Advertising plays a great influence on teenagers and adolescents. Studies according to Goodman have shown that an average young person in the US views more than 3000 ads per day on television alone and is continually being exposed to advertising on the Internet, in some magazines, on billboards, and in schools. Also, McNeal has written that advertisers tend to target young people in order to establish a “brand-name preference” at an early age as possible.
This approach by advertisers occurs on the fact that advertising is a $250 billion/year industry, and teenagers are very attractive consumers who spend almost $155 billion/year according to Quart Due to its increasing effect on teenagers, advertisers are also seeking to find new and creative ways of reaching teenage consumers through the Internet, in schools, and even in bathroom stalls. This increasing exposure to advertising may in effect contribute largely to obesity, lack of proper nutrition, and worst is cigarette and alcohol use.
Advertising is highly effective and good in some ways, but these young people aren’t aware of the negative effects advertising has on them. Advertising in its Different Forms Television Studies have shown that children and adolescents view 40 000 ads per year on TV alone according to Comstock and Scharrer. This occurs despite the fact that the Children’s Television Act of 1990 (Pub L No. 101–437) limits advertising on children’s programming to 10. 5 minutes/hour on weekends and 12 minutes/hour on weekdays.
However, much of children’s viewing occurs during prime time, which features nearly 16 minutes/hour of advertising. Movies A 2000 FTC investigation found that violent movies, music, and video games have been intentionally marketed to children and adolescents (Federal Trade Commission, September 2001). Although movie theaters have agreed not to show trailers for R-rated movies before G-rated movies in response to the release of the FTC report, children continue to see advertising for violent media in other venues. Also, movies targeted at children often prominently feature brand-name products and fast food restaurants.
In 1997–1998 National Research Council and Institute of Medicine states that 8 alcohol companies placed products in 233 motion pictures and in 1 episode or more of 181 TV series. Printed Media According to the Consumer’s Union more than 160 magazines are now targeted at children. Young people see 45% more beer ads and 27% more ads for hard liquor in teen magazines than adults do in their magazines. Despite the Master Settlement Agreement with the tobacco industry in 1998, tobacco advertising expenditures in 38 youth-oriented magazines amounted to $217 million in 2000 ( King, Siegel 504-511).
The Internet An increasing number of Web sites try to persuade children and teenagers to make direct sales. Research says that teenagers account for more than $1 billion in e-commerce dollars, and the industry spent $21. 6 million on Internet banner ads alone in 2002. The content of these sites varies widely, from little more than basic brand information to chat rooms, “virtual bars,” drink recipes, games, contests, and merchandise catalogues. Many of these sites use slick promotional techniques to target young people. Areas of Concern in Advertising that Affects Teenagers . Tobacco Advertising Tobacco manufacturers spend billions of money a year on advertising and promotion.
Teenagers who are exposed to tobacco advertising are more likely to use tobacco than having family members and peers who smoke(Evans, Farkas, Gilpin, Berry and Pierce 1538 –1545). Two unique studies have found that approximately one third of all adolescent smoking can be connected to tobacco advertising and promotions. In addition, more than 20 studies have found that children exposed to cigarette ads or promotions are more likely to become smokers themselves. . Alcohol Advertising Alcohol manufacturers spend $5. 7 billion/year on advertising and promotion. Young people typically view 2000 beer and wine commercials annually, with most of the ads concentrated in sports programming. During prime time, only 1 alcohol ad appears every 4 hours; yet, in sports programming, the frequency increases to 2. 4 ads per hour(Madden and Grube, 297-299). Research has found that adolescent drinkers are more likely to have been exposed to alcohol advertising.
Given that children begin making decisions about alcohol at an early age—probably during grade school —exposure to beer commercials represents a significant risk factor. 3. Drug Advertising “Just Say No” as a message to teenagers about drugs seems is quite a failure given that $11 billion/year is spent on cigarette advertising, $5. 7 billion/year is spent on alcohol advertising, and nearly $4 billion/year is spent on prescription drug advertising. Drug companies now spend more than twice as much on marketing as they do on research and development.
