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Effects Of Advertising On Children And The Overall Effects It Has On Our Society

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Introduction
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.

Why is Advertising to Children Ethically Wrong?
It’s deceptive. Children don’t have the cognitive wherewithal to defend against advertising (Kanieski, 2010). Very young children can’t distinguish between a program and a commercial (Tepperman, Albanese, & Curtis, 2014). Until the age of 11 or 12, kids don’t truly understand persuasive intent they don’t understand that every single part of the ad is trying to get them to do something (Moglan, 2014). Furthermore, children have less impulse control and are more vulnerable to

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