Children And Television Commercials

1561 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Effects Of Advertising Among Youth

Children and Television Commercials Should they be so closely tied. Are your children becoming the target of today's "BIG BUSINESS"? There doesn't seem to be a good time to watch television with your children. Whether its Saturday morning cartoons or Sunday night football, the constant bombardment of controversial television commercials is all around us. As father of two young children, ages three and five, I have noticed that today's big business companies have targeted my children as consumers. It's hard not to notice the non-stop flood of commercials that are aimed directly at children. These commercials encourage today's children to purchase all types of unhealthy food items, as well as toys and clothing. Not only are these food items full of fat and sugar, I can not go to a toy store or clothing store without my children asking specifically for items promoted through television commercials. My children have even asked for certain types of fast food restaurant to receive a desired happy meal toy. Food products are the most commonly advertised item during peak hours of children's TV watching. A study of broadcasting during the peak hours of children's television watching found that 16% of the time was consumed with ads. Almost half of the ads were related to food (food products, restaurants, and beverages). The nutritional contents of the foods advertised weren't good. Almost 70% of the foods advertised were high in sugar, 40% were high in fat, and 20% high in salt. About 9% of the foods advertised were classified as healthy (low in sugar, fat, and salt). (Pediatrics for parents 1997) Children and Television Commercials 3 Not coincidentally, childhood diabetes is on the rise. Dr. Robin S. Goland, co-director of the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center, told the New York Times that "With the numbers we are starting to see, this could be the beginning of an epidemic"(Thompson 1998). In a society in which children are becoming more obese, inactive, and often unable to focus due to attention deficit disorders, it is clear that big business companies only care about their own pocketbook. Their main focus is certainly not on the health and well being of my children or the rest of the nation's children. Advertisers in the United States have begun to realize the potential in international children's market as well.

Show More
Related

  • The Myth Of Choice: How Junk-Food Companies Target Our Children

    660 Words  | 2 Pages

    One way that advertising is harmful is advertising poses health risks to youths. In a video titled, “The Myth of Choice: How Junk-Food Marketers Target Our Kids,” narrated by Anna Lappe, it talks about how advertisers target youths. In the video it states, “...only 16% of kids get balanced food.” Foods that are advertised the most,

    Read More

  • Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood

    1469 Words  | 3 Pages

    The land of the free, brave and consumerism is what the United States has become today. The marketing industry is exploiting children through advertisement, which is ridiculously unfair to children. We are around advertisement and marketing where ever we go; at times, we don't even notice that we are being targeted to spend our money. As a matter of fact, we live to buy; we need and want things constantly, and it will never stop. The film, Consuming Kids , written by Adriana Barbaro and directed by Jeremy Earp, highlights children as this powerful demographic, with billions of dollars in buying power, but the lack of understanding of marketers’ aggressive strategies. Children are easily influenced and taken advantage of, which is why commercialization of children needs to stop. Commercialization to children leads to problems that parents do not even know are happening such as social, future, and rewired childhood problems. Government regulations need to put a stop to corporations that live, breathe and sell the idea of consumerism to children and instead show that genuine relationships and values are what are important.

    Read More

  • Walt Disney Advertisements Analysis

    2106 Words  | 5 Pages

    Most of us come home after a long day of work to sit down on our couch, grab the remote, and flip to our favorite show. Some are able to watch shows that were previously recorded giving them the ability to fast forward through commercials, while others have to wait as advertisements are shown every 15 minutes. Being the common routine that it is, some of us will get up to get something to drink, make some popcorn, or even take out the trash instead of watching the advertisements. For children, advertisements are much more than just something they can ignore. Most large corporations know this, and take advantage of this idea in order to harness the power of “whining.” This forces their parents into eventually giving

    Read More

  • Diabetes Informative Speech Outline

    555 Words  | 2 Pages

    Diabetes is becoming an epidemic. In fact, in 10 years many experts believe that people who suffer from diabetic is going to double. Kids who are as young as 8 years old are now borderline type 2 diabetics.

