Avion Jackson
SPCM 2360
Literary Review
Reshaping Our Children’s Mind: The Culture of Children’s Advertisement
The topic of this literature review deals with branding/marketing to children and how it shapes the culture for children. Branding to children has become a large part of modern day advertising. Many companies have recognized the impact this demographic have on what is consumed. Children from as early as ages 2 are exposed to large amounts of information and they are susceptible to variety of messages whether good are bad. Advertising takes on a different form when it comes to sending a message to kids. There are various avenues used to reach a child which makes advertising and media effects greater. The youth as they grow older, build a loyalty to a certain brand and maintain it throughout their lifetimes. There are certain regulations in place to limit the exposure of advertising to children but it cannot erase years of branding and marketing that has been imprinted on the minds of these young children. Company’s and the media tactics vary with each product and they learn to adapt to changing views of advertising in the process. The industries kids are most intrigued by are food and beverage. However, because of access to other media outlets, children have information about other industries as well. These businesses affect what kids consume and in larger sense shape the culture in which they grow up in. The messages from advertisement and media infiltrate their personal lives by affecting their interactions with society and their parents. Children are blitzed with so much information from these advertisements through the media that it begin to affect their views of reality and what they consume from not only advertisements but other media channels as well.
In the article “Food Advertising and Marketing Directed at Children and Adolescents in the US” by Mary Story and Simone French they explore how these industries have impacted children lives and how they manage to get them to consume their products. The article begins its discussion with the food industry advertising, which is the second largest advertiser in the American economy. The food industry spends large amounts of money to get information about its brands to children. “It is estimated that over $1 billion is spent on media advertising to children, mostly on television” (Story and French, 2004). The industry wants to get children to recognize their brand at a very early age. Once children are familiar with a brand, they will develop a preference for it which will influence their purchasing behavior. According to the article children use two techniques known as the “nag factor” and “pester power” to sway purchasing behavior. At a very early age they are aware of these tactics but they are not able to comprehend the messages that come from advertisement. Many studies that were conducted show that children do not know the true nature of advertising. They are too young to know that an ad for cereal can be misleading and bad for them. They are unaware of the persuasive means that come from these ads.
When it comes to advertising to children, there are a variety of means the food and beverage industry can use to reach them. The main way to reach any consumer in modern times is through television advertising. Children are watching more and more television and getting exposure to ads at an alarming rate. “It is estimated that US children may view between 20,000–40,000 commercials each year [24] and by the time they graduate from high school may have been exposed to 360,000 television ads” (Story and French, 2004). Also another way to reach children is to advertise in schools. Numerous companies advertise via sports events by sponsoring the team and having their logo on the uniform. They can also utilize Channel One which airs important information about the school but also advertise products for a company that the school may be under contract with. Companies such as McDonalds, Pepsi, Kraft/Nabisco, and Frito Lay all find ways into schools to get their product in the hands of children. They have their products in almost every vending machine and showcase their logo through slots on scoreboards, yearbook ads, and free textbook covers. Advertisers also use toys with product logos on it to get to children. Companies partner with toy manufacturers to help strengthen their brand with children. They know children have toys at their disposal from a very young age and having the logo on those toys help build a positive relationship between that company and kids.
The advertising techniques used by the food industries influence what product that they consume. Studies conducted showed that children exposed to advertising will choose advertised food products more than children who were not exposed. Also the more television advertisements a child sees about a food, increases the chances of the child influencing their mother to buy that product. There have been few studies to show that advertising affects the food intake of children. Due to the large amount of advertising that children are exposed to many regulations were put in place the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) and FTC (Federal Trade Commission). The agencies regulated the timing and content of advertisements that were directed at children. They were concerned that if these food industries continued to promote these products without any filter or protocol it would damage the branding of other products that were not targeted toward children. The messages that advertising communicate to children affects their product choice in variety of ways.
Some critics say children begin to be consumed by these messages and it creates a culture that leads to “irrational and impulsive product choices” (Armstrong and Brucks, 1988). A number of reports show that instilling in children this consumerism nature can cause them to want harmful products. In a recent report to the FTC, many parents felt that branding to children undermined the authority they have in their households dealing with nutrition. They have also made it known with no filter on advertisements it can lend a favorable attitude to children purchasing dangerous products. There are some proponents for advertising to children because they believe it provides information to children to make informed decisions. Many state that “if the advertised products are harmful, we should ban the products, not the advertising.” (Armstrong and Brucks,1988). However companies have mutual agreements with most networks that allow them to show their products at the most important time. Children are isolated from educational material when clouded by advertisements.
