This article explores the impact of advertisements on children's behavior, focusing on the influence of junk food, beauty products, and alcohol advertisements. It discusses the positive and negative effects of advertisements and emphasizes the need for stricter regulations and parental guidance.
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2SOCIOLOGY Advertisements are one of the major means through which the organizations try to sell their products. It is the best means through which they can actually reach out to their targeted audiences. However,Smit et al ( 2018) have argued in this context that the organizations are always in the habit of neglecting the content that they are showing in their advertisements. Children are very innocent and they do not understand the fact that these advertisements are just for the sake of selling the products. They are always governed by the face values and easily get attracted to the products that are shown on the televisions. For instance,the advertisement on junk foods is one of the major examples. The way the companies show the foods in a very colorful and attractive manner that attracts the children very easily.Dominos pizza or pizza hut can be good examples.They try to attract their targeted customers by showing their products in a very precise, crisp and colorful manner. The children become easy baits to them and want to consume these products. However,they are unaware of the fact that junk foods are not very healthy in terms of nutritional values.This gives rise to the nagging factor within the children. Right from a very young age, they start creating undue pressure over their parents for buying those products that are shown on the advertisements. Same is the case with thecandy commercials. Dalton et al (2017) have stated that the advertisements featuring different kinds of chocolates and candies have been able to attract a large number of children.Smit et al (2018) have agreed to this fact saying that too much attraction towards the candies and the other snacks along with junk food have made children skip their daily staple diets. They are much more interested in eating the outside junk food rather than healthy homemade food or fruits and salads. This is giving rise to health issues like obesity. Obesity, in turn, is likely to give rise to bad impacts like cholesterol high blood pressure, chances of heart diseases and other such problems.
3SOCIOLOGY However,Martino et al (2016) have also argued that the advertisement often helps children to know about the current affairs or the new scientific inventions going on around them. Several schools, universities, and organizations show their vacancies through the advertisements. This helps children in getting good information about their future career paths.Dalton et al (2017) have added that there is an advertisement on the ill effects of too much sweets or candies consumption as well. For instance some of the drug companies show ads were they feature kids having severe teeth problems due to the overconsumption of sweets or candies. Thus this is likely to create a positive impact on the minds of children and they might realize that overconsumption of the sweets and the candies will be bad for their health. Van de Sompel and Vermeir (2016) have argued that there are a large number of advertisement coming on the beauty products which harms the young minds of children. Often children have a habit of sitting with their parents while watching the television. Parents are not so careful at all the instances and neither is it possible for them to distance their children from the television.Beauty products like Nivea,show that applying these creams would make a dark complexion transform into pure white. Children have a habit of catching everything that they see. Thus this will create a bad imprint on gthe self esteem and the confidence of the children. They might feel that they need to have fair and white skin in order to look beautiful and well accepted within society. Hanss et al (2015) have also added that several advertisements come you with the sexual contentsor the objectifying of the men and women bodies. These advertisements are likely to have harmful impacts on the minds of the children. Advertisements are likely to have different impacts on the minds of children living in developed and underdeveloped countries. For instance, a child living in a developed country like the USA is accustomed to the cigars or glasses of wines. They often have seen their fathers or
