Children’ Television Commercials
Do you feel that children’s television commercials are still harmful to children when it comes to stereotypes, roles, and representation? In order to, answer to this question I’m going to analyze the article by John J. O’Connor “What are TV Ads Selling to Children?” and the second article by Daniel Riffle, Helena Goldson, and Kelly Saxton, and Yang-Chou Yu, “Females and Minorities in TV Ads in 1987 Saturday Children’s Programs.” Furthermore, by analyzing some of the kids’ commercials in nowadays so, we can define the changes in kid’s commercials regarding stereotyping the children of colors. The first article by John J. O’Connor is based on individual experience, what he observed from children television, which is great for revising the own opinion. The second article is more about research and the numbers which is more helpful to readers to understand better the concept of difference. I believe that children’s television commercials are still harmful to children when it comes to stereotyping, role, and representation. Even though we see minor changes toward children of color, still white children are more in the leading role.
While there are few changes have been made in children television, nearly all modern children’s commercials stereotyping still continues throughout the time. In the article “Females and Minorities in TV Ads in 1987 Saturday Children’s Programs” by Riffle, Goldson, and Saxton, and Yu writes, “Absence of adult male role models in many black children’s lives has long concerned those who study urban families” (97). This is stereotyping African-American fathers as the bad role models for their children. It has been changed since then. In the commercial “Cheerios," we clearly wi...
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...ere are two or three seconds of the window where the black boy presented by himself. After that the background fills out with representation the children of the races. The roughly count is 25% of the children were Caucasians and 5% of the children were children of color. So, what we have shown that the changes are there but not the minor.
In conclusion, I can say that children’s television commercials are still harmful for the children. Even though the minority of the commercials has been changed since 1987, we conversely, recognize stereotypes, roles in favor, and representation in the commercial; some of the commercials are damaging children's self-esteem. Eventually, it can lead them to reject themselves from the world or have a bad personality. Now, from analyzing the articles and the commercials each parent can make a decision that will benefit their children.
In the article, Every Nook and Cranny: The Dangerous Spread of Commercialized Culture by Gary Ruskin and Juliet Schor (Ackley 361). Since the early 90s is when Commercialism has bombarded the society. Ruskin and Schor provide examples why advertising has an effect on people’s health. Marketing related diseases afflicting people in the United States, and especially children, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and smoking-related illnesses. “Each day, about 2,000 U.S. children begin to smoke, and about one-third of them will die from tobacco-related illnesses” (Ackley 366). Children are inundated with advertising for high calorie junk food and fast food, and, predictably, 15 percent of U.S. children aged 6 to 19 are now overweight (Ackley 366). Commercialism promotes future negative effects and consumers don’t realize it.
Rajecki, D. W., Dame, J., Creek, K., Barrickman, P. J., Reid, C. A., & Appleby, D. C. (1993). Gender Casting in Television Toy Advertisements: Distributions, Message Content Analysis, and Evaluations. Journal Of Consumer Psychology (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates), 2(3), 307.
Television is not just a form of entertainment, but it is an excellent form of study of society’s view concerning its families. This study focuses on the history of television beginning in the early 1950s and will run through present day. It examines the use of racial, ethnic and sexual stereotypes to characterize the players of these shows. The examples assist in tracing what has happened to the depiction of the American family on prime time television. It reveals the change of the standards employed by network television as disclosed to the American public. Finally, I will propose the question of which is the influential entity, television or the viewing audience.
There were comments referring to the commercial such as “it was disgusting” or “it made me want to vomit,” (Goyette). These are few of the many harsh comments made by individuals. One that stood out to me was stating the shock that an African American man actually stayed with his family (Goyette). Thus expressing not only their hatred and disgust of biracial families but stereotyping of your typical African American father as society views them. Although this stand still of the Cheerios commercial depicts society’s “typical” biracial family, there’s more to it than a Caucasian mother, African American father and light skinned babies with pretty eyes and a head full of curly hair. The mother could be African American and the father could be Caucasian, or they could be a completely different race. The child also doesn’t have to be necessarily light skinned, have pretty eyes, with a head full of curly hair. Society fails to realize that biracial families come in all shapes and sizes and there isn’t one specific look they should have. For example, all Caucasian families don’t have blue eyes and blond hair; they’re not stereotyped under one category so why should biracial families and their children
This survey was born out of concern that there are few statistics on the effects of marketing industry’s impact on our youth. Just as the article on “Consuming Kids” raises awareness about children being lured into believing they can’t live without things and the problems rising out of it. This survey makes us aware of how this market is willing to sacrifice the sanctity of family life by undermining the parents via their television while children watch mega hours of uninterrupted commercials aimed at them. These surveys were compared with a couple of sparsely completed other ones. The respondents felt that problems such as: aggressiveness, materialism, obesity, lack of creativity, overly sexualized behavior and self-esteem, were detrimentally influenced by the youth marketing industry.
