Effects of Advertising on Children and Teenagers Essay Example

not healthy eating habits. The impact that advertisements have on dietary preferences from an early age cannot be understated. The U.K, for instance, is banned junk food advertisement during television programs aimed for children up to the age of seven and later in 2008 the ban extended to teenagers under the age of sixteen ("Children as Consumers — Global Issues," 2016). Online sources also come to play when it comes to food adverts with the availability of children websites with advertisements. Advertisements do not add value to the society when it has an investment (U.S) of over $ 12 billion in children and teenagers-oriented adverts, most of which are focused on fast foods, snacks and candy consequently leading to a high consumption of such foods and a rise in nutritional problems such as obesity (Story & French, 2004).

The main aim of advertisement is to achieve commercial sales of target products. An effect of children and teenagers-targeted advertisement is that it influences consumption of advertised products. Studies conducted using different methodologies show that children can recall products from past advertisements and can even identify with certain brands due to being exposed to their adverts over an extended period of time ("Advertising and Children," 2016). The effect of having a child or a teenager’s support is that adults too in the household will tend to favor the product. This is the reason why most advertisements are based on cartoon characters with logos that children can easily relate to.

When children and teenagers have a preference for a particular product that the adults of the household do not necessarily prefer, conflict is bound to arise. Marketers and retailers have

coordinated over the years, and as a result, parents find themselves in crossroads while shopping because the most popular brands are placed in the children’s sight and most cases, reach too. This is perhaps one of the most disagreements in households everywhere. This is a very bad situation considering that children below eight years do not have the cognitive ability to process advertisements and mostly fail to differentiate between advertisements and television shows; reality and fiction. It is for this reason alone that Sweden has banned all commercials during children (below age 10) prime time since 1991. Children below age 7 have a higher recall, high trust and little understanding of advertisements and exposure to toy adverts especially during Christmas leads to them writing letters to Santa Claus requesting toys according to a U.K study.

Teenagers are most affected in terms of bodily insecurities that arise when viewing advertisements. Research shows that the ladies used to advertise weigh about 28% less than the average woman. Advertises use this as a tool so as to invoke an unattainable standard, making viewers repetitively use their products. They overlook the impact this has on adolescent girls who have presented this picture as the ‘perfect look’ and are overly conscious of their looks. Teenage girls may take on diets that may be unnecessary or go to other great lengths to attain this. The same applies to the muscular appearance of male models in advertisements who may drive male teenagers to over-exercising or use of steroids. Teenagers can also be easily carried away in product selection when a celebrity endorses a product (Sood A, 2015).

There is also the issue of the

violence and adult scenes that some advertisements may depict in their bid to promote certain products. Although not necessarily meant for the children or teenagers, they may end up viewing such, and it might encourage some unwanted behavior among the youth. There have been some complaints in the United States about advertisements for video games and movies meant for children that depict violent scenes, and the Federal Trade Commission found grounds for the same.

Teenagers and children may also be exposed to some advertisements on tobacco and alcohol brands. As they grow, they develop a preference for such products and inevitably use them. Studies have shown that some commercials like Joe Camel are attractive to children and they develop a positive attitude towards such advertisements.

Another issue is materialism promoted by advertisements. They give the young minds a sense of ‘you have to own such and such a product to be such or to be perceived as such.' This should be highly discouraged as they should be taught more about human values instead of materialism whereby one could easily go to extreme lengths to obtain products.

Conclusion

Advertisements have a major impact on young minds, and this is mainly because they are free of attitudes and are easy to convince. It may be stated as exploitation when advertisers target the children and teenagers due to their naivety. However, today’s youth are techno-savvy. They grow up with technology, and this distinguishes them from previous generations. They easily grow to make their own decisions, and they have a universal dislike for adverts of the ‘old’ generation. The good thing about today’s children and teenagers is that as they grow, they tend

to make decisions based on the ‘as is’ basis that is they go for what the product offers more than what is cliché.' Marketers continue to target children and teenagers in various means including school marketing, product placements in shows and companies forming kids clubs due to their spending capacity, influence on parents spending and their potential as adult consumers. It is no doubt that such advertisement is only good when there is proper guidance involved.

References

1. Children as Consumers — Global Issues. (2016). Globalissues.org. Retrieved 5 December 2016, from http://www.globalissues.org/article/237/children-as-consumers
2. Story, M. & French, S. (2004). International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition And Physical Activity, 1(1), 3. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-1-3
3. Advertising and Children. (2016). http://www.apa.org. Retrieved 5 December 2016, from http://www.apa.org/pubs/info/reports/advertising-children.aspx
4. Sood A, B. (2015). Effects of Advertising on Youth (Age Group of 13-19 Years Age). Journal Of Mass Communication & Journalism, 05(05). http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2165-7912.1000260