Consuming Kids. After watching “Consuming Kids,” and hearing the various insights of many industry professionals, it is no doubt in my mind that mass media creates a social reality, and a backwards one. This commercialization of childhood is a lot more than selling just products and services, it’s a society issue which has direct impacts on human development and relationship. This commercialization of childhood involves marketers and advertisers doing everything they can to influence the 52 million kids under 12 that hold a buying power totaling $42 billion dollars a year. The mass media aims and is successful in getting a brand in front of a child’s face 24-7, whether it be through brand licensing, product placement, viral marketing internet, videogames or many other ways.
At its best, advertisement opens up a world of opportunity for a prospective buyer; at its worst it becomes a constant deluge, an assault on the very fabric of an individual. Ad (Watterson, 1992) Figure 1. Excessive advertisement influences the attitudes that children have towards gratification, and it defines what fulfillment means to them. American children receive perhaps the most concentrated doses of advertisement through the overabundance of visual media available at their fingertips. According to the University of Michigan Health Systems website, children 2-5 spend an average of 32 hours per week in front of a TV.
Who Is To Blame? Daniel Weintraub’s article, “The Battle Against Fast Food Begins in the Home,” argues “26 percent of school children (in California) are overweight.” (42) So who’s to blame for this epidemic? According to Weintraub, “It’s the fault of parents who let their kids eat unhealthy food and sit in front of the television or computer for hours at a time,” (42) Many of our country’s people blame the fast food industry for over-advertising, selling unhealthy food, and selling oversized portions. However, others such as Weintraub argue that obesity is a matter of parent responsibility. I do agree with him at a certain degree that parents are the ones to blame instead of fast food companies.
A child’s social network and emotional development can influence development, along with the use of drugs and alcohol both (child and parent). A child may not understand what is required due to unidentified possible language delay. Child may be bored and uninterested at school. 2.2 Explain how children and young people’s development is influenced by a range of external factor External factors can have an effect on a child’s development for such poverty, deprived of food, clothes and toys. Poor living conditions, inadequate diet and exercise and quality of life, leading to increased illness.
The companies know that most young kids do not buy their own things but they do now that it is still productive to advertise for these things because the kids will go off to persuade their parents, family members, or others. Schlosser calls this “surrogate salesman.” In Kids As Customers, James McNeal, a professor of marketing at Texas A&M University defines the seven categories of juvenile nagging tactics as pleading, persistent, forceful, demonstrative, sugar-coated, threatening, and pity nagging. All of these types of nagging builds up on the parent and eventually they usually give in, in order to make up for all the time they stay at
Connecting fast paced television viewing to losses in cognitive ability has profound significance for children’s social and learning development. I believe that the author made valid points throughout her article to discuss the shortcomings of the research study as well as the significance the research could have if the research study was broadened to a larger sample of children. The
Not only do the competitions cost a large amount of money but they also cost the children their confidence and other emotional issues. Competitions claim to boost self esteem and encourage self confidence but they do the opposite if you are not the winner. The pressure of winning put on them by their parents causes more stress than normal children would have to handle. An article in Current Events titled “Kids on the Catwalk?” states, “Some psychologists say pageants for kids are inappropriate. ‘Pageants force children to focus too much on themselves,’
Such as Cabbage Patch Kid(Snack Time), Lala Loopsy, and Barbie Dream House. All of this commercials give the same stereotype to children that, “Girls play with dolls.” It wasn’t hard to understand the reality taking place in children’s television programming’s. There is an imbalance of the way each race is represented in commercials. White people continue to out-number people of color and other minorities. According to “Riffe, Goldson, Saxton, and Yang-Yu,” in 1987 white males and females together had 87% appearance in commercials while minorities had 35%.
Children growing up in the 1960s and 70s rode their bikes to the drugstore after school to buy penny candy. Children only played a small role of the consuming culture because they only had a small amount of money to spend. Changes began taking place in American culture and also marked the beginning of the change of the direction in advertising. The Media Education Foundation (2008) states, “Marketers have their sights on kids because of their increasing buying power…40 billion dollars every year. American kids under 12 now directly influence an astronomical 700 billion dollars a year…” The American Psychological Association (2004) estimates 40,000 television commercials target children each year.
middle and high schools that still offer sugary drinks and less healthy foods for purchase. Students have access to sugary drinks and less healthy foods at school throughout the day from vending machines and school canteens, at fundraising events, school parties, and sporting events. Children born in 2000 have a 1-in-3 chance of developing type 2 diabetes during their lifetime. If the childhood obesity epidemic is not reversed, our society will bear the pain and cost of high rates of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, and other obesity-related chronic diseases. This is why we have made the necessary steps to align our local schools with "The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act" and revamping our breakfast and lunch menu so, our kids can get the nutrition they need along with the physical activity to be