Marketing to children is a social problem, as the constant solicitations influences the choices they make. It is unethical to target young children, as they don’t have the cognitive ability to distinguish between television or advertisements (Kasser, & Linn, 2016). The media has a negative impact on children as it takes away from their individuality and shapes their mindset into whatever they please. The beginning of this essay will explore how children are exposed to too much media and how they cannot escape it. I will then discuss how the media over sexualises children. I will also explain how marketing acts as bad influence on children through media. Furthermore, I will discuss children and materialism. Lastly, I will talk about possible …show more content…
From a young age, girls are exposed to celebrities who dress inappropriately and see dolls and photoshopped images in magazines of what they feel they are “suppose” to look like (Barbaro, & Earp, 2008). When children play with Barbie’s and Bratz dolls that are considered thin, perfect and beautiful, they can develop low self esteem (Kasser, & Linn, 2016). Low self-esteem can make kids buy items they do not need such as brand name clothing or makeup to make them feel beautiful. Ads make dressing inappropriately or more mature seem cool. Marketing persuades young children to look older than they are, as there are many mature clothing options for young consumers. Younger audiences like ten to twelve-year old are reading 17 Magazine, exposing themselves to makeup, photoshop, relationships and things they do not fully comprehend (Barbaro, & Earp, 2008). Low self esteem can give children a negative view on their body image, which can lead to eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia. Children should not try to look like anyone but themselves, to accept their individuality and be happy with who they …show more content…
When new games systems, shoes, clothing lines, and toys come out, every kid wants to have it so that they can be seen as popular and liked by others. Children start to rely on items to make them happy and feel accepted by others. Children stray from being unique when they think they need the same things as everyone else. Studies indicate that children who are materialistic have decreased personal well-beings (Kasser, & Linn, 2016). Children need to be taught that satisfaction does not come from materialistic item, so that they can feel happy without having unnecessary
It has recently been brought up that media influences girls in pre-adolescence, which is highly likely since most young girls idolize Barbie (Rintala & Mustajoki, 1992). “Were Barbie a flesh-and-blood woman, her waist would be 39% smaller than that of anorexic patients, and her body weight would be so low that she would not be able to menstruate” (Rintala & Mustajoki, 1992). Most young girls wish that they could look like Barbie when they grew up, but if they knew the reality of having her measurements, their perceptions would probably change. Children frequently fantasize about who they will be, what they will do, and how they will look when they grow into adulthood. Advertisers use women that are abnormally thin, and even airbrush them to make them appear thinner.
In a consumer-driven society, advertisements invade the minds of every person who owns any piece of technology that can connect to the internet. Killbourne observes that “sex in advertising is pornographic because it dehumanizes and objectifies people, especially women,” (271). Advertising takes the societal ideology of women and stereotypes most kids grow up learning and play on the nerves of everyone trying to evoke a reaction out of potential customers, one that results in them buying products. Another point made
Societal constructs of bodily perfection have a massive influence on both genders and on all ages. If you look at any magazine, you will see women constantly being compared to each other, whether it is in the “who wore it better” section or in the “do’s and don’ts” part of the magazine, comparing body images and overall appearances. All parts of the media that encompasses our daily lives are especially dangerous for young and impressionable teens because they see people being torn down for trying to express themselves, and are thus taught to not only don’t look like “don’ts”, but also look like the “do’s”. This is dangerous in that women in the magazine set very high standards that teens want to emulate, no matter the cost to themselves or their health. Celebrities have the benefit of media to make them appear perfect: Photoshop and makeup artists conceal the imperfections that are often too apparent to the naked eye. Viewing celebrities as exhibiting the ideal look or as idols will, in most cases, only damage the confidence of both young teens, and adults, and warp the reality of what true “beauty” really is. It makes teens never feel truly content with themselves because they will be aiming for an ideal that is physically impossible to attain and one that doesn’t exist in the real
This survey was born out of concern that there are few statistics on the effects of marketing industry’s impact on our youth. Just as the article on “Consuming Kids” raises awareness about children being lured into believing they can’t live without things and the problems rising out of it. This survey makes us aware of how this market is willing to sacrifice the sanctity of family life by undermining the parents via their television while children watch mega hours of uninterrupted commercials aimed at them. These surveys were compared with a couple of sparsely completed other ones. The respondents felt that problems such as: aggressiveness, materialism, obesity, lack of creativity, overly sexualized behavior and self-esteem, were detrimentally influenced by the youth marketing industry.
