Icy Waterfall

Mr. Mayo/English
November 30, 2007
Children Lives in Advertisers Hands

Advertisers are using unethical methods to sell their products to kids. These ways are corrupting the lives of kids. Advertisers have successfully convinced today’s kids that if they don’t have the latest products, they are inferior to those who do. Turing kids into the materialistic generation. According to Susan Linn, director of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, advertisers spent 17 billion dollars last year on advertising that targets children directly. They do this because children are a big influence on what their parents buy, like cars and houses.

Companies have a new marketing technique they are using, child psychology. They use the knowledge of psychology to target kids more effectively. For example, they work with psychologists to analyze children’s behavior, fantasies, and sometimes their dreams. They use this information to manipulate younger children with their advertisements. Since younger kids can’t tell whether an advertisement is accurate so they believe what is being advertised is true. Junk food is one of the products most commonly advertised to younger children. This is a concern because young children think that junk food like hamburgers is okay to eat all the time because of the commercials, they see. If they do start eating junk food constantly, it could lead to unhealthy eating habits or obesity later on life in their life. A research was done where they studied a group of kids aged 3-5 who were given two identical foods, like fries. One of the foods was wrapped in McDonalds while the other had no label. Most of the children in the group thought the fries in the McDonalds wrapper tasted better. This shows that kid are convinced by the ads for McDonalds that anything with that label tastes better, even if it is the same as an other brand name.

Advertising companies try to get kids to recognize their labels starting from when they are babies. This is called building brand name loyalty. It is also called “cradle to grave” because they start by getting young babies loyal to their brand until the day they die. They do this by convincing parents that having their baby in front of television can help in their development. Then, on channel for babies they put many commercial for toys and food products. Therefore, by the time they are three they can recognize brands like Fisher Price and character like. In addition, marketing companies give free materials to school with their products on it. When kids see products they know, endorsed school they think it is good. For instance, Ford and Pizza send school resources like poster and workbooks to preschools and daycares with tight budgets. The companies like Pizza Hut say that they are giving certificate for personal pizzas if their teacher read to them 60 minutes for 4 weeks straight. Even though they say it’s all for helping children read, teacher already read to their kids. Also, they read to their kids without having the logos on every page.

Through television, radio, and the Internet, companies advertise their products to many kids and teens of all ages. The Internet is one the popular venues for teens. However, websites like MySpace and Facebook track sites you go on and send emails to people on your friend list so it looks like a personal recommendation from you. Not only is the Internet a major place for advertisers but the television is too. Children will see 30,000 commercials annually on just television alone. Since young children learn by observing and mimicking, they are most likely to copy what they see on television. It could be very unsafe because younger children can’t tell the difference between fantasy and reality. Most shows and commercial that are on television has some kinds of violence or aggressive behavior. This could lead to children growing up and having behavior issues or become rowdy with their peers.

Even though advertising can be hazardous to kids, it also provides many jobs for adults. Advertising is a big money making business. Nevertheless, we could use people’s advertising skills for another use than exploiting kids. We could make other jobs that don’t harm the development of children. If we as a country, stop targeting children in a negative way than the number for underage drinking and smoking, and domestic violence might go down. In conclusion, advertiser’s methods are altering children’s lives, dramatically.