An Analysis Of Halo's Advertising

What does an ad say about a society? When viewing a product advertisement, many people never stop to think why the ad and product appeals to them. However, when a more critical look is taken, it’s easy to see precisely how ads are carefully tailored to appeal to trending values of a targeted demographic, and how that makes it easy to examine the society of those whom the ad is targeted at. In the analytic writing Advertisements R Us, Melissa Rubin provides an excellent example of this, as she crafts a logical and clear analysis of a 1950’s Coca-Cola magazine ad which thoroughly explains how advertisements can reveal quite a great deal about the society in which they were created.

The way fast food advertises is extremely popular with the media. Children are targeted through this because they are the ones who watch a lot of television. Great advertising techniques such as flashy colors and celebrity figures are luring children to try their product. One of the most popular out there for kids is Ronald McDonald. When it comes to

According to the article, “If You Pitch It, They Will Eat It,” by David Barboza, toys are are used to market fast food, in such ways as food companies using strategic placing of popular characters to lure in children. Barboza states, “...call it a blitzkrieg that perverts children's eating habits and sets them on a path to obesity.” What the author is saying is that these companies use toys in marketing to exploit children's interests just to make some money. Children do not know any better when it comes to healthy eating, so when they see their favorite characters like Spongebob or Barbie in a Happy Meal or on candy, they will instantly want the product. Sales go up when children see popular toys used in marketing, so food companies make

Children think that because their favorite character is eating McDonalds, then it is okay for them to eat McDonalds as well. Unfortunately, there are many other forms of marketing out there. For example, there is product placement, viral marketing, and sponsorships (Frechette 2015). Good marketing can include anything that has to do with fruits, vegetables, or being active. Unfortunately, you don’t see much of that on television. If Americans can change how they market to children and how they market food choices, then obesity can be managed better and children can live a longer life without the fear of diseases.

McDonald’s famous Happy Meal is marketed specifically towards children; the food comes in its own bright colored box with a special toy that is constantly changing to keep up with the newest fads. McDonald’s also builds indoor playgrounds for kids to use while they have their meal, which attracts children and their parents. Of course, Ronald McDonald the clown, McDonald’s notorious mascot is also used to lure children into the restaurants. Another marketing example used on children is the placement of unhealthy treats near the checkouts in retail stores. The products, usually placed at a child’s eyes level, are colorful and sometimes have cartoon characters that appeal to children. Soft drink companies also endorse their products with popular celebrities and cartoon characters who are often admired by children. Food companies are also causing poor eating habits in school cafeterias where kids are offered fast food, burgers, chips, candy, fries, pizza, and sugary drinks. In the documentary Fed Up, Stephanie Soechtig discloses that “In 2006, 80% of all high schools operated under exclusive contracts with soda companies and by 2012 more than half of all U.S. school districts served fast food” (Soechtig). Setting children up for failure by offering unhealthy and addictive food options, administrators are hoping the kids can make healthy decisions. Food

In this video of TEDx, Anna Lappe, an author, explains how the food industries uses different marketing tactics to target children. Lappe’s main claim in this video is to tell food industries to leave the parenting to parents, and gives many reasons as to why. One of them is that the food industries are now using cartoon characters on their food such as Dora, Shrek, and many others in order to appeal to kids. By doing so, food industries have now created a brand loyalty among children, meaning that now kids will only buy the food just because of the cartoon character on the box cover, that brand loyalty may last years. In other words, kids are being brainwashed by the food industries. Another reason as to why the parenting should be left for

Many people believe that everything is black and white, especially when it comes to advertisements. What many don’t understand is that everything has an underlining meaning. Every advertisement has been thought out thoroughly to catch the attention of the consumers it is aiming towards. Advertisements aiming towards children has definitely been a topic that many people can’t seem to wrap their mind around. It’s been a topic that many have exposed because of the way marketers are willing to manipulate children in ways that only benefit their own. This whole issue began after the progression of marketing to children during the late 70s and early 80s with the advertisers’ intentions of making children lifelong consumers of products.

They see it; they want it. Advertising to children is turning a want into a responsive nag to a parent, like a reflex. Every media outlet advertises, and companies like popular fast food restaurants target children. In the process of fattening the children, will their reflexes get slower? At some point in every kid’s life, they see an advertisement for a food or toy they want. This want leads to nagging of the parent until they give in. Although it is highly effective and profitable, fast food companies should not be able to have aggressive advertisement campaigns targeting children because it corruptly brainwashes them and promotes unhealthy life choices.

