Children as Consumers of Commercial and Social Products

This is a working paper from the conference "Marketing Health to Kids 8 to 12 Years of Age," that was held October 21 & 22, 1998.

"Adolscent Health promotion programmes routinely incorporate health communication as a key strategy to promote health. To this end, PAHO's Division of Health Promotion and Protection, in collaboration with the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), commissioned Dr. James U. McNeal, a recognised authority on marketing commercial products to kids, to prepare [this document]. [It] was used by the two agencies during a meeting held in October 1998 - sponsored by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. During this meeting expert health communicators from the Americas worked to develop health communication strategies targeting kids 8 to 12 years of age.

Dr. McNeal's work underlines the growing interest in developing health communication programmes for kids 8 to 12 years of age because of the increasing evidence that young people are adopting risk-taking behaviours at earlier ages. Children in this age group are smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, taking drugs and having sex; are making decisions that will affect all aspects of thier own future as well as the future of their family and community, and are very involved and attracted to a broad spectrum of communication media. In fact, some literature suggests that the media may have a greater influence socialising children than do parents or the church."

Click here to download the English version as a PDF file.

Click here to download the Spanish version as a PDF file.