The Government Should Limit Advertising Aimed at Children
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.
There are several reasons why advertising aimed at young children should be banned. Advertisers and marketers influence young children. Children are the future leaders of our world. Television encourages them to become consumers and equate ownership of things with self-worth. Thus, at an early age, children are influenced to associate status and self-worth with materialistic things. We are producing young consumers rather that productive citizens who will add value to society. While the government states its purpose for protecting children, in general terms, children are simply influenced and cannot tell advertising agenda from the truth.
There are some specific and real problems that advertising can cause upon children (William A. Ramsey). Fast-food restaurant advertising it’s influencing our children to be obese. Childhood obesity around the world is causing worries, especially detrimental as its effect carries on into parenthood. The ratio of children 's who are overweight has approximately tripled in the same period, reaching fourteen percent (Center for disease control
Advertisements are leading teens to have heart disease, asthma, high blood pressure, obesity, cancer and type two diabetes. These advertisements are giving the target audience, children, are having effects on their lives. Advertising is playing a horrible effect on the lives of youth because it is diminishing the health of our children, it can also make children need to have things to have a high social status. Also, the advertisements make children want to use their parent's money to buy what they want that is on television, but all they are doing is paying the people who are creating the advertisements.
I believe that advertisements tageting children should be banned.They influence kids to spend too much money on useless products. They also teach kids bad life values.Ads targeting children teach kids to buy things based on how packaging, rather than on benifits of the product.Advertisement aimed towards children is wrong and results in bad decisions.
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.
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.
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 believe advertisements targeting children should not be banned in the United States. Doing so would be unconstitutional due to the Freedom of Press amendment. Advertisements can help children by promoting healthy eating habits while at the same time teaching them that advertisements are just ploys for businesses to get more money.
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
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.
Advertising, we all know it and we all have a love-hate relationship for it. The most current topic on advertising right now is, whether or not advertisement's targeting the youth of this nation should be allowed. There are many arguments on both sides that make very valid and convincing arguments, yet overall it all comes down to how you view the world. Personally I believe that, if moderated, advertisements targeting a young audience are not harmful enough to ban them overall.
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.
To ban or not to ban, that is the question in this case. I was acually watching this television show the other day and on it, there was a little boy watching T.V. when a commercial for a stuffed animal came on. Instead of hearing what the commercial was actually saying, all it showed was the stuffed animal trying to convince the little boy to get his parents to buy it. The little boy then, would not stop asking his parents until they finally got it for him. So maybe, it's not just the ads fault, it could be also the way most parents comply when their child begs for something. In this essay, I'm going to show alternative methods to keeping kids healthy and creating a better place for them to grow up in, rather than just blaming and/or banning the advertisements.
Should advertisements targeting children be banned in the United States, no it shouldn't. We're still being advertise where ever we go, whether its school, the internet, bill boards. It's up to the parents to teach their children, teens what's from right to wrong.
In 2012 it was estimated that children spent over two hundred and eleven billion dollars because of ads. Advertisers like to target towards children because they know that children 8-10 are more vulnerable and want anything they see on tv so it's safe to say advertisers lead kids to make poor choices. Advertisers make over half a billion dollars a year, 50% of that is from targeting to children. Not only do ads lead kids to make poor choices , but it could lead to: injury or obesity.
From the glossy pages of a magazine to the intensity of product placement in films and TV, advertisements targeted at children are often questioned on whether or not they are ethical. Disparities arise because people are unsure if it is more important to prioritize the success of businesses or to take into account the effects the advertisements may have on children. A detailed analysis of both arguments is necessary to determine whether or not children's advertising should be regulated.
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