It isn't just a tool used to market toys. Children are actually learning more than how to make the characters interact. Young children have had little time to build a sufficient defense against advertising. They can't distinguish the selling intent of the commercial. Therefore, they have the potential to be exploited as consumers.
Children are even more defenseless against toy-based programs.
One of the first toy-based programs, Hot Wheels, which aired in the '60s, was pulled off the air by the Federal Trade Commission because of its commercial intent. More recently, the FTC prohibited companies from advertising toys featured in toy-based programs during the programs themselves. Laczniak said Congress also is growing increasingly concerned with the effects of toy- based programs on children. Some network program managers are paid by toy companies to air toy-based programs. That was the case for Masters of the Universe, one of the first of a new breed of toy-based programs aired in the early '80s.