Children: An Advertisers Playground

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Children watch an average of 2 hours and 17 minutes of television each day, 16 hours each week, and are exposed to 25,600 advertisements a year, with 22% of these advertisements being for food (Holt et al. 2007)(Rose, Merchant, Bakir 76). The majority of children aged between five and eight have some understanding of TV advertising, they are capable of differentiating programs and commercials especially if this understanding is measured by non-verbal rather than verbal measurement. Advertisers create ways to invade the minds of people everyday. Products and services surround our everyday lives and most influence children. Mottos, catchy phrases, and animated figures are just a few of the ways advertisers target the younger generation. Advertisers are influencing their wants and needs, as well as what’s in style and what is not. The industry gets exactly what they want, dedicated customers for life. Advertising is creating issues for children and affecting their lives. They understand TV advertisements at a young age, which can affect their thought and purchasing processes and the fast food industry is a leader in advertising and leading to childhood obesity.

Until the 1960’s, advertising was simple. Companies advertised for their products and there was no real competition. Today, every company is against someone and they show this in their advertisements. This is called comparative advertising. Studies have shown that comparative advertising can achieve “important cognitive and conative outcomes as increasing message recall and purchase intention. Conversely, it also reported significant differences in favor of noncompartive advertising for other key advertising outcomes, such as improving attitude toward the adverting and attit...

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...ion and Internet Food Advertising on Parents and Children." Public Health Nutrition 16.12 (2013): 2205-212. EBSCO MegaFILE. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.

Rose, Gregory M., Altaf Merchant, and Aysen Bakir. "Fantasy in Food Advertising Targeted at Children." Journal of Advertising 41.3 (Fall2013): 75-90. EBSCO MegaFILE. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.

Rosengren, Sara, Micael Dahlen, and Erik Modig. "Think Outside the Ad: Can Advertising Creativity Benefit More Than the Advertiser." Journal of Advertising 42.4 (2013): 320-30. EBSCO MegaFILE. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.

Schlosser, Eric. “What We Eat.” 2001. Back to the Lake. Ed. Thomas Cooley. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2012. 667-74. Print.

Singh, Sultan, and Jaiman P. Kaur. "The Effects of Television and Internet Food Advertising on Parents and Children." IUP Journal of Marketing Management 10.3 (2011): 18-41. EBSCO MegaFILE. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.

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