The top 10 drug companies made a total profit of $35. 9 billion in 2002—more than the other 490 companies in the Fortune 500 combined. Is such advertising effective? A recent survey of physicians found that 92% of patients had requested an advertised drug. In addition, Angell has concluded that children and teenagers may get the message that there is a drug available to cure all ills and heal all pain, a drug for every occasion (including sexual intercourse). 4. Food Advertising and Health Advertisers spend more than $2. billion/year to promote restaurants and another $2 billion to promote food products. On TV, of the estimated 40 000 ads per year that young people see, half are for food, especially sugared cereals and high-calorie snacks. Healthy foods are advertised less than 3% of the time; children rarely see a food advertisement for broccoli. Increasingly, fast food conglomerates are using toy tie-ins with major children’s motion pictures to try to attract young people. Advertisers try to promote foods that are in fact unhealthy while at the same time telling people they need to lose weight and be thin.
Studies have also shown that girls of all ages worry about their weight and many of them are beginning to lose weight even at early ages. Commercials play a great role on what young people think and it greatly affects their way of life mostly in their physical appearance. The truth here is that commercials promote a very unrealistic image of how people would look if ever they would use a certain product, they tend to confuse viewers and make them believe that what they are promoting is true which attracts young people easily. 5. Sex in Advertising
Sex is used in commercials to sell everything from beer to shampoo to cars. New research as said by Collins , Elliott , and Berry is showing that teenagers’ exposure to sexual content in the media may be responsible for earlier onset of sexual intercourse or other sexual activities. What is very obvious is the difference between the abundance of advertising of products for erectile dysfunction (ED) (between January and October, 2004, drug companies spent $343 million advertising Viagra, Levitra, and Cialis) and the lack of advertising for birth control products or emergency contraceptives on the major TV networks.
Ads for ED drugs give children and teens inappropriate messages about sex and sexuality at a time when they are not being taught well in school sex education programs. Research has exactly found that giving teenagers increased access to birth control through advertising does not make them sexually active at a younger age. It seems clear that advertising in the United States can have a significant effect on young people. Although we all know of the negative effects caused by advertising to teenagers, we couldn’t avoid the fact about its increasing effect to young people.
The most positive thing parents can do to their children is to educate them further about advertising and its negative effects. Schools on the other hand would teach young students to carefully evaluate everything that they have seen on the media in all its forms and carefully see if it has negative effects to its viewers. It’s also important to note that not everything that advertisers promote is really true, some of it were just designed to attract more consumers especially teenagers to believe and buy their products not knowing of its negative effects that it will cause.
The truth is teenagers do not understand fully the effect that advertising has on them. The reason that advertisers have their target mostly on these young people is the fact that teenagers are impulsive buyers and easily attracted to what the advertisements promote instead of evaluating carefully their products. Parents and schools should be supportive to these young children by educating them properly and helping them be wise in watching all these advertisements. ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY Goodman E. Ads pollute most everything in sight. Albuquerque Journal. June 27, 1999:C3
This article intends to explain the issues face by advertisers and its effect to its consumers through its different advertising schemes. It explains the negative effects of advertising most especially to children and teenagers. This article was very informative and is very useful for my research project. McNeal J. Kids as Customers: A Handbook of Marketing to Children. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books; 1992 This book aims to inform its readers about the kids market. It emphasizes on how and when do children become consumers and presents some informative facts in relation to children’s buying habits.
Quart A. Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers. Cambridge, MA: Perseus; 2003. In this book, the author argues about how America’s youth has been successfully targeted by ulitimate forms of marketing and branded and emphasizes on how the youth tends to go for more “branded” products. This book is very informative in the sense that it informs readers about the real truth behind the matter and explores the ways on how these American youth are influenced by what they see around them. Comstock G, Scharrer E. Television: What’s On, Who’s Watching, and What it Means.
