Advertising and Its Impact on Children

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Advertising has had a powerful impact on today’s children. From songs, to logos, to characters, advertisers keep in mind their audiences. Competition is the force which causes advertisers to target children. Children are targeted through the catch phrases, animated characters, and toys in these competitive advertisements. The textbook used in class (Huffman, 2002) describes that “advertising has numerous” methods to hook the individual into “buying their products and services.” The advertising company surrounds a particular candidate such as a child and immediately sinks their teeth into the child’s mind to manipulate the child into desiring their products. Through TV, cartoons and magazine ads, child are hit by one subliminal message after another. They are shown how this product will either improve their status by making them they envy of all their friends. Whether it be a food, a particular catch phrase, a child can be the easiest for advertisers to prey on. Many types of foods targeted towards children have a catch phrase associated towards them. Commercials use these catch phrases to implant their product into the children’s memory. One example, are the goldfish crackers. “I love the fishes ‘cause their so delicious…” This is the theme to a well-known commercial, which advertises Pepperidge Farm goldfish crackers. Children sing the catch phrase over and over throughout the entirety of the commercial. By the time the commercial ends the line and products are inevitably stuck in a child’s mind. The commercial says”…and my mom says that’s okay,” which implies to children that their parents will allow them to eat this snack. Another example of a product with an addicting catch phrase is Oscar Meyer bologna. “My bologna has a first name its O-S-C-A-R…” Instead of this song selling the product itself, its aim is to sell the brand. The Oscar Meyer Company has auditions for the next Oscar Meyer child. Again, their goal is to sell their brand. The company also has another product with another catchy song, Oscar Meyer hotdogs. “I wish I were an Oscar Meyer wiener…” The stress of this phrase is also the brand. Oscar Meyer commercials use children to sing these songs and like the gold fish commercial, the song has been imprinted into a child’s memory by th... ... middle of paper ... ...e doing so without adult supervision. A lot of children watching TV are 8 or younger and they do not fully comprehend the importance of the subliminal messages that the companies are sending out by using their cartoons and catchy songs to hook the child into buying their products. I believe that advertising is a modern example of brainwashing and that with no parental supervision or no parental limits, our nation’s youth will be so caught up in the power of advertising, that their youth and innocence will end much faster than the generation before. Advertising is using the power of suggestion to sell a product. In the case of children, a company’s advertisement hopes to suggest that their product is best. Many food companies target children with the hopes that they can influence their parents choices when it comes to buying a product. Animated characters, catch phrases, and toys are used to lure a child to the product. WORKS CITED Dittmann, Melissa. (2004, June 6). Protecting Children From Advertising. Monitor on Psychology, 35, 1-4. http://www.apa.org/monitor/jun04/protecting.html Huffman, Karen. (2002). Psychology in Action. New York: Palomar College.

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