The Effects Of Advertising On Children Of The United States Of America Essay

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.

The early development stages between the ages of two and four are paramount for a child’s cognitive growth. Children are extremely sensitive to their surroundings and pick up everything that’s going on around them and that’s what helps them learn and develop. In a study, it showed that for every hour of television watched the child’s age appropriate language skills decreased. As for children exposed to constant background noises this also decreased their cognitive and language skills as well. This early and over exposure to TV, video games, and computers, deprives the child from sensory, hearing, and touching skills that they would have learned in the real world without so much exposure. This is also the time of developing co-ordination skills, as well social and motor skills. These skills are valuable in long-term and short-term physical and mental health (Negative Effects of Media). Tv is used as a baby sitter now to keep kids busy while parents do work around the house, this is a destructive act being done. Tv is generally always on in households, leaving kids to be able to watch whatever is on tv rather than educational shows that parents should be providing. The social intelligences

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.

I feel as if we need to protect childern from targeted advertising. Childern can be persuaded very easily compared to teens and adults. Companys use simple things that catch a child's eye like superheros and toys to make them want something even more, fast food restaurants usually do that type of adertising. In the passage they explain how childern influence their parents to spend $249 billion a year. That number is just going to grow if they don't stop this kind of advertising. Advertising show harmful negative messages to kids world wide. Like smoking, and drinking commericals. They show these type of things like if only "cool guys and girls" do it so it persuades them to want to try it.

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 meaning of childhood itself has been greatly affected by changes brought about in the 80’s directed at children's marketing. Congress passed the The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Improvement act in 1980 because of lobbying by large companies. By 1984, The Reagan administration repealed the regulation of children's marketing in any way (Consuming). In 1984 child spending was at $4.2 billion per year increasing at 4%. After the deregulation, child spending was increasing 35% per year raking in $40 billion per year in 2008 (Consuming). The increase of child spending was due to the advertising and marketing to children.

Businesses have the right idea when they folllow the Children's Advertising Review Unit, (CARU). Founded in 1974, this was to assist the businesses, to insure good advertising towards children. I also believe that it is not all of the companies fault, I believe parents should moniter what their children watch on tv. In order to grow, first you must learn, and I feel children will have a understanding of how ads work if you explain what ads are

Advertisments targeting children in the United States should not be banned, upon having rules for the advertisements. In the Passage, 'Self - regulation and Education- Not Legislation', it states that some campaigns also encourages kids to make healthy eating choices. Advertisements, such as these, should not be banned. As stated in the article, 'Protect Children from Targeted Advertising', kids remember the ads they have seen extremely well, even though they see thousands of ads each year. If every ad seen by children, advertises something to help better the future of children, then why get rid of them ? It would save the parents of the children lots of time, not having to worry about their children becoming obese. In my childhood, while going

Then there's Facts about Marketing to Children which implies mostly the same thing. This article says that advertising directed at children is estimated at over $15 billion annually. This number needs to be lower. Advertisers should not be taking advantage of kids like this. Kids see things on a commercial and want that object

According to William Ramsey’s article found in Federal Communication Law Journal’s, “Rethinking Regulation of Advertising Aimed at Children,” a debate between the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and advertisers, has been in place since 1970 debating the need for regulation of advertisements aimed at children. Ramsey explains that after a thorough investigation, “the FCC issued a policy statement asking networks to voluntarily limit the amount of commercial time aired during programs directed at children” (Ramsey, 2006). The FTC agreed and released a document known as Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which stated that a major regulation must be put into place during children programming. Political and public response was so negative that Congress stepped in not only by “passing legislation limiting the FTC’s power to enforce any rule relating to children’s advertising, but also by failing to renew the FTC’s funding, in effect shutting down the agency temporarily.” It wasn’t until 1990 that another motion was put into place, Congress passed the Children’s Television Act (CTA), which “instructed the FCC to enforce

“Marketers see children as a future — as well as current — market and hence brand loyalty at a young age”(Global issues, 2010). Marketing is a complex scheme which benefits the industry to develop consumers however, the society does not understand the outcome it can cause in the future. All around the world, many kids are produced in the consumerism trade through the trademark of marketing industry and lifestyle the society has embraced into the children lives today. This paper will explore the causes of how marketing affects children and this will affect the generations to come in the future which disappoints the parents and generates the parent’s way of raising their kids without the exploitation of the social media. I will argue that the generation of marketing has filled an appalling influence to youths today, marketers have urbanized a society of advertising to kids that can affect their future and they analyze the facts that are directed to them which provokes them to evaluate the believability of marketing. The first part of the paper will focus on the impact the marketers create, negative affect which is imported to the kids. The unethical approach of marketers are taking away their childhood, by manipulating them from such a young age.

Today, we live in a society that is ruled by multiple forms of media, and where there is media there are advertisements. According to the market research company Yankelovich, the average person is exposed to about 5,000 advertisements and brands per day (Walker-Smith, 2014). The exposure to such advertisements have caused a detrimental effect on young people, such as the influence of what the perfect body looks like. Today commercials showcase unrealistic versions of the average male and female, causing an increase in eating disorders each year. Advertisements also influence young people by convincing them that it is okay to drink and that there will be no consequences. Advertisements do not show the long term effects that can happen to an individual when they start abusing alcohol; such as the need for blood transfusions or having seizures. They only show the scene where people seem to be having more fun with an alcoholic beverage in their hand. Advertisements also play a role in the food choices young people make. Most food advertisements appear on children and teen oriented shows; and the advertisements they show are unhealthy for young people to consume. Those advertisements are a contributing factor to childhood obesity that may later become adulthood obesity. Which goes to show the enormous impact advertisements play in the way society views beauty, alcohol, and food choices; creating detrimental effects on young people’s

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Advertising is seen to really affect families and tries to control every ones lives. Advertising is very harmful because it puts the world in a competition to see who can get the most quality and quantity stuff. This vast majority of marketing in the media is basically a slap in the face saying you aren’t good or pretty enough. There is always some new gadget that can make you popular or pretty, maybe lose weight and everyone is so caught up in fame and glory they listen. People try to out do their friends and family even with the hot new product on the market even if they have the same thing just not as new. Children get so caught up and addicted with TV shows and reality TV that it causes conflict in the household. Children see how much famous kids get away with and test their parents. The media plays such a huge role is everyone’s life and although it is not all bad it causes many problems. Advertising and media was good when it was small, when TV shows didn’t become a hassle because of the 15-minute commercials trying to sell you something new every 2 seconds. Their use to be good entertaining TV shows that brought families together to laugh and enjoy. It brings you information on what is going on around you and around the world. Advertising industries ruined all the positive things that television brought.

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