If Tiktok realizes that you are a 13-year-old girl, there is a high probability that you will receive advertisements for make-up, skin care and clothes.
– We know that especially young girls are influenced by trends that they see on social media. It is based, among other things, on a need to fit in, says Kamilla Knutsen Steinnes, research fellow at the Institute of Consumer Research (SIFO) at OsloMet, to Dagbladet.
At the same time, she is skeptical about how several marketing players and influencers create advertising in social media.
– Advertising in social media often no longer looks like advertising. Then it is not always that children and young people understand that it is advertising, she says.
SKIN CARE TREND: The Drunk Elephant brand will be available in Norwegian stores, including the cosmetics giant Kicks, on 13 March. Photo: Screenshot/Instagram/Drunk Elephant Show more
Coming to Norway
Pastel colored packaging, interesting tubes and “skincare smoothies”. The American skin care brand “Drunk Elephant” has received massive attention in social media – especially among a very young target group.
The products, which are actually intended for adult skin, have a price tag of anywhere from NOK 500 to NOK 800.
At the same time, the brand is often highlighted as one of the most popular skincare brands among children.
Now the skincare brand is coming to Norway.
Warns
The make-up and skin care giant Kicks is among the stores in Norway that will have Drunk Elephant products on the shelves in mid-March, according to KK.
In the time before the launch, several advertisements and posts from influencers from Kicks and Drunk Elephant have appeared on social media, such as Tiktok, Snapchat and Instagram – where the advertisements will appear for many children and young people.
In Norway, it is not allowed to directly encourage children to buy the products.
Although skin care stores and brands like Drunk Elephant are allowed to advertise on social media, they should be careful about how they word themselves.
That’s what Thomas Iversen, senior legal adviser at the Consumer Council, says to Dagbladet.
WARNING: Thomas Iversen, senior legal advisor at the Consumer Council, believes that brands must be careful with how they word themselves on platforms such as TikTok, where children are located. Photo: Consumer Council Show more
– It takes less before the advertising creates an illegal buying pressure when it is sent out on platforms that children typically use, he says.
Iversen emphasizes that there is no age limit on make-up and skin care, and the shops are allowed to market themselves on social media.
– However, the shops cannot do it in a way that directly encourages children and young people to spend money on their products, he explains.
Read the response from Kicks further down in the matter.
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Children are exposed
When the marketing takes place on platforms, such as Tiktok, it can be difficult to enforce the rules.
At the same time, Steinnes believes that stores like Kicks probably know what they are doing.
– But they often get away with it because they are not doing anything illegal, she says and adds:
– It is easy to argue that advertising is not directed at children, but at the same time they are probably very aware that it is largely children who are exposed to this in social media.
According to Steinnes, research shows that children become consumers through their parents very early on, and that from a young age they already have a great influence on their parents’ wallets.
She also points out that digital marketing on Instagram, Snapchat and Tiktok is often more targeted advertising that appears. The researcher points out that Meta, which is behind Facebook, has admitted that they share data with marketing actors.
– Young people are especially in a phase of life where they are in the process of being shaped. Therefore, they are also particularly concerned with finding markers of identity and feeling a sense of belonging, research shows. External factors such as clothes and make-up become important symbols of identity and status, she says.
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– Never campaigns against children
Maria Kempe, head of PR and information at Kicks, emphasizes to Dagbladet that they never target their campaigns at children and young people under the age of 18.
– When it comes to our own marketing and social media, including social media channels such as Tiktok and Instagram, we never target campaigns to children and young people under 18. We also do not work with influencers who are under 18, she writes in an email to Dagbladet.
Furthermore, Kempe admits that Kicks is aware that the skincare brand Drunk Elephant attracts children and young people.
– This is also because the brand has had a large viral spread in social media for a long time. Here, it is our task to guide the young customer so that their skin is not exposed to active products that can damage it. This applies not only to Drunk Elephant, but to all advanced skin care that is not adapted to young skin. Our staff are experts and always explain the disadvantages of using too active skin care too soon, she writes.
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Sound the alarm
Dagbladet has previously written about Danish Miabell (10), who estimates that she owns around 40 skin care products worth several thousand kroner.
The 10-year-old’s favorite products are from Drunk Elephant, and she is far from the only child who has many and expensive skin care products in the children’s room.
On social media, increasingly younger children post “skincare” and “get ready with me” videos, with complex skin care routines with several steps.
Internationally, several dermatologists are sounding the alarm that more children, as young as nine years old, are asking for countless skin care products and anti-wrinkle creams, writes CNN and BBC.
The American skin care product has received a lot of criticism for taking this too lightly.
And according to the BBC, the skin care brand has become so popular with children that the founder of the brand, Tiffany Masterson, has stated that children and young people should not use certain products with strong ingredients.