Children's Television Commercials: Analyzing the Representation of Family
The assignment requires children’s commercials to be studied to find how these commercials are coded to give meaning to a representation of ‘the family’. However, before this can be tackled the concept of representation must be discussed as well as clarifying what exactly is meant by ‘children’s commercials’. The assignment is open to many interpretations as to what constitutes a children’s commercial. A commercial aimed at children, especially young children, must have an appeal to both child and parent alike, as it is most likely the parent who will be purchasing any of the items desired. There is a crucial interplay within commercials between selling the item to the child whilst also selling the product to the parent. When identifying children’s commercials it is advisable to look beyond the most obvious choice of toys or ‘fun’ food to all the commercials involving ‘the family’ which a child may be exposed to. Commercials are specifically placed to gain the maximum exposure to the optimum audience for their product, so any commercial shown during children’s viewing time must have some relevance for a child. Another point to be addressed is how is a child defined. In this essay, the definition of a child from the Oxford Dictionary of Current English is taken in a modified form. The definition is a “young human being below the age of puberty” (1996, 141), but in this essay, because puberty occurs at different stages in different people, a child is taken to be of primary school age. Yet further complexity is added when personal taste is taken into account. A child of five will want very different things than a ten-year-old child, it is hard to judge wh...
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...ising children, which is then used to sell the product.
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For more than 50 years, Selective Service and the registration requirement for America's young men have served as a backup system to provide manpower to the U.S. Armed Forces. President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 which created the country's first peacetime draft and formally established the Selective Service System as an independent Federal agency. From 1948 until 1973, during both peacetime and periods of conflict, men were drafted to fill vacancies in the armed forces which could not be filled through voluntary means. (Gerhardt 1971)
This helps widen the idea of just how many ways children and teens can be affected by advertisements not just by making them more accessible but making them a part of what this society is. By making their products a part of the child’s life they are allowing the product to become a norm in the life of a child.
In the article “Report of the APA Task Force on Advertising and Children” talks about commercials targeting kids. First of all, Advertising didn’t take off until the arrival of various mass media;printing, radio, and television. Secondly, The British Parliament passed legislation in 1874 intended to protect children from the efforts of merchants to induce them to buy products and assume debt. Thirdly, Opportunities to advertise to children further expanded with the explosive growth the internet and thousands of child-oriented Web sites with advertising content have appeared in the past few years. After that, The growth in advertising channels reaching children and the privatization in children’s media use---have resulted in dramatic increase
Common sense seems to dictate that commercials just advertise products. But in reality, advertising is a multi-headed beast that targets specific genders, races, ages, etc. In “Men’s Men & Women’s Women”, author Steve Craig focuses on one head of the beast: gender. Craig suggests that, “Advertisers . . . portray different images to men and women in order to exploit the different deep seated motivations and anxieties connected to gender identity.” In other words, advertisers manipulate consumers’ fantasies to sell their product. In this essay, I will be analyzing four different commercials that focuses on appealing to specific genders.
These key concepts have aided in the development of the homeland security mission and a variety of different responsibilities in protecting the United States. The first responsibility is to prevent terrorism and enhance security. Preventing terrorism is the number one after the attacks on September 11th. The attacks showed how vulnerable the United States had become in regards to protecting the homeland. Intelligence collected now aids in the prevention of future attacks, importation, movement, and use of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) weapons and materials within the border, and also reducing the vulnerability of the United States critical infrastructure. The DHS aids the Coast Guard, Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and state and local law enforcement in screenings and infrastructure
The idea that members of a community have the duty to defend it, is as old as civilization itself (Ruschmann 10). The United States has an extensive history, starting with the original thirteen States of involuntary conscription in time of conflict. Citizen’s service is a standard principle of American military service, which places the obligation of service upon citizens to serve and to ensure that the state require those citizens to serve (Dalehite and Birskyte 1). With this obligation, young people will be imbued with a sense of “duty” and being part of the collective effort in which everyone will have and do their part for the benefit of the nation. Thereby, military service in the United States should be compulsory, because it will provide young adults with economic and social benefits that will give them a better understanding of commitment and sacrifice, making them better citizens and great assets to the nation.
Mandatory service to our country would be a good thing required for all its citizens. Although this is the land of the free, freedom was not won by standing idly and doing nothing.
“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” John F. Kennedy defined service. The men and women who have joined the armed forces have provided a service to our country: protect our freedoms at any cost. Depending on the time period, some men and women chose to enlist, while others were drafted. During World War II, when a boy turned 18, they were drafted into the army and went to war. It didn’t matter what path their life was headed, they went to serve their country.
While the majority of the population generally think that having American adults ages 18-28 participate in mandatory military service is a violation of our personal rights as Americans; however, I have found through observation, personal experience, and research that it would greatly benefit the US as a whole.
4) Kilbourne, Jean. Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising’s Image of Women. Dir. Sut Jhally. DVD. Media Education Foundation, 2000.
Some Americans today believe in the act of voluntary service. However, other Americans believe national service should be rather obligatory. No matter which way you look at it, it is an important factor for the United States itself. As Americans we all have rights and as Americans we have the absolute privilege to live in a county where the constitution has laid out a set of rules for us, knows as The Bill of Rights. Although some changes have been made over the years to better our rights, for the most part we already have a strong foundation on how to abide by the rules in order to live in America. After reviewing both sides of the argument in depth I came to a conclusion that compulsory National Service should
Nowadays, advertisement play an important role as it give specific information about the products to be sell to consumers whether on television, in newspaper and other medium. Based on Oxford dictionary, advertisement can be define as a notice, picture or film or movie telling people about a product, job or service. It is an example of something that shows its good qualities and making it public. As we know, children are innocent and highly targeted in the marketing industry. Therefore, billion-dollar of marketing generally will take the advantages towards children by promoting their items in the advertisement because it is easy to influence the children rather than the adults and the way that the marketing industry is now targeting
Advertising uses the power of suggestion to sell a product. In the case of children, a company’s advertisement hopes to suggest that their product is best. Many food companies target children with the hopes that they can influence their parents'choices when it comes to buying a product. The product is a. Animated characters, catch phrases, and toys are used to lure a child to the product. WORKS CITED Dittmann, Melissa. A. (2004, June 6).
Advertising have a lot of negative effects on children. It is argued that advertising is directed at children; companies target their vulnerability and wanting things they do not need. Advertising influences children’s habits, preferences, their occupational expectations and companies making children’s attitude materialistic just for their