Psycho Analysis: PUTTING KIDS ON THE COUCH IS A QUESTIONABLE PRACTICE

Should shrinks be teaching marketers how to appeal to kids?

The American Psychological Association is mulling the question, after being prompted by consumer watchdog group Commercial Alert. The Washington, DC-based organization wrote the APA in September, urging the association to amend its code of ethics to limit psychologists’ consulting work in marketing.

Commercial Alert argues that psychologists help marketers find kids’ hot buttons in order to sell. “Advertising and marketing firms have long used the insights and research methods of psychology in order to sell products, of course,” reads the group’s letter to APA. “But today these practices are reaching epidemic levels, and with a complicity on the part of the psychological profession that exceeds that of the past.”

Commercial Alert has asked APA to take three steps. First, formally denounce the use of psychological techniques in marketing to kids. Second, amend APA’s code of ethics for its 159,000 members to limit psychologists’ activities to observe or manipulate kids for commercial purposes. Third, investigate marketing-driven activities and promote strategies that protect kids from “commercial manipulation.”

APA referred the letter to its Committee on Children, Youth, and Families for its November meeting. The association has never addressed marketing issues before, and hasn’t received requests from other organizations to do so.

In October, 12 organizations including Commercial Alert wrote Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and Sen. Trent Lott (R-MI) asking Congress to reinstate the Federal Trade Commission’s authority to regulate advertising to kids. Neither replied, says Commercial Alert director Gary Ruskin.

The FTC and Department of Justice in June began studying the impact of violence in movies, music, and videogames, but FTC chairman Robert Pitofsky demurred when Commercial Alert suggested the FTC investigate how advertisers use psychology to design campaigns targeting kids. “What studies have entertainment companies done to enable them to tap into and manipulate the psyches of children?” Commercial Alert wrote to Pitofsky. “Such information could be of great use to families that wish to give their children tools to defend themselves against these corporate marketing strategies.”