The Evolution of Advertising in the Children’s Space

May 14, 2024

For the last 50 years, companies marketing to children have held each other to a higher standard. In 1974 the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) was established as the U.S. mechanism of independent self-regulation to protect children under age 13 from deceptive or inappropriate advertising. Over the years and as technology evolved, CARU expanded to address new media platforms, new advertising techniques, and to ensure that children’s data is collected and handled responsibly online. 

Join Rukiya Bonner, Director, CARU, BBB National Programs and her guest, former CARU attorney Katie Goldstein, now the Global Head of Policy and Regulatory Affairs at SuperAwesome, as they take a trip down memory lane and revisit memorable child-directed commercials, discuss how advertising has changed over the years, identify some of CARU’s most impactful self-regulatory guidelines, and explain CARU’s role in helping ensure that as technology has changed, children remain protected .