Impact of media advertising on children:
Although the work or target of an advertisement is to aware us with the use of the given and the new products available in the market, still they have some drawbacks or negative effects on the society and especially on the children. Today’s generation is much faster and inimitable from the previous generation, but the truth is children are children they are innocent and juvenile. When any kind of advertisement is displayed to attract using any kind of media advertising, children do not understand it as a marketing strategy. That is the business of the company and their aim is to sell their product. Children believe the message that the advertisement displays without any suspicion and take each and everything at the face value or the market value (Committee on Communications 1).
The companies make the advertisement in such a manner so as to attract the maximum concentration and attention of the children. Thus, children are an exceptionally susceptible target customer and get easily attracted.
In fact in the late 1970s, FTC (Federal Trade Commission) detained inquiries, examined the obtainable research, and come to the wrapping up that it was not fair and illusory to publicize or advertise the product to the children less than six years. But, as this thought seems to be unrealistic to put into operation it kept FTC from prohibition. However some countries such as Sweden and Norway prohibited or banned all advertisements targeting at children less than twelve years of age, on the other hand, Greece prohibits toy advertising before 10 pm, while Belgium and Denmark relentlessly control advertising targeted at children. Children today are exposed for the advertisement in all type of Medias; let’s discuss them in detail (Committee on Communications 2).
Effect of Advertising in Different Media:
Television: It is an effectual way of advertising various products to children of different age groups. It has the capability to engender both harmful and affirmative effects on the children. Not all the advertisement and programs shown on television are bad, but harmful effects of revelation to brutality or violence, inapt sexuality issues and frequent use of offensive and bad language have been noticed. (Pediatrics and child health care 2) Substantiation recommends that the influence of television on children is directly related to the proportion of time spent by the children on watching television. As a result, with extended or continuous viewing, the world shown in the advertisements on television seems like real world to the children. Maximum children viewing television regularly limits themselves from essential activities such as learning to talk, storytelling and reading, outdoor playing and other outdoor games, doing regular exercise, spending time with their family, and lastly television affects on the development of children social, physical and mental skills. Many studies have acknowledged that children are not able to recognize the divergence between regular programs and advertisements shown, especially those children who are less than eight years of age. Data shows that the average child watches more than 20,000 advertisements each year. (Gunter and Mcaleer 5)
Print Media:
Print media is still a powerful medium for information and announcement. There are more than 160 magazines and other journals which targets on the children. Many children performance and observation are inclined by the images of the advertisements they see in print media. The advertisements of toys, Cadbury and other of other snacks shown with beautiful and colorful print attract the children and thus they force their parents to buy such for them (Hackley 62).
Movies: According to FTC (Federal Trade Commission) it has been investigated that violent movies, video games have been purposely marketed to children. Even though movie theaters have decided to not show R-rated promos prior to G-rated movies in reaction to the make public of the FTC report, children prolong to see the promotion for aggressive media in other venues (Calvert and Wilson 32).
For instance: Video Games with M ratings, which as per gaming industry’s own marking or rating system are not suggested for children below the age of 17 years, are recurrently advertised in movie theaters, magazines targeting children and other such publications. Also, cartoon movies and other movies targeting children offer notably feature brand-name products such as Coca-Cola, Lays and fast food restaurants such as Mc-Donald’s, Pizza hut and Dominos etc.
Internet: With the increase in popularity and web usages, large number of websites tries to persuade children for direct sales.
Conclusion: From the above discussion it has cleared that advertisement represents” big business” in the society and leaves considerable and significant impact on children. The effect of advertisement is becoming extremely negative on the mind of children. According to some research significant increase in the spending power of children has been noticed i.e. approximately $1 trillion. While the purchases are not made by themselves, but they have the power to influence the decision to make the product purchased by the parents (Gunter, and Mcaleer 157).
Parents should cut the propaganda of products through advertisements and pick best things for their children according to their usability.
References:
Committee on Communications. Children, Adolescents, and Advertising. Official Journal of American Academy of Pediatrics. 2006. Web 5 April 2014.
Pediatrics and child health care, 2003. Web 5 April 2014.
Calvert, Sandra L, and Wilson, Barbara J. The Handbook of Children, Media and Development. John Wiley & Sons: UK, 2010. Print
Hackley, Chris. Advertising and Promotion: An integrated marketing communication approach. Sage Publications: UK, 2010. Print
Gunter, Barrie, and Mcaleer Jill. Children and television. Routledge Publisher: UK. 2005. Print
