TOYINGwithUS

MEDIA SCOPE: In the eyes of big business, children are a huge, multi-billion dollar market. Louise Holden examines the strategies companies devise to hook kids - and keep them hooked for life

Critics of children's advertising have for years accused companies of launching an attack on parents. An army of child psychologists and marketing specialists are paid to make monsters of children, turning them into greedy, insecure, ruthless little gold diggers who will make home life hell for a Harry Potter train set.

There is a widespread movement across Europe to restrict advertising to children. A Europe-wide ban has been proposed and a number of individual member states have already taken children's ads off the air. In this State, RTÉ operates a system of self-censorship when it comes to advertising to children: the station has a code for advertisers which rules that they may not "exploit children's inexperience or credulity. They may not encourage minors to persuade their parents or others to purchase or make inquiries about goods or services being advertised."

The persuasive power of a determined minor is not to be underestimated. Parents who refuse to buy the latest toy advertised on television can be made to feel guilty, mean and deeply uncool. Sometimes, they just get tired of saying no when a child can keep on asking for hours.

Cheryl Idell, chief strategic officer for Western Initiative Media Worldwide, has written reports called "The Nag Factor" and "The Art of Fine Whining".

"Nagging falls into two categories," she explains. "There is persistent nagging, the fall-on-the-floor kind, and there is importance nagging, where a kid can talk about it."

Idell advises toy companies to give children a good argument for buying the product. This way the children have their sales pitch prepared for them by the advertiser before they take on their parents. "But Mom! It makes learning fun!"

Parents complain that all the effort they spend trying to get their children to read, play sport, eat healthily and try hard at school is undone by advertisers who focus on bad food, educationally useless toys and activities that involve sitting around. Parents who try to raise their children without fixed ideas of what girls and boys should be like are undermined by ads selling bed-wetting baby dolls to girls and fighting action heroes to boys.

The children's market is divided into three parts. The primary market is the money that children themselves have to spend. This has doubled every decade for the last 30 years - roughly $24 billion is now spent directly by children every year in the in the United States alone. Then there's the secondary, or "influence market" - the amount that children convince their parents to spend - which amounts to hundreds of billions of dollars. Finally, the "future market" builds life-long loyalty and draws the children in to hold on to them for life.

"If you own this child at an early age, you can own this child for years to come," says Mike Searles, president of US clothing company Kids-R-Us. Children are believed to develop brand-recognition skills before they can talk.

The most effective advertising makes people feel that they are somehow worse human beings without the product on offer. This tactic is particularly effective when it comes to children. Tell an eight-year-old that he's a dork if he doesn't have a GI Joe Desert Striker and he might well take you at your word.

Whether you believe in the conspiracy theory or not, there's no doubt that marketing companies spend a lot of time and money finding out the best way to get to kids. The Gepetto Group, an advertising think-tank specialising in children, has conducted research under some chilling headings such as "Conquering Cool: A Psychocultural Exploration into the Nature of Cool", "The Kid Why: The Underlying Motivations of Childhood" and "The Seven Faces of Mom: The Complex Psyche of the Contemporary Gatekeeper."

There is currently no restriction on children's advertising in Britain, but a motion signed by 100 MPs was put before Parliament earlier this year.

United States advertising industry group the ISBA is strongly against the idea of a ban. They claim that from an early age, children understand the role of advertising and should not be artificially cut off from what is an important part of modern life. They also point out that a restriction on TV advertising to children would result in a reduction of the quality and quantity of children's TV.

Even with our own self-censorship and the prospect of a Europe-wide ban it's hard to avoid toy advertising when satellite channels such as Nickelodeon are such hot favourites with toddlers and tweenies.

No ban will arrive in time to save parents from the 2002 festive pester. "But Dad if I don't have the Jedi Power Battles set I can't let the Force guide me to victory!"