Literature review
“Contemporary commercial advertising aimed at youth has often been counteractive to youth health and has contributed greatly to poor health outcomes.” Discuss
Introduction
The world as we know it in the 21st century is consumed by advertising. Everywhere we look, everywhere we go our eyes are continually be exposed to some form of advertising; televisions, media, magazines, bill boards and shops are some examples of places where we gather information from certain types of commercial advertising. Our lives are ruled by screens; it is inevitable that during our daily lives we are going to experience a sponsored ad, a TV commercial or a sexy, skinny model on the front of a mag. All these advertising elements may seem positive, may it be the pretty colours, gorgeous people, catchy phrases. These potential positive things are having a negative effect on youth health, as the unhealthy, unrealistic images portrayed are brain washing our younger society into unhealthy habits and ways of living.
Goodman (1999), research found that the average young person views more than 3000 ads per day on television, on the Internet, on billboards, and in magazines, that was in 1999, as media and technology evolves so does advertising; imagine the figure it would be today. Advertising is a $250-billion-year industry within 900,000 brands to sell ("Children, Adolescents, and Advertising", 2006). Teenagers spend $155 billion a year, making them the most attractive costumers,
In today’s media obsessed society, youth is greatly influenced by advertising. For example, Marketing to kids gets more savvy with technologies is how they ,“Online games like Webkinz show ads on the site draw youth to buy the product or just to look at it for ‘money’”. Because this tactic works, the ads are an excellent at make youth to talk about this and be annoyed. In Facts about Marketing to Children, it says, “Children pack 8.5 hours of media a day’, is what the Facts about Marketing to Children says.” Because children are on the media so much it is easy for marketers to advertise and get children to buy the product. “ Anne Lappe says that when her daughter grows up, and goes to a movie, the character might have a soda or fast food.”
A website, Journal of Mass Communication, states that, “63% have their own television set.” This is talking about 7-year-olds and how 63% of them have television sets. Children at the age of 7 are being affected by these advertisements. Also, the Journal of Mass Communication says that, “A young child who is as young as three year can’t understand the selling motive of the advertiser it is not until 8 years of age…” This shows at a young age that children are becoming a target for the advertising companies. When these kids watch these ads they want to have whatever they see which makes them want to have a high social
M-rated video games, which are not recommended for children younger than 17-years-old, are frequently advertised in movie theaters, video game magazines, and publications with high youth readership. Young people see 45% more beer ads and 27% more ads for hard liquor in teen magazines than adults to in their magazines. An increasing number of web sites try to get teens to make direct sales. More than 100 commercial websites promote alcohol products. Most advertisers use techniques that children and teens are more vulnerable to, like product placement in movies and TV shows, action figures, kid’s clubs, and celebrity endorsements. Sex is used in commercials to sell almost anything now. American ads constantly use thin female models, which contribute to the development of self-esteem issues in young girls.
Teenagers have a “... need for independence, rebellion, and personal control,” (Source F). Marketers can use this in many ways. They can use it to their economical advantage by manipulating teenagers into buying their goods. But, PSA’s can really show teenagers the facts and promote good morals. Recent studies look into how advertisements affect adolescents, “... these studies show that social marketing has successfully changed health behavior such as smoking, physical activity, and condom use, as well as behavioral mediators such as knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs related to these behaviors,” (Source F). While it's true that it's easy for teenagers to be manipulated by commercials, a lot of other commercials can be a strong influence in building better lives for them. If people could focus on the pros rather then the cons, then they could see the big picture of marketing to
Advertisements are everywhere. They are a major part of modern day society. Whether it be a television commercial, an internet banner, or a billboard, advertisements influence people of all ages, but they affect a certain age group much more than others. Children ranging from toddlers to teenagers are exposed to thousands upon thousands of advertisements each year. Some of these advertisements are damaging to children, while others are a positive influence. Advertisements can either be used as a tool or a weapon. Food advertisements and manipulation strategies are both positive and negative, and how companies use them decides whether or not marketing to children is ethical.
