THE IMPACT OF ADVERTISING ON CHILDREN

THE IMPACT OF ADVERTISING ON CHILDREN

Advertising is a pervasive influence on children. Young people watch more than 40, 000 advertisements per year. Advertisements are basically to sell a product. Advertisements are everywhere, televisions, internet, newspapers and magazines etc??This study is about the impact of few selected advertisements on children. The target age groups are from 3 to 17 which would be divided into three groups. Five ages per group. Group 1: age 3 to 7, Group 2: age 8 to 12 and Group 3: age 13 to 17. Each of these age groups are affected in different ways. Some are effected mentally, and some physically. But these effects would not take effect immediately; it would take effect as the child grows. This is because no matter how the advertisements are made, most of the children never understand the effects on the advertisements and since they like the creativity in the advertisements they actually consume the product. No matter what the product is, let it be from a chocolate to an electronic product like an Air Conditioner. It is said that children from the ages of 3 to 7 are found to be more interested in toys and 8 to 12 are interested in food that no matter how the food is and how it tastes they would force their parents to buy them the product. And the children in the ages between 13 to 17 prefer shopping for themselves, this could be because they start to have a mindset that they have become ??teenagers??, they prefer buying clothes, cosmetics, electronic gadgets (mobile phones, iPods, and watches).

Eugene Windsor David

Media Studies