Why not join the Power Rangers in their fight against evil, 'dance like a star' on Barney's Move and Groove Dance Mat, collect Creature Comforts characters free with Frosties cereal or play Quidditch with Harry Potter, courtesy of Nintendo? There's 'a barrel of fun' with Pop Up Pirate, and Baby Born needs putting to bed before driving the 'toughest road known to man' with Hot Wheels Hyper Striker. Wear Clikits jewellery to be a 'stylish girl' and get 'great looking hair' from carmengirls.com - 'it's a girl thing'.
All this temptation is packed into just one CITV ad break at 3.30pm as we 'share the fun with sponsors Milky Bar'.
Commercial breaks bombard children with images of their peers being thrilled with the latest toys, wearing trendy clothes, enjoying unhealthy foods and laughing with friends. No-one is bored, lonely, overweight or unstylish in ad-land.
Marketing to children has become a specialist, well-financed sector aimed at an audience much easier to manipulate than adults. It is everywhere - television, comics and magazines, the cinema, in-store promotions, billboards, the Internet, mobile phones and even in schools and nurseries with commercial sponsorship of educational materials and loyalty schemes.
No wonder a recent MORI poll conducted on behalf of the National Family and Parenting Institute found that 84 per cent of parents think that companies target their products at children too much.
'The message we are receiving from parents is that they feel overwhelmed and out of control,' says Vicki Shotbolt, NFPI head of communications.
'They feel advertisers are invading their private family space and are marketing unhealthy or inappropriate products directly to small children.
It is a particular issue for parents of children under five years old.
Beyond the age of five, children tend to get more reasonable and start to understand that they cannot have everything. But toddlers watch the Tweenies and then see the linked food range in Marks & Spencer, which is difficult for parents to deal with.'
Telling the difference
Child psychologist Jennie Lindon says marketing companies are using increasingly sophisticated techniques. Young children are scrutinised in focus groups to find which images and jingles catch their attention. 'Many adverts are creatively put together and young children can find it difficult to distinguish between the programmes and the advertising,' says Ms Lindon. 'Images in adverts and magazines pitched at young children make them think they really need a certain toy or outfit, and there is the sense that what they wear will make life different.
'Some of the clothes and accessories being advertised ricochet children out of childhood and into premature teenage years, which is irresponsible of magazines and advertisers.'
Christmas wish lists are getting bigger and child obesity levels are also rising. Current figures show that 8.5 per cent of six-year-olds and 15 per cent of 15-year-olds are obese, according to Health Check, the annual report of England's chief medical officer.
Last year the International Journal of Advertising and Marketing to Children reported that 31 per cent of three-year-olds remember seeing the Coca-Cola logo, 66 per cent Kinder confectionery and 69 per cent McDonald's. The promotion to children of foods high in salt, sugar and fat is currently under scrutiny from the Commons health select committee, expected to report in January, and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) is consulting on a new approach to advertising children's food.
The FSA has published Does Food Promotion Influence Children? A systematic review of evidence, a study carried out by Professor Gerard Hastings, director at the Centre for Social Marketing, University of Strathclyde. He says, 'Children are more likely to choose a product because it is advertised, and exposure to adverts increases pester power.'
The report found that most food promotion is dominated by the 'Big-Five' - pre-sugared breakfast cereals, soft drinks, confectionery, savoury snacks and fast food. It states, 'The advertised diet contrasts sharply with that recommended by public health advisors, and themes of fun and fantasy or taste, rather than health and nutrition, are used to promote it to children. Meanwhile, the recommended diet gets little promotional support.'
Labour MP Debra Shipley has proposed a ban on all food and drink advertising to pre-school children. In a speech to the House of Commons she said, 'The World Health Organisation recently suggested that people should restrict sugar to 10 per cent of their diet for the sake of their health, yet the powerful food and drink industry is allowed ruthlessly and cynically to target small children with products that contain an amount of sugar way above what is good for their health.'
She believes Government healthy eating initiatives are 'undermined by the spending power of the food and drink industry'.
The Independent Television Commission, which is to merge to become Ofcom at the end of this year, awards licences to broadcast commercials and enforces standards. Ian Blair, deputy director of the ITC's programmes and advertising group, says rules are designed to prevent advertising from being misleading and causing offence to viewers. There must be no direct exhortation to buy the product and adverts should not make children feel inferior if they do not own the item.
Mr Blair says they get very few complaints about adverts aimed at children.
He believes that TV commercials are not the most powerful influence on children's attraction to particular products. Family influences, peer pressure and catalogues also enter the equation. 'Yo-yos and Furbies were not advertised on television, but shops and parents could not keep up with children's demands for them a few years ago,' he says.
Jeremy Preston, director of the food advertising unit at the Advertising Association, says, 'There is no evidence that a ban on food promotion to children will make a difference. It is banned in Quebec and the level of overweight children there is no lower than in other Canadian provinces.'
But he does say there is a 'willingness' among the advertising industry to address the problem of obesity.
Clamping down
It looks unlikely that food advertising to children will be banned in the UK, but culture secretary Tessa Jowell is reported to be clamping down on it. 'Obesity has to be tackled on a broad front. This means placing more emphasis on school sport and active living, promotion of healthy eating, promotion of media literacy and possibly a toughened advertisers' code,'
says a spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
'Advertising is only part of the picture. Through its work as an independent regulator, Ofcom would already need to look at the existing advertising code. We hope that it will be tightened up in the light of the growing evidence, in particular to reflect the willingness of food manufacturers to promote healthy eating.'
FSA proposals for food advertising include restricting the use of cartoon characters and celebrities to promote unhealthy foods, and setting limits on 'the numbers and types of food adverts for less healthy foods to be shown during children's television'.
Whatever happens, negotiating marketing will remain a part of children's lives. Media Smart, a media literacy programme backed by UK advertisers, aims to help primary school children to understand and interpret advertising.
Media Smart chairman Paul Jackson says, 'Advertisers recognise the responsibility to assist children to critically understand and use adverts in the context of their daily lives. This will give them a life skill, because people who are taught to think and view critically go on to make better choices.'
Jennie Lindon believes that young children can also be helped to understand marketing. She says, 'Advertising is a good reason to watch TV with young children. Parents and carers can comment on the adverts on TV, say that an item is expensive and explain how much it costs in a simple, meaningful way, such as how many visits to the swimming pool it equates to. You can also help young children to negotiate their way through billboard adverts and magazines - it is reasonable to alert children to the fact that they are trying to get them to buy.
'In the run-up to Christmas, childcarers should take the opportunity to talk to children about giving as well as receiving - what could they give, make or share with a friend or member of their family?
'The task of advertisers is to sell things. The task for parents and carers is to have an influence, and help children to make choices and understand limited budgets.'
