Dumb Ways To Die Advertising

Schlosser’s article, “Kid Kustomers”, discusses the highly popular topic of children being targeted by vicious advertisers. This topic is remarkably appropriate for today culture due to the abundance of advertisement thrown into every child, man and women’s everyday life. The rapid growth of advertisers and their plans to target children in order boost sales in a company has compelled the writer to cover this topic and discern the truth. Schlosser’s article educates readers in an effective manner due to, exceptional use of rhetorical appeals, the quality of information presented, and the tone and style he uses.

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.

Marketing to children is not a new phenomenon; however, there have been many ethical debates on its rightness; is advertising to children a gentle persuasion of the innocent or a sinister threat to our society? There’s too much as stake if we remain silent and simply assume that marketing companies have our children’s best interests at heart; the truth is they don’t. This paper will explore to implications of marketing to children and the overall effects it has on our society. I will argue that advertising to children is a social problem. In the first part of my paper I will discuss why advertising to children is ethically wrong, I will then discuss what has changed; this will be followed by a discussion as to why it is a social problem and finally, I will conclude my paper by discussing what should be done to change it. Please note this paper is written in the first person as I have children and I have a vested interest in this topic.

The advertisement that was chosen for this project covers that of gun issues, especially with the increase of school shootings over the years. Right off the bat with the advertisement come at full force with the message it wants to spread and the change it wants to bring. On the left side there is a young boy holding a Kinder egg; which is banned in the US as a hazardous toy. Whereas on the right there is a small girl who is holding a rifle of sorts. Both children hold a steady and grim gazes as they stare at the viewer; it is meant to be in a way unsettling and putting off because we never want to see children in any sort of harm's way.

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company’s Super Bowl advertisement, “#makesafehappen” released on February 1st, 2015, has received negative attention because of its morbid yet practical depiction of a young boy who has passed away due to a “preventable accident” before experiencing the life in which a teen or young adult would otherwise. The advertisement also uses the death of a young child to appeal to parents; especially the mothers, largely using pathos to raise awareness of deadly accidents which could otherwise be preventable. Logos and ethos, although weak in this advertisement, also raises awareness on preventing avoidable accidents.

Accompanying this ad is a photo of a small male child in a seated position with his hands over his eyes. The boy is wearing a pinstriped shirt and socks in gray and black on a landing with a gray bannister and a light shining down on him. Inclusion of this picture with the words placed on the ad is attempting to gain a greater emotional response from the audience. The background of a brighter white light shining down symbolizes the need to shed light on the situation. The child seating on a landing on the stairwell could signal to the audience that we have reached a tipping point and need to act to improve the situation and not fall further down the steps.

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.

For this essay I will be using the commercial made by Budweiser for the 2015 Super Bowl, “Lost Dog.” This advertisement is about a tiny lost puppy getting far away from home and most importantly, the friendship between this puppy and some Clydesdale horses. In the beginning of this commercial, the puppy is shown hiding under some hay, and then he proceeds to jump into a random trailer which initially gets him lost far from home. There is no dialogue in this commercial aside from the music in the background, but the advertisement shows the distress of the owner through facial expressions and scenes where he puts

One ad that came to my mind was an ad about distrated driving. The audience for this ad was amined for families and new families who just had kids of there own. The tone I would describe as depressing because it is asking the people who are in the car what if it was there kid they were hitting. I do think that this was an effective peice and it gave off the message they wanted.

Rearranged, this becomes Danger #1, or D1. In combination, this visual metaphor of a vending machine provides to the audience the knowledge that prescription drugs are widely accessed and abused. The ad uses an emotional appeal to create a response in the audience of parents to this idea. The ad asks a question and supplies the vague answer, “easier than you think,” creating a sense of unease and the implication that the audience is wrong.

Advertisers use a variety of appeals to convince the viewer’s to buy certain products or bring a topic to the awareness of the viewer. The anti-child abuse announcement that San Francisco Human Services Agency released is no different. A public service announcement is designed to publicize a problem the nation is facing. Advertisements can appeal to the audience through a variety of elements such as images and speech. In this advertisement pathos and ethos are represented through the sounds and visual content while logos is presented through the statistics given at the end of the advertisement. With this advertisement it is also important to consider the

The PSA I choose to cover is produced and distributed by Budweiser in multiple mediums of presentation. The actual original ad is a video commercial, but since this assignment requires a still or picture PSA, I found a picture and caption (still produced by Budweiser) that ultimately still get the main idea / message across to the audience. This PSA came in the form of a Tweet where a yellow lab dog is sitting on a brown leather couch with Budweiser’s logo across the bottom. There is a relation to the yellow lab puppy that started in Budweiser's last couple of Super Bowl commercials. With this dog in the current commercial, Budweiser might be trying to make the audience feel more related and involved with this dog because of their previous commercials give background history. Along with the picture the Tweet reads “Don’t drink and drive. After all you’ve got friends waiting for you. Watch youtu.be/eubWYPhcEEo #FriendsAreWaiting pic.twitter.com/AKQHNd04Eo”

The quote, “You have to crawl before you can walk,” is overshadowed by today’s societal standards. People must learn the basics before they move forward however society tells a different story. It says you must learn quickly or you will be left behind. This type of attitude can also be associated with teaching babies and toddlers. Parents now-a-days are focused on educating their babies or children at a young age to make them smarter than everyone else’s child. They want their children to learn quickly, so they will be ready for our modern, technological world. Many advertisements target parents like these, however, there are other advertisements that redirect a parent’s focus back to their child and not what society craves. One ad in particular

Today I was asked to write my opinion on two contrasting statements about children and advertisment. My opinion is simply all for it with the tought of if it isn't broken why fix it. T his essay will touch on these three points of the economic impact, the effects on our children, and how the advertising industry has changed. I hope you enjoy.

The advert seeks to influence people to be aware of their surroundings and prevent possible