Vodafone AD with young girl and boy disturbs me. It encourages romantic connectedness instead of gender neutral friendship Am I old-fashioned? (sic)” wrote actress and social activist Shabana Azmi on her micro-blogging page.This ad in question shows a little girl, sitting on a swing, while a boy her age admires her from a distance. A little pug (symbolizing the brand — a popular service provider) decides to intervene, snatches the girl’s scarf and delivers it to the boy. Soon enough, the girl, who runs after the dog to retrieve her scarf, ends up striking a conversation with the boy.While the ad has earned its fair share of “awwws”, many like Shabana feel that such commercials that are selling products to adults are using kids unnecessarily in age-inappropriate situations.Talking about the endorsement, ad man Bharat Dabolkar says, “They could have thought of doing a better follow-up to their previous ads, which were brilliant, without using kids in a manner that suggests a romantic connection. The one on air doesn’t make sense to me as it uses kids in improper scenarios. Trying to catch attention through such a concept does not make for effective advertising.”However, this is not the first time such a concern has been raised. TVCs are known to have a history of selling products with child actors, regardless of whether there is any connection between the product and children. In fact, in 2011, after much debate over the subject, a handful of companies had signed a pledge, vowing not to advertise to children below the age of 12 unless the product meets the specific nutrition criteria. While this pledge was especially in reference to kids being used in food product ads, responsible advertising holds true for any kind of endorsement that ropes in children.Ram Ray, an ad man says, “I would say it’s the death of innocence. Showing kids is welcome. Using kids in such advertisements is not. Too many things have been robbing kids of their right to innocence. Advertising must stop becoming one of them, especially when innocence itself, used imaginatively, could be a stronger route to a brand’s bonding.”There are many other ads on air currently that feature children indulging in adult conversations and experiences. While a series of TVCs for an online shopping portal that shows little kids dressed up as adults, talking in adult voices and even discussing grown-up issues, has left many disturbed , another ad for an insurance company that has a young boy advising his uncle about a healthy future, ‘love’ and ‘marriage’ is also a case in point.Ad man Prahlad Kakkar , however, insists that in these changing times, such an opinion makes you a prude. “Kids are no longer like how we perceive them or how we want to perceive them. They act far more grown-up for their age. I mean, who are we fooling? I have had instances where my own son has told me, ‘Grow up Dad’. Kids know a lot more than we think they know or should know. Hence, to say that such ads (using kids) is the death of innocence is absolutely foolish. Why can’t we just see the ad as an innocent, platonic connection between the two kids? Why call it romantic? Again, don’t we know what kids these days really talk about? They are more advanced and knowledgeable than you think,” says Kakkar.