Before when children were asked what they wanted to become when they grow up, the answers used to be “nurse”, “doctor”, “astronaut”, “engineer”, etc. But today maximum answers would be more likely to ‘be rich’ or ‘make money’. The only reason responsible for this change is advertising or marketing to children.
Marketing or advertising to children is the act of promoting products and services to children. Nowadays it has become is a multi-million dollar project that’s having an enormous bad impact on child development. The result of this is not only the increased materialistic values among children but also that they feel inferior if they don’t have an endless array of new products.
Marketing to children basically means relying on the kid to force the mom to buy the product, rather than going straight to the mom.
But yes, not all marketing is harmful. It is okay to advertise to children for any educational purpose which may help them in their studies.
But one negative aspect is that children want pretty much everything that is marketed to them. This puts a lot of unnecessary pressure to parents, especially to those who might not afford it. Nowadays kids do control their parents.
Advertising is getting bigger each day. Companies are fighting to create their brand space in markets. But these companies also struggle to see or rather not care to see the impact of advertisements on kids who are trapped nearly all the time on the screen. Advertising has positive results, too, but more of the negative effects on the brains of younger children may have mental and psychological effects.Here are some instances of the harmful effect of marketing on children:
As soon as a child sees an exciting advertisemt, they run to their parents and ask them to buy the product. Whether it is useful for them or not doesn’t matter. They just want to get them.
- a. Some businesses make use of risky stunts that can be followed by children at home, which can prove dangerous, to keep the viewers linked to watch the entire ad.
- Some pieces from major brands are pricey. These enticing commercials draw away the interest of children from less costly items.
- Kids may be disrespectful and may even misbehave with their parents if they are deprived of the new clothing and toys featured in advertisements of their choosing.
- Junk food items that are marketed heavily may lead to obesity in the kids at a very young age.
Advertising to children is a very sensitive issue because children are easily influenced. Marketing to children puts pressure to parents and may even get them into debts.
To save the child from this, parents must take responsibility and monitor what their kids watch and read, determine how they spend their free time, and educate them to become responsible consumers.
Previously companies used to market children’s products to the parents. Parents were their target audience. But nowadays, marketers aim directly the children. Advertisements are made in such a way that they draw the attention of children.
Parents should teach their children how to become less influenced by the messages in the ads. It is the responsibility of the parents to teach their children the importance and value of money.
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Mark K. Stafford is an American English writer. He was born in Los Angeles and earned a BA from the University of California. He is a passionate author who wrote on Essays, Poetry, and Journalism. Now he writes full-time books and articles for TheWordyBoy.