Payday loan firms accused of ‘grooming’ children who see their TV adverts 70 times a year
Campaigners are calling for stricter curbs to be applied to payday loan firms after it emerged that that children were seeing their television adverts an average of 70 times each year.
Industry players such as Wonga have increased their marketing budgets over the past four years to such an extent that one payday loan advertisement is now screened almost every minute.
An /news/2013/12/10/children-exposed-596m-payday-loan-ads-2012-says-ofcom-research">analysis undertaken by Ofcom
Adults viewed an average of 152 such ‘spots’ in 2012 whilst children aged four to 15 saw 70 in average.
Commenting on the news Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert, said: "The payday lenders said at the time they were not targeting children. Well whether it's deliberate or by negligence this proves my point that they are.
"They are trying to normalise a form or lending that is very far from normal. Whether it's by using puppets in their ads or as I saw on the street, using superheroes to give out balloons to children, they are trying to make payday loans part of everyday finance.
"Well with APR at 5000 per cent, over my dead body."