TV Advertising and its effect on children

Children and TV Advertising

Today’s children are unique in many ways from previous generations, but perhaps the most influencing on our young children today is Television advertisements. There is obviously a great deal of interest in this subject, many books have been written, and many studies and reports done on the effects of TV advertising on children. In the following paragraphs we will look at some of the reasons why we advertise to children, some different positive and negative effects of TV advertisement on children, how people can cut through the hype of TV ads and pick good things for their children.



Why Do We Advertise to Children?

Today, everywhere we go we see some type of advertising. A sale at the supermarket or a billboard for a radio station, are two of the many forms of advertisement. Currently, advertisements that target children are very controversial.

Marketers choose children because they can easily lure them in. Advertisers spend so much money because of television. The average child sees an estimate of more than 20,000 commercials every year - that works out to at least 55 commercials per day (Laws, 2003). Children will insist their parents purchase what they see or hear on television.
Children don't just have their parents buy their toys, but they make purchases of their own. Children's spending has roughly doubled every ten years for the past three decades. No matter how you look at it, advertisers choose children because they are the most easily influenced and will spend their money if they find something interesting.



Only Good Things Happen When You Advertise to Kids.

There are not many people in the world today that would disagree with the fact that children are our future. Children are the ones that must carry on family traditions, continue to build and develop new public projects, and continue to learn and expand the knowledge of the human race. With that said it is important to understand that children are also future consumers. They are the engines that will drive the economy for the next generation, for advertisers the future is now. Advertising to children has long been a very successful way to build a solid consumer base that will win the minds of children in order to secure a lifetime of consumer purchasing. It may sound heartless but the fact is it works, and advertising to children is big business. A good example of the buying power of children’s influence is that Gateway and Nickelodeon have made a deal to produce “Rugrats and Blue’s Clues computers that will be intended for children but marketed to children and parents. This is a potential huge money maker, as kids these days are much more computer literate than their parents. According to McDonald and Lavelle, “In today’s families, many kids also serve as chief technology officers. When it comes to computers and other electronic purchases, even 7-year-olds may boast more expertise than Mom or Pop. A 1999 survey by Yankelovich found that 60 percent of parents don’t shop for technology without consulting their kids.” That’s just another reminder of the tremendous positive effects of advertising to children.

The children are our future and an important part of the present as well. We must understand the importance of a child’s role in today’s world and today’s economy. Advertising to children has long been a part of the free market form of society and must be embraced as another part of a complex economic engine that runs day and night to provide a better life style for us all. Advertising to children generates jobs, injects money into the economy, and instills in children at a young age the importance of the freedom of choice. It also develops a child’s ability to understand the value of a dollar and teaches them that individuals can achieve anything if they are willing to pay the price.



Negative Advertising and its effect on children

Advertising is everywhere you look, whether it is in the newspaper you pick up daily or on that billboard you see while driving down the highway. Some people may say that they are not in fact influenced by the advertising that is thrown at them each day, and that they do not fall into it, but everyone does. Many children are often the target for most advertisers, because they know if they hound at their parents enough they will give in and buy their product, and everyone will be happy. Some advertisers try to portray more positive items to children, but many children are overcome with the negative ways of advertising. Schools are now even advertising to children without them being aware that they are actually doing it. Food, clothing, toys are just a few of the many types of advertisements being influenced upon children daily. Many advertisements being directed towards children are that of food. Many of these food advertisements that children are being exposed to are products that are of low nutritional value. McDonalds spends roughly $570 million a year on advertising (McNeal 2001). Everyone knows that McDonalds is not a good place to find much nutritional value, and in turn will only lead to obesity in children. Now in many schools students are being rewarded coupons for Pizza Hut, and McDonalds for doing a good job in school. Why not reward these children with money towards furthering their education? Many educational posters in schools are advertising candy to children, when it will only rot their teeth and make them gain weight. Along with food advertisements many young children are even being shown cigarette advertisements which promote many young people smoking and enjoying themselves. Well when a young child sees something like that they can only think but to go try it themselves and maybe they will have fun and enjoy themselves. Children that are trying smoking are becoming younger and younger. Smoking has nothing good to offer to children but health problems later on in life. Television impacts children the most as far as advertising goes. Many children as young as three years old recognize brand named products and clothing. When these children spend time watching so much television they cannot help but be influenced by it, and want what they see. These children become so obsessed with having what they see on television that they continue to hassle their parents until they get it. Some parents may even have trouble keeping up with the amount of money their child thinks that they need so they may have the newest products out there. These children that are watching more television, are going to want more toys seen in advertisements and eat more advertised food than children who do not watch as much television (Strasburger, 2001).



Media Violence Affects Children

Over the years there has been an increasing amount of violence in media directed towards children. There have also been an increasing number of violent acts directed toward children and the high degree of these acts that children see on television, in movies, computer games, videotapes, and the large number of violent toys.
The problem of violence shown to children in the media will not be solved easily. This violence doesn’t only show how violent our society is, but it helps make our society more violent. If we continue to allow the violence on television that is consistently shown to our children, then our future nation will have a large quantity of angry adults and criminals.


In Conclusion

In the preceding paragraphs, we have seen some of the reasons why we advertise to children, some different positive and negative effects of TV advertisement on children, How people can cut through the hype of TV ads and pick good things for their children. “Infants, toddlers, and preschoolers are spending far more time watching DVDs and clicking remote controls and computer mice than reading books, according to a Kaiser Foundation study
The effect of such high-intensity media exposure is unclear, researchers said, but what is clear is that the under-6 set is becoming far more media savvy than anyone expected.