McDonald's Advertising to Children: Regulation vs. Parental Control

Introduction

Children are unfair victims of advertisers. Those younger than eight years old do not have the cognitive ability to understand that advertisers are simply trying to sell them something. Nevertheless, the children's market is far too large for businesses to ignore, and companies continue to spend more and more money to reach this audience. In particular, McDonald's spends more on marketing to children than any other company. Armed with a stable of characters, toys, and playgrounds that children adore, it draws young consumers toward its unhealthy fast food. Unfortunately, the social and economic consequences are severe: children are getting sick, and it is costing the economy billions of dollars to cope with diseases such as obesity and diabetes.

No one seems to agree on what should be done about the problem. Should the government step in? Should advertisers come together and develop their own voluntary guidelines for advertising to children? Or is it solely the responsibility of parents to guide their children toward healthy choices? This paper asserts that government regulation is the best solution to protect children from advertisers, because businesses have no financial incentive to restrain themselves and because parents are simply not in a position to control the problem.

Advertising and Children

Commercials leverage psychological research to appeal to children. Advertisers use developmental psychology principles to devise campaigns that persuade children they need a product and to encourage them to nag their parents to buy it. Campaigns feature characters and celebrities that children like in order to heighten the appeal of advertisements. For children to critically process commercials, they would need to be able to distinguish between commercial and non-commercial content and to understand that advertising is trying to persuade them. However, they are unable to do so. Instead, children readily accept advertising as fair, accurate, balanced, and truthful. They do not perceive the bias or exaggeration behind the claims.

Unfortunately, parents cannot necessarily alter this situation. Increasingly, more children are using the Internet and watching television in their bedrooms, where no adult is present to explain what advertisers are doing.

The average American child views as many as 40,000 television commercials every year. After only one exposure to a commercial, children can recall the ad's content and want to obtain the product. Starting at age three, children recognize brand logos. Brand loyalty begins to take hold as early as age two. Children who watch a great deal of television want more toys seen in advertisements and eat more advertised food than children who watch less. Advertisement can also undermine more positive messages: research has shown that child-directed advertisements for healthy foods lose their appeal for children who have viewed commercials for snack foods in the same setting.

In the late 1990s, media, advertising, and marketing budgets targeted at children totaled around $12 billion. This investment reflects the fact that the advertisements work and that children represent an enormous target audience. In 2002, children ages four to twelve spent approximately $40 billion, and in 2000, children twelve and under influenced household spending of more than $600 billion.

McDonald's Role in Advertising to Children

McDonald's accounts for the lion's share of advertising directed at children, spending $3 billion on advertising and marketing aimed specifically at young audiences. As a result, ninety percent of American children between the ages of three and nine regularly visit this fast food chain. Ninety-six percent of school children in the United States can identify Ronald McDonald, the chain's clown spokesman. McDonald's advertising is so effective that children recognize Ronald McDonald more readily than George Washington or Jesus Christ. Only Santa Claus is more widely recognized. Advertising Age magazine ranked Ronald McDonald number two on its list of the top ten advertising icons of the twentieth century, behind only the Marlboro Man.

The book Fast Food Nation explains how McDonald's replicated the marketing tactics of The Walt Disney Company, which inspired the creation of advertising icons such as Ronald McDonald and his supporting characters. The theory behind child-targeted marketing is that it attracts not only children but also their parents and grandparents, and that it instills brand loyalty that persists throughout adulthood through nostalgic associations with the brand. This approach is commonly known as cradle-to-grave marketing. Children's marketing expert James McNeal explains that companies such as McDonald's "start taking children in for their first and second birthdays, and on, and eventually they have a great deal of preference for that brand. Children can carry that with them through a lifetime."

McDonald's has targeted children in a variety of ways. In its early television commercials, Ronald McDonald lived in a fantasy world called McDonaldland and had adventures with characters such as Grimace, Hamburglar, Birdie the Early Bird, and The Fry Kids. McDonald's used McDonaldland and its colorful characters to make eating at the restaurant seem like an adventure for children, as illustrated by the lyrics of one such commercial:

Get yourself ready for a trip through McDonaldland / Take along a friend, and grab ahold of Ronald's hand / Follow Ronald McDonald through the land of apple pie trees / And don't be surprised if you meet Big Mac and Big Cheese / There's a thick shake volcano, you'll even find a French fry plant / Now just turn around, and see if you won't find a hamburger patch / As you're heading fooooor... A McDonald's... In McDonaldland, a McDonald's...

During this advertisement, Ronald McDonald guides two children through McDonaldland, showcasing its characters and fantastical geography. The trip ends, of course, at a McDonald's restaurant — and the ad inspires children to begin their own fantasy journey to the nearest location.

McDonald's marketing efforts directed at children extend far beyond conventional advertising. The McDonaldland ads bring children into the restaurants, while Playlands keep them coming back. McDonald's operates around 8,000 Playlands across America that are especially attractive to children in neighborhoods that lack public playgrounds. There is also the powerful allure of the toys included with meals. McDonald's launched the Happy Meal in 1979, providing food in a circus-themed cardboard box along with a McDoodler stencil, a puzzle book, a McWrist wallet, an ID bracelet, and McDonaldland character erasers. Given its success, McDonald's followed with many variations of the Happy Meal, including versions tied to Star Trek, McDonald's character mascots, and popular children's properties such as Barbie, Hot Wheels, The Little Mermaid, and Finding Nemo. By 2003, Happy Meals accounted for twenty percent of all meals sold worldwide and generated $3.5 billion in annual revenue.

More recently, McDonald's marketing efforts have focused on building brand presence across every possible channel. Its goal is to turn everything it can into an advertisement for the company. It created the McKids line of products — including clothing, toys, videos, DVDs, and books — ensuring that children encounter the McDonald's brand even when their parents limit their television viewing.

In its bid to win over parents, McDonald's understood the value of presenting itself as a caring, family-friendly company. It began linking the brand with children's charities. A McDonald's marketing executive acknowledged: "It was an inexpensive, imaginative way of getting your name before the public and building a reputation to offset the image of selling 15-cent hamburgers. It was probably 99 per cent commercial." The now-famous Ronald McDonald House Charities were created to provide housing for the families of seriously ill children. McDonald's has since even claimed involvement in researching the very obesity and diabetes that its fast food has contributed to causing.