The impact of advertising on children and youth - Thesis Example

Advertising through media options have often been argued, mostly in the negative connotation, to strongly influence the children and youth. Correspondingly, whether media exposure has been one of the major contributory factors towards the degrading social contexts, especially within the segment comprising of children and youth, has been a commonly debated issue in the global plethora (Villani, 2001). Where scientists accuse these media advertising to influence the psychological as well as the physical growth of the children and the youth, socialists argue 21st century advertising to encourage violence within the society.

Stating precisely, obesity, learning behavior of children and youth, lifestyle preferences of these populaces and on the whole the development of these individuals have been widely argued as strongly influenced by advertising in the recent phenomenon (Wiecha and Kim, 2013; Kunkel et. al., 2004). Where on one hand, the significance of advertising has increased in the industrial context; on the other hand, social issues such as school drop-outs, teenage pregnancy rate, violent acts performed by young adolescents as well as obesity has also increased.

Hence, researchers have often been inclined towards examining any possible linkage between these alterations in the industrial and the social contexts which has, in major instances, led to the classification of advertising as a negative force in this context. It is worth mentioning in this context that advertising is applied with the sole intention to generate awareness amid the targeted audiences. However, when concentrating on the impacts caused by advertising on the children and youth, either positive or negative, it can be observed that not the intention but the contents of advertising tend to impose major influences on these populaces (Diaz, 2011).

Apparently, owing to the fact that a majority of the audiences of media today comprises children or youth, it becomes quite challenging to exclude these populaces from the audience group even though the message conveyed through the advertising is actually intended towards other age group people. Role of parental guidance has also been argued in this context which is expected to obstruct the negative influences caused by advertising on the adolescents. However, studies conducted with emphasis on this particular aspect, yet lack precise connotation to the linkage or the impact caused by advertising on children and youth along with the limitation of rational judgments on the role of family as well as the advertisers to combat such an issue (The Australian Psychological Society, 2000).

This thesis will be aimed at assessing the linkage between advertising initiatives through television, internet as well as print media and the development of children and youth from a social perspective taking into account the various measures recently adopted by governmental bodies, industrial communities as well as social organizations. With this aim, the thesis will critically evaluate the psychological as well as the physical impacts caused by advertising on the populaces (i.e. the children and youth) suggesting few remedial actions based on the identified benefits and risks associated with such media exposures.

Advertising to the Young Audiences Advertising to the young audiences, that is to the children and the youth has been proved to be quite beneficial for the advertising industry throughout the globe. It has been apparently observed in this similar circumstance that the advertising industry spends nearly about $12 billion per year on making advertisements particularly targeting to the