4SOCIOLOGY any of their relatives with these items. As they are in the developing and the growing phase their minds undergo several changes. During the adolescent period, children usually want to try out many new things that attract them. So, a child living in aneducated, economically sound family in the USA might get attracted to the alcohol advertisement and might ask for it from their parents.Their parents are literate and wise enough to explain to them the right legal age of alcohol consumption. Thus it is good as the advertisement will help to make the child aware of the ill effects of alcohol consumption, before the right age. However, Visram et al (2016) have argued that the sameadvertisement featuring alcohol or tobacco is likely to have some other bad effects on the child living in the underdeveloped country say Ghana (Petrescu et al 2017). A child of Ghana is unlikely to have the right kind of guidance or education to understand the impacts of alcohol consumption before the right age. By seeing an advertisement that features some heroic figures or stars with a branded bottle of alcohol, they might have the desire to buy and consume the same. Thus, they might start stealing or somehow consuming these materials at a very early age. This is likely to have a bad impact on their health. On the other hand; the advertisement featuring some acts of violence is also bad for the children of both developed and undeveloped countries. An advert in Ghana showed a girl talking very badly with her mother just because she could not find enough milk in the fridge. Apart from this, she was also very angry as she saw her mother paying no attention to her (Bennett 2019). This advertisement might be projected for the sale of a very nutritious brand of milk but the content gives rise to bad impacts. The children might feel that behaving badly with the elders will solve their problems. This can also create a feeling of dislike among the children towards their mothers. Ghana is backward in comparison to the level of education or the advancement that has taken place in the USA. Thus, a child seeing
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5SOCIOLOGY this advertisement in the USA and a child seeing the same advertisement in Ghana are likely to developbad impacts;howeverthe differenceisthatGhanabring an underdevelopedor developing country will lack the emotional support or the guidance that is needed on the part of the parents to help their child deal with such advertisement. However, the parents living in the USA will be able to explain to the children that he or she must be polite and kind while speaking or asking for anything. Thus it is a collective responsibility of the part of the Government to impose strict rules for the advertisement agencies. They must develop their contents by keeping in mind, the geographical, economic, social and the political background of their targeted audiences. At the same time, it is the duty of the parents to help their children to understand the good and the bad aspects that are shown in these advertisements.
6SOCIOLOGY References Bennett, C. (2019).Advertising in Ghana: The good, the bad and the ugly - Ghana Business News.[online]GhanaBusinessNews.Availableat: https://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2009/01/01/advertising-in-ghana-the-good-the-bad-and- the-ugly/ [Accessed 1 Apr. 2019]. Chang, C.T. and Tung, M.H., 2016. Intergenerational appeal in advertising: impacts of brandâ gender extension and brand history.International Journal of Advertising,35(2), pp.345-361. Dalton, M.A., Longacre, M.R., Drake, K.M., Cleveland, L.P., Harris, J.L., Hendricks, K. and Titus, L.J., 2017. Child-targeted fast-food television advertising exposure is linked with fast-food intake among pre-school children.Public health nutrition,20(9), pp.1548-1556. Hanss, D., Mentzoni, R.A., Griffiths, M.D. and Pallesen, S., 2015. The impact of gambling advertising:Problemgamblersreportstrongerimpactsoninvolvement,knowledge,and awareness than recreational gamblers.Psychology of Addictive Behaviors,29(2), p.483. Hindmarsh, C.S., Jones, S.C. and Kervin, L., 2015. Effectiveness of alcohol media literacy programmes: a systematic literature review.Health education research,30(3), pp.449-465. Martino, S.C., Kovalchik, S.A., Collins, R.L., Becker, K.M., Shadel, W.G. and D'Amico, E.J., 2016.Ecologicalmomentaryassessmentoftheassociationbetweenexposuretoalcohol advertising and early adolescents' beliefs about alcohol.Journal of Adolescent Health,58(1), pp.85-91.
7SOCIOLOGY Petrescu, D.C., Vasiljevic, M., Pepper, J.K., Ribisl, K.M. and Marteau, T.M., 2017. What is the impact of e-cigarette adverts on children's perceptions of tobacco smoking? An experimental study.Tobacco control,26(4), pp.421-427. Smit, K., Voogt, C., Hiemstra, M., Kleinjan, M., Otten, R. and Kuntsche, E., 2018. Development of alcohol expectancies and early alcohol use in children and adolescents: A systematic review.Clinical psychology review,60, pp.136-146. Van de Sompel, D. and Vermeir, I., 2016. The influence of source attractiveness on selfâ perception and advertising effectiveness for 6âto 7âyearâold children.International Journal of Consumer Studies,40(5), pp.575-582. Van Reijmersdal, E.A., Rozendaal, E., Smink, N., Van Noort, G. and Buijzen, M., 2017. Processes and effects of targeted online advertising among children.International Journal of Advertising,36(3), pp.396-414. Visram, S., Cheetham, M., Riby, D.M., Crossley, S.J. and Lake, A.A., 2016. Consumption of energy drinks by children and young people: a rapid review examining evidence of physical effects and consumer attitudes.BMJ open,6(10), p.e010380.