Effects of advertising among children

Introduction

Today’s children are exceptional in various ways compared to the generations from the past. However, the one influencing factor among this type of generation is the aspect of advertising. Generally, this context will focus on some of the effects of advertising on children. Additionally, the synthesis will generally focus on various sources that focus on the positive and the negative effects of mass media and advertising as a whole. In doing this, the synthesis will elaborate on three different articles with each giving various opinions about the effects of advertising among children (Dumont, 25). The three sources in this article are how the media advertise to children, negative advertising, and how media violence affects children.

Theme

Over the years, there have been various theories, which have been campaigning against the aspect of, negative advertising on the television. In one of the studies, why do the media advertise to children, the author tries to investigate the aspect of negative advertisements in the society emphasizing on children in particular (Horovitz, 78). Additionally, this particular study examines whether the aspect of negative advertising can result in a better or good life among children. Over the years, various studies have been on a mission to find out if the general concept of advertising can positively or negatively affect a child’s life in future or years to come. The study claims that there are various factors which the general aspect of advertising can affect the success of a child. Some of the negative effects of advertising revealed in the study include, negatively corrupting the minds of the children, and derailment in the student’s studies. Some parts of the study claim that the aspect of advertising apparently can also positively affect the child’s success in three different aspects of life (Dumont, 45). The three aspects of life include social interactions, performance perceptions and educationally. In this study regarding the effects of advertisements to children, many researchers usually concentrate on the aspect of gender, and the age of the child. The article will first discuss the two different aspects, which will be important to discuss when dealing with the effects of advertising to the children. The article will further elaborate on the success and the downfall of the aspect of media advertisements with major categories of the child’s life.

Advertising

Media advertising entails the aspect of publicly informing the viewers and targeted audiences about a new product or service in the market (Horovitz, 102). There are various forms of advertising in which cooperate and businesses can use to pass the message across the public. Some of the most common advertising forms include billboards, television, print media, radio, and websites. The main purpose of advertising is to influence target groups minds hence resulting in the sale of the particular concept and product to the client. In most cases, this aspect creates various questions in a situation where children are involved. Additionally, there are obvious deals of interest in relation to the subject of advertising among children.

Why do the media advertise to children?

In the current world we are living, everywhere we go; there seem to be an aspect of advertising be it radio stations or billboards (Call it kid-fluence, 96). In most cases, these advertisements target young children in terms of the products they are using. Generally, marketers target children because the children are an easy target thus in terms of luring them. According to (Laws, 45), advertisements in the present world have doubled to reach an amazing $230 billion. Through advertisements, organizations can be able to influence the minds of individuals, which ultimately might lead to making a sale to a prospective client. Nevertheless, advertising might raise a number of questions if it targets children, even though the motive would be to attract attention. One of the prime motives of advertising is to attract the attention of the viewers, which means that for children, it would be necessary to convey the message in a different manner. The difference emanates from the fact that advertisements for children should be packaged in a manner that appeal to the younger generation, which should be specific to some of the needs and wants of the children.

In the contemporary society advertising assumes different forms. Advertisement manifests itself on bill boards that one can see when driving on the highway, newspapers and the daily. Advertisement can also be manifested on television. Some individuals insist that the advertisements they see o not influence them in any way but the truth is advertisements influence all. Children are the target audiences of many advertisements (The American Heritage College Dictionary, 79). Advertisers know that once a child sees and likes an advert, they would hound their parents enough to make them buy the products. Although advertisers try to portray positive items to children, children are most likely to be overawed with negative ways of advertising. Television is the most popular channel used by advertisers to the young kids. According to a study, an average American child views around 40,000 television adverts per year (Children and TV advertising, 23). Currently, schools are advertising to the children without realizing that they are advertising to the children. Advertisement son food, toys, clothing among other things are among a few things that advertisers advertise to children on a daily basis. Food advertisements are mostly targeted towards children. A large percentage of the food advertisements that target children, are of foods with minimal nutritional value (Andrews, 89).

Companies like McDonald spend around $570 million per year on advertising. McDonald not a place one could expect to find is not a place to find a healthy or nutritious meal. In schools, children are being rewarded by coupons for pizza hut and McDonalds for doing a good job in school. This is advertising this places as the schools can choose to reward the student with money to further the child’s education. Most of the educational posters that are in schools advertise candy to the children. Candy is not healthy for the children as it may give a child health concerns. Cigarette advertisements are also being advertised to children who pick up the advert and start smoking at an early age. When a child sees the cigarette advert, they think that smoking is something that they can do on their own and enjoy themselves (McNeal, 56).

The ages at which children start to try smoking are becoming younger and younger each day and the blame is pointed to advertisements. Smoking has a negative effect on children as it leads to health complication in the future (Children and TV advertising, 45). As far as television impacts a child, advertisements go. Children as young as three years old know brand named products and clothing due to the advertisements they watch. When children spend so much time watching television, how they get influenced cannot be helped and want what they see. A child becomes obsessed with getting what they see on TV that they would hound their parents to whatever extent until they get the product. This affects as they might even get into trouble keeping up with the amount of money they spend just to keep up with their children’s demands on the products. Children watching a lot of TV end up wanting more toys from the advertisements and more foods that are being advertised as compared with children that do not watch TV (Children and TV advertising, 72).

Conclusion

As much as there are adverts that affect children negatively, there are those that have a positive impact on the children. For instance, advertisements that are selling educational books for children and other forms of learning material impact a child positively. These products are beneficial to the growth and development of the child. A parent is recommended to be extremely cautious of what their child is watching and how much they are watching. This could be achieved through limiting the time spent watching TV and that most of the content being watched is a little more educational and beneficial.

Work Cited

Andrews, J C. S. T. A. Advertising Promotion and Other Aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2013. Print.

Call it kid-fluence. U.s. News & World Report, July 30, p.32.Strasburger, 2001, Victor C. (2001, June).

The American Heritage College Dictionary. Boston: American Heritage, 2002

Children and TV advertising: Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 22, 185. Education Digest (2000, January). Junk-food marketing goes elementary. p, 32.

Dumont, Pascaline. “Temptation-free Television for Children?” UNESCO Courier 54. 9 (2001) : 44

 Horovitz, Bruce. (December 18, 1997). “Cashing in on kids Retailers in search of customers for life,” USA Today, PA 1A.

Kilbourne, Jean. (2003) “Own this Child” Available online: www4.cord.edu/english/stevier/ho–feb17_sample_essay3_draft_outline.htm

McNeal, James . Quoted in McDonald M, Lavelle M. (2001).

Washington Post: Under-6 set tunes in tv’s not books .Toledo Blade, 153(302), (October 29, 2003PA 1/5

Wesolowsky, Tuck (2003)“Advertisements target young children” Available online: www.rferl.com/nca/features/2000/03/F.RU.000316151205.html