Although seeing one’s favorite celebrity on television can be exciting for children, it can lead to a misunderstanding between the child and the representation of the product. For example, in the article “Kids Finally Speak on Celebrity-Based Ads for Food and Beverages,” the authors state that children can misunderstand a product that is unhealthy for them as a product that can make them as fit and healthy as their idol. Although celebrities are useful in the marketing strategies used in business on a daily basis one must look closely at the impact the advertisement will have on the target audience. This impact includes health impacts on the children today and the future generations to come. For the reasons that follow, celebrities should not advertise or endorse products that are unhealthy for children or teenagers because the motivation of the celebrities to endorse such products are in question and children are

Have you ever wondered why Mcdonald’s happy meals have toys in their commercials? Mcdonald’s put toys in their commercials because kids love toys. They know that kids enjoy playing with toys and that kids will ask for a happy meal just for the toy. Mcdonald’s and many other companies use this method to affect kids. This is effecting kids negatively!

In the Hunter/Gatherer section of Omnivore’s Dilemma, Pollan talks about what it takes to accomplish the task of developing a meal on his own; consequently, the people of today’s society are so used to the abundance of food that they have no idea what all is involved in establishing a full meal. Americans take this great abundance of food for granted, which causes an increased craving for more. This is where the world of advertisement has been the strongest. One of the easiest ways to reach people is through their food; therefore, major food industries try to lure people in at all costs just to buy their products. The Fast food industry is the

Children are very important to marketers. They influence their parents and friends’ decisions. Every day children 2 to 17 years of age watch between 12-21 food commercials and that’s just on television (Haupt). They are also being bombarded by ads on the internet, video games, and smart phones. They’ve also introduced fast food into the schools. Many elementary and middle schools have Pizza Huts, Taco Bells, and various other restaurants in the schools. The fruits and

According to Ken Yeager, a county supervisor, 2 "it is unfair to parents and children to use toys to capture the taste of children when they are young to get them hooked on eating high sugar, high fat foods early in life." Santa Clara is not alone though. San Francisco is joining them with the ban of toys in the meals. With an out of the ball park vote of 8-3 by the city's board of supervisors, Happy Meals in San Francisco will also need to meet a certain standard in order for a toy to be added to the meal. And not to mention, there would also need to be an additional serving of fruits or vegetables. Aside from marketing toys to children restaurants have tried to hop on the health and nutrition band wagon and improve their menus. Wendy's has added mandarin oranges to their side items, both McDonald's and Burger King offer some sort of apple slice side served with a dipping sauce, and all three restaurants offer milk as a drink instead of soda. It seems to be that the more and more parents and advocates approach a restaurant with the nutritional value of the food offered at their establishment; the more a restaurant feels obligated to improve their menu Even with the improvements in the menu the advertisements continue to be the same. According to fastfoodmarketing.org in 2009 restaurants spent over $4.2 billion for television ads.

About a third of children in the U.S. are considered overweight or obese, and researchers believe television advertising is a significant contributing factor (4). Exposure to television advertising is basically universal and the ads present foods as desirable and attractive. Children have been shown to be far more receptive to television advertising messages than classroom lessons (3). It leaves a harder lasting impression on them because the food products are presented in a cool, fun way that attracts children. Most of the time, children would pick foods that they may not even like, simply because they think it’s the cool thing to eat and once a kid gets his mind set on what they want, it is very hard to steer them away from wanting it. Television ads for foods geared toward children are usually fun, and bright with animations and lots of cool characters that the children can relate to. This directly influences the child’s food preference and unfortunately most of these ads are for processed, unhealthy food products like cereals, snacks, fast food, and soft drinks. In the U.S., there are few restrictions on food ads, but that's not the case in the U.K., where junk food can't be marketed on children's television (4).

Food advertisements, if focused at the right people and in the right places, are a complete success. These features, some of which are commercials, seduce society into buying food that we necessarily do not need. Many advertisement companies, especially those about food, are directed to children because they know that if you grab the kids you have their parents. While brands are using fun cartoons like “Trix Rabbit” and “Toucan Sam” (Green, 2007, p. 49) supermarkets are taking these items and placing them right in front of the children, at their level, advertising the “Fun foods” (Elliot, 2008, p. 259-273). They do this so the kids will use their, “pester power” (Scholsser, n.d., p. 2) to get what they want. A series of studies have been performed on children and television advertisements. An article states, “These studies have generally linked children's television viewing to negative health effects” (Korr, 2008, p. 451). Amongst these negative effects is a higher level of childhood obesity (p. 451). Similarly, in another study performed by a group of researchers, kids were asked to explain the television commercials that they remembered the best. The answers given were then compared with their diets. Interestingly, the items those children remembered best, chips, sweets, and sodas were a huge part of what they ate (Hitching & Moynihan, 1998, p. 511-517). However, some authors argue that television producer’s, even though their