Essay on Controversial Television Advertising

Numerous studies have concluded that the content and amount of television programming watched by individuals – especially by children - has a direct result on the behavior of that individual. The behavior affected by television viewing can be anything from a desire for a certain food or material good to violent distemper (Zuckerman 1985.) Recently, more and more woman have given up their traditional role of raising their children opting instead to work during the day and leave their children to take care of themselves. Unfortunately, many children find that spending countless hours in front of the television to be a worthwhile way to entertain themselves. Most parents tell their children never to talk to strangers, but what they fail to realize is that every day their children are subject to the messages and ideas of strangers on the television. In fact, a study concluded that an average American by the age of 18 has spent more time watching television than they have spent in school; this study also went on the state that children spend more time watching television than any other activity besides sleeping. This may explain why an additional study revealed that if a child was told something by his or her parents and then viewed on television something that contradicted what the parents had said, four times out of five the child opted to believe the

President Herbert Hoover once said that, "Children are our most valuable resource." Everybody knows the saying “The children are our future.” If everyone knows this saying than why are parents exposing our future to inappropriate and explicit content. This is because most people do not realize the explicit content their children are being exposed to. The shows, movies, and even commercials children are watching effect not only their actions and thought process but can also effect the future decisions and choices they make. From the day we are born to the day we die we have seen many different movies and seen many different TV shows; while we are watching and hearing these through our own eyes and ears we do not truly realize what our brains are consuming, because in reality we are viewing and hearing much more than we can naturally see.

The average American child watches 20 hours of television per week, that is 5,000 hours before first grade. Most children between the ages of 3-6 years old can even turn on the television and start a DVD by themselves. I am guilty of allowing my children more TV time then they should have, but I guess that is because I enjoy watching it myself. There are many hidden messages in children’s shows that I was oblivious to until now. For instance, in the show “Rugrats” Charlotte Pickles, Angelica’s mom never had time for her, always on the phone and working. Ethnic stereotyping is another message sent in Speedy Gonzalez’s cousin Slow Poke Rodriguez which is lazy, slow, and dim witted. Morality is also affected by these shows. Most every little boy

Of course, the Super Bowl can be considered the most watched television recording in American history. As a result of withholding the attention of such a vast audience, many commercials are showcased during the Super Bowl games, creating a commodity in which those commercials are watched more than the Super Bowl games themselves. A mass amount of viewers can unquestionably be beneficial to advertisers seeking to sell their products and services. However, benefits are not the only things these ads invoke, detriment can occur as well, as seen throughout history among a variety of television commercials. The Coca Cola commercial, displayed during Super Bowl XLVII, is one of the most recent commercials that has been scrutinized. The Coca Cola

Television has become an everyday need for most Americans, both parents and kids. To them, its an escape from reality. On television, a lot of rated-R shows are aired. These shows leave watchers amazed and their brain’s stimulated with contents of the show.

The rating system called the "TV Parental Guidelines." Works in conjunction with the V-Chip, represented by little wad of letter and numbers that looks like an eye chart and periodically pops up in the corner of you screen.

The majority of adults are frightened to change the television channel while in the presence of children. Most adults are aware that when doing so, there is a great chance that a provocative scene may be on the screen at the time. These scenes should not be seen by a child. Furthermore, the reason these obscured scenes are on the television is because filmmakers are getting rich from them. Because of American popular culture, parents are worried to even allow their kids to watch television, a movie, etcetera.

Although few studies on program warnings had been conducted prior to the 1990s (see, however, Austin, 1980; Herman & Leyens, 1977; Wurtzel & Surlin, 1978), the current use of program warnings and ratings by the networks, combined with the increase in parental concern about problematic media content (Cantor, Stutman & Duran, 1996), has created an environment in which research into this issue has become more prevalent. A majority of these studies is grounded in reactance theory (Brehm, 1981). Reactance

Networks such as CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX obtain most of their revenue through advertisements. The popularity of the network defines the how reliable they are. However, with the increase usage of PVR in every household, networks such as ABC, CBS and NBC filed a lawsuit against SonicBlue, maker of the ReplayTV personal video recorder. Their argument was that the latest version of the ReplayTV device would remove them of revenue and reduce their incentive to create programming.

Advertising has been defined as the most powerful, persuasive, and manipulative tool that firms have to control consumers all over the world. It is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service. Its impacts created on the society throughout the years has been amazing, especially in this technology age. Influencing people’s habits, creating false needs, distorting the values and priorities of our society with sexism and feminism, advertising has become a poison snake ready to hunt his prey. However, on the other hand, advertising has had a positive effect as a help of the economy and society.

The science behind advertising is something that is carefully crafted and a lot of thought research goes into it. When a company is trying to promote their product they have to come up with an ad that sticks out and catches your attention long enough for you to consider buying their product. One big factor they have to consider is who is the audience in particular they are trying to lure in. For example, if a sports drink company was trying to appeal to boys they would probably show boys playing something like football tackling each other and getting muddy because football is considered a male dominant sport and getting dirty and being tuff is just what is generally thought of when it comes to boys

Advertising has had a major impact on society. Some may be considered positive and some negative. Take a look around, advertisements are placed everywhere, television commercials, billboards, newspapers, and even on the sides of buses. Advertising is the basic form of marketing and trading throughout the world. Today’s society knows it as marketers trying to influence or persuade consumers into buying something. It also serves as a medium for services and businesses. There are many advertising strategies, but television commercials will always remain the number one strategy. Think about it, how much television is watched a day, probably a lot. What better way to advertise a product or service? Advertising has a positive effect on our economy. It does not only influence and persuade consumers, but it also benefits them in many ways. It also benefits manufacturers and their company, and the world as a whole.

The government should exercise more control and limits on advertising that is aimed at children. Children are the leaders of the future and the children watch on average two or more hours of television a day. These are children’s most formative years. When children form ideas that prove to be substance of how they will think as adults.

Television is a big part of today’s society. Everybody watches television, including the children. There is a potential problem with letting children watch television. Ask this question, would someone let their own child watch some of the programming that they watch, too? Some of these programs are intended for the adult generation, not young children. Violence has a major role in television these days. Letting children watch this violence could corrupt their minds and eventually lead to bad behavior. There needs to be a limitation on the types of television programming that parents let their children watch, because violence in television can negatively affect children.

Advertising is a persuasive communication attempt to change or reinforce one’s prior attitude that is predictable of future behavior. We are not born with the attitudes for which we hold toward various things in our environment. Instead, we learn our feelings of favorability or unfavorability through information about the object through advertising or direct experience with the object, or some combination of the two. Furthermore, the main aim of advertising is to ‘persuade’ to consumer in order to generate new markets for production.