Consumerism is the protection or promotion of the interests of the common group of buyers. Some of the main problems that today’s consumers face is; advertising to the child consumer and cigarette and alcohol advertising. However, there are strategies in place to combat these challenges and keep the everyday consumer safe and protected, such as consumer legislation and consumer education (Budnitz, 2010).
Advertising to the child consumer
Advertising to the child consumer is a very big issue, the biggest offender being the so called ‘junk food’ industry where the nutritional messages these companies are advertising is usually the opposite of a balanced diet. A study conducted by the Department of Nutrition and Social Health found that as many of 93% of advertisements during the time slot of 4-5pm where food advertisements and a majority of them being ‘junk food’ (Orciari, 2007). A strong example is McDonalds marketers, they constantly work to create emotional attachment between the kids and their brand. This is done through the use of characters, such as Ronald McDonald and others from popular movies/T.V. shows. By having tie-ins relating to popular movies or TV shows the fast food industry creates a connection between the feelings that children have for the toys with a brand (Orciari,2007). And this creates huge problems for parents trying to with stand the pressures form their children generated by the television advertising. Some approaches used to deal with this problem are; within the education sector there is a large focus on teaching children nutritional lessons as well as advertisements being maintained as regulatory system by the government, through the Australian Communications and Media Authority Children’s Television Standards 2009 (Schiffman 2014).
Cigarette and alcohol advertising
During the late 60’s and early 70’s tobacco advertisement was at its peak often using attractive or influential people in their advertisements depicting smoking as sexy and cool. By the mid 1990’s advertisement of cigarettes was banned from majority of main stream media, starting with television and radio then gradually extending to magazines, newspapers and sporting sponsorship (Schiffman, 2014). Eventually stores were no longer able to display the packaging of cigarettes to the customers as well as high governments sales taxes an anti-smoking campaigns were introduced to try and discourage cigarette use. Surprisingly
despite all the legislations that were put in place the rates of smoking by young Australians still remains high (Department of Health, 2015). Today the companies have products called ‘low tar’ cigarettes, with pin prick ventilation holes, on the packaging however if consumers are to accidently block the holes (which is very easy to do) it increases the tar levels back to a normal cigarette. Choice complained that the company’s labelling was non represented of the actually tar levels smokers were getting (Schiffman, 2014), showing that these companies are still finding ways to mislead consumers. Alcohol advertising also has regulations and guidelines that help keep companies in line. Some of these being that people over 25 should be that main characters in the advertisements and that alcohol should not be depicted as the source of success or happiness (Schiffman, 2014) research conducted on behalf of the public showed positive reactions to the advertisements with very few complaints.
In 2011, a legislation was amended and re introduced the ‘Competition and Consumer Act 2010’. This legislation is the most important piece of legislation in Australia for both consumers and marketers (Schiffman, 2014). This legislation includes:
- Anti-competitive practices
- Unconscionable conduct
- Consumer protection
- Product liability
- Product safety and product information
- Industry codes
e.g. of consumer legislation: Alleged price fixing in the Victorian bread market led to a $8.9 million fine. In addition to the legislation and regulations consumers also need information and education to enable them to make wise purchasing decisions. Today, many federal, state, territory and local agencies offer consumer education programs in order to distribute consumer information (Schiffman, 2014) allowing for a smarter set of consumers in the market and reducing the risk that consumers are constantly faced with in todays markets.
References:
Australian Government Department of Health, 2015.‘Tobacco advertising’.Australian Government Department of Health, Canberra.
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/tobacco-advert
Budnitz, Mark Elliott, 2010. “The Development Of Consumer Protection Law, The Institutionalization Of Consumerism, And Future Prospects And Perils”. Georgia State University Law Review vol.26 No.4.
Orciari, Megan, 2007. “Fast Food Marketing To Children”. Worcester Polytechnic Institute, vol.1, pp1-4. https://web.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Available/E-project-082107-231740/unrestricted/Appendix_1.pdf
Schiffman, L; O’Cass, A; Paladino, A and Carlson, J 2014, Consumer Behaviour, 6th edition, ISBN 9781442561533.
Consumer Behaviour 
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Your topic of consumerism and protecting the consumer was well detailed and I like the way you integrated a number of different ideas within it. This included your discussion of advertising to the child consumer which is a relatively controversial debate and makes me think back to when I was a child and the many advertisement on toys etc. that quickly engaged me and persuaded me to purchase them (nag my parents). It was additionally good how you looked at the history of cigarette advertising, which I was unaware that it used to be so widely advertised in a positive light, as most ads I now come across depict the health hazards of them. Good discussion!
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