Children advertisement

First, hildren are not mature enough to understand how they are targeted and how advertising works on their mind and purchasing behavior. Recent research, ‘Television viewing and aggressive behavior during adolescence and adulthood’, shows that children aged five to ten are not able to tell the difference between regular TV programs and commercials. This means that they do not even understand that advertisements are there to sell their products, and they tend to believe what they are shown on TV commercials is true. Actually the Canadian toy testing council said that the biggest area of concern with toy ads in Canada is exaggeration. Therefore, young children often think a toy can do a lot more than it can because of the way toys are portrayed in advertisement. So, Quebec city in Canada has banned print and broadcast advertising aimed at kids under 13. There are other several tactics used by advertisers, which is difficult for children to detect. For example, advertisers make a frequent use of weasel words which sound informative, but actually mean nothing. Thus, because children are not mature to understand the advertisement, advertising geared toward childre should be banned

 

Furthermore, junk food advertisement can lead to children’s obesity. Berkley Media Studies Group in California found that of the 77 foods advertised, only 5 were actually healthy options. And numerous studies have shown that children exposed to food advertising prefer and choose advertised food products more frequently than those not exposed to such ads. This means that there is a higher chance to eat unhealthy food, such as fastfood. Fast food chains spend more than 3 billion dollars a year on advertising, much of it aimed at children. A 2002 US study showed that fast food commercials during kids programming on Saturday morning are pitching bigger and bigger portions, a trend that researchers link to an the alarming rise of obesity among young people. To directly target children, they offer playgrounds, contests, clubs, games, and free toys and other merchandise related to movies, TV shows and even sports leagues.San Francisco, a little while after, passed the law that the toy the fast food market gives to attract the children should be bought with money because many children buy fast food because they want to have that toy. In fact, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one in six children and teenagers were obese and the obesity rate from 2003 to 2011, has increased 3 times. Also, according to Heart and Stroke foundation of Canada - says that 1 in 4 Canadian children between 7 and 12 is obese.  To prevent more child obesity, advertisement should be banned. The recent study showed that the banning on junk food advertisement geared towards children could reduce child obesity and the number of overweight children ages 6-11 by 18 percent. Thus, advertising geared toward children should be banned.