Advertising to Children under 16 Years - Literature review Example

Advertising to Children under 16 Years Advertising firms usually spend a lot of money annually around the globe encouraging and manipulating individuals to conform to particular consumer lifestyles. These adverts usually prey on individual insecurities by creating artificial needs and offering fake needs. It often fosters a picture of dissatisfaction that increases consumption of goods and services that are not essential. This leads to extravagance which wastes useful resources which would have been used elsewhere (Johnson and Young, 2002, p. 463). The underhand tactics employed by advertisers do not spare young children and instead manipulates their vulnerability. There are three main reasons why advertisements target children. First off, children have a very big influence on the way their parents spend money on shopping. Secondly, when these children are cultured at an early age to like some products, they will eventually become big spenders when they mature. Besides these, children usually coerce their parents to spend large amounts of money on them based on what they see in adverts (Freeman and Chapman, 2008, p. 779). This paper is then geared towards discussing the premise that children under the age of age 16 should not be advertised to. Advertisements have permeated almost every sphere of our lives through the television, internet, billboards and even in movies. As such, they have invaded everyone’s consciousness and leave very little space to manoeuvre in terms of choice and preference to different products. People behind the advertisements usually pay a lot of money so that their adverts can be placed strategically to be seen and heard by their target audience (Roberts and Pettigrew, 2007, p. 358). In this regards, they instil the desire to get more good services among people regardless of whether these people need these products. The consumer oriented cultures all over the world place the products or services they are advocating as necessary and important enhancers of desirable life and happiness. Use of images in advertisements is very important because it acts as the linking motivator of customers to products. When a consumer is endeared or likes an image associated with a product, then chances of purchasing that product increases (Livingstone 2005, p. 283). Since advertisements and consumer culture is an ongoing system, customers must be constantly motivated to buy and spend more money on products. It follows then that new strategies must be used to hook these buyers by replacing old goods with new ones and also being constantly in touch with current trends in terms of goods and services. The need for new inventions has pushed the advertisement market into new heights whereby the targeted customers are confused. This means that the targeted clients are more likely to look for new adverts just like looking for new products. Indeed, overcoming ideas to circulation of capital has led to the rise of commodity culture based on a high turnover of signfieds and signifiers (Buijzen and Valkenburg, 2003, p. 447). Hidden beneath the innovations that create new images and colourful presentations are less than normal and discontinuous stories which define the society. The excitement found in this adverts are packed through technological fantasy to suit different segments if client base. Recognisable and traditional representations in seasoned advertisements are usually anchored on a combination of new ideologies as well as enduring ideologies. This then brings about the sense of contoured cultural meaning which integrates different meanings to bring about relativity and conventionalism. Therefore representation of these integrated ideologies only serves underscore certain societal ideologies that are dominant. It is not surprising that businesses usually exploit dominant ideologies at the expense of the important elements of promotion which are expected to be dominant in adverts (Caraher, Landon and Dalmeny, 2006, p. 599). In this sense, advertisements continue to exploit creativeness and conservative ideologies so that new tides of adverts are inventions of old ones through depiction of dominant ideology. In addition, advertisements have evolved with time to become more sophisticated so as to target different audiences and segments of the market (Livingstone and Helsper, 2006, p. 574). The programs meant for children audience that are aired on television have been the main area of interest of research for many years. Much of this research and interest has primarily focussed on effects and regulations of such programs on children. Advertising has been touted as an important tool for informing children through cognitive process. It is quite important to understand how children’s television programming work and how it ties with advertisement. Advertisements for are usually used as the training tool for consumer culture and therefore their socialization as well as enculturation should be taken seriously. Through adverts, children usually learn that goods on sale usually avail good lifestyles high social status as well as coolness. In other words, when children watch adverts at tender age they are primed and prepared to become future capitalist consumers. Many of these adverts usually invite children to play roles of the grownups by fantasizing ways through which children can act (Buijzen and Valkenburg, 2003, p. 493). Research has shown that small children under the age of 8 years are both psychologically and cognitively defenceless against the wiles and tactics of advertisements. They can neither understand the idea of selling nor the concept of not accepting adverts at their face value. With adverts increasingly becoming integrated into the cultural environment, it is very easy to influence children through them. In the current world, advertisements are formative and gendered along cultural lines to become more intense and perverse. It follows then that advertisers have seen a real opportunity in the children segment where cultural spending patterns favours overspending at the expense of saving. It is no wonder that people are living unsustainable life especially when they have several credits cards on which they freely buy things they do not even need. Once this culture of buying and spending on things that are not essential to our lives starts, then it becomes hard for people to discipline themselves (Young, 2003, p. 21). Many of the adverts that target the children audience usually offer them models that dictate their speaking and interaction with others. Despite the fact that these children may even know and recognise that many of the available adverts are frivolous and a fantasy, they still strive towards achieving what they see in those advertisements. It has been found that children usually act and live what they see in adverts through demonstrating in actions and words. Actually, others usually go further and use those actions or words they see in adverts in wrong contexts which may endanger their lives. This is commonly seen in elementary school children whereby teachers have to solve cases and problems of children emanating from advertisements aired on television. For example the action