We need to train them to become wise consumers to make healthy choices. We can help your kids get better at assessing ad messages by encouraging them to talk with you about what the ads are really trying to say.
A Stanford University study had kids taste food in McDonald packaging and unmarked packaging and asked which they preferred. The kids preferred the McDonald packaged food not realizing that they went for it because they were conditioned to believe "it must taste good."
Advertising campaign can affect a child's social, emotional and physical health, in various ways like:
- Advertising can encourage a child to believe that his/her personality and likeability can be expressed in things.
- Excessive materialism can affect the development of children's self-image and values.
- Aggressive marketing of fast food commercials featuring candy and soft drinks contributes to overweight.
Teaching kids how to look at advertisements with a critical eye for the truth can be very effective in reducing some of the negative effects of advertising.
Intention and purpose of advertisers:
Advertisers target at children because of their high disposable income, their early establishment of loyalty to certain brands and a conventional wisdom that young adults buy products on impulse. Many parents and critics fear that children are susceptible to commercial appeals because young viewers lack the necessary cognitive skills to process the highly persuasive messages and make appropriate judgements about them.
Educators and researchers have attempted to design programs that will teach children about the intent of advertisements and help children construc defenses from commercial messages. To get more information about it you may search at following sites:
Helpful websites
Don't Buy It!
MediaWatch.com Negative effect of advertisement on children
