Negative Effects of Advertising on Children Essay Sample

Intro:  

Insecurities, disorders, and addictions. All hurtful possible outcomes of what? Advertisement targeted towards the naive youth. Myriad negative consequences come from devious advertisements. It’s usually fine for companies to include children's perspectives when pondering on how to advertise hygienic human basics-- such as toothpaste or a body wash. This can get kids excited to stay hygienic-- especially if festive cartoon characters are involved (such as Mickey mouse or Cinderella). But where does it cross the line? Where do things start to get to a point where the children of America are being manipulated at the will of money-hungry companies? Maybe it’s when insecurities blossom from the young minds of our newest generations. Or maybe when from these insecurities, disorders (whether it be physical or mental) that last a lifetime, appear in the youth's mind. Maybe even when the strong urge to use or have something, might it be a type of food/ product-- or in some cases--addicting and illegal substances, is irresistable. Advertising affects the youth in a negative and hurtful way as it has harmful emotional effects, destructful physical effects, and painful manipulations. 

Body paragraph 1: 

To begin, advertisements targeted at children have numerous mental affects-- most of which are harmful. Children eight and under are completely psychologically defenseless against these mechanisms. It also  doesn’t help the fact that children see so many ads simply everywhere. Advertisements are a powerful force battling against powerless children. Advertisers might also attempt to advertise for drugs--manipulating the youth with some sort of advertising technique. Once their young viewers are set on the substance, they spiral down a road of unhealthy addiction that can NOT be good for anyone's mental health. Another possible effect advertising might have on the youth is child obesity/unhealthy food choices. Even though this fits into the physical department, it can have effects on adolescents mental well-being. To support my point, the article “Children, Adolescents, and Advertisement” states, “On TV, of the estimated 40,000 ads per year that young people see, half are for food, especially sugared cereals and high-calorie snacks”. This is important because it shows how many advertisements based on unhealthy foods children see. Because of the well thought out techniques used in these advertisements plus the consistency of them, naive children are being manipulated into eating these said foods. When this happens, it is expected for them to gain weight-- although they just aren’t sure as to why. Therefore, they might lose confidence in their bodies as they think that only small waists have self worth (another fault of ads!). This leads me to my next point. Subsequent to the insecurities about weight--caused by ads, come many more.  The indicated is what some advertisers like to use as their main profit. ‘Insecure about having a different body type besides a skinny waist with curves? Buy our new and improved protein shake to lose 10 pounds in one day!’ ‘Insecure about having different textured hair? Buy our new and improved hair straightener that will completely fry and burn your hair off. But hey, at least your hair won’t be textured anymore!’ Advertisers have created an intricate loophole where they cause our insecurities through advertisements and then advertise things that they claim will “fix” whatever we happen to be insecure about. Why do advertisers do this, you may ask? Well, according to “Advertising and Insecurities”, “Advertisements which deliberately attempt to make the viewer insecure are much more common than those which use different techniques (such as the aforementioned Old Spice and Navy commercials). This is because it is easier to make someone feel bad rather than good.” The quote shown shows that some advertisers will do whatever it takes to make profit-- even if it means possibly destroying the youths self-esteem. Overall, lots of advertisements negatively affect adolescents emotionally just for the sake of making money-- and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Body paragraph 2: 

Equally important, adolescent advertisements hold plentiful destructful physical effects. It’s crazy to think how a short video ad or a random print ad that a child may look at for mere seconds, might affect their physical health.  A fake Mcdonalds ad might lead your child down a shifty and dangerous road of an addiction to fatty cheese burgers. An advertisement surrounding harmful drugs might lead your child down a sticky street of addiction-- trapping your child like a spider web to fly. In recent studies it was found that healthy foods are only advertised less than 3 percent of the time and only 2 percent of US teenagers are eating the recommended amount of fruits and veggies daily.  Assumingly, this percentage might decrease over time. Part of the fault of child obesity/physical complications is due to TV commercials. To illustrate, “Effects on Advertising on Youth” says, “ It was also found that children watching television for more than four to five hours a day were more overweight than children watching television for two hours or less.” This study proves that fast-food advertising directed at children DO negatively affect their health-- not only mentally, but physically too. In addition, it stresses the importance of shielding the children of the US from too much exposure to television programs that may include multiple advertisements (specifically targeting children).  Some people might claim that adolescent advertising isn’t that big of a deal and might not have such a hefty impact.  Although, facts derived from “Television Advertising Leads to Unhealthy Habits in Children; Says APA Task Force”  quote, “Such advertising of unhealthy food products to young children contributes to poor nutritional habits that may last a lifetime and be a variable in the current epidemic of obesity among kids”.This elaborates that even though these ads may seem harmless-- they have life-lasting impacts. Is that what we want to happen to our youth? We may leave that up for the world to decide. In the end, advertisements can and do sometimes bring out negative physical statuses in the youth.   

Body paragraph 3:  

In drawing things to a close, we come to the painful manipulations that advertisers use. There are more to  advertisements than what meets the eye. In no circumstances would a short video with a few words or a simple picture with a few words be able to persuade a child. The youth is smarter than what society presumes. So, what do advertisers use that is persuasive enough to be able and lure the youth? Clever techniques. Now, these techniques may be used for good or bad-- all depending on the hands it falls into. Advertisers might use bandwagon, transfer, testimonial, avante-garde, facts and figures, etc. The concepts mentioned in the previous sentence are all convincing techniques advertisers use that are proven to be effective. These techniques-- above mentioned-- may make you feel like you should buy the company's product to be a part of something (bandwagon), or perhaps that if you buy the product you will be different from the rest (avante-garde). Advertisers might also: include celebrities or normal people’s reviews to encourage you to buy their product (testimonial), create an ad with a good vibe to it that you may associate with the product later on (transfer), and some ads might say, “15% better quality than ----” to prove to you that their product is new and improved--better than the rest (facts and figures). To prove that these techniques are indeed effective, when looking at examples of different advertising techniques in class, I found myself feeling persuaded to buy certain products that I knew I didn’t need. This indicates that advertisers' tricks do have some sort of psychological effect on the brain that persuades viewers to want to buy their product(s). Marketers know this and will put in their blood, sweat, and tears to make sure their attempts are successful.  For example, “Children, Adolescents, and Advertising” states, “Coca-Cola reportedly paid Warner Bros studios $150 million for the global marketing rights to the movie “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone”. This is an example that proves how much money and determination that some advertisers are ready to draw out in order to skillfully use their manipulative techniques. Surely a good question to leave it at is, is something in need of manipulation to be effective a truly good thing? All in all, advertisers like to use persuasive techniques to benefit their profits-- although they can be extremely manipulative. 

Conclusion: 

Clearly, advertising may cause emotional damage, physical destruction, and use devious persuasions that most of the youth is defenseless against. It may hold many insecurities against the youth--unleashed-- that advertisers use to their advantage, unhealthy habits, and many persuasions that emotionally manipulate the defenseless and naive youth. Insecurities, disorders, and addictions. All horrendous things that WILL affect most of our youth. Cursing them with life-long burdens. That is, unless we the people don’t sit back and watch this happen. Take action. Reduce screen times, educate your children, make sure they are prepared. Don’t let them get caught in this negative loop-hole of advertisements. Advertisements are everywhere. On the television, billboards, mobile screens. There's no escaping them. This is why we must educate the youth-- for the good of humanity. Will you take the next step?