The Societal Issues Of Advertising

The film, “Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood” takes a closer look at how the negative impact advertising and marketing is having on the children who are the main targeted audience especially because they are easy to manipulate. The United States is a country that cares a lot about consumers. People are around advertisement and marketing all the time in every place they go. In fact, people live to buy, people need and want things constantly and it will never stop. In the American economy consumerism may be a leading role. Most would say the advertisements are a way to promote information about services and products, but in most cases, it involves deception and manipulation. For years now consumerism has been the trademark of the American way of life and now that society has embraced it so fully, it seems that even children are being born and raised with the same mindset. The kids influence their parents buying decicions and they’re the adult consumers of the future.Our bank account might be affected by advertisement, but many adults don’t realize the ways are brain are affected by it. Parents have to teach their kids that many of the things advertise are not good, by not always buying what their kids want. Government regulations need to put a stop to corporations that live, breathe and sell the idea of consumerism to children.

As the author of article “Regulating Food Advertising to Children,” Margo G. Wootan proposes, “Responsible food marketing to children must address not only how food is marketed but also which foods are marketed to kids (334).” She believes that even in the absence of government control there should be some guideline for food marketing to act responsibly and not encourage children to eat foods that are harmful to their health and well-being. Because of the increasing rate of childhood obesity in the United States, the author suggests a compromise approach between marketing techniques

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

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.

Children are targeted in these ads they try to draw their attention by making the ads fun, and by using cool phrases. Moss proposes and “He explained how he would deploy strategic storytelling in the ad campaign for his snack, using a key phrase that had been developed with much calculations:” Eat’ Em Like Junk Food’ (494).This proves that ads plays a role in promoting food that are unhealthy and is putting children 's health at risk for obesity. To sum it up, children are exposed to high amount of unhealthy food advertisements which affects young children health and food choices. Therefore, the government needs to intervene and stopping the advertisement of unhealthy eating and start advertising healthier foods.

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.

food ads that target children and the promotion of unhealthy products vs. healthy products. As well as how companies can convince parents and kids to buy these things.

Children’s understanding to advertisement is different from adults perspective as our minds are already developed. Television commercials for snacks, sweets, and fast food are the mainstays of advertising to target children. With so many electronic devices and television, children are bound to run into a fast food commercial. Have you seen the “2 for $4 mix and match” or even from the dollar menu? It might be cheap and look really good on television, but it is unhealthy. “Most fast food restaurants stepped up advertising to children and teens,” said Jennifer Harris, the Rudd Center’s director of marketing initiatives and lead author of the report. “Most advertising promotes unhealthy regular menu items and often takes unfair advantage of young peoples vulnerability to marketing, making it even tougher for parents to raise healthy children.

Advertisements for junk food has rapidly increased over the last 10 years and they have been specifically directed to children and the reason for this is because children are easy targets where even the slightest this could amaze them.It is clear that junk food is unhealthy and toxic to the human body and the children get affected most because their body’s are still growing and require proteins,fibre and milk and the junk food just destroys the body causing the child to become obese and other other related diseases.

I believe that ads with healthy food can be very helpful to children. They can help promote healthy eating habits

Fast food advertisement agencies take advantage of the ignorance of children to scam them into wanting unhealthy meals. Each year, the fast food industry spends over $3 million of advertising targeted towards children. Half of television advertisement is used during children’s shows and with cartoons. Out of all the factors

There is presently much controversy regarding the idea of unhealthy foods and how companies shamelessly market these products to children. Individuals in the food and beverage industry constantly promote the belief that they are actively involved in providing society with important information concerning what is healthy and what is not. Moreover, most promote their products as having no negative effects on individuals who consume them, as doing otherwise would surely reflect badly on their businesses. It is generally known that children are vulnerable because they have very little experience in filtering information and food companies take advantage of this by introducing diverse methods to promote their products even with the fact that it is likely for children to get sick as a consequence.

Over the past year political momentum has grown for strong action to tackle childhood obesity and there is an emerging consensus that regulation of food advertising to children is both necessary and achievable. A key factor in this debate has been the publication of the Food Standards Agency 's (FSA) review of research into the link between food promotion and eating behaviour in children, undertaken by Professor Gerard Hastings and colleagues at the University of Strathclyde.2 Though the findings are heavily qualified, the authors conclude that advertising to children does have an adverse effect on food preferences, purchasing behaviour and consumption.

Although the banning of adverts during children’s television shows has an effect on exposure, children can still be exposed to these unhealthy advertisements through watching family entertainment shows which fall under adult regulations (Ofcom, 2010). As the conclusion of Boyland and Halford (2012) believe that rather than just restricting HFSS food promotion more could be done to promote healthier food options and HFSS restrictions should be applied further to include internet sources. Ultimately stricter rules are needed for change.

The British Medical Association, responding to the Government’s White Paper of November 2004, recommends an outright ban on advertising foods to children in the UK (see British