Child Advocacy groups and concerned parents, among others, question the ethicality of advertising claims and appeals that are directed towards vulnerable groups in particular, children (Bush 31). .
The fundamental criticism is that children are an unfair market (Schlosser 45). .
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulates the advertising industry to ensure consumers' protection from false or misleading information (46). The question many assert is should the government be allowed to monitor what is legitimate simply because some do not approve (Hernandez 34). This question requires value judgments that can only be answered through constructing public policy (Kunkel 58). Most people in society recognize that advertising directed towards children is excessive, manipulative and unfairly takes advantage of children (Kunkel 60). .
Findings indicate that the majority of children up to age five "experience difficulty distinguishing perceptually between programs and commercials" (Schlosser 47). It is noted that children at this young age tend to treat all television content as a one-dimensional type of message. For instance, child viewers do not begin to discriminate between fantasy or reality dimensions of television content at the most basic levels until grade school. Advertisers compound this issue by using perceptual similarities in program content and commercial content which adds to the difficulty children already have in distinguishing between the two variables. Secondly, the study implies that, "A substantial proportion of children, particularly those below age eight, express little or no comprehension of the persuasive intent of commercials" (Kunkel 63). This is a crucial argument in regards to the legality of unfair advertising. Children eight and younger are an unfair market, for they do not understand the intent of the advertisement.
