch an advert containing a child and with the content scaring them half to death with visions of being drowned by the rising water levels, is it fair to scare our children for the sake of getting our messages across. Personally, I don't like it but can see the benefits of this form of advertising to hammer your message home. Acceptable for big issues to capture the attention of the next generation, but it doesn't sit well with me but then I guess that is the whole point.