Formal Blog Task 5: Children and
Advertising
In
today’s society children have little to no chance of avoiding advertising and
with increasing amounts of advertising being aimed at children in particular it
has become an increasing area of concern for all those involved in helping to
support and develop children physically and mentally. The question lies as to
how much advertising influences and affects children.
Gunter,
Oates and Blades (2005) define advertising as the means which brands portray an
image or idea of their brand to promote consumption of the product. It is an
untenable thought to believe that it is possible for children to avoid
advertising. Children now spend 4-5 hours of their days watching electronic
media (Cooke 2002). This means they are being influenced by advertising constantly
over this period, through the ad breaks on television and even with product placement
becoming part of many well-loved television programmes. Recently technological advancements
have even meant that children are now experiencing specific targeted adverts
when using the internet, based on things that have looked at or used. Lawlor & Prothero (2012) state how there
is a large base of research which backs the argument that this submersion in
advertising quickly leads children into a life of consumerism. Children to
being to want things they do not need and to spend money which they do not have
(Young 1990). This becomes the main driving force behind the use of adverts
with children, ‘Pester Power’ (Proctro & Richards 2002 in Gunter et al.
2005), where children become the driving force behind their parents buying
habits. This is not teaching children to respect money or to be informed
members of a consumerist society. It would be interesting to see how this lack
of knowledge about consumerism and the world we live in at a young age affects
the likelihood of people taking out loans and falling into debt.
Teachers
need to be aware about this use of advertising and to support children in their
future lives by teaching them about how advertising works. Teachers need to be
aware how advertising works through the two strands of listening and reading
(Burrel & Beard 2010) and to actively teach children how this advertising
works. Marshall (2010) identifies how children have needs and vulnerabilities
and teachers must act, along with the parents, as gatekeepers to protect
children. But teacher and parents also have the crucial role in the
socialization of children. They must be prepared and informed as to enter the
consumerist world we live with the skills and abilities to succeed.
Bibliography
Gunter,
B., Oates, C. & Blades, M. (2005) Advertising
to children on TV. New Jersey: Lawrence Erbaum Associates
Young,
B. (1990) Children and television
advertising. Oxford: Clerendon Press
Burrel,
A. & Beard, R. (2010) Children’s advertisement writing. UKLA 44:2 pp83-90
Lawlor,
M.A. & Prothero, A. (2012) Childrens understanding of television
advertising intent. Journal of marketing management 19:3-4 pp411-431
Marshall,
D. (2010) Understanding children as consumers. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Harry, when you said that the advertising helping to support and develop children physically and mentally and I would like to know what advices do you give at a teacher to prevent it in his classroom because the advertisings can be very bad for the children. For example you have some woman naked for yoghurt, a couple of ladybird makes love for a car, a couple of people undresses because they want make love (advertising for product of Durex). So how prevent it in the classroom? In more, when a child watch on the television a star who make the publicity, this child thinks “it’s good for me because he say it” and in the shop they want some things not really good for the health. “A large proportion of advertisements aimed at children promote food and drink” (Lewis and Hill, 1998). “The number of children with obesity in United States has dramatically increased in recent years, and this may in part be due to the persuasive nature of food advertising” (Strasburger and Wilson, 2002). So what advice can you give at their children to explain it? In fact, the advertisings can be very bad for children so the parents must be watch at their children and the teacher must prevent their pupils against it. What do you thing about the sexual advertisings, naked woman, bad food, . . . ?
ReplyDeleteBibliography
Gunter B., Oates C. and Blades M., Advertising and children or tv: contents, impact and regulation, pp 1-13, 2005.