- Published: September 27, 2022
- Updated: September 27, 2022
- University / College: University of California, Berkeley (UCB)
- Language: English
- Downloads: 42
Dear Editor, Children have become their own category of consumers. According to Kids Health, a child takes in an average of 40, 000 television advertisements a year and about 3, 000 general ads a day, and on average there are eighteen minutes of commercials per hour of television (Kids Health). With advertisements and images coming from all mediums and being constantly projected in front of children’s faces, it is bound to have an impact on them.
This impact is mental, physical, short term and long term. Today, because advertisements seem so appealing and are so regular, they are becoming a large part of a child’s everyday life and are creating an image of what the youth should be, affecting their identities, as well as altering the basic nature of children. Television is playing a major role to create a materialistic generation and parents need to redirect their children from the path they are being led down by marketers. These marketers have begun to target children, and part of what marketers do is study children and their interactions, like lab rats. Through these studies marketers have recognized the buying power that children have developed. According to Global Issues, businesses spent $15 to $17 billion dollars on advertisements directed at children up to the age of eleven. These kids are being targeted and 80 percent of businesses have a strategy that is directed at this age group. Children’s personal buying power has not only grown but also their influence on what their parents buy them.
It is no longer the simple things like a baseball glove that children desire but it’s ipods, cell phones, and x-boxes which are much more expensive things to buy. Global Issues also said that between kids and teens parents were pressured to spend up to $670 billion dollars. These numbers are expected to grow as prices rise and more media is being directed at children.
The media will continue to affect our society forever and we can’t change the big picture. The real problem is the focus of marketing being moved towards children. Children are in search of themselves, trying to find out who they are and who they are going to be, but the media is changing that image. Their minds are like clay; being sculpted by everything around them and these ads are having more and more of an influence on the development of this sculpture. Children are developing a sense of self at a younger and younger age because of the changing world around them, no one in grade school used to care what you wore as long as you were nice and would share, people usually liked you. This is changing and the only people that can change this are their parents.
A child’s identity is being altered by comparing what they have and what others have. Something needs to change, and parents have the ability to do that by not giving into every child’s want. Television is getting the power to affect children’s lives. A television is gaining the power to make our kids self-conscious.
The blame cannot be put all in one place because its part our own faults, but whether you like it or not the world around you affects everyone, consciously and subconsciously. Marketers are trying to turn children into mindless consumers and it will have a long-term affect on the generations to come if parents do not step in and help to make a change. Works Cited” Children as Consumers — Global Issues.” Global Issues : social, political, economic and environmental issues that affect us all — Global Issues. Web. 20 Nov. 2009.
Goldberg, Marvin E. “ Children’s Reactions to TelevisionAdvertising: An Experimental Approach.” Academic SearchPremier. Web.
21 Nov. 2009. edu: 2048/login? url= http:// search. ebscohost. com/login. aspx? direct= true&db= aph&AN= 4664816&site= ehost-live>.” How TV Affects Your Child.” KidsHealth – the Web’s mostvisited site about children’s health. Ed. Mary L. Gavin MD. Web. 20 Nov. 2009.