cartoons are very common and liked by young male children. These cartons usually use characters that heroic with cool moves and once children see them, they usually go to practice what they see on other children or siblings (Buijzen, M. 2009, p.115). The purpose of the media is not entirely for informing their audiences but also form an important part of the society’s enculturation platform. However, over the years the main forms of media have been overtly commercialized through advertisements. The owners of these media platforms usually create new ways of attracting advertisers which in turn lead to flocking of the advertisers in the advertising arena. Things tend to become bizarre when these advertisers target their campaigns on children with aim of luring them and culturing their young minds towards their products. To make matters even worse is the fact that these advertisers stop at nothing and go to great lengths to even hire psychologists to design their adverts. Through the advice and expertise of the psychologists, advertisers usually come up with many different ways of influencing people and children to buy their products (Livingstone and Helsper, 2006, p. 572). The strategies used by adverts to lure unsuspecting young audience have to be implemented along the continuum of time. In this regards, children are hooked early in life and when trends or fashions change, the adverts also change and suggest new allied products. The underlying ideologies behind children targeted advertisements are social status upgrading and creation of cool image. To come, up with any simple advert, a painstaking large amount of research is usually undertaken using the best creative minds in the planet. These advertisements usually compete for what is commonly called ‘mind share’ alluding to filling children’s minds with a lot of advertisement garbage. To make sure that these ever sophisticated advertisements reach their children audience, the advertisers usually place them in video games, children television programs and the internet. In order to thwart the efforts of advertisers to reach their children, parents and teachers have devised many efficient of keeping their children safe. Some of these ways include petitioning of organs of law making to impose sanctions on advertisements especially those that target small children (Freeman and Chapman, 2008, p. 782). In the sphere of commerce and trading, legislation has been touted as the most efficient way of protecting the children from the harmful effects that come with advertising. In other equally areas of human life such as environmental pollution which is detrimental to human health, legislators are usually petitioned to amend laws in order to protect the rights of citizens. In most countries of the world, many people support and call for regulation of advertisements especially those are targeted at children. In many of other industries that vastly affect the daily lives of people, regulation has been the driving force towards achieving sanity and protecting citizen’s rights. When it comes to the marketing and advertisement sector, there is a problem or barrier that prevents effective legislation of the industry. This problem is that the entities that are accused of children abuses have over the time made commercial links within the controlling industry of media. It follows then that it is almost impossible for marketers to bring out an issue that is likely to lower their popularity with the public. Thanks to the relentless efforts of activists and other stakeholders, a lot of grounds have been covered in helping to reduce commercial pollution with regards to cultural environment and mentalities of our children. Currently, very few countries have implemented and succeeded in regulating advertisement to children such Sweden and Greece (Buijzen, M. 2009, p.112). Attempts by regulate the information industry are usually met with a lot of resistance from the main media. Their favourite line of defence is freedom of speech and expression in which they argue that they are generally expressing their opinions in their adverts. However, since in the contemporary times media houses are owned by fewer individuals. This allows them to reach very particular segment audiences and many people at the same time. When activists start their drives and campaigns towards regulating advertisement, the rivalry between media houses is quickly dropped and instead they unite. When they unite, the activism environment becomes hostile and then they beat hasty retreat with no meaningful gains. These media houses usually create a picture of futility in regulating advertisement and try to confuse the public into believing that they (media) own the public waves. Actually silencing children advocates by accusing them of being pro-censorship is quite frivolous since advertisement has little or no relationship with freedom of speech (Caraher, Landon and Dalmeny, 2006, p. 584). Conclusion Advertising firms usually spend a lot of money annually around the globe encouraging and manipulating individuals to conform to particular consumer lifestyles. These adverts usually prey on individual insecurities by creating artificial needs and offering fake needs. It often fosters a picture of dissatisfaction that increases consumption of goods and services that are not essential. Advertisement is major form of marketing and been pushed to higher levels in the contemporary world. Many of these adverts are usually geared towards exploiting the world through any available avenue. A very disturbing culture with regards to advertisement is that it ostensibly targets young children which shapes them and cultures their young minds. The strategies used by adverts to lure unsuspecting young audience have to be implemented along the continuum of time. In this regards, children are hooked early in life and when trends or fashions change, the adverts also change and suggest new allied products. It has been shown through research that only legislation can be effective in regulation children targeted advertisements. So far very few countries have been successful it their attempts to stop children advertisement. This is because attempts by regulate the information industry are usually met with a lot of resistance from the main media. References Buijzen, M., and Valkenburg, P. M. 2003, ‘The unintended effects of television advertising: A Parent-Child Survey’, Communication Research, vol. 30, no. 5, pp. 483-503. Buijzen, M., and Valkenburg, P. M. 2003, ‘The effects of television advertising on materialism, parent–child conflict, and unhappiness: A review of research’, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, vol. 24, no.4, pp. 437-456. Buijzen, M. 2009, ‘The effectiveness of parental communication in modifying the relation between food advertising and childrens consumption behaviour’, British Journal of Developmental Psychology, vol. 27, no. 1, pp.105-121. Caraher, M., Landon, J. and Dalmeny, K. 2006, ‘Television advertising and children: lessons from policy development’, Public Health Nutrition, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 596-605. Freeman, B and Chapman, S. 2008, ‘Gone viral? Heard the buzz? 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