Armstrong and Brucks also addressed how advertising can lead to undesirable socialization. They claim that it teaches children materialism and immediate gratification. Another downside is the fact that you cannot control the content of the advertisements that children get exposed to which can also lead to incidental learning. Children begin to pick up on wide range of information that was not related to the product. Children are also socialized to downplay social interactions with others because they are socialized into being consumers and more interested in market place pressures. These pressures are created by the large amount of money that is being funneled into the advertisements that are targeted toward children.
Many scholars have done research to show how children can resist the influx of advertising through the media. Many scholars believe you can make children “TV literate” and help guard them against the harmful messages that may come through the media by advertising. Stack and Kelly in “Popular Media, Education, and Resistance” states that we can teach children to distinguish and filter information from media and advertising that will lessen its effects. (Stack and Kelly, 2006) Once children have the skills to do this they will be able to detect persuasive, misleading details that may come through advertising. Stack and Kelly also addresses whether the media as a whole is changing the meaning of what it means to be democratic in the eyes of children. Advertisement and media forms a culture of consumerism which covers the landscape of the youth and it makes it hard to distinguish any choice of ‘free will” from the messages. “Young people need opportunities to inquire into and debate, who controls the media system and whether a predominantly corporate commercial media system is compatible with democracy” (Stack and Kelly, 2006). In many cases the media does not portray children’s resistance in form of protest and strikes against the content of ads and the media.
Researchers have argued that a resistance from children is crucial to their development because it can create a chain of consumerism that reproduces itself with each generation. “The social reproduction of consumerism grows with every new product that a child purchases” (Rosati, 2006). Children are left with no form of autonomy because their minds have been exhausted with information from ads through various forms of media. Rosati also states that leaving them without the proper resources to battle against this advertising culture will lend to us having a society that is uninformed and irrational. Children will feed into a nature of entitlement and less and less children will be productive members of society. The production of these advertisements through the media reproduces what children believe to be their culture. They are not guarded against the commercialized aspects that they see via MTV or any other media source. Advertisements are seen at every angle and they are prone to see this as not only a product or brand but also acceptable behavior in society.
The companies that target children through advertisement in a sense are creating a consumer from scratch. Children are targeted as early as toddlers and drawn into a culture of consumerism. They do not yet understand the information that comes from these messages but they know that they must have what is being shown on television or the internet. They know the logos that they see on their classmate’s books or sports apparel is something “cool” and represent something good. The various companies that target them spend billions of dollars to make sure that the brand stays fresh in the child mind over time. Food and beverage industries establish a loyalty to their brand that is hard to break. However, in creating consumers at such an early age they leave out the social consequences and how it changes the culture that the children develop in. Parents begin to lose authority and children become fascinated by products and the media that they lose their social identity and interact less with society. The advertising culture leaves children with very misleading ideas that have no way to filter through. Industries use a variety of techniques which makes it hard to decipher through what is good for you and what is not. Children even a very young age are unaware of the consumer that is growing inside of them and the way these messages from various media sources will shape their lives.
Bibliography
Armstrong, Gary M., and Merrie Brucks. “Dealing with Children’s Advertising: Public Policy Issues and Alternatives.” Journal of Public Policy and Marketing. 7 (1988): 98-113
Rosati, Clayton. “MTV: 360* of the Industrial Production of Culture.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 32.4 (2007): 556-75. JSTOR
Story, Mary, and Simone French. “Food Advertising and Marketing Directed at Children and Adolescents in the US.” Institutional Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical. 1.3 (2004): n. pag. http://www.ijbnpa.org/content/1/1/3.
Stack Michelle, and Deirdre M. Kelly. “Popular Media, Education, and Resistance.” Canadian Journal of Education. 29 (2006): 5-26. JSTOR
Montgomery, Kathryn C. “Children’s Media Culture in the New Millennium: Mapping the Digital Landscape”. The Future of Children. 10.2 (2000): 145-167. JSTOR