The Drawbacks of Children's Advertising

             Burch, Chairman of Federal Communications Commission of US believes "that in case of advertising directed to children, the standards of what is false and deceptive must be judged in light of the crucial fact that the audience is so unsophisticated, so young and trusting. It is, I submit, intolerable to seek to bilk the innocent with shoddy advertising appeals. As some person amply put it that is akin to statutory rape."(243)
             What Burch makes clear is that advertising to children is unfair and destructive as it exploits the disability of the child to understand the purpose of advertising.
             As we shall see in greater detail later, advertising causes parent-child conflict and child unhappiness as a result of an unsatisfied desire. In addition, it challenges desire for alcoholic beverages and more significant, it inspires violence in the child.
             Let us examine the frequently advertised products, the techniques used to boost sales and the psychological and the ethical appeals being utilized.
             An analysis of children's television revealed that about twenty per cent of program time of Saturday mornings was devoted to commercials, and during the pre-Christmas season more than thirty advertisements were made each hour.
             Some of frequently used children's advertisings are toys, cereals, fast-food restaurants and candies (Barcus, 273).
             More than half of the ads are for toys and about seven out of ten are for highly sugared products like cakes, cookies, candies and sugared cereals, which are very bad for the child's health (Barcus, 276).
             The advertisers insist that ads help children and parents to be informed about the new products in market and have a better choice. But is it true that they just inform the consumers about the new products or they persuade the consumers that their product is "the best there is", even if it harms children's health?
             In order to attract children advertisers use v...

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