Advertisers Committing Moral Pedophilia!

Have you seen advertisements these days. Dont you think there are too many kids in these ads. Gone are the days when children used to be sparingly used for chocolates, candy and nutritional drinks, biscuits, and so on: stuff that were only meant to be consumed by kids. People believed in the evil eye and thought that displaying their kids in public, let alone TV will cause harm as a result of envy of others. But today kids are seen as an alternate income source of the family, atleast the cute and talented ones(i didnt mention smart since those kids are only supposed to study).

Im not against kids working, I believe it bring discipline. But what I hate these days is that the way kids are used to bring out emotions in brands that first, dont require kids and second, the product needs to be chosen on logic not emotion. Insurance is just one product. Every brand is competing amongst each other, not in the benefits of their product (and what clauses they hide) but in how much emotion and GUILT they can bring in out in the viewer. If you dont insure, your daughter (and not son) wont have money to pay for their education, you family wont be able to live a happy life, your wife wont be able to afford your daughters marriage etc etc. Not just that, you are branded as smart (ICICI prudential advertisement) if you select their product; else it implies you are dumb.

And what about cell phones (Reliance, Vodaphone) and other products like electronics(LG, Samsung), toothpastes(close-up, miswak pepsodent etc) even cement(Ambuja Cement). I feel companies are trying to show innocent faces on Television to show how honest and innocent they are. That they care about you like a parent cares for their child. We all know that is far away from the truth unless you are talking about turtle parents.

I hate govt regulation but I cant help but wonder whether in this case it is required. Then again nothing is enforced in India and there are always crack through which you can getaway with anything.

An undeniable fact is that advertisers have lost their creative neurons and are stooping to new lows. They have run out of ideas. All that they can use is Sex, Violence(in most bike ads like Pulser, Hero Honda etc) and Children. Although it hasnt happened till now, its just a matter of time that some imbecile with a deadline and without new ideas will combine all three.

Can we turn away from them, yes and no. Eitherway if this doesnt work and some day it wont, advertisers will seek new ways of attracting and attaching customers to their brands. Untill then one things for sure, there are a lot of parent who are smiling away to their bank accounts.