Commercials Brainwash On Children

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Recommended: The effects of TV advertising on children

“It is estimated that advertisers spend more than $12 billion per year to reach out to the youth market…” -Report of the APA Task Force on Advertising and Children. Fast-food chains often use toys or prizes to help make children want to buy their products. Commercials brainwash and manipulate young children. Possible solutions to this problem might be to cut down on the amount of time children spend watching cable television. Children brainwashing is a large problem and can be avoided. Marketing towards children negatively affects young children and their parents.

To begin with, toys that fast-food chains sell with their meals can make children want to frequently buy their products. In the year 2009, the largest fast-food chains spent 59% of their marketing money on toys and prizes. “Most of these foods are high in fat, sugar, salt, and calories. Fast-food chains appeal to kids with tie-ins to movies, giving toys or prizes to kids who buy certain meals,” Said Caroline Knorr. The fact that the toys are usually popular movies or cartoon characters can affect children’s food choices. Most children will be more likely to want products with …show more content…

According to Children, Adolescents, and Advertising, “Young people view more than 40,000 ads per year on television alone and increasingly are being exposed to advertising on the Internet, in magazines, and in schools.” Kids see one food commercial every five minutes while watching cartoons on a Saturday morning. The Children’s Television Act of 1990 limits ads on kid’s programming to 12 minutes an hour weekdays and 10.5 minutes an hour weekends. Many advertisers choose to ignore this though, many programs include 16 minutes of advertising an hour. Young children are psychologically defenseless against brainwashing and are manipulated easily. Commercials are often directed towards kids because of this, and this can lead to unhealthy eating

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