Child’s Play

Brands such as Mattel, Ninetendo, Wrigleys and Coca Cola are using and paying children to be their brand ambassadors. Forgive me for being rather shocked at this outcome but I thought child labour had been banned in this country in the late 19th century. How on earth have these companies got away with this?

In response to the Bailey report, Letting Children be Children, David Cameron yesterday asked for the process of companies paying children to publicise and promote products in schools or on social networking sites to be stopped by banning “the employment of children as brand ambassadors and in peer-to-peer marketing.” Why don’t our employment laws already cover this?