An advertisement of children - Essay Example

Children’s advertisers do certainly shape children’s understanding of the world, but not outright, and not all at once, rather, they analyze what it is the children already like, and then reinforce that through their marketing. The “Lego Friends” advertisement being studied in this essay is a perfect example of this. “Lego Friends” is a new type of Lego targeted towards girls, that, unlike original Lego, is not modular – you cannot build things not intended by the designers. It is more like Barbie than like Lego, in this way.

This advertisement shows an incredibly well developed appreciation of the desire of young girls to relate to older girls, and to develop into fully grown women, through implied narrative, and the characters being sold. As mentioned previously, marketers have long found it necessary to attempt to understand their audience before making an advertisement. According to Eric Schlosser, marketers targeting children have to go to perhaps even more extraordinary lengths to “learn about their tastes” (Schlosser 225).

Marketers “not only conduct surveys of children in shopping malls, they also organize focus groups for kids as young as two or three … they advertise children’s artwork, hire children to run focus groups … host slumber parties” and engage in a whole range of other activities to understand exactly what children want. And this advertisement demonstrates this fully. appeal to children. It opens with two girls making a heart symbol together with their hands. This immediately launches into an implied narrative of togetherness that children find appealing – the “best friend forever” narrative.

This simple motion indicates to the children that they will be together forever. More than this best friends forever narrative, there is a more complex narrative underlying it. There is a subtle age difference constructed between the two girls – the left