Advertising to children Essay

Over the last few decades advertising has altered the lives of many and in particular children. Children are susceptible to what they see and are more prone to act on a whim. This research paper will analyse advertising which is aimed at children and will test the following thesis statement – Thesis – Advertising misleads children in purchasing goods which they do not need. When you think about this, it may not seem that true. You could argue that you don’t know anyone whose fashion or style is influenced by Hollywood’s stars. But, you know you’ve seen people wearing Sean John or JLo brand clothing. Celebrities also influence fashion much more generally. â€Å"Most fashion trends were either started or influenced by the big stars,† says Ramon. Another key component of child intended marketing is the music industry. Stephen Kiehl of the Baltimore Sun says, â€Å"You could be forgiven for confusing the Number 1 song in the U. S. last week with a commercial. † The journalist also mentions that some musical artists are even paid to advertise specific products in their songs. A recent example of this is Petey Pablo’s song â€Å"Freak-a-Leak† in which the lyrics include, â€Å"Now I got to give a shout out to Seagram’s gin. Cause I’m drinkin’ it and they payin’ me for it. † According to the San Francisco marketing company, Agenda Inc. , â€Å"59 brands have been mentioned 645 times in the songs that have made it into the top 20 this year. † Another large reservoir of advertising aimed at children is oddly enough, school. â€Å"‘Looking right’ which really means ‘fitting in’, is very important for young teenagers,† says LaRue- Robinson, a middle school guidance counselor in Forestville, Md. With students caring about how their peers are dressed, moms are beginning to worry; â€Å"It’s gotten really bad now with†¦ Tiny Teddies and Cheezels give a balance diet to children (Houlihan, 2005). On the other hand, some advertisements using prize to deceive children to buy their products. The video (Buy me that, too! 1992) explained how the television advertising deceptive children. From the Cereal Giveaways advertising, children can get a complete set of baseball cards easily (Buy me that, too! 1992. But the presenter said 73 boxes to get a good chance only, this result in expenditure increasing for parents (Buy me that, too! 1992). Therefore, television advertising directed at children is not fair, people can not allow deceptive advertising continue to misleading children, it should be forbid. Some people argue that if government do not allowed manufacturers to promote their products on children television, this will lead to destroy of the children’s product industry. This point of view is biased. Word-of-mouth is influencing children buying power. Harry Potter novel now is popular around the world, but the success is not from television advertising, the books themselves became successful are because of word-of-mouth between children (Blades, Gunter & Oates cited in Proctor &Richards, 2002). Without television advertising, children’s product has been successful in society, Harry Potter gives manufacturers an example that how to achieve success without to promote on children television. Moreover, television advertising is not only method for manufacturers to promote their products. According to the Australia Film Commission report (AFC, 2005), it is estimated the total advertising expenditure with Commercial Economic Advisory Service of Australia (CEASA). Television advertising is not the most important channel for manufacturers in Australia, newspapers is the first choice for manufacturers to promote their products. Also, from the study, manufacturers like to choose radio, magazines and other channels to promote their products (AFC, 2005). Furthermore, 78% of children and adolescents who use the internet do so at home (National Center for Education Statistics, 2003). Internet has become an efficiency way for manufacturers to promote their goods. From the word-of-mouth advertising and study from AFC, people can find the answer easily that forbid the manufacturers to advertise on television will not destroy the children’s product industry. To escape advertising is nearly impossible; brand logos are everywhere. Even in outer space you can’t escape it. In 1993 Schwarzenegger’s underrated and misunderstood classic, (my opinion, I’ll admit it! ) Last Action Hero had it’s logo painted on a satellite for a large fee, and will circle our planet for the next few thousand years. The soldiers fighting in Iraq, even as I write this, are carrying advertisements; the M-16A2 has a Colt logo stamped into its side, a reminder of who makes that quality weapon. Even in the remotest regions of our world artifacts with recognizable logos are found thanks to care packages. (The Gods Must be Crazy is a wonderful movie on this subject. ) Why do we tolerate such invasions to our lives? Largely because these sorts of advertisements slip under our radar, but also for identification purposes; if you came to my house and saw my entertainment centre, you might know what the DVD player, stereo and the television are, but if you are not familiar with gaming systems, you would have trouble distinguishing the X-Box from the Playstation 2 or the Gamecube. So that type of brand labelling does serve a purpose other than advertising in some cases. There are exceptions to the rule of slapping a logo on everything that we purchase, and a clear boundary that corporations will not cross; furniture. A simple scan of the room I’m in shows that that my furniture has nothing denoting where it came from, although I do know that the mattress does have a manufacturer’s tag on it, my sheets cover it. Out of sight, out of mind. Advertising is becoming more and more a part of our society. The film Minority Report features a scene where advertising is everywhere, and customized to the person. This could be construed as an invasion of privacy, as every purchase of the individual is scrutinized and advertising is personally tailored to that person. This type of information gathering is already being tested in seemingly innocent places. Search for a book on amazon.com and you will get recommendations for other products that you may also be interested in based on your search. (Houlihan, 2005, pg76) Advertisers are also starting to work under our radar. On the Internet, advertisers used to use tracking cookies to find out the places you went, what you purchased online and other information. Soon the pop up ad appeared to annoy just about everyone who saw them. Pop ups were preceded by E-junk mail, dubbed Spam. The problem has moved on to what have been dubbed ‘Spybots’ programs that integrate into your browser program and report back the web activity to it’s source. Gator is the most infamous of these. The answer to the thesis statement based on this research paper is yes. To sum up, it is clearly shows that public should outlaw all advertisements that target innocent children. As this is good for children’s health and controls the increasing childhood obesity, and also is of great benefit to the relationship between children and parents. Parents are no longer afraid that children are influenced by unhealthy content of advertisements. Nowadays, more and more countries, like many European Union countries, implement a ban on children’s advertising. Children are a country’s future, protecting their wellbeing and healthy life is the most important responsibility not only for their parents but also for the whole society. References Derived from esbco host – The university of Winnipeg http://libproxy. uwinnipeg. ca/login? URL=http://search. ebscohost. com/login. asp? profile=web CNN. com Health America Australia Film Commission, 2005, what Australians are watching, [Online], Available: http://www. afc. gov. au/gtp/wftvisadrevenue. html [November 24, 2008] Baker, F. 2004, TV-Toy Ad analysis Worksheet, [Online], Available:http://medialit. med. sc. edu/toyadanalysisworksheet. htm [November, 24, 2005]