It’s no marketing secret that advertising to the younger generation means securing the familiarity of your brand for the foreseeable future. But as with everything else involving kids and teens, decorum is required.
Gen Z and the newest generation, Gen Alpha (for thos who are not in fact this young, this is the term referring to those born around 2010 and after), may be the newest target market for advertisers, but they aren’t the easiest to reach. And we’re not just saying this in that thinking like the younger generations is becoming harder and harder as new technology and trends come to play. When ads involve youth or target them, marketers need to be a little bit more cautious on how they go about it. And while you would think that this might be a given, surprisingly, it may not always be the case.
Over the past few days, luxury fashion brand Balenciaga found itself apologising for the controversy generated by its recent holiday campaign. The ads, promoting plush bears, depicted young children holding plush teddy bears dressed in what appears to be bondage clothing. Turning to Instagram, the brand stated that the images were immediately removed following “unsettling documents”, and went on to condemn any sort of child abuse.
Meta and Advertising to the Younger Generation
Taking a more proactive approach however, Facebook is working towards making accounts of those aged under 16 more private through default settings and encouraging more restrictive features for existing users under 16 users. This would mean that, by default, a teen’s interests, information, posts and their subsequent comments can only be viewed directly by friends. In addition, it would require teens to review any posts they’re tagged in. This follows a similar move last August, where Instagram enabled a sensitive content setting to restrict sensitive content such as that featuring alcohol, drugs, tobacco and sexuality from under 16s. In its Widely Viewed Content Report, Third Quarter 2022 issued on the 22nd November 2022, Meta went on to address how it aims to fight “low quality content” and “engagement bait” overall.
What Does This Mean for Advertisers?
This may pose some challenges in reaching today’s youth via digital means, when it is predominately a generation that is more and more accessible through such digital content. Studies have shown that younger target audiences have more difficulting deciphering adverts and their purposes when they are fused with non-commercial content such as product placement. Merge this within a digital context, such as gaming, memes and other disguised marketing material, and marketers have created one powerful advertising tool. It’s when the products advertised are harmful or addictive that there’s a real issue. And, unless there is a direct mention of that product or service, harmful ads won’t get flagged.
That’s where Meta’s efforts kick in. Marketers have long taken advantage of this vulnerable spot when it comes to teens and young kids, but as digital media such as Meta begin to fight back in order to protect their own platforms, targeting the younger generations is slowly shifting from advertising to one of the most accessible audience, to one of the least.