Children in advertising week 5

Advertising has become a part of daily life, whether it is noticed or not. Children see and hear it all the time on TV, billboards, buses and many more. Children have more money to spend now than in previous generations (Gunter, B, Oates C and Blades M, 2005) and more items they want to buy so the consumerist market often targets them directly instead of the parent.

 

Advertising is always going to affect children’s perceptions of themselves, as it does with adults. The key to stopping it going too far is education. Teachers and educators need to teach children about the use and purpose of advertising and the national curriculum backs this up. Maybe if children learnt that they did not need to look a certain way or have a certain toy and that the media were using specific persuasive techniques then maybe it would change their own perception of themselves less.

 

On many occasions I have witnessed the children in my class list what they would like if they won a million pounds or what they want for Christmas. Most of these lists are full of toys, gadgets and games that they had seen advertised on the television that are made to look better than they are. This is a very important topic in which children need to be taught about and in school I have seen children create their own adverts to demonstrate how, using certain techniques, they can persuade someone to buy something that may not be a good product. My group and I have created an example of this. It is important that children don’t see advertising as a negative tool, but as one that needs to be understood, used and harnessed.

 

Though, advertising is not all bad. Kenway and Bullen (2001) believe that advertisements could appeal to children’s wishes and yearnings as it allow children to fantasise about toys they don’t have so they can relate to their peers. I have witnessed this in the playground where children pretend they had the latest toy and battle it out with their friends within the game.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kMHg7wDiJMw

 

Gunter, B. Oates, C. & Blades, M. (2005) Advertising to Children on TV New Jersey, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates pp 1 – 13

Kenway, J., & Bullen, J. (2003). Consuming children: Education-entertainment-advertising. British Educational Research Journal, 29(2), 267-276.