Deregulation Of Advertising On Children

Companies are continuously in search of innovative marketing techniques by encouragingly establishing individuals to purchase their advertised products. As intelligent as marketing companies are, they are indeed aware of the fact that adults are more likely to watch an advertisement and detect why they should or should not purchase such product. In such instances where the company cannot reach the focus of an adult, parent, or parental figure, marketers will target young children and teens in their advertising campaigns. Advertising campaigns targeting the youth have significantly impacted the ethical consideration in the children’s market through media, ethics, as well as food advertising to children.

No matter where children are or what they are doing they’ll always find some sort of advertisements. It can be when their casually watching television, reading a magazine or just playing games on their computer. Advertisements are different forms of communication whose purpose is to make their product known to the public. Marketers aren’t partial to certain people; they target anyone and every age group, but recently there has been an upsurge of advertisements aimed towards children. In Eric Schlosser’s article, Kid Kustomers, he demonstrates how child advertising has boomed by the tactics marketers use to get children to want and demand certain companies’ products.

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.”

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

Since the dawn of radio, large corporations have exploited this vulnerability by spending large amounts of money on advertisements aimed at convincing youths and teenagers that they need their products in order to be happy. When successful, these corporations unrealistic expectations of the value of consumer products, as they convince children they will find happiness through obtaining the latest Power Ranger action figure or eating a Big Mac. The graph (Source A) demonstrates how media is targeted at various types of audiences segmented by age, like kids, teens, and adults. It is particularly telling that commercial advertisements about foods are particularly geared towards children. This may be because children are the most impressionable in this area, or this may be because children at that age develop lifelong eating habits. One would expect children to have too little purchasing power to make their own food choices, Benady suggests a possible rationale for this targeting: children have a substantial “pester power” to pressure their

The film, “Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood” takes a closer look at how the negative impact advertising and marketing is having on the children who are the main targeted audience especially because they are easy to manipulate. The United States is a country that cares a lot about consumers. People are around advertisement and marketing all the time in every place they go. In fact, people live to buy, people need and want things constantly and it will never stop. In the American economy consumerism may be a leading role. Most would say the advertisements are a way to promote information about services and products, but in most cases, it involves deception and manipulation. For years now consumerism has been the trademark of the American way of life and now that society has embraced it so fully, it seems that even children are being born and raised with the same mindset. The kids influence their parents buying decicions and they’re the adult consumers of the future.Our bank account might be affected by advertisement, but many adults don’t realize the ways are brain are affected by it. Parents have to teach their kids that many of the things advertise are not good, by not always buying what their kids want. Government regulations need to put a stop to corporations that live, breathe and sell the idea of consumerism to children.

In the article “Marketing to Kids Gets More Savvy With new Technology” it states “ While on the Webkinz website, Sweet recently clicked once a day for seven days on an ad for a film trailer that was posted for Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer. She said she wasn't interested in the movie, but each day she clicked it and answered three questions, she earns a virtual lime green dresser and a bulletin board for the rooms that she created for her webkinz.” Another piece of evidence that was found on the online article “ How Advertisers Target Children” mentions “ Today online advertising encompasses more sophisticated and enticing banner ads, but also advergames, online videos, branded websites, virtual worlds, and social marketing. According to research published in 2010, 87 percent of the most popular children's websites include some type of advertising.“ These two quotes clearly show that advertisers use the Internet to target children also. They find various ways to convince youth to watch their advertisements, for example, they may offer a virtual prize if someone watches their advertisements. Another example is that they have advergames that people can have fun with, without knowing that their being advertised to. These are two different ways advertisers can target children online. In conclusion, electronic devices is another way advertisers can target

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.

Today’s children, ages 8 to 18, consume multiple types of media (often simultaneously) and spend more time (44.5 hours per week) in front of computer, television, and game screens than any other activity in their lives except sleeping. Research has found strong associations between increases in advertising for non-nutritious foods and rates of childhood obesity. Most children under age 6 cannot distinguish between programming and advertising and children under age 8 do not understand the persuasive intent of advertising. Advertising directed at children this young is by its very nature exploitative. Children have a remarkable ability to recall content from the ads to which they have been exposed. Product preference has been shown to occur with as little as a single commercial exposure and to strengthen with repeated exposures. Product preferences affect children's product purchase requests and these requests influence parents' purchasing

One of the most successful marketers is quoted in the article “Get kids to nag their parents and nag them well”(260). In the initial few sections, he discussed the present time effects of the advertising on youngsters. Through this he contend that, previously, there weren't numerous child based marketing organizations that concentrated exclusively with respect to children and have their own kids' divisions, while now, they have huge amounts of organizations that makes a whole advertising division for the

In a world of consumerism, children represent a giant portion of an important demographic to marketers because of their purchasing power. They greatly influence their parents buying decisions and are the consumers of the future. Since children have this advantage, advertisers know that they should be a main target. Advertising was created to influence the creation of the consumer. This method became a revolutionary development. The advertisers’ goal was to cater to the consumers’ wants and desires. Although the advertisers used what they knew from the consumer to shape their wants to create in commodities. Marketers and advertisers use several tactics such as promotion, positioning, brand voice, demographic segmentation, narrowcasting,

Children are at age where their brains are distracted on the hottest toys of the year. When a trend begins, children rapidly rush to follow the trend caused by advertisements. What children can buy often determines their popularity and friends. Not having the latest edition of Barbie doll, can lead to a child being expelled from the lunch table of their friends. In addition, this contributes to increased mean-spirited behavior and bullying as children judge each other more by what they have than what they do. Last year, Mary Mathew, age seven, got bullied for not having Barbie dolls. Mary told her friends that she preferred reading than playing with dolls. Sadly, Mary ended up losing her friends just for not having Barbie dolls showing that her friendships were ruined. From a young age, a wedge is driven between children and adults as children learn that it is peers, not teachers, who know what is cool. Others might argue that children’s relationships resume to normal conditions after a few days; regardless, children’s relationships still get affected and leave a permanent scar on a child’s insecurities. Overall, companies should not be approved to market to children because children are susceptible to being exploited and harmed, marketing teaches children the improper way to learn, and marketing affects children’s

For many years, corporations have targeted adults, but as the years progressed their main focus and targeted audience have been children. Countless corporations often focus their products such as toys, clothes, and drugs to children in order to increase their own economic gain. In Juliet Schor’s article, “ Selling to children: The Marketing of Cool”, she mentions how products are accepted and interpreted by children in today’s society. However, in Eric Schlosser article, “ Kid Kustomers”, he emphasizes on the constant antagonizing strategies through ads and televisions shows to target kids. Although Juliet Schors and Eric Schlosser are both speaking about corporations marketing to children, their articles differ quite significantly. While they both speak about corporation and their marketing directed to children, Schor maintains her focus on how society perceived these products as cool or geeky, while Schlosser focuses his article on the negative way corporations have marketed their products to underage children.

Throughout the decades, marketing to kids has been becoming very intensive. There are several reasons to back up this statement. Marketers infiltrate kids lives, and advertisers use personalized advertisements to a child while using technology.

Ah yes, the nostalgic fast food kid’s meal. Nearly any child would gladly accept colorfully packaged junk food, sugary drinks, and a new toy to play with. Of course, every desire sparks from some sort of influential experience. In multiple cases, fast food industries take advantage of the media’s popularity to advertise products and coerce viewers to consume their products. Today’s youth thrives on the media, where fast food ads targeting them often appear. Capable of shaping adolescents’ decisions, these commercials effectively persuade countless children. To reduce the influence it has on their lives, fast food advertisement methods targeting children should have restrictions. These methods of advertising aim to develop emotionally-driven