Kraft has changed the rules of the food industry with a recent decision to stop marketing certain products
to children because those products have been shown to make kids fat.
Kraft wasn't forced to do this by any regulatory agency. The company's marketers just thought that they'd try to stay ahead of possible adverse legislation by "taking control of the discussion about marketing to children," according to a story published in Monday's Wall Street Journal.
The move likely scares the bejeebus out of Kraft's competitors in the snack food industry, but it should also scare companies that develop and sell video games with mature themes (sex, violence, drugs) because the move creates expectations that companies that market potentially harmful products to children will also reexamine their approaches to doing so.
Games are unlike food in one very important aspect, however. They are already clearly bucketed into age-appropriate groups by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). This self-regulatory body assigns every title a rating that in turn informs decisions about how and where that game will be marketed. An title rated "M" (Mature 17+) is not going to have Dora the Explorer on the box and is not going to be marketed during Maya and Miguel commercial breaks. And yet, youth who are clearly under 17 learn about such games through marketing. Companies may begin to ask themselves: how are they learning about our products, and is it a liability that we want to address by modifying our marketing plans?
Here's a very simple poll: at what age did you read your first copy of a magazine dedicated to video games?
[Sorry about the lack of a free link to the article.]
