The Church Of England (COE) is to actively recruit children, with the aim to go as low as 2 year olds.
It has got me to thinking; Is this ethical marketing to children?

Last week the COE used it’s PR machine to promote the message that it has “concerns” over childhood, which was highlighted with sermons on the subject during the ”free advertising” it receives every Xmas on TV. From the pulpit the Archbishop Of Canterbury lambasted marketing and advertising as forcing children to grow up too early.

His message was part of a concerted marketing campaign designed to recruit children into the church, which was highlighted in an article in the Guardian published on 24th December: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/23/church-recruiting-drive-targets-children

If we look at the product that makes up ”Religion” at present it is no surprise that the key brands need new consumers.
Here in the UK it is estimated that only 5% of the population attend church services every month and that this figure is dwindling as the present consumer is ageing and slowly dying off.
It is apparent that religion has no relevance to the other 95% and that the key religions have not been addressing a new consumer and gaining any traction with their audience. The major religious brands (Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jew and Muslim) are losing market share and are in need of new consumers.

Religion as a consumer category is like soap powder: inside the box, the product, with small variations of the recipe, is essentially the same for all brands (same god, variations of the story). The differentiation comes with the packaging and the marketing. As with all markets the category has its “brand leaders” who are determined to maintain their market share and regularly produce brand messages designed to be attractive to their consumers and to potential new markets – for example the Pope went on a tour of Africa in 2009, which was clearly designed as a recruitment drive for the Roman Catholics.

It’s not my agenda here to suggest why the brands have lost touch with their consumer, but when any brand announces that it intends to market to children we should all take a look at what is being sold and analyse the quality of the product and the honesty and believability of the messages it is delivering.
In essence; is the campaign ethical?

We are continually doing just this for McDonalds, Coca Cola, cereal manufacturers and toy makers, calling them in for the honesty of their marketing messages. So why not religion?

If McDonald’s announced it was to actively target 2 year olds there would be uproar across the world!

In a document revealed in the guardian article, the COE says: “We need to reconsider how we engage with and express God’s love to this generation of children and young people, whoever and wherever they may be,” and goes on to say about the new campaign ”The challenge is how to creatively offer children and young people encounters with the Christian faith and the person of Jesus Christ,” 

So that’s the marketing strategy and I hope that the use of the word “creatively” doesn’t mean that the COE will act like a dishonest children’s food manufacturer and make false claims for their brand and hide the real product in the packet. In exposing cereal manufacturers I have called on them to be open about the real ingredients that make up their products, to tell us that the levels of salt and sugar are high and not over-accentuate the fact the cereal contains wholegrain, for example. Religion does not have immunity from this moral code and some may argue that, religion, if it is to be believed by young people, should be absolutely squeaky clean, above board, honest and be seen to “do the right thing”.

Maybe this is part of the problem for this category. Has religion become difficult to believe for the consumer? Has the product become tarnished and the brands become untrustworthy?

What has caused the consumer to question these brands? Are the products ethical, are they honest with the target audience? What could be in the product that religions may wish to hide from the consumer, but which is contained within and which may effect the minds of young, vulnerable people ? When we subject the category to scrutiny, what record does each brand have in regards marketing to children? What questions should we be asking of such big brands so that we may feel that our kids are safe with the product?
Maybe:

  • Previous history in regards abuse of children in the care of religion
  • Past record in abuse of the rights of the child and freedom from forced ideology and dogma
  • The rights of children to freedom of speech
  • The proposed agenda in regards “recrutiment”
  • Promotion of “fear” as a control
  • “Demonization” of ideals and dogma opposed to their product
  • Openness to other ideas and thoughts
  • The freedom of competitive products
  • Support and justification for war
  • Their record in the fight against AIDS
  • Their stand on gay rights
  • The promotion of the rights of women
  • Record on the promotion of birth control and especially the use of condoms in the fight against disease

These are relevant questions that the consumer has the right to know if they are to trust a brand and allow it to market to children and henceforth to be thought of as “ethical”.

There is no reason to suggest that these huge brands shouldn’t be subject to the same restrictions we apply to all children’s marketing categories. No brand that is targeting the susceptible mind of kids is above the valid scrutiny of their own ethics. There are many pressure groups at the moment wishing to ban all marketing and advertising to children in order to prevent the “brainwashing” of our kids from big brands; will they have the same agenda when applied to religion? I would hope so, otherwise they will have vacated any moral high ground to which they may lay claim. Furthermore, will the Archbishop Of Canterbury in the future, criticise his own marketing as “filling the child’s mind with adult messages and thereby forcing them to grow up early”? Again, I hope so, but alas I fear not.

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