Ethics In Business

The new age marks children and teens as prey of commerce. The question of whether it’s ethic or not was washed away from most of the minds by the encouraging advertisement and ‘cool products’. However, the effects on the young people of our generation can’t be ignored.

Businesses made children and teens their objects of interest. This social group has money to spend and therefore represents the gold mine for companies. Businesses spend big money on exploring what teens like and what is the future thing they might get obsessed with. Trying to reach this goal, they interview children with the purpose of finding their interests, not caring for them but looking for pattern of future interests. For example they invite 5 random people to tell them about brands of clothing that are considered cool, paying them couple of dollars. The question whether this is ethical seems to be a "yes" so far. Companies get money from future profits and the kids make couple of buck just for talking about themselves, everyone seems. Yet, the effects of commerce are most of the time hidden from the world because of their unpleasant influence on teens. And by unpleasant it’s not meant the crazy amount they spend but the changes they undergo mentally and physically. For example, one of the newest untold trends is the shocking attitude of 13-yearolds; “I’m a sexual object and I’m proud of it” which shakes the world and spreads as fast as any plague. Since these teenagers copy what they see on TV and then television producers mirror their behavior to keep them in control, this turns into an endless mirroring cycle. And this is the point where commerce should have limits. Another problem are the values of teenagers. As products became more wanted, kids and teenagers value themselves based on the things they own. Instead of being kids they became materialistic zombies. Kids who once wanted to grow up to be nurses or fireman these days only want to grow up and make money. And one of the most disturbing facts is, that all this is possible thanks to psychologists who are paid great money for helping advertising companies. This abuse of knowledge lets advertisers know what each age category craves. For example 3-to7-yearolds go after toys that transform themselves and 8- to 12-yearolds collect things. Quoting the James U. McNeal, PhD “children under 12 already spend a whopping $28 billion a year. Teenagers spend $100 billion. Children also influence another $249 billion spent by their parents”.  It is OK to target children since they represent money for companies. Their parents should be enough to control them. Boundaries are crossed when companies rob them of their identity and turn them into moneymaking machines. Hunting children, who do not yet have enough experience and reason, to be hunted as adults is not ethic. The commercials should be more human and less material.