The Negative Effects Of Advertisements On Children

Every day, companies present the people with advertisements everywhere they go. Advertisements have become very prevalent in today’s society nowadays focusing in on a negative connotation. Advertisement has become an effective way for producers to display their new products. In present day, they come in forms of billboards, flyers, e-mails, and even text messages. It is widely known that companies create advertisements to persuade people to buy specific products or goods; however, it is not widely known that advertisements can make a negative impact on today’s society. The companies manipulate people’s mind and emotions, swaying people by new promotions and therefore generating a strong desire to fit into the society, that causes them to make inessential expenditures. Advertisements pose a critical impact on the American culture.

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.

Many people would argue that they personally feel exempt from the influences of advertising. But if this is the case, then why is the advertising industry grossing over $250 billion a year? The American living in the United States is typically exposed to over 3,00 advertisements in a single day, which means that he or she will spend two years of their lives watching television commercials. Advertisements are everywhere and we cannot avoid them. We see advertisements in schools, buildings, billboards, airplanes, bust stops, and so on. Not only are advertisements selling advertisements, but they’re selling values and beliefs, sexuality, images, and the normalcy of believing who we should be because an advertisement said so. Advertisements can create environments, but sometimes these environments can become toxic when consumers buy into its toxicity. One of the biggest toxicities of advertisements is the portrayal of women in advertisements. Though standards of beauty vary over time and by cultures, it seems as though the advertising industry is still buying into “the beauty myth.” This is notion that “the quality of beauty objectively and universally exists.” Though there have been strides to break this notion and attack how advertising has objectified women, it seems as though advertisements are objectifying women more and more. In most advertisements, we are not seeing women being depicted as who they really are, but being portrayed and objectified to be someone that they

Throughout history, advertising has played a significant role in consumerism, politics, and much more. By the 1920’s it had developed into a major aspect of daily life for Americans, determining everything from their hygiene habits to their meals. Despite this having been almost one-hundred years ago, there are many similarities, but also many differences in the advertising industry today.

In addition, advertising feeds from mob mentality, convincing people a product will change their lives by deeming it fashionable or sophisticated. It bypasses logical thinking to take control of how people view themselves and their “need for esteem. People want and need to be respected and we need to feel good about ourselves. And this is where much advertising lives, often because we are selling products that people really do not need. L’Oreal’s ‘Because you’re worth it’ is the perfect example” (Madigan 83). For this reason, expectations of a person are manipulated to fit the wants of the industry to sell products. These people are affected since they feel as if they have no choice in what to wear, how their body should appear to others, and which brands they buy. It all comes down to the need to be apart of something bigger, instead of sticking out from the crowd.

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.

Furthermore, advertisements are now being integrated into the food they eat, and most notably in fast foods chain. One of the methods that is being exploited is children’s attachment to fictional characters. Advertisements include popular cartoon characters on their food packages or in their commercials. This marketing tactic draws the child towards that brand or product and can even delude them in thinking that it is superior in some

1700’s-1900 Advertising has gone through several periods to be developed to the extent that it is today. Beginning in the 1700’s, the concept of the newspaper began to take hold of the early American Colonies. It wasn’t until 1736 that the concept of advertising became an aspect of newspapers due to its popularization on the count of Benjamin Franklin. Franklin began to use advertisements to sell items such as wine and mathematical instruments, and he used his expertise to teach stores to advertise by utilizing illustrations. With the Stamp Act of 1765, advertising became more relevant than news as colonists responded to the act with several illustrative advertisements. With the

Television today would not be what it is if commercials were not there. Commercials help pay for the expensive cost it take to run the programs. Nobody wants television to go away from them or their kids, but the truth is, cost are more expensive on kid networks because the requirements the government puts on them. Many people think that children should not be exposed to advertisements are best for kids, but kids need exposure to them to help the corporations and the program cost, plus there are kid products that can help the child mature. If my kid did not have tv they would just cry and be sad because they would not have anything to do, nobody wants a kid cry.

Companies around the world are all fighting against each other to get their new product out to the public. Using many strategies and lots of money to accomplish their goal. But can it be that this same public they are trying to reach, is being affected by the methods these advertisers are using? Ads are causing damage in men and women. In women especially, anorexia is a colossal issue. The misuse of photoshop is making these women try to reach an unattainable goal. FInally the gender stereotypes are killing people’s chance to express themselves and be unique.

Advertising has always been an important part of our society. The history of advertising can be traced to pre-modern history when it served an important purpose by allowing sellers to effectively compete with other merchants for the attention of clients in Ancient Egypt. From 1704 when the first newspaper advertisement was announced, it gradually grows into a major force in American society based primarily on newspapers and magazines (Ad Age Advertising Century, 1999). It not only helps to raise the target demographics’ awareness of issues, but also educate consumers with the benefits of the product. However, advertising cannot target a particular person before the emerging of World Wide Web.

On a daily basis people encounter dozens of advertisements. They might see them on television, on the internet, in a magazine/newspaper, or on even on a billboard. However, people never realize that these ads seen on a daily basis have an effect on our society; especially on women. Advertisers like to appeal to our fears, hopes, desires, concepts of success, worth, love, and beauty. When we focus on the effects advertising has on women, our results are mostly negative. The main purpose of an advertisement is to inform; however, advertisements also persuade negative views towards beauty and sexism

Pollay (1986) had suggested that advertisements are very persuasive and use stereotypical portrayals when using sexual content and therefore, those adverts have a way of manipulating the consumer by using sex appeals. Those advertisements use fantasies and illusions to draw the buyer in rather than the reality to manipulate the buyer into wanting things that they in reality may not need in the first place. (Klempner, 2004, Zailckas, 2006). Younger people are harder to connect with so adverts need such content to draw the younger viewers in (Strasburge and Donnerstein, 1999).

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

Anne Frank quotes "Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.” Every parent wants their child to grow up to be successful, have good habits, and maintain good values. Parents spend most of their time protecting their kids from any wrong or misfortune that can come to them, they monitor every act of their kids such as ensure time is spent on education, invigilate their friend circle and so on. But little do they know that there are some parts of their children's actions that are unmonitored such as watching advertisements, which may ruin their efforts completely. The journal of the American Medical Association said that on average children between the age of two and seventeen watch up to 15000 to 18000 hours of television a year (Bagdikian, 2000, p.36). Now consider the number of advertisements kids watch in this time, according to New American Dream (2012, para2) American children watch up to 40,000 advertisements a year. If these figures are taken in to account it is safe to say that advertisements have a major impact on a child's life and if it is not regulated it may influence a child in a negative way. The best way to regulate the advertisement targeting children is to ban them as they have a harmful impact on them. It may lead to nagging and pestering parents, unhealthy eating habits and also cause kids to involve in harmful acts such as smoking and consumption of alcohol.