Alcohol. Obesity. Violence. For kids today in the United States, these are only a few of the problems linked to the child-targeted mass media, especially the multi- million dollar business—television commercials in children’s programming. With the disappearance of a TV-free environment, a typical American kid sees about 40,000 television advertisements each year, most of which are for soda, candy, video games, fast food and their free toys. In order to collect some information, I sat down on a Saturday morning on July 16, 2004, and recorded several kids’ TV ads for further analysis. Needless to say, the results were quite shocking—aside from the obvious, I also noticed that most ads featured active and aggressive boys while …show more content…
On the other hand, boys are active and assertive, care most about sports and "war" games. In the Pull-up diapers commercial that I taped, a little girl intently plays with her teddy bear as she waits in a fitting room for her mom to finish changing. As her mom twirls around in front of a mirror again, the girl steps onto the pile of clothes on the floor and whispers, “Mom, can we go now?” The next scene takes place in front of a public restroom, where the girl holds her mom’s hands and smiles. Not far away from the girl, a little boy holding a Pull-up diaper hurriedly runs into the men’s bathroom by himself. This seemingly harmless commercial can actually be very misleading to young children. The mom is not only playing the traditional role of a housewife, but also suggesting to her daughter that appearance is very important to women because they have to attract men with their charming looks. Just as O’Connor states, “Little girls must be prepared for a life of buying clothes and cosmetics and all those other wonderful things that will make them irresistibly alluring objects.” In addition to the emphasis on materialism and a need for the perfect body image, it also seems that girls are always associated with tender loving dolls such as the teddy bear, and toy cars and video games are certainly out of the picture. The little boy running to the bathroom is another subtle example of “rampant
M-rated video games, which are not recommended for children younger than 17-years-old, are frequently advertised in movie theaters, video game magazines, and publications with high youth readership. Young people see 45% more beer ads and 27% more ads for hard liquor in teen magazines than adults to in their magazines. An increasing number of web sites try to get teens to make direct sales. More than 100 commercial websites promote alcohol products. Most advertisers use techniques that children and teens are more vulnerable to, like product placement in movies and TV shows, action figures, kid’s clubs, and celebrity endorsements. Sex is used in commercials to sell almost anything now. American ads constantly use thin female models, which contribute to the development of self-esteem issues in young girls.
“The rate of obesity in children has nearly tripled in the last quarter century”(American Psychological Association). Children receive the most exposure to advertisements due to the amount of television they watch and online games they play. At an early age, children shape their first opinions on what they like and dislike, so just by watching advertisements they can develop product preferences for unhealthy foods that lead to poor eating habits. “In very young children, research has found that for every one-hour increase in television viewing per day, there are higher intakes of sugar-sweetened beverages, fast food, red and processed meat, and overall calories”(American Psychological Association). Advertisements targeted at children use colorful images and characters to attract them to their products and add labels like “multi grain,” “no sugar added,” and “all natural” to influence parents to buy their products. But most of these food claims are unregulated and open to abuse. “Approximately 20 percent of our youth are now overweight with obesity rates in preschool age children increasing at alarming speed”(American Psychological Association). Naturally, being obese as children puts them at risk of being obese as adults, which can lead to health problems such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some forms of cancer. In addition, advertising causes
In the past few decades, fast food companies has invested heavily in advertising to children and young adults, in return they’ll become the future of consumers of the next generation prolong business profits. Children between the ages 8 to 12 years old are exposed highest to fast food media marketing and those years are critical stages of development as this forms their eating habits for adulthood. Fast food corporations are utilizing all sources of outlet to advertise to children, from school bus to mobile phone advertisements, wherever media can reach children’s attention. The unmindful marketing tactics fast food industries markets their products to unsophisticated young minds has traumatic lasting affect throughout their adulthood.
