Marketing to children has always been a flourishing industry to invest in. As a matter of fact, 6.2 billion dollars to 12 billion dollars had been spent into this business only in 5-year period, from 1992 to 1997 (Campaign for a commercial-free childhood, n.d.). However, even though child advertising has been bringing a lot of benefit to many companies, there have been an argument on banning the broadcasting promotion aimed at children. In fact, nowadays, there has been some countries banning advertising aimed at children such as Sweden, Norway or Quebec (Watson 2014) while in Australia, this topic is still in debate. There are many opinions to protect the child advertising industry and explain that this marketing should not be banned because …show more content…
Nevertheless, this essay will point out some statements why the marketing targeted children should be prohibited because it can make youngster’s health condition be at risk, influence negatively on their behaviour and make them have an untruthful perception.
One of the reasons child advertising aimed at children should be restricted is due to some negative impact later on children’s health. It can be seen that childhood obesity has some connection with child advertising. Research shows that the more youngsters are exposed to advertisements in front of television, the more they have the risk of becoming obese (American Psychological Association n.d.). It can be proved through the increase in the rate of children who are overweight or obesity has increased from 4 to 5 percent by 2007 compared to the figure in 1995 (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2010). Most broadcasting commercials which are aiming at children usually focus on sweets and fast food, which are the main causes of overweight and some other illnesses. In fact, obesity alone is very dangerous as it can lead into many different other sicknesses like asthma, liver disease, diabetes types I and diabetes type II and also some social problem such as being harassed and decreasing in self-respect (Boyland and Whalen 2015). As an
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In fact, many parents have to suffer through a very tiring time due to the eagerness of their children wanting to purchase the product. In particular, broadcasting commercials for children are usually picturesque with many animations and colours. For that reason, it can affect children in three ways: make an absolute use of intermedia to attract them, capitalise through the lack of perception in youngsters to distinguish between advertisements and television programs and also on the impossibility to differentiate between realism and concept, according to Desmond and Carveth (2007). Therefore, children will pester their parents endlessly until they have the merchandise. Hence, children’s exposure to ads should be declined for the better standard of children’s
From cartoon and sports to having the toys in meals in a huge display and lowered. There are even advertisements that trick adults. They are convincing, but it can all be stopped with just simple reminders that it’s not real or it’s not good to have this in your body. These reminders can help America become less obese and more health conscious and can even affect the way children think as they grow up surrounded by them. The United States is slowly increasing its awareness of the condition that it is in by companies improving foods and people paying more attention to the nutrition’s in foods. Also many food companies have died down on television advertising for kids, but it is still found in other expressed ways. While it is okay to advertise the question of is it okay to advertise to children is still not answered. It all depends on the consumers what is right and wrong and how to approach each product. Obesity from these products can be cured by hard exercise, but this is not recommended for children. It is more efficient for children to just eat healthy as they are still growing each day. So the next time an ad pops up on the screen and that little girl or boy is focused on it try to explain to them by reading the ingredients or the nutrition label why they should not eat it often. With small steps like these children
In the article, Every Nook and Cranny: The Dangerous Spread of Commercialized Culture by Gary Ruskin and Juliet Schor (Ackley 361). Since the early 90s is when Commercialism has bombarded the society. Ruskin and Schor provide examples why advertising has an effect on people’s health. Marketing related diseases afflicting people in the United States, and especially children, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and smoking-related illnesses. “Each day, about 2,000 U.S. children begin to smoke, and about one-third of them will die from tobacco-related illnesses” (Ackley 366). Children are inundated with advertising for high calorie junk food and fast food, and, predictably, 15 percent of U.S. children aged 6 to 19 are now overweight (Ackley 366). Commercialism promotes future negative effects and consumers don’t realize it.
In the documentary Killer at Large, former Surgeon General Richard Carmona remarked that “Obesity is a terror within. It’s destroying our society from within and unless we do something about it, the magnitude of the dilemma will dwarf 9/11 or any other terrorist event that you can point out…” Carmona is indeed right, with the rapid increase of obese children, America is on the fast track to producing a generation with a life expectancy shorter than their peers. One of the main factor is the media representation of obesity (Greenstreet 2008). In today’s society parents are not only worrying about televisions influence on their kid’s behavior but their weight and health, too. According to study conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, that researched the role of media in childhood obesity, stated the obesity increased by 2% for every hours of television in adolescent’s ages 12 to 17. The advertisement of food and beverages present a very strong influence on the children. Most of the products being advert...
Americans are constantly facing obstacles to healthy eating. Obesity is something that is growing rapidly in the United States. Some Americans argue that fast-food restaurants play a major role in obesity. In “Preventing Obesity” Barbara Mantel states, “Four of the companies — Cadbury, Coca-Cola, Hershey and Mars — pledge not to advertise any food and beverage products on programming for children younger than 12, and the remaining firms pledge that 100 percent of their children's advertising would be for self-designated ‘better-for-you’ products ” (805-806). Whenever children see a junk-food or candy commercial they are instantly attracted to it, it might be because of how colorful they are or the usual toy they receive when they buy kids
It contains dissatisfaction that leads to over-consumption. Children are particularly vulnerable to this sort of manipulation, and the American Psychological Association article, “Youth Oriented Advertising” reveals the facts upon the statistics on consumers in the food industry. The relationship that encourages young children to adapt towards food marketing schemes, makes 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 affects young children that are attracted to certain objects or products on the market. During this past decade, advertising companies have gone out of their way just to get the new scoop or trend children are into, gathering information and distributing it to other companies.