    Read More

  • Analyzing the Film Food Inc and the Propaganda Message for Positive Change

    1448 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...f television advertisements for junk food versus nutritious food on children's food attitudes and preferences. Social science & medicine, 65, (7), pp. 1311-1323.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Silly Advertising, Trix Are For Kids

    1760 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Hey kids

    796 Words  | 2 Pages

    I know it can be hard but try to remember when we were kids how much we all loved to wake up early on Saturday morning, sneak to the T.V., and watch our favorite cartoons. We loved to do this not only so that we could see our favorite characters go through troublesome dilemmas each episode, but also that we could see what was new on the market and try to convince our parents to spare a few dollars and buy it. This tactic has been used from years upon years and will likely continue occurring for the simple reason that it works. Businessmen in the marketing know that kids will see the latest and greatest thing and insist to their parent that they must have it. And with a little persistence and maybe a temper tantrum or two, they usually get it. Sometime commercials will appeal to not only the child, but also to parents because they can see the new toys that they are able to buy for their kids. Because there is always a constant demand for new toys, there will always be a entrepreneur trying to make money by creating a product, and market it in the way of commercialization. It is a never ending cycle which will always occur as long as there is T.V. because it is how they make their money.

    Read More

  • Childhood Obesity: Fast Food Companies Are To Blame

    904 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Advertising and its Effect on Childhood Obesity

    1245 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Myth Of Stereotypes

    519 Words  | 2 Pages

    Advertisers spend over two billion dollars a year on advertisements targeting kids. Televised ads are part and most of that money. These ads usually include kid friendly characters. These character could be like shaped macaroni and cheese. It's not like Kraft created Spongebob Squarepants shaped macaroni for adults ……. Right? Advertisers also using online kids games to get kids to ¨like¨ their twitter page in exchange for personal information. Have you noticed that kids always have their noses in a phone or tablet or TV? When kids see an ad on TV, they immediately think ¨ Oh my gosh that is so cool. Mom Mom Mom Mom Mom Mom MOM MOM MOM …. Can I have it please¨. I should know i'm a kid.

    Read More

  • Childhood Obesity In Children

    1636 Words  | 4 Pages

    There are a massive number of overweight children in the world today, and the waistlines of children are continuing to grow at disturbing rates, which is threatening and putting their lives in danger's way. The growing rate of childhood obesity has consumers and health advocates urging the United States government to investigate the relationship between childhood obesity and marketing. Transiri states, in Don’t Blame the Youth, “As youngsters get fatter, parents, public health organizations and government officials continue to question the impact of food-marketing practices” (Casison-Tansiri). Childhood obesity rates are increasing in the United States because the advertising industry is targeting our children with unhealthy eating habits. These are harsh statements, and may be offending to some, but the obesity rate in children should be just as offensive, and society as a whole needs to be involved to make a difference to prevent childhood obesity.

    Read More

  • Advertising and Its Impact on Children

    1554 Words  | 4 Pages

    ... 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.

    Read More

  • School Children with Diabetes

    1580 Words  | 4 Pages

    Point blank, diabetes is a serious disease and causes major effects on people’s daily lives. In a society where food comes in such abundance, people are overeating. Compared to the beginning of the twenty first century when only about five percent of the population had diabetes (Nazarko, 2009), today that number is rising and continuing to do so. This is starting to affect the health of children by being diagnosed with diabetes at a young age. When a child has diabetes it becomes very serious since children are at such a young age to deal...

    Read More

  • Advertising to Children Must Be Banned

    968 Words  | 2 Pages

    As a little girl I loved watching television shows on Saturday mornings. I’d get upset when a show would proceed to commercial. That is until I watched the shiny new toy being played with by the girl my age and of course the cool new one that came into the happy meal, then I’d forget. After seeing the appealing commercial I’d run to my mom and try to slickly mention it. “You know McDonalds has a new Monster’s Inc. toy in their happy meal. Isn’t that great? “Now I realize that back then I was targeted by big companies to beg my parents for things that I didn’t need or that wasn’t good for me in order to make money. Advertising today is affecting the health of today’s children because they eat the unhealthy foods advertised to them on: television, the internet, and even at school. Therefore, an impassioned discussion of possible solutions has been brewing.

    Read More

  • The Exploitation Of Children In Television Advertising

    4398 Words  | 9 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about Children And Television Commercials

Open Document