Climate Change and Health

Posted by Eaten Turner on May 30th, 2019

This post was written with the help of the author: Eaton Turner is a bachelor in English philology and literature at California University. Eaten is currently working as one of the best writers at the https://essayswriters.com/ He also studies feminine psychology

According to consequentialist theory, the rightness and wrongness of an action are based on the consequences that an action has. Thus, it is important to investigate both positive and negative effects of marketing on children.

Advertising Functions

In obedience to deontological theory, the rightness of an action is to be determined by the intentions of an individual. Thus, one should know the main objectives of advertisement in order to estimate its impact. The main function of advertising and marketing as a whole is to inform people about the existence of certain goods. This is the frankest part of the advertisement, for the reason that it appeals to the consciousness of people, and they can take it censoriously. Then, commercials actualize the hidden needs. For example, a person feels a bit thirsty, and he/she is able to cope with this need. Seeing a fresh green cucumber, one starts to feel thirstier and recognizes that a cucumber is a solution. This message of advertisement is more or less honest, since it uses visual images, signs with clear and open meaning. However, it shifts the focus to latent (hidden, implicit) needs, awakens and strengthens those that were insufficient. In addition, advertising can generate new needs. For example, the child did not know about the existence of the video game and lived in peace, limited to mobile and desktop games. Because of advertisement, he/she begins to beg parents for the new product. Furthermore, advertising is a work of art. It appeals to a sense of beauty in a person. It asserts itself as a model of beauty. It invites to follow the aesthetic (and ethical too) standards, which are used in advertising. Finally, advertising is a source of the formation of a new self. Manufacturers of advertisements promote not only the product, but also a standard of living, representing an understanding of the internal springs of personality of the perceiver, empathy and friendliness toward him. Due to the globalization process, advertisements are accessible not only through TV, but also via Internet, being the most significant means for personality manipulation, designed to adjust people’s needs and tastes in accordance with the needs of the advertiser. Therefore, it sets different path of cash flows and psychological resources.

The Positive Effect of Advertising on Children

Heroes of television series and advertised by them products form the basis of youngsters’ subculture, outside of which it is hard for them to build communication with peers. For children, the advertised information is relevant and fashionable. From an early age, advertising teaches children to navigate in the adult world of commodity-money relations. Advertising improves memory, for example, a famous advertisement has helped children to remember Blok’s poem. However, in addition to the advertisement itself, a child knows nothing, and it is a fault of parents. Quoting advertisement slogans is not bad if they are grammatically correct. In addition, the short clear sentences help some children to learn first words.

Negative Impact of Advertising on Children

It is enough to turn on the TV and advertising launches an attack on the psyche of the youngsters. Quick change of motion, zoom and power of sound, still images and audio-visual effects injure the nervous system and cause increased irritability in young children. The combination of text, images, music, and home environment promotes relaxation, reduces mental activity and critical perception of information. Advertising has a negative impact on the development of personality. It imposes ideals of beauty and life goals, which are far from reality. Thus, children are forced to compare themselves with the ideals shown on the screen. The consciousness of a child is gradually becoming a repository of stereotypes.

Habitually, advertising makes a child more aggressive and irritable. Firstly, many of the commercials are repeated too often interfering movies or animations. Secondly, such goods as bicycles, travel wagons are not yet obtainable for a child, but he/she wants to have them. Since desires and opportunities are not the same, there is a feeling of frustration and often irritation with parents, who cannot purchase a costly toy. Thirdly, the very advertisement may be aggressive.

Advertising affects children not only psychosomatically, but also physiologically. When a young viewer watches commercials without a break, he or she sits or lies motionless, as the attention is completely captured by the advertisement. Therefore, the lack of exercise leads to a slowing of metabolism, and hence to the accumulation of fat in the body of the child. Instead of running, jumping, and, thus, wasting calories, the child, on the contrary, accumulates them. Watching TV, a youngster can eat more than his/her body needs. Hence, the problem of obesity at an early age and disorders of the gastrointestinal tract appear. In addition, advertising offers to the little consumer not very useful products. A child after viewing advertisements begins to demand different appetizers and confectionaries, which also does not make him vigorous.

