Entry 1: Current Events and Issues in Advertising, September 6, 2011

 
 PHOTO: Telegraph Co. Photograph. How Long Should Kids Watch Tv? Innovateus. Web. 4 Sept. 2011. <http://www.innovateus.net/innopedia/how-long-should-kids-watch-tv>.

Advertising Change: Children are the Future

There are many issues in today’s world when it comes to advertising, both for the consumers and advertisers alike. The average person is said to see over 1,500 advertisements a day and not everyone is immune to ads like they think. Advertisement companies today use many of the same techniques to catch the views attention as they did back in the 1950’s. The most used strategy is that the consumer has a problem and the advertiser can fix that problem with their product. With all these ads being targeted towards consumers it’s no wonder we always want the next best thing. Nothing is more accurate when it comes to these “problem solving marketing strategy” then products marketed to children. 

Over the years there has been so much controversy surrounding advertisement to children that it is hard to find a person who does not have a strong opinion. There seems to be only two sides to this argument, consumers and advertisers. 

So is advertising really affecting our youth or is it just part of growing up? Is telling parents that there children have problems and when they buy a DVD, certain toy or cereal it will fix that problem? Will buying that certain product make your children love you more? Where do advertisers draw the line?  

Spending Power

Every parent has experienced having to say no to their children, but with increased advertising on toys, soft drinks, fast food, and sugar filled cereal parents have to say no more than they used to. Today marketing to children under the age of 12 consists of $500 billion dollars in snacks, entertainment, clothes, toys, and school supplies. Another $500 billion dollars is spent on marketing things like technology, vacations, and recreation to children each year. With $1 trillion dollars in advertising to children it is no wonder why advertisers try to tap into the most venerable targets.

PHOTO: Tv Is Bad for Your Baby's Brain. Photograph. EkNazar Topics: Parenting. Web. 4 Sept. 2011. <http://www.eknazar.com/Topics/Parenting/topicListCategoryDetail.php?id=4051>.

Advertisers Need to Make Money Some How

Even though marketing to children has been seen as a touchy subject it still carries a large marketing pool for advertisers, one that cannot be over looked. Although some people might think that advertisers are out to get every penny, it is their job to make their products appealing to potential customers. Just because consumers have problems digesting the information they see on ads does not mean that marketing representatives do not have issues as well.

Advertisers have to think of ways to still get through to their target audience without having people get upset for techniques that they use. Advertisers have to find a way to get the products sold so that their company can still operate, but they need to also fit what the costumer finds appropriate when it comes to advertising their product. Even though I think that advertisers need to experiment with new techniques to sell their products, especially to children, at the end of the day they have to make money.

What Legislature is Doing

New laws have been passed in recent years that have put rules on how children can be targeted in advertisements, but the question still remains as to how much damage can still be done to children even with these rules. In 1974, a voluntary council was established by the Better Business Bauru called the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) which was made to help regulate the advertisements that were directed at children. 

Before regulations were put into place on advertising to children many marketers were using their advertising to show that their produces would make the children in the commercials smarter or stronger when in reality that would not happen. When laws were finally established for advertising to children rules were put into place that stated that “copy, sound and visual presentations should not mislead children about the nutritional benefits of products or benefits from the use of products, such as the acquisition of strength, growth, proficiency and intelligence.” With this and other rules being put into place it seems like things are getting better when it comes to children’s advertisement, but is it really?

PHOTO: My Kids Watch Too Much Tv. Photograph. Uncle Dutch Farm. 12 Jan. 2011. Web. 4 Sept. 2011. <http://uncledutchfarms.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/boytv.jpg>.

Educational DVDs

With the introduction of educational DVDs for young children on the rise many parents think that it is the best idea to give their child a head start so that they can have an advantage when they start school. Are these new DVDs really helping the children or is it just another marketing tool to get children hooked at a young age?  

For the answers to my questions I researched and found multiple sources that confirm that educational DVDs such as Baby Einstein, Baby Wordsworth, and other competing learning systems have shown no really improvement in a child’s ability to learn new words. Disney advertised these produces in the early 2000’s as a way to teach your baby to learn to read and speak at an early age. The advertisements showed many young children under the normal reading age actually talking and reading from note cards with exceptional skill.

After some research on this product and many case studies done on similar products it has shown that these educational DVDs do not give the results that they say they do. In fact research has shown that young children that use these educational DVDs showed no deference between children that used the systems and children that did not use the systems.  Other studies have shown that children that use these DVDs are shown to have lower literacy rates then children who do not use the DVDs.

Solutions to the Problem

Parents should be skeptical when it comes to advertisement their children watch and the issues that surrounds advertising to children. To find a solution to this problem something needs to change when it comes to how marketing is used. Instead of telling children that the product will make them cool or will make them friends, advertisements should tell the truth. Ads should make the product appealing without making the product out to be something that it is not. The solution to this advertisement issue is finding a happy medium between advertisers and consumers. 

Once one advertisement issue is solved then another can be undertaken. After this issue is solved maybe the next would be how to eliminate the large amount of sex that goes along with advertising beer, video games, perfume and other objects that have nothing to do with sex. It’s about time that the advertising world finds new ways to sell their products. New ways can mean new opportunity for companies and the people who buy their products.  

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REFERENCES: 

"Advertising to Children." Advertising Educational Foundation - Educational Advertising Resources - AEF. 2005. Web. 30 Aug. 2011. <http://www.aef.com/on_campus/classroom/speaker_pres/data/3005>.

"Children’s Exposure to Advertising Is Making Them Sick, Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter # 274." Killology Research Group, A Warrior Science Group: Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman, Author - Jonesboro, Arkansas. Web. 31 Aug. 2011. <http://www.killology.com/exp_to_adv.htm>.

"Marketing, Small Business - Marketing and Advertising Statistics | Entrepreneur.com." Business & Small Business | News, Advice, Strategy | Entrepreneur.com. Entrepreneur, 13 Mar. 2006. Web. 2 Sept. 2011. <http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/82004>.

Merzenich, Marghi. "Misleading Science Claims: The Case of Baby Einstein | The Posit Science Blog." Posit Science | Brain Fitness & Brain Training. 11 Nov. 2009. Web. 30 Aug. 2011. <http://www.positscience.com/blog/2009/11/11/misleading-science-claims-the-case-of-baby-einstein/>.

Park, Alice. "Study: Baby Einstein DVDs Don't Help Tots Learn Words - TIME." Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com. 02 Mar. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2011. <http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1968874,00.html>.