Television ads are arguably the most influential form of advertisement for fast food chains considering the fact that there 115.6 million TV homes in the United States, and over half of these homes have at least three TV’s. Today’s children spend on average of 44.5 hours a week in front of some type of screen whether its computer, TV or cellphone. More than any other activity in their lives other than sleeping (American Physiological Association). It has been discovered that children under the age of eight have difficulties telling apart programming and advertising and do not understand the persuasive techniques used on them, making them the main target for fast food companies. By incorporating famous people in TV commercials, people of all ages are tricked into thinking that if they copy the actions of the famous than it is acceptable to give
Those suggesting that children should simply avoid commercials with a negative influence make impractical expectations for adolescents. A report on television done by Nielsen Media Research found, “African American teens watch 40 percent more primetime TV and nearly twice as much daytime TV as other teens….because they are more likely to live in places where it’s unsafe to play in the park or the street. They also receive less adult supervision, which means more opportunities for corporate marketers to intrude on their lives” (Ruskin). Regardless of race or specific age, any child could choose not to participate in activities outdoors for various safety precautions. Expecting them to turn away from advertisements narrows their activity choices. Changing the commercials as a whole instead of an individual’s lifestyle effectively encompasses adolescents in various situations. With fewer commercials directed towards minors, children can truly utilize the mass media for entertainment as opposed to their various surroundings. Whether the media places advertisements for healthy snacks or fast food, studies have highlighted these ads’ influence on the dietary choices of
In a matter of seconds, 80% children can impersonate an action hero in a video action game, A TV show, Reality shows or even a movie/TV character. We see a lot of media as happy, energetic, and exciting. We rarely see the media as depressed, boring, and unattractive. Sadly, as much as happy, exciting, and energetic sounds so great, a great number of that happy media is related to sex, violence, drugs, tobacco and alcohol. Children rely on the television, games, magazines, and the internet to occupy their time. The second a child opens a magazine and sees sexy women striking a pose with a beer in her hand, he/she looks up to that as sexy and cool. The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse released a 145 page study claiming that children drink 25 percent of all alcohol consumed in the United States and that it is mainly
The advertising of foods and beverages targeted at children in Canada is a major cost for concern and policy makers should be taking a critical look at it. Restricting the marketing of foods and beverages targeted at children is a cost efficient way of implementing a population base intervention to combat childhood obesity (Raine, Lobstein Landon, Kent, Pellerin, Caulfield, Finegood, Mongeau, Neary & Spence, 2013). The World Health Organization (WHO) and other International bodies such as the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) have set tough recommendations for countries to follow to restrict the advertising of food and beverages to children (Raine, Lobstein Landon, Kent, Pellerin, Caulfield, Finegood, Mongeau, Neary & Spence, 2013). These recommendations outline several empirical evidences which serve as the paradigm for policy makers to act on and protect children from being targeted by advertising companies. The empirical evidences suggest children lack the knack to cognitively understand the persuasive intent of advertising companies (Raine et al, 2013). Food advertising companies envision children as susceptible and therefore adopt means and ways to lure them into buying their wares. Popular cartoon and
There is a method to advertising and the agencies have an understanding that children have a particular pattern for what is known as their peak viewing hours. Studies have shown that children have the tendency to watch television more often on Saturday mornings and evenings, as well as Sunday evenings. It was noted by Zimmerman and Bell (2010) that during the weekends, children were more likely to view unhealthy food commercials “every 5 minutes” (p. 4). So during these days, this would be the ideal time for advertisers to target kids.
