Importance Of Utilitarianism In Marketing To Children

INTRODUCTION
In this assignment, I will discuss the ethical issues in marketing to children from a utilitarianism perspective. Marketing to children can be defined as the “act of marketing or advertising products or services to children”. There have been controversies surrounding the issue of marketing to children with regard to whether it is ethical or unethical. Utilitarianism on the other hand is defined as the ethical theory which finds the basis of moral distinctions in the utility of actions (their fitness to produce happiness). Utilitarianism is part of consequentialist theories which assess moral right and wrong in terms of the consequences of the actions. Utilitarianism places great importance on actions that produce or increase pleasure and reduce pain. In other words, utilitarianism advocates for happiness producing consequences.

Ethical issues in marketing to children
Adverts with exaggerated claims to mislead children
Some marketers purposefully overstate the qualities or features of a particular product or service to mislead the children in believing that the product or service is exactly the way it has been advertised. In the quest to get the advertised product, children tend to pester their parents to buy them such products.
Children’s capacity to comprehend advertisements
Research

It states that an action which is deemed right is one that has not merely some good consequences, but also the greatest amount of good consequences possible when the negative consequences are also given due considerations. According to the utilitarian principle, the righteousness of an action is solely judged on the basis of its consequences. Classical utilitarianism determines the balance of pleasure and pain for each individual affected by the action in question as well as the amount of utility for the whole