Outline: Advertising Effects on Children

Title: Media and Advertising, Advertising Effects on Children

I. Thesis Statement: Media and advertising manipulate children’s minds and thus have negative consequences for child physiology, psychology, and behavior.

II. Introduction

A. The concept of media and advertising is an important tool in the modern world.

1. Media is a powerful tool for public communication, educational and information, which may have a positive influence.

2. It is the appropriate way used to influence consumers purchasing behavior if used with ethical principles.

B. However, firms target children due to their cognitive immaturity making them simple targets. It has effects on their consumption preference, particularly their choice of food products.

III. Advertising Effects on Children’s Psychology

A. Children are psychologically immature; they can be convinced easily, thus becoming the targets of misleading product advertisements (Dittmann, 2004).

1. Children are psychologically defenseless against advertising; therefore, the media influences their preferences and feeding habits (Halford et al., 2006).

2. Advertisements that target children have been seen to be unethical as they have been shown to promote undesirable social values of materialism in the children.

3. Unethical advertisement to exploit the cognitive vulnerability of children while marketing unhealthy products.

4. Misleading advertisement can lead to the development of negative behaviors and attitudes towards the world if close monitoring is relaxed.

5. Purchasing habits may be compromised and ultimately lead to erosion of creativity (Linn, 2004). For example, even cartoons may display content that is above the judgment of young minds (Bernhardt et al., 2013).

IV. Advertising Influence on Children’s Physiology

A. Advertising has led to the rise of poor lifestyles and nutrition challenges in children

1. Children have suffered from diabetes and obesity increasingly due to unhealthy products marketing.

B. Advertisement does inform the public, but the children should not be a part of the immediate intended clientele to be served with information.

1. The children are exposed to a consumer culture from a very early age, which leads to changes in behavior.

V. There are possible ways to address the problem, which involves parents, educators, and society.

A. Parents have to be involved in children’s life to avoid unfavorable effects on the values and behaviors of teens.

1. Parents have to limit the time their children spent in front of TVs.

2. All families should control what children watch and pay attention to their habits.

3. It is essential to involve children in some interesting and instructive activities in order to keep them away from the effects of inappropriate advertisements.

B. Teachers should pay attention to children’s habits at school to address the negative effects of advertisements on time.

1. The involvement of adults is crucial since they are able to determine the effects of inappropriate adverts.

2. The solution is the direct involvement of educators in aspects pertaining to what to be advertised and what to be watched.

C. The community and society need to participate in the coordination of the advertising activities to decrease the negative effects of media on children.

1. There is a need to stop companies and manufacturers from targeting youth with wrong adverts.

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VI. Conclusion

A. Advertisement is critical in the marketing of any goods or services the moral-ethical position is to do it in a manner that does not take advantage of the vulnerable children. There are many unethical issues that surround the subject of media and advertisement on children.

1. The advertisers have to show a moral obligation not to arm-twist the parents by exploiting the children’s vulnerabilities.

2. The media content targeting children should be in line with morally and socially accepted content for children of a given age.

B. Society needs to be involved in the control of advertisement to avoid potential future issues with children behavior

1. It is primarily the role of the parents to instill good consumer habits in their children.

2. The censorship organizations should evaluate the advertisements and forbid media that directly target children.