Children are targeted in these ads they try to draw their attention by making the ads fun, and by using cool phrases. Moss proposes and “He explained how he would deploy strategic storytelling in the ad campaign for his snack, using a key phrase that had been developed with much calculations:” Eat’ Em Like Junk Food’ (494).This proves that ads plays a role in promoting food that are unhealthy and is putting children 's health at risk for obesity. To sum it up, children are exposed to high amount of unhealthy food advertisements which affects young children health and food choices. Therefore, the government needs to intervene and stopping the advertisement of unhealthy eating and start advertising healthier foods.
In the past years advertising through media has significantly impacted the marketing industry. Industries have successfully accomplished impacting children through media by simply incorporating the four p’s of marketing, product, place, promotion, and price according to The American Marketing Association (EBSCO1). Nevertheless, companies thoroughly research information to learn what comes across as appealing to children. For example, companies advertising media incorporated attention grabbers including flashing banner ads, contests, sweepstakes, google sponsored links that matches the individual’s search history, tv commercials, are sneakily capturing the youth’s attention (Media). Cartoon network and Nickelodeon devote all their time entertaining and
From viewing McDonald’s dollar menus on the freeways to admiring at the latest iPhone 7 promotions, there is no doubt advertisements have interfered with our lives. While the elderly is beginning to reminisce on the carefree lifestyles they had, adolescents are suffering from the excessive advertisements(ads) that appear on a daily basis. With superfluous advertisements in every direction, a civilian’s attention is easily captivated.
The first role that advertisers play in the lives of youth is that advertisers overwhelm youth with lots of ads so youth feel pressured to buy things. First of all in the article “$211 Billion and So Much to Buy: American Youths,the New Big Spenders” it states in paragraph five that, “Tweens… have more consistent available access to vast amount of information then their parents or grandparents could have imagined their youth.” And in the article “Thanks to Ads, Kids Won’t Take No,No,No.No,No For an Answer” it states in paragraph three that, “ As unprecedented levels of advertising and marketing aimed at children feel intense pressure to
It would seem this question has been on the tips of our tongues for some time, and still we've yet to come to a definitive answer. In the following paragraphs I will attempt to illustrate a portrait of American advertising and the harmful affects it has on our youth.
Statistics show that today companies spend nearly $17 billion annually marketing to kids. This paper will explore the effect that advertisements have on the growing mind of a child. It paper will support the view of the video “Consuming Kids” in the context that yes in fact advertising to children is a social problem and that adults should understand the seriousness of this matter; and they should also take steps to help the change the environment that their children are part of in-order to build a healthier future for them. The first section of the paper will take glimpses into early, tween and teen ages of a child and examine the social effects of technology and advertisement. The second section of the paper will discuss the
There are some specific and real problems that advertising can cause upon children (William A. Ramsey). Fast-food restaurant advertising it’s influencing our children to be obese. Childhood obesity around the world is causing worries, especially detrimental as its effect carries on into parenthood. The ratio of children 's who are overweight has approximately tripled in the same period, reaching fourteen percent (Center for disease control
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
Advertising today focuses on specific targeted demographic groups. There is a direct focus on marketing products to young consumers. This age group sees the commercials, but does not really understand the directed message. This can have an adverse effect on the way children interpret and understand the message being presented to them. 'The average American child sees more than 40,000 commercials a year, and advertisers spend more than $12 billion annually marketing to them?double the amount of 10 years ago.' (APA-1) Children watching television are exposed to every channel running commercials that are sending out a mature message to an immature audience. There needs to be something done to
Thousands of advertisements on junk food, fast food, soft-drink, etc are shown on TV and heard over radio have indirectly lead to the grown of obesity and anorexia in teenagers. This is one of the critical global problem of today which is threatening our next generations for being unhealthy and being exposed to many serious diseases and sicknesses such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart problem and anorexia.