The misconception of what is beautiful can be detrimental to young girls. In a television industry attempt to sell goods, they are depicted as sexy. Creating a need for parents to intervene and present a more realistic and normal view of physical beauty. Today, TV presents sexually based images crafted to appeal to young girls. Unfortunately, they are led to believe that their value is only skin deep, causing flawed expectations, illusions, and wrong information about the truth of the physical body in the real world. In an attempt to look the part some have fallen victim to eating disorders, while others have exchanged childhood innocence for an Adult view of what is sexy.
The media uses means such as social media, magazines, and television to influence people, specifically teenagers. Adolescence can be a confusing time for everyone, but teenage girls are more vulnerable to their influence due to their emotional maturity. Although girls currently believe that this impossible body image is expected of them, they develop eating disorders because of it. For example, the Victoria's secret fashion show and underwear commercials help set up the impossible beauty standard all girls and women are trying to achieve. Those models live by a strict diet and exercise routine plus their photos are manipulated in order to look the way they do. If models don't look thin enough, they will “frequently have collarbones, ribs, and even hips erased to make them look thinner (Body Image-Photo Manipulation).” Magazines are also a huge part of media's influence. It is common to find teenage girls reading fashion magazines. One issue of the popular magazine, Vogue, “was found to contain 144 manipulated images, including the cover (Body Image-Photo Manipulation).” It is normal to be conce...
Any agency that uses children for marketing schemes spend hundreds of billions dollars each year world wide persuading and manipulating consumer’s lifestyles that lead to overindulgence and squandering. Three articles uncover a social problem that advertising companies need to report about. In his research piece “Kid Kustomers” Eric Schlosser considers the reasons for the number of parents that allow their children to consume such harmful foods such as ‘McDonalds’. McDonalds is food that is meant to be fast and not meant to be a regular diet. Advertising exploits children’s needs for the wealth of their enterprise, creating false solutions, covering facts about their food and deceiving children’s insecurities. It contains dissatisfaction that leads to over consumption. Children are particularly vulnerable to this sort of manipulation, American Psychological Association article, “Youth Oriented Advertising” reveals the facts upon the statics on consumers in the food industries. The relationship that encourages young children to adapt towards food marketing schemes, make them more vulnerable to other schemes, such as, advertising towards clothing, toys and cars. Article writer of “The relationship between cartoon trade character recognition and attitude toward product category in young children”, Richard Mizerski, discusses a sample that was given to children ages three to six years old, about how advertising incurs young children that are attracted too certain objects or products on the market.
“You can’t be what you can’t see” (Siebel). In today’s society one gets their many standards of how they should look, act, and talk from the media. The media is setting these standards and instead of putting out unrealistic ideals of beauty for children, they should be encouraging more positive and realistic ideals. If it’s not on television or in the magazines, young children especially, can’t attempt to copy it. The first form of media to look at is advertisements. “U.S. advertisers spent billions of dollars in 2009. 80% of countries in the world have GDP’s less than what was spent” (Missrepresentation). It’s obvious that consumerism is a large aspect of American culture. Advertisements consume Americans lives. No matter where one goes these ads follow. In magazines, on television, radios, billboards litter the highways. There’s always something screaming “Buy me” or “Be like me”. The problem at hand is not women being sexy. It’s okay for a woman to want to be or look sexy; it’s the hyper-sexualization of women ...
