Café Philos: an internet café

Setting aside morality, let us consider legality. If a ten year old plays the same video games as a thirteen year old, who am I advertising to if I advertise the newest Spider-Man game?

Setting aside legality, let us consider morality. If I am using advertising based on psychological studies to imprint the brain of a child who has no advantage of mature self-awareness with which to filter my message, why should I not be dragged behind a car for a great distance?

Ok, obviously I'm exaggerating a bit, but I am suspicious of the morality of advertising today in general. It all seems a bit underhanded to use knowledge of the inner workings of the psyche for the purpose of making money. Maybe calling it immoral is overstepping, but I find the practice distasteful.

Hi Schwinn!

Good point! There would be some difficult legal issues to work out if society outlawed advertising to age 12 and under.

Hi Brandon!

I think part of the problem with out approach to advertising, public relations, and other mass manipulation industries (think politics) is that the folks in those industries are more realistic about human nature than the general public these days. That's to say, a large portion of the general public is still naive about how powerful manipulation techniques have become in the last few decades. So, the general public still regards advertising, etc. more as nusiances than as threats.