Impact of Global and Local Media Advertisement on Children

Nowadays advertising has been a big deal for children, because it can lead children to adopt certain consumer behavior which can result in negative impacts on children’s physical and mental health. Marketing directly to children is a factor in the childhood obesity epidemic, it also encourages eating disorders, previous sexuality, youth violence and family stress and contributes to children’s diminished capability to play creatively. Marketing children is a huge business because they are an easy target. In the following articles I will talk about how there is different types of consumers through advertisements. Advertising can effect children in a positive way but mostly in a negative way at a young age.

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

Television ads are arguably the most influential form of advertisement for fast food chains considering the fact that there 115.6 million TV homes in the United States, and over half of these homes have at least three TV’s. Today’s children spend on average of 44.5 hours a week in front of some type of screen whether its computer, TV or cellphone. More than any other activity in their lives other than sleeping (American Physiological Association). It has been discovered that children under the age of eight have difficulties telling apart programming and advertising and do not understand the persuasive techniques used on them, making them the main target for fast food companies. By incorporating famous people in TV commercials, people of all ages are tricked into thinking that if they copy the actions of the famous than it is acceptable to give

Childhood obesity is a significant concern among adolescents today. In the article, “The Impact of Food Advertising on Childhood Obesity” published by the American Psychological Association, expressed the effects of advertising on youth. The American Psychological Association explained, “Almost three out of every four foods advertised to children falls into the unhealthy categories that contribute to the obesity epidemic”. Children ranging from ages, eight to eighteen, consume on average about 45 hours of various types of media per week. The link between childhood obesity and advertisement

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

“The rate of obesity in children has nearly tripled in the last quarter century”(American Psychological Association). Children receive the most exposure to advertisements due to the amount of television they watch and online games they play. At an early age, children shape their first opinions on what they like and dislike, so just by watching advertisements they can develop product preferences for unhealthy foods that lead to poor eating habits. “In very young children, research has found that for every one-hour increase in television viewing per day, there are higher intakes of sugar-sweetened beverages, fast food, red and processed meat, and overall calories”(American Psychological Association). Advertisements targeted at children use colorful images and characters to attract them to their products and add labels like “multi grain,” “no sugar added,” and “all natural” to influence parents to buy their products. But most of these food claims are unregulated and open to abuse. “Approximately 20 percent of our youth are now overweight with obesity rates in preschool age children increasing at alarming speed”(American Psychological Association). Naturally, being obese as children puts them at risk of being obese as adults, which can lead to health problems such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some forms of cancer. In addition, advertising causes

The kids engaging in screen time without ads showed no increased likelihood of eating more junk food. But those who watched shows with advertisements (even product placement) ate hundreds of extra chips, cookies and sweetened sodas. Teens who said they regularly streamed TV shows with ads were more than twice as likely to drink carbonated drinks like soda, and 65% more likely to eat packaged and processed “meals,” or fast food.

Researchers have begun the largest study of commercials that target children in order to get a handle on the issue of childhood obesity. The results showed just how unhealthy the products of many of these companies are, and in result recommendations have been made to these companies to shift their advertisements to highlight food choices that are lower in calories, fats, salt, and sugars. The content of food ads has begun to change, and will need to continue to do so in order for our country to become a more healthy one. I choice this article as a starting point for my project. I believe it could be used in the final project as just a starting point and background information for how affective commercials are on

The study found that after these children where exposed to fast food adverts they were more likely to choose unhealthy food rich with fat and carbohydrate. These food commercials increase the children’s selection of unhealthy food even it’s branded or unbranded.

Researchers stated that 34% of parents with children under 12-years-old, and 60% of parents with teenagers, stated that they spend more in the supermarket when they go shopping with their kids then when they go by themselves (Harris, Schwartz, & Brownell, 2009). When parents shop with their children, they have to debate more with them on the idea of what is healthy and unhealthy for them, and what makes their child happy. Furthermore, approximately 35,000 of all television food advertisements watched by children are high in sugar, fat, or sodium (Speers, Harris, & Schwartz, 2011). Television is where children get the idea of what food tastes better and what brand of food they would prefer to eat.

Unfortunately, these ads are usually detrimental. Almost ¾ of all food advertised to children is considered to be unhealthy (“The Impact of”). There are next to no advertisements for foods such as fruits or vegetables, but there is an overflowing abundance for junk food ads. These ads subliminally influence the children to eat those unhealthy foods. In a study by Jean Weicha, PhD, it was shown that an an hour of television causes 7th and 8th graders to consume about 167 more calories a day (qtd. in“Direct Link”). In addition, it was found that the children who watched the most tv also consumed the most junk food (“Direct Link”). This jump in junk food consumption is why kids that watch more than three hours of tv a day are 50% more likely to be obese than others that watch less than two hours (“The Impact of”). With how easy it is to be obese in our society, it seems downright reckless to increase their odds by 50%.

When it comes to advertising on the television makes children obsessed with wanting to eat fast food on a daily basis. According to the text, “product preferences affect children's product purchase requests and these requests influence parents' purchasing decisions”. This shows that by showing advertisements, the children are amused by how advertisements are, so the parents get convinced to buy their kids that fast food. Another example from the text is, “it’s not just that TV watching encourages youngsters to be less physically active, but it also exposes them to food advertisements that contribute to develop poor eating

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).

According to the American Association of Paediatrics (AAP), the average child in the United States watches about four hours of television daily. If time spent in front of the television playing video games or watching DVDs is added, the total time spent sitting in front of the TV screen increases (AAP

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