The land of the free, brave and consumerism is what the United States has become today. The marketing industry is exploiting children through advertisement, which is ridiculously unfair to children. We are around advertisement and marketing where ever we go; at times, we don't even notice that we are being targeted to spend our money. As a matter of fact, we live to buy; we need and want things constantly, and it will never stop. The film, Consuming Kids , written by Adriana Barbaro and directed by Jeremy Earp, highlights children as this powerful demographic, with billions of dollars in buying power, but the lack of understanding of marketers’ aggressive strategies. Children are easily influenced and taken advantage of, which is why commercialization of children needs to stop. Commercialization to children leads to problems that parents do not even know are happening such as social, future, and rewired childhood problems. Government regulations need to put a stop to corporations that live, breathe and sell the idea of consumerism to children and instead show that genuine relationships and values are what are important.
Imagine being a 5 year old girl playing with baby dolls and brushing your Barbie doll’s hair and feeling fat. A 5 year old feeling fat sounds crazy, right? Well with the influence Barbie has had for years is causing girls younger and younger to feel that their body is not “perfect”. Eating disorders, unrealistic expectations, and self-confidence are all at jeopardy once a young girl is rewarded with her first Barbie doll.
Our media continues to flood the marketplace with advertisements portraying our young teens much older than their age. Woman’s body images have been the focus of advertising for generations. However, now the focus is more directed to the younger teenage girls instead of woman. Young girls are often displayed provocatively while eating messy triple decker hamburgers, or sipping a diet sodas on an oversized motorcycles. As a result, young teens are dressing older than their age, trying to compete with this ideal media image. By allowing younger girls and teens to be portrayed as grown woman in advertisements, our teens are losing their young innocence. With society’s increasing tolerance, this epidemic will continue to exploit our young daughters, sisters and friends. Young teens feel an enormous amount of pressure to obtain the ‘ideal’ perfect body. Trying to emulate the advertisements seen in the media and magazines. As a result, more girls and woman are developing eating disorders. Media can no longer dictate how our young teenage girls should look.
In the controversy of animal testing, there are two different point of views regarding the issue. One-side supports the animal testing due to its beneficial outcomes, and the other side opposes animal testing due to morality and the ethics of testing on animals. The people who support the animal experimentation are hoping for many medical breakthroughs like those that the past animal experimentations have found. The people who oppose the animal experimentation are against it, because they believe that the animal experimentation are just cruel ways to harm animals and kill thousands of animals through failing experimentations.
No matter how serious the impacts of eating disorders are, the fashion industry still continues to give out the products called “doll clothes” (The Sunday Telegraph, 2009) to young women. People in our society do not want to see teenagers with “jutting bones and no breasts or hips” (The Sunday Telegraph, 2009). We really want to see girls with healthy body image. Clearly, there is a need to curtail the cases of teenagers suffering from body image pressures immediately (Kennedy, 2010).
Children’s exposure to subliminal messages occurs daily and throughout their life. The media conditions and manipulates the developing mind. Without the parents’ permission or even their knowledge, the media makes lifestyle decisions for our children. Advertising Moguls, without regard for our childre...
Across America in homes, schools, and businesses, sits advertisers' mass marketing tool, the television, usurping freedoms from children and their parents and changing American culture. Virtually an entire nation has surrendered itself wholesale to a medium for selling. Advertisers, within the constraints of the law, use their thirty-second commercials to target America's youth to be the decision-makers, convincing their parents to buy the advertised toys, foods, drinks, clothes, and other products. Inherent in this targeting, especially of the very young, are the advertisers; fostering the youth's loyalty to brands, creating among the children a loss of individuality and self-sufficiency, denying them the ability to explore and create but instead often encouraging poor health habits. The children demanding advertiser's products are influencing economic hardships in many families today. These children, targeted by advertisers, are so vulnerable to trickery, are so mentally and emotionally unable to understand reality because they lack the cognitive reasoning skills needed to be skeptical of advertisements. Children spend thousands of hours captivated by various advertising tactics and do not understand their subtleties.