If you’re a parent, you need to watch this.

If you’re marketer, you need to watch this.

The European Union has framework legislation in place, which sets down minimum provisions on advertising to children for its 27 member States. The EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive sets out several EU-wide rules on advertising and children:

Advertising shall not cause moral or physical detriment to minors, and shall therefore comply with the following criteria for their protection:

a. it shall not directly exhort minors to buy a product or a service by exploiting their inexperience or credulity;

b. it shall not directly encourage minors to persuade their parents or others to purchase the goods or services being advertised;

c. it shall not exploit the special trust minors place in parents, teachers or other persons;

d. it shall not unreasonably show minors in dangerous situations

In addition:

e. Children’s programmes may only be interrupted if the scheduled duration is longer than 30 minutes

f. Product placement is not allowed in children’s programmes.

g. The Member States and the Commission should encourage audiovisual media service providers to develop codes of conduct regarding the advertising of certain foods in children’s programmes.

I don’t believe in regulation. Too many loopholes, not enough understanding from the legislative side how marketing works. I believe in two forces: Self-regulation of the marketing industry and parenting.

The marketing industry needs to help create aware customers.

We have to help children understand capitalism and the commercial world step by step. Ethical marketing equips children to resist marketing. It helps create aware customers. It refuses to take advantage of the naivety of children.

It should be part of any school curriculum and basic parenting.

And, most importantly, we have to educate our children better

It’s a daily struggle to fight off the siren songs of candy, cartoon characters placed on every available product and the nagging/whining of your child. But, we have no choice.

Or, they will end up like this.

I’

This column was first featured on Jack Myers’ MedizBizBloggers site.

I never liked to be called a consumer. It evokes the image of an unshaved man in a wife beater shirt, sitting in front of the light blue glare of a TV screen, stuffing his face with chips and expressing his approval/disapproval with grunts.

Words matter

The word “consumer” devalues people. It makes them sound like mindless cattle, alive to consume and get out of the way. Just to consume more. It reinforces a relationship between companies and people that doesn’t exist anymore. People don’t serve companies anymore, companies have to serve people. People have moved up the food chain and are now equal stakeholders. Calling them consumers makes us fall back into the old thinking patterns and maltreat people with advertising brainwash.

People are more than consumers

I often use the sentence “People have transformed from consumers to producers”. It’s true. And an oversimplification at the same time. We’re complex social primates. We’re employees, family people, friends, loners, artists, followers, leaders, dreamers, realists – add your descriptions here. We are a complicated bunch. And good advertisers try to engage people in a conversation, try to co-create and collaborate. Consumers don’t do that. Consumers just consume.

Time to ditch “consumer”

I call them people. You can call them audience. Whatever. Trying to find like-minded people will lead to stereotypes and simple segmentations. It helps when buying media or try to earn media. But the last consumer died a while ago. He just lives on in your mind. Time to erase that term from your mental hard drive.

Next stop: the term “user”.

Can you imagine playing for that hasn’t won a game in 26 years? With a record of 310-0?

Caltech has Nobel laureates, was essential for the Mars landing but they couldn’t figure out a way to win. They did Tuesday.

“It’s never about winning or losing around here,” said Julie Levesque, Caltech athletic director. “It’s about learning from the process.”

I wish all of us would think that way.

Read the story here.