According to Mark Dolliver, “foods account for 39 percent of TV advertising seen by 2-7 year olds, 95 percent of that seen by 8-19s and 92 percent of that seen by 13-17s.On a typical day, the 2-7 year olds are exposed to 4:51 minutes of food commercials.” (Dolliver, 2007. p.1) Dolliver used statistics to show much how children are seeing these commercials. Throughout the rest of the article he talks about the increasing amounts of time that children spend watching television and the types of foods that are being advertised. Depending on the family dynamic in the household, children could be watching more television than the statistics that Dolliver presents in his study. This is what would be characterized as the advertisement of obesity in todays society. Before televisions were made, there were print advertisements that contributed to the purchasing of junk or fast foods like the 1956 Canada Dry Ginger Ale Print Ad. Although for 1956, there is not a lot of information about the obesity epidemic, it contributes to how powerful advertisements can be. These advertisements whether it is from the 1950s or if it is from today, largely influence the food quality that children are wanting or expecting. When children are exposed to television advertisements about unhealthy products in large quantities, they are more susceptible to the risk of obesity. Television
The media affects the way people view all different races as well, not only gender. One passage that stood out was when Omi exclaimed, “all racial minorities were represented as “less than human.”In the 1930 's African and white children were split into different schools. In this era white Americans disfavored against African-Americans because they did not have the same skin color. For this reason, African-Americans endured mistreatment and misunderstanding. This primarily affected African-American children because their education system was different from the white children. Negro schools had many restrictions such as reading being restricted and discarded to the libraries of the white community. Based on the attention to this advertisement through the view of the race, I read that African-American children were falsely described in the 1930’s because they lack a proper education system and they were not socially equal. Education affected the child’s self-esteem and self-worth “Education of the Negro Child” about sixty-five percent of African-American children lived life classified as retarded. Those children had trouble developing self-esteem and self-worth because the society around them saw them as uneducated and unintelligent. The concept of “veneer” means to cover something to improve its appearance. The advertisement implied that the African-American children showed excitement when one child covers
In conclusion, we can see how everything presented in an advertisement can actually have an impact in the people. Although the company’s target was to sell their product, their way of transmitting the message to the people also fortifies the stereotype. Thus, the media today does abuse the power of stereotyping in order to gain a favorable reputation. Everything they present in the ad, from symbolism to the lifestyle of the characters, race, age and gender, has an effect on strengthening the stereotype. In this case, women are perceived as emotionally drained, weak and incapable, although now a days that characterization is trying to be broken because women are much more than that and can actually get to achieve greater things.
Commercials make the viewer think about the product being advertised. Because of the amount of television children watch throughout the week, it allows the children to be exposed to the information over and over again. Per year, children are known to view thousands of fast food commercials. On a daily basis, a teen will usually view five advertisements and a child aged six to eleven will see around four advertisements (Burger Battles 4). Businesses use this strategy to “speak directly to children” (Ruskin 3). Although the big businesses in the fast ...
Racism is a repulsive issue that is becoming more and more evident to the people living in America. It is not something that is taken lightly in society today, and it can be extremely offensive to many. Even though everyone reacts differently to it, it is important for all people to make an honest effort to respect others regardless of their racial and ethnic backgrounds. People must change their stereotypical thoughts about others and help decrease or end racism by addressing any issues in which racism is concerned. Results in response to different approaches to confront the situation have occurred, but it still remains very real within our world today. Although some changes have been seen, racism in advertising is still tremendously evident due to very weak, offensive comical attempts, the unawareness of advertisers, and the depiction of society’s ideal person.
Nowadays television and the advertising displayed in it is a part of everyday life in most households. What many people do not know is that television in many ways is bad. Numerous articles have been written on this. Many surveys and books have been written on this subject as well. The ads in television are what are especially bad. Some television ads are misleading.
... 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.
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.
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.
This makes children’s interest trivial and superficial. For instance, most of children refuse to buy any cheap products. They prefer most famous shop such as H&M, Splash, and Matalan and other brands. This help them to think that the fashionable and people who buy from expensive brand are the best people. As well, it causes them also to communicate with these people only. Thus they will be arrogant and judge people from their forms. In addition, not all parents have the ability to buy from the expensive brand and they try to reduce their spending in order to give their kids they needs and wants. Moreover, several ads seen currently include harmful stunts that kids try to do them. Due to, do not aware and understand the dangerous of it. For example, the ads of Red Bull drink that give energy for people. The company of this drink advertised this drink by famous quote which is “Red bull gives you wings”. Also they are representing this quote in ads. The last bad influence that can considered as the most essential one, is that the advertising can effect self- esteem by makes them feel inferior which weakens the personality of the child. Thus , it causes the kids hate their parents. Due to, the parents do not satisfy their children in the brands they want, food or any other