The psychological impacts of advertising on the immature minds of the younger generation are even more influential. The technology of creating promotional television spots already has an impact, especially on children. Marketers around the world have long recognized that there is no other fertile ground for advertising but children. Although children cannot buy the advertised products, they are still able to influence the decision of their parents. A child may simply extort mother or father to buy a candy bar or chips that were advertised earlier.

For children aged 6-12 years, who have their pocket money, advertisements that offer to get products without any efforts are especially attractive. For example, “send us 10 labels and get a baseball cap.” It is problematic to persuade a child that participating in such a lottery does not guarantee winning, and that cap most of the time is much cheaper. Sometimes foodstuffs (chips, gum, candy, chocolate bars, soft drinks), which are used in advertising by teenagers, are not very healthy. It may be challenging for parents to prove that to the child, and they have to give under the influence of his/her persistent persuasion and buy what he/she asks. Many videos are calling to have a bite when the feeling of light hunger comes. Thanks to such advertisements, number of meals increases and healthy nutrition is often replaced with such unneeded snacks.

Since children are more sensitive emotionally than adults, they stronger feel the impact of advertising. The most unpleasant feature is that it violates the stability of life and entails drastic changes in mood and behavior of the viewers. For children, everything that happens on the screen happens right now, they are not able yet to distinguish truth from fiction. Therefore, the behaviors of the heroes in commercials form a model of behavior for children in the real world. However, in advertising this model is simplified or even unrealistic. Rarely one can meet moral and honest character advocating ethics in the commercial. Much more often one can see selfish, sexually aggressive characters, who act only for the sake of their desires.

How to Protect the Child from Excessive Influence of Advertising

Psychologists, supporters of ethical relativism, offer different tools to protect the child’s mind from the negative impact of advertising and derive benefit from advertisements. Parents should take care of their children, ensuring that the TV was not usual way to kill time for them. It is necessary to make child’s life diverse and interesting, fill it with new experiences and activities. In addition, watching TV and Internet use should be controlled and limited and parents should form the right attitude towards advertisements. Very often, advertising offers illustrations of how not to behave. It is better for a child to learn on the mistakes of heroes, whom he/she sees on TV and Internet. Parents should clarify it to the child.

For children with unstable mentality, it is better not to watch commercials or at least turn off the sound at this time. In the first years of a child’s life, one should try to teach him to read and communicate with the world without modern devices, and try not to replace parents with TV. Parents should teach their children to perceive critically any message that comes through the media despite of the fact that due to globalization different channels of information acquisition appeared. Thus, people should ask themselves at least three questions about the content of advertisements: who says it (travel agency, pharmacy, toy factory); to whom (a bored housewife, moody child); and why (to entertain and please, or inform). When doubting the sincerity of the message and trying to unveil its double and triple meaning, a person becomes more resistant to its effects. One should practice it in front of the children. When children feel irony and distrust of adults, they will follow the example. In the end, parents are the best example for their children to follow.

 

In conclusion, it should be noted that nowadays, advertising is one of the main sources of information for children and, thus, it has a decisive impact on their way of thinking. It is not sudden that youngsters and teenagers are a target market for many manufacturers and advertisers. Even if the child does not make a decision, he/she knows how to convince his parents. It is also important to note that parents are fully responsible for the consequences of advertisements. Commercials may carry violence or immorality. Nevertheless, parents are responsible for their children’s education and growing-up. Globalization processes complicated the resolution of the given problem. Yet, according to ethical relativism, the information received through advertisements can be turned into advantage. One should remember that parents are to protect their children from negative effects and make a lesson from what they see on TV.

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Eaten Turner

About the Author

Eaten Turner
Joined: February 25th, 2019
Articles Posted: 2

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