As noted in “Facts about Marketing to Children” from The Center for the New American Dream, in 1983, prior to the federal deregulation of marketing in media, advertisers spent $100 million on television ads targeting children. In contrast, by 2006, 22 years after deregulation, that amount had grown to $40 billion. The documentary Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Kids notes that that is an 852% increase. Companies employ professional researchers and child psychologists to help create their marketing strategies. Some of these strategies include 360-degree marketing campaigns that bury kids in what Michael Rich, MD calls a “media blitz” of over 3000 images per day. Consuming Kids describes the various blitzes and notes how they are all part of watching television ads, listening to radio, and playing video games where products are placed directly in a game. The internet is the newest advertising frontier and even uses the strategy of employing children to market to other unsuspecting children at sleep- overs and during school. The USA TODAY article also describes how 77kids by American Eagle and Webkinz encourage students to download their own image and see themselves as glamorous rock stars, in the products, or “sharing” with friends
Since the dawn of radio, large corporations have exploited this vulnerability by spending large amounts of money on advertisements aimed at convincing youths and teenagers that they need their products in order to be happy. When successful, these corporations unrealistic expectations of the value of consumer products, as they convince children they will find happiness through obtaining the latest Power Ranger action figure or eating a Big Mac. The graph (Source A) demonstrates how media is targeted at various types of audiences segmented by age, like kids, teens, and adults. It is particularly telling that commercial advertisements about foods are particularly geared towards children. This may be because children are the most impressionable in this area, or this may be because children at that age develop lifelong eating habits. One would expect children to have too little purchasing power to make their own food choices, Benady suggests a possible rationale for this targeting: children have a substantial “pester power” to pressure their
It has been estimated that about one-fourth of all television advertisements are related to food, and approximately one-half of these are selling snacks and other food low in nutritional value (Norland, 2004). Many of the commercials aimed at children and adolescents use catchy music, jingles, humor, and well-known characters to promote products (Norland, 2004). The impacts of these strategies have illustrated by studies showing that when a majority of children view commercials with high sugar foods, they are more likely to choose unhealthy foods over nutritious alternatives (Norland, 2004). However, according to the survey of the US Institute of Medicine shows that food and beverage marketing to children in America represents a missed opportunity, and, at worst, a direct threat to the health of the next generation (Marketing food to children, 2006). Although food marketing campaigns are not harmful for children, there are concerns over extensive marketing of fast food, snacks, soft drinks and sweets which present unhealthy or unrealistic images to children (Palmer, 2008). The marketing strategies of marketers encourage children to take over unhealthy eating habits which provide poor nutritional value of most of these products and also can have long term health issues.
Food advertisements, if focused at the right people and in the right places, are a complete success. These features, some of which are commercials, seduce society into buying food that we necessarily do not need. Many advertisement companies, especially those about food, are directed to children because they know that if you grab the kids you have their parents. While brands are using fun cartoons like “Trix Rabbit” and “Toucan Sam” (Green, 2007, p. 49) supermarkets are taking these items and placing them right in front of the children, at their level, advertising the “Fun foods” (Elliot, 2008, p. 259-273). They do this so the kids will use their, “pester power” (Scholsser, n.d., p. 2) to get what they want. A series of studies have been performed on children and television advertisements. An article states, “These studies have generally linked children's television viewing to negative health effects” (Korr, 2008, p. 451). Amongst these negative effects is a higher level of childhood obesity (p. 451). Similarly, in another study performed by a group of researchers, kids were asked to explain the television commercials that they remembered the best. The answers given were then compared with their diets. Interestingly, the items those children remembered best, chips, sweets, and sodas were a huge part of what they ate (Hitching & Moynihan, 1998, p. 511-517). However, some authors argue that television producer’s, even though their
Today’s children, ages 8 to 18, consume multiple types of media (often simultaneously) and spend more time (44.5 hours per week) in front of computer, television, and game screens than any other activity in their lives except sleeping. Research has found strong associations between increases in advertising for non-nutritious foods and rates of childhood obesity. Most children under age 6 cannot distinguish between programming and advertising and children under age 8 do not understand the persuasive intent of advertising. Advertising directed at children this young is by its very nature exploitative. Children have a remarkable ability to recall content from the ads to which they have been exposed. Product preference has been shown to occur with as little as a single commercial exposure and to strengthen with repeated exposures. Product preferences affect children's product purchase requests and these requests influence parents' purchasing
All across the world, society is infused with media. Everything is about it. Movies, news celebrities, and the worst one. Advertisements. These ads cause the human to long for the need to obtain a certain product. The greatest victim is the children. Watching television everyday can make the children ache for the need to own the new toy or something, junk food. Junk food is advertised as good food or “hip” food. Kids become persuaded with the images and videos into thinking that they must want it, thus asking their parents. A study done by Dr. Strasburger figured out that screen time that advertises junk food and fast food increases children 's requests for those particular foods and products. Such as; snacking increases while watching TV or movies, and late-night screen time interferes with getting adequate amounts of sleep, which is a known risk factor for obesity (Strasburger). This includes the studies that were conducted by the nations
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