San Diego, CA: Academic Press; 1999 The authors of this book aims to present a comprehensive examination of the role of television in one’s life. It emphasizes on relevant data gathered and studied which points to the increasing and remarkable influence of television most especially for children. It is informative because it presents reliable data on the effect caused by watching too much television. Federal Trade Commission. Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children: Report of the FTC. Washington, DC: Federal Trade Commission; September 2000
This is a report done by the Federal Trade Commission conducted aimed to study on the effects of marketing violent entertainment material. It presents the issues faced by advertisers on promoting products which are still inappropriate for children but still is being targeted for youth consumers. The report also reveals that while the entertainment industry has taken steps to identify content that may not be appropriate for children, the companies in those industries still routinely target children under 17 in their marketing of products their own ratings systems deem inappropriate or warrant parental caution due to violent content.
King C III, Siegel M. The Master Settlement Agreement with the tobacco industry and cigarette advertising in magazines. N Engl J Med. 2001;345 :504 –511 This article raises the issues between the Master Settlement Agreement of large tobacco industries in the US and advertisers. The agreement prohibits tobacco advertising that targets people younger than 18 years of age. On this paper, the writers analyze the trend in expenditures for advertising for 15 specific brands of cigarettes and the exposure of young people to cigarette advertising in 38 magazines between 1995 and 2000.
However, the Master Settlement Agreement with the tobacco industry appears to have had little effect on cigarette advertising in magazines and on the exposure of young people to these advertisements. Evans N, Farkas A, Gilpin E, Berry C, Pierce JP. Influence of tobacco marketing and exposure to smokers on adolescent susceptibility to smoking. J Natl Cancer Inst. 1995;87 :1538 –1545 The writers of this paper aims to study on the influence of tobacco advertising to teenagers and adolescents alike.
To do this they have evaluated the influence of tobacco advertising , promotion and exposure to smokers on never-smoking adolescents who are susceptible to smoking. Relevant data have been gathered through conducting surveys adolescents who have never smoked before and conduct some interviews. Results have shown that tobacco advertising tends to have a larger influence in encouraging teenagers to smoke than exposure to peer of family members who smoke. Madden PA, Grube JW. The frequency and nature of alcohol and tobacco advertising in televised sports, 1990 through 1992. Am J Public Health. 994;84 :297 –299 This study examines the frequency and nature of alcohol and tobacco advertising in a random sample of 166 televised sports events representing 443. 7 hours of network programming broadcast from fall 1990 through summer 1992. More commercials appear for alcohol products than for any other beverage. Beer commercials predominate and include images at odds with recommendations from former Surgeon General Koop. The audience is also exposed to alcohol and tobacco advertising through the appearances of stadium signs, other on-site promotions, and verbal or visual brief product sponsorships.
Moderation messages and public service announcements are rare. Angell M. The Truth About the Drug Companies, How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It. New York, NY: Random House; 2004 In this book the author presents the truth behind the pharmaceutical industry and what it has become–and argues for essential, long-overdue change.. As the author demonstrates and claims that high drug prices are necessary to fund research and development are unfounded, she reveals the truth that drug companies funnel the bulk of their resources into the marketing of products of dubious benefit.
Drug companies, she shows, routinely rely on publicly funded institutions for their basic research; they rig clinical trials to make their products look better than they are; and they use their legions of lawyers to stretch out government-granted exclusive marketing rights for years. They also flood the market with copycat drugs that cost a lot more than the drugs they mimic but are no more effective. Collins RL, Elliott MN, Berry SH, et al. Watching sex on television predicts adolescent initiation of sexual behavior. Pediatrics. 2004;114(3) . Available at: www. pediatrics. org/cgi/content/full/114/3/e280
This paper aims to present the issues concerning early sex as influenced by what young people see on television. The American Academy of Pediatrics has suggested that portrayals of sex on entertainment television (TV) may contribute to precocious adolescent sex. Watching sex on TV predicts and may hasten adolescent sexual initiation. Reducing the amount of sexual content in entertainment programming, reducing adolescent exposure to this content, or increasing references to and depictions of possible negative consequences of sexual activity could appreciably delay the initiation of coital and noncoital activities.
Alternatively, parents may be able to reduce the effects of sexual content by watching TV with their teenaged children and discussing their own beliefs about sex and the behaviors portrayed. Pediatricians should encourage these family discussions. This paper is highly useful in informing parents to carefully watch and guide their kids on the right entertainment to watch.