This article is published on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation website; which is dedicated to increasing the knowledge of health problems and obesity. There is no specific author, but this article helps the website based on the new studies that have been found. They have percentages of children seeing ads each day and a follow up from the studies in 2010; which increases the liability of the website and the information on it. Some of the main points would be that the epidemic is decreasing. Children see many fast food ads every day and they stick in the child’s mind; which is how the producers grab the children’s attention, by having the best and most exciting advertisement. Restaurants should provide healthier options when one would like dine out. The circumstance is the obesity epidemic, but how it is slowly becoming better. The purpose of this article to is make people more aware and make thei...
This helps widen the idea of just how many ways children and teens can be affected by advertisements not just by making them more accessible but making them a part of what this society is. By making their products a part of the child’s life they are allowing the product to become a norm in the life of a child.
According to “Burger Battles” from the Weekly Reader, obesity is defined as a person whose weight is 20 percent higher than recommended for their height (Burger Battles 1). When this condition begins to affect children lives, it is then known as childhood obesity. Within the United States of America, around 15 percent of children are considered to be obese (Holguin 3). Increasing tremendously, this outbreak has actually tripled in the amount of obese teen and doubled in children up to the age of thirteen (Burger Battles 2). One of the factors that is usually overlooked in the cause for obesity is the role of television. Not only does it reduce the amount of physical activity, the advertisements and commercials are targeting innocent viewers. In a survey completed by Gary Ruskin of Commercial Alert, the average child watches nearly 19 hours and 40 minutes of television a week (Ruskin 2). With that amount of time spent watching television, advertisements for fast food will be entering the children’s minds.
Throughout “Consuming Kids,” there are negative interpretations of the marketing on children. The future is in the hands of a younger generation. Ironically, the marketing is harming young children through various medical issues. There are studies shown that there is an increase in bipolar disorder, as well as ADHD. As more children begin to cease playing outside, there is a surge in childhood obesity. Children are not being marketed to play outside. The advertisements on TVs show children inside and lazy. Without physical activity, there is a higher chance of depression, as the child grows up. Type 2 diabetes is uncommon within children, unless it is hereditary. But, this is not the case within our growing generation. Type 2 diabetes has become prevalent, as a result to children
Food advertising contributes to childhood obesity in many ways. One of them being that the food advertised is unhealthy. “The mechanism of effect of media exposure on obesity may also operate through the extensive advertising messages for unhealthy foods targeted at children.” (Agarwal, Dhanasekaran) The food advertising geared towards children makes them develop unhealthy eating habits, and choices. The advertisements are usually advertising unhealthy foods, never healthy ones. “When children watch television, they cannot escape food advertising. “Sugared snacks and drinks, cereal, and fast food advertisements respectively comprise approximately thirty-two percent, thirty-one percent, and nine percent of all advertisements marketed specifically to children.” (Termini, Roberto, Hostetter) Due to limited cognitive abilities, children view many food advertisements, and don’t really have the knowledge or capability to comprehend that the food being advertised is not healthy.
One way that fast food effects obesity is by advertising their products to children (Miller). In her article Food Advertising Contributes to Obesity, Patti Miller explains that the fast food companies are targeting kids and teenagers by advertising on television. The fast food advertisements are promoting unhealthy products as acceptable food which influences children to choose those meals. The American Psychological Association, an organization focused on improving the lives of individuals, expressed that with the exposure of different fast food commercials, children request to purchase these unhealthy products and cause the parents to be influenced by these requests. This concludes the idea that once children are encouraged by the commercials, they opt to consume the fast food advertised on television. Today, fast food companies are even advertising through schools by offering pizzas and burgers as school lunches, which consequently becomes a daily meal for children and teenagers to consume (Wadden, Brownell,
The advertising is a method of communication that has a big purpose which is to persuade the audience to buy their products .Today, advertising is very remarkable and has an essential role in community.as it tends to impact on children specially. In addition, nowadays, the children are watching too much television and use the social media than previous years. Therefore, they see more advertising. Besides, although there are some good impacts of advertising on young minds, the researchers shown that, the advertising can also have several bad influences on children, particularly, if parents are incautious and do not increase the awareness of their children about the importance of money.
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.
Children between four and eight don’t recognize that ads are paid commercials intended to convince them into buying something. Children see about 6,000 advertis...
... Dittman also stated that “the average child is bombarded with more than 40,000 TV. commercials a year” (Dittman, 2004). The campaigns shown on TV persuade children to feel that They desperately need the product and that they have to nag their parents into buying it. product for them, or they will be left out of the cool crowd.