Linn agrees, "Until about the age of eight, children don't fully understand the notion of persuasion." Marketers are well aware of this fact and use it to their advantage. Moreover, there are myriad consulting firms and organizations whose sole purpose is to teach marketers how to target young children, touting them as "the next generation of consumers" and "the future of your business." Conferences and award ceremonies such as Kid Power, the Youth Marketing Mega-Event, and the now-suspended Golden Marble Awards perpetuate the message that marketing to kids is not only an acceptable practice—it is big business.

Consider these sobering points offered by the CCFC:

• From 1992 to 1997 the amount spent marketing to children shot from $6.2 billion to $12 billion. Today marketers spend at least $15 billion a year targeting children.
  
  
• Children see about 40,000 advertisements a year on TV alone, a figure that does not include product placement.
  
  
• Children see advertisements on the Internet, at the movies, on school buses, in their classrooms and cafeterias.
  
  
• Almost every major media program for children has a line of licensed merchandise used to sell fast-food, breakfast cereals, snacks and candy.
  
  
• Many toys . . . are actually advertisements for junk food.
  
  
• In their effort to establish cradle-to-grave brand loyalty, marketers even target babies through licensed toys and accessories featuring media characters.

Advocacy

Thankfully, not everyone agrees. The December 2004 issue of Advertising Age magazine cited children's advertising as one of the "[Top] 10 Advertising Legal Issues." Describing 2005 as the "Year of the Child," Advertising Age discussed efforts by activists such as Senators Hillary Clinton and Joseph Lieberman to fund research that will determine the effects of advertising on children.