Effects Of Advertising On Children And Teenagers

I myself, with children of my own, dissagree with the idea that advertisment is bad for kids. I do agree that some ads are inapropriate and shouldn't be on a station that the kids look at often. I also agree that children should be tought to make decitions based on what they know to be true or false. I believe that children of a understanding age, should be aloud to see the bad, within reason of course, in order for them to be able to determine for themselves good ads and bad ads.

Commercials through television and radio aimed towards children are ethical because it helps build healthy ideals. Through commercials, children can see that doing certain things are good for you! They can see that it is what they should do. “Advertising and marketing techniques could encourage children to eat

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.

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.

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.

Isis used the internet to target three teenage girls from Britain, who may have traveled to Syria to join. Isis is using children and young adults in untruthful advertisement in order to draw other children into their group especially young girls. In one posted video, it shows young boys dressed in military attire and Isis bandanas learning hand-to-hand combat. These young boys are known as the “Cubs of the Caliphate” (http://wgno.com).

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.

Despite the health problems indirectly caused by age-inappropriate advertising to kids such as childhood obesity, cigarette and tobacco use and underage drinking, proving advertising as the cause is difficult. Kids are impressionable, and exposing them to persuasive techniques in advertisements lead into negative influences.

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.

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).

Chapman et al,2006 [Chapman1] study recorded 645 hours of television time during 7:00am to 9:00pm on 2 weekdays and the weekend from 3 different commercial stations located in 2 capital cities (Sydney and Brisbane) and 2 regional areas (Tamworth in New South Wales and Ballarat in Victoria). Using the method of analysing the recorded data performed by two project officers who were qualified dietitians, the study identified 81% of food advertisements were for unhealthy; non-core foods and an excessive amount those advertisements were directed at children. Due to the minimal promotion of healthy, core foods and the intense advertising of unhealthy, non-core foods children are provided “with a skewed perspective on healthy and ‘normal’ food choices, encouraging the selection of unhealthy options” (Chapman et al, 2006,[Chapman 1]). As a result of the food marketing creating an “obesity-promoting” environment, childhood obesity has been declared a serious problem among Australian children, in the NSW Childhood Obesity summit (2002).

According to outlets such as Media Smarts, “Parents today are willing to buy more for their kids because trends such as smaller family size, dual incomes and postponing having children until later in life mean that families have more disposable income.” Being so, this allows children to have access to more devices in which they can watch TV wherever they go. Parents who have a higher income, and can afford to buy their children TV’s for their bedrooms and smartphones for daily use, they do it because they want to compensate for the time they do not spend with their children. Also according to Media Smart, “Today’s kids have more autonomy and decision-making power within the family than in previous generations, so it follows that kids are vocal about what they want their parents to buy.” One resulting cause can be that parents buy materialistic items because they are guilty that they can not afford to spend quality time with their children. Therefore, as a result children spend more hours inside watching TV instead of doing any other social activity. Additionally, more time spent watching TV means the more advertisements children are exposed to per day. Also with the usage of smartphones, children have access to the internet which collect information from recent searches and then presents children with personalized advertising.Therefore causing children to be influenced by these advertisements.

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