The Development Of Children's Brand Preferences

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.”

A website, Journal of Mass Communication, states that, “63% have their own television set.” This is talking about 7-year-olds and how 63% of them have television sets. Children at the age of 7 are being affected by these advertisements. Also, the Journal of Mass Communication says that, “A young child who is as young as three year can’t understand the selling motive of the advertiser it is not until 8 years of age…” This shows at a young age that children are becoming a target for the advertising companies. When these kids watch these ads they want to have whatever they see which makes them want to have a high social

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

Therefore, this lack of maturity leads children to believe everything they hear, stripping them of their independence, instead of independently thinking of something by themselves. Because everything is made more convenient, the demand for items, and more accessible, the kids are easily trained to become consumers by always wanting more.

As advertising usually portrays the message that material possessions bring fulfillment, happiness, and success, an increase in the perceived reality of advertising can cause an increase in general materialism (Chaplin & John, 2007; Goldberg, Gorn, Peracchio, & Bamossy, 2003). In sum, this study contributes to the existing literature on youth’s advertising exposure and materialism in three ways: (1) it is based on longitudinal rather than cross-sectional data, (2) it focuses on children from an age group (8- to 11-year olds) that until now has received little attention in materialism research, and (3) it deals with both direct and mediated effects of children’s advertising exposure on materialism. Direct Effect of Advertising Exposure on Materialism Several correlational studies have shown that children’s advertising exposure and materialism are positively related (Atkin, 1975a; Atkin, 1975b; Buijzen & Valkenburg, 2003b; Moschis & Churchill, 1978; Moschis & Moore, 1982; Schor, 2005; Ward & Wackman, 1971). Because of their use of cross-sectional data, though, most scholars can only theorize about the causal direction of the relation between children’s advertising exposure and materialism (Buijzen & Valkenburg, 2003a). On the one hand children’s advertising exposure is plausible to precede materialism, because it is advertising’s aim to evoke an increased need for products (Buijzen & Valkenburg, 2003a; 2003b). Up until now, two

Children are easily influenced, and this can be taken advantage of in the commercial industry. Thy have the desire to fit in and do what is considered “cool”. Many people believe that people use this desire to their own benefit in order to create profit. While it’s true children are easily manipulated by commercials, these commercials and be beneficial to the child's development. Commercials can be used to bring good ideas and good life skills to children that will lead them to being a successful adults. Commercials aimed at children are ethical because they can reinforce positive behaviors and good ideals. This is shown through articles, press and reports.

Advertisements also affect a child's own identity because "advertising manipulates [children] through their insecurities, working to define normality for them" (Source C). Children, especially pre-teens and teenagers, are essentially going through a multitude of crises with the most prominent one being and identity crisis. Figuring out who one is, is a vital step towards adulthood and independence, and with advertisements altering children's thoughts and ideas, their futures are not looking as bright. Without a sense of self, humans are nothing. They are simply mindless creatures just trying to survive. They have no intellectual independence and therefore, inventions, ideas, and discoveries will begin to slowly diminish. But, the manipulative ways of advertising can in facts be positive. With 15,312 promotions and public service announcements seen by children and teens annually (Source A), the world has a high chance of new generations of innovators and environmental heroes. If advertisements can, in a sense, manipulate children into doing positive things and taking actions, then yes, advertising to children is an extremely clever thing to do, and will benefit not only the viewers, but the world in

To begin, a child’s brain is has not yet developed enough to make their own conscious decisions. For large companies or organizations, “Children are easy prey for advertisers” (Source C), rather than adults. So, in theory, a company should amend its advertising to a more beneficial system for the community. As David Benady stated, “ Advertising and marketing could encourage children to eat healthily, participate in sports and read books” (Source B), which is entirely true. With the combination of children's naiveness and companies marketing techniques, a child could easily be sucked into eating healthy rather

In a 65-year span, an average American spends around nine years watching television including 975 days of watching just commercials that is two million ads altogether. Parent are wondering what most of those commercials are regarding too? They are mostly businesses that are targeting kids to eat fast food or influence their parents to buy a product like a toy. Parents think that they can just turn off the T.V.? Yes, folks are correct they can shut down the T.V., but there are way more advertisements than just commercials so many that it is hard for even ad savvy parents to keep it away from their children. Marketers will try anything to get the kid to buy their products, or they will put a logo on everything that they can. How do they target

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.

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.

Advertising causes American children to be greedy. Because advertising tells children they should value the latest, nosiest, and flashiest stuff on television. Because children spend a great deal of time in front of the television, children's behaviors and attitudes have become materialistic and self-centered. The child like faces, bright colors, and child's voices on television holds the children captive. Any means of suggestion are readily followed.

Fast food companies have made billions exploiting children through enticing advertisements made to make a child feel the need to buy their product. Moreover, food marketing has now targeted young children for over 2 generations in the United States. Children are being specifically targeted from birth by advertising agencies and the reason being that, “Hoping that nostalgic childhood memories of a brand will lead to a lifetime of purchases, companies now plan ‘cradle to grave’ advertising strategies.” (Schlosser 43) These ad agencies know the tendencies and psychology of impressionable children, so by creating a mindset that their brand is special early on in life, they inexplicably control the entire nation. However, if American children are able to recognize brand symbols before they can

Many influential bodies in the food industry openly exploit children by presenting them with alluring commercials in an attempt to get them to develop interest in certain products. "Advertising directed to children, particularly on television, is heavily populated by commercials for foods that pose adiposity and related health risks for children when consumed in abundance" (Committee on Food Marketing and the Diets of Children and Youth 2 301). Taking this into account, it would appear that the social order is practically being forced to stand by and watch as children are used as a tool to sell products.