Children and Consumerism in India

chillibreeze writer — Ritu Tripathi

"Mama, please, please buy me the Fairytopia Barbie with a flying horses' carriage", whines a five year old, watching the magical Barbie commercial introducing its latest collection of dolls. The punch line is “collect them all”, luring the young TV viewer to pester Mama to buy them all.

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There are umpteen ads on television channels like this for toys, drinks, soaps, stationery, confectionery, biscuits and more – It is an endless list. Most of the advertising today is either aimed at children directly or even if the product advertised is not kids’ stuff a child definitely figures somewhere to lend a warmer, more congenial touch to the ad. It is almost as if the advertisers have a ready formula in a child to boost sales.

Since cable television has invaded almost every home kids are bombarded with such advertising most of their waking hours. It is little wonder then that they have emerged as the biggest consumers of our millennium.

Kids in the deciding mode

According to a recent survey carried out by Cartoon Network in association with Synovate India, both as direct and indirect consumers in the Indian market, kids exercise a major influencing power, or alternatively termed as “pester power”, on parents in buying big items like cars. They spend nearly Rs.291 crores as pocket money. The survey was conducted in 14 Indian cities covering 4,043 children. The findings of the survey were interesting,

84 percent of parents took their children along with them for shopping and admitted that they influenced major purchases such as television sets, cars and mobile phones.
71 percent of parents agreed that their child influences which brand is chosen while buying TV sets, 70 percent for computers, 67 percent while buying mobile phones and 66 percent on the purchase of a car.
To quote Duncan Morris, Vice president Research and Marketing, Turner International, “We found that Indian kids are increasingly becoming tech savvy, with a mobile phone and camera figuring high on their list of aspirations… they prefer the mobile as the primary mode of communication, but ironically instead of talking on it, they use it for text messaging and games.”

Trends are changing

Advertising apart, giving a fillip to this manic consumption is the “me too” syndrome. The peer-pressure is so strong among kids that they buy similar brands or products simply to be in the “in group”. Hence, the with-it generation dons the same look, hairstyle, accessories and gizmos to get that extra surge of confidence leading to a homogenization of culture.

Another aspect of this societal change is the preference for gizmos and gadgets, be it video games or computer games software. Experts forecast that video games will overtake traditional toys by 2008. The annual growth rate of video games is 70 percent and the major growth boosters are PC-related games.

Talking about toys, we should not forget how the market is flooded with imported Chinese toys. Parents prefer buying Chinese toys because of their price competitiveness and incredibly attractive looks and packaging. But, do they know that their low pricing is due to the pitiful, subnormal working conditions of mainly Chinese women - women who work sixteen hours a day making toys and are paid a pittance. It is a serious human rights problem and many agencies have raised an alarm about it. If children are made aware of these facts chances are they will pause to think before making their next purchase. Children, they say are more humane than human.

Despite all this, consumerism per se is fantastic for the industry. It has led to tremendous growth in nearly all the sectors. Sales have grown exponentially and so has the ad budgets of various companies. However, hefty ad budgets do not ensure ethical advertising. An advertiser has to take on the social responsibility of passing the correct information to young and impressionable minds. Children’s interest has to take precedence over profit. But, many a times this is not so. Kids are clueless about the trap they fall into every time they buy a new toy or gizmo. Even most of the parents are unaware of the bad effects of this rampant consumerism. Whenever we give in to the demands of a hysterical child we are unleashing materialistic forces in our society, thereby crushing other more harmonizing and life-giving values of love and charity. We are ourselves giving rise to an acquisitive generation. By teaching our children that acquiring things does not make a man happy, instead love, friendship, respect and honesty are the real colors of life, we can, to an extent, curb their urge to amass new things. Also, we have to make children aware that all the images and ads they view on TV have to be taken with a pinch of salt. Seeming is not being. Arming our children thus, we can ensure that kids decide wisely and ensure that their purchasing is need based rather than ad induced.

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—About our writer:

Ritu says, "Having been a student of English Literature from Lady Shriram College, Delhi, I am given to writing for television, documentaries and print. I love reading Ernest Hemingway as he portrays an undying human spirit fighting against the forces of nature."

Children and Consumerism in India

Kids in the deciding mode

Trends are changing

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