The Federal Trade Commission
As the nation's consumer protection agency, the FTC is responsible for enforcing laws that prohibit unfair and deceptive advertising and marketing practices. It brings cases, issues guidance to businesses, and educates consumers about their rights. Consumers can file a complaint or get free information about consumer issues at ftc.gov.
About Advertising and Kids
Advertising is a multi-million dollar business. Truthful advertising provides benefits to consumers and competition. It gives consumers the information they need to make better-informed purchasing and product use decisions. It also gives companies an incentive to modify their products to provide features that customers want. By contrast, false advertising interferes with decision-making and hinders competition.
Tweens have their own money to spend, and parents report that children play an important role in family buying decisions. Because kids are an important part of the marketplace, they often are the targets of advertising and marketing programs. The result is that American kids see ads wherever they go.
About this Campaign
This Federal Trade Commission campaign aims to educate tweens (kids ages 8 to 12) about advertising so they can become more discerning consumers of information. The goal of the campaign is to boost advertising literacy by:
- Raising awareness of advertising and marketing messages
- Teaching critical thinking skills that will allow tweens to better analyze and interpret advertisements
- Demonstrating the benefits of being an informed consumer
The multi-media campaign involves tweens, their parents, and their educators. It is based on Admongo.gov, which teaches core ad literacy concepts through game play. Other elements of the campaign include in-school lesson plans that are tied to national standards of learning; sample ads that can be used at home and in the classroom; and teacher videos. What's more, although this campaign focuses on helping tweens analyze commercial messages, the critical thinking skills it teaches can help tweens evaluate non-commercial messages, including editorial content and literature.
This campaign complements the many efforts undertaken by the FTC to protect children in the marketplace. These efforts include enforcing truth-in-advertising laws as they pertain to ads targeted to kids; enforcing the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and related regulations; and promoting better advertising practices by marketers of food, violent entertainment, and alcohol.