ETHICS OF ADVERTISING TO YOUNG CONSUMERS

Ethics of Advertising to Young Consumers

Ethics of Advertising to Young Consumers

Introduction

Advertisements directly affect children's lives in harmful ways. Children can not understand the effects that advertisements have on them, especially children ages eight and under. As said by Roy Fox, consumption and the ads that drive it are the most powerful cultural forces that shape our attitudes, beliefs, values, and lifestyle. If something is not done about the ever increasing amount of ads that influence children in harmful ways, the future of nation will not be able to live up to its full potential.

Literature Review

Austin, Elizabeth (2006) states that children are no more venerable now than they were in any other generation and all other generations seemed to turn out just fine. She also says that bans on ads do not and will never work, no matter what advertisers will always find a way to reach children. Plus advertisers and government should not be the ones who have to think about these issues, it should be the parents job to shelter their children from advertisements that they believe are harmful.

In another article, it states that children are seeing more and more ads every year. These ads are getting increasingly provocative and enticing. The author believes that these advertisements are making it much more likely for children to drink because they make drinking so glamorous. The author states that ads should be shifted away from youth oriented programming (Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, trans, 2006).

Another study discovered how children are influencing 500 billion dollars worth of purchases so marketing techniques have turned upside down. Adult products are even being places with kid oriented logos and images. Marketing tools have spread into many facets of children's lives such as, magazines, schools, internet, cartoons, toys, radios and more. Children see over 40,000 commercials a year and children as young as four can recognize logos which is causing unbelievable effects (National Institute on Media and the Family, 2002).

Molnar, Alex (2006) argued that ads in schools leave students venerable to corporate values that are the opposite of what public schools education goals. The article states that commercialism takes many forms all of which are harmful such as incentives/contests and donations of equipment to schools with embedded ads. It is wrong for American corporations to be shaping what children learn in school.

Willenz Pam (2008) stated that television advertisement leads to unhealthy habits in children particularly those eight and under. Children under eight can not fully comprehend advertisements, this they are more prone to accept them as truthful, accurate, and unbiased. This in turn leads to unhealthy eating habits, pressure on parents (resulting in parent-child conflicts), aggressive behavior, positive attitudes towards drinking, and desensitization towards real world violence. The APA suggests that advertisements be restricted to children, investigated further, and disclosures should be conveyed in a clear language that young ones can understand.

Fox, Roy F. (2001) argued that because we live in a society where we consume more than we produce, more ...