The Content of Childrens Programs and Advertisements - Term Paper Example

Children’s Advertising and Programming Introduction In the developed world, it has been revealed that when children are not sleeping, they are either watching television or surfing the internet. Long ago, it was argued that even during children’s program lineups, most of the advertisements were meant to target adults. This in turn made advertisers to come up with specific advertisements targeting children, and these were incorporated into children’s programming. This change of events led to the emergence of yet other controversies. First, it was argued that due to the long hours spent on the television with children, the children were exposed to multiple advertisements targeting them. Second, and more importantly for this research, it was revealed that the advertisements had significant effects on the children, such as attracting them and altering their behaviour. The controversies emerged due to the fact that advertisements and programs just like all other aspects of the media could impact on children’s eating habits, inflict negative stereotyping, and mislead the potential buyers into buying their products. Additionally, the concern has been growing owing to the revelation that children not only receive advertisements and programs, but they also analyse, discern, and interact with them. In the light of these, the following research paper will analyse the content of children’s programs and advertisements, the potential effects they are expected to have on children, and finally provide evidence on known effects that they have on children as well as the regulations put in place to protect children. Content of children advertising and programming Marketing (advertising) is created with the aim of communicating, persuading, and delivering value to potential buyers so they can see the good in something and yearn to have it. Concisely, the aim of advertising is to influence consumers and create the need in them to buy their products. Previous studies have revealed that annually, children are exposed to over 40,000 advertisements in which the largest percentage is made up of selling commercials while the smaller percentage is made of public service announcements (Story & French n.p.). The content included in advertisements differs, and as scholars state, this is one of the factors that create the need for concern into children’s advertising and programming. The issue is caused by the fact that most children cannot differentiate between advertisements and their programs. Children’s programs are created in a way such their effects may not be negative in the event that children copied or learnt anything from them. In fact, the aim of the many children’s programs is to educate and/ or entertain them. However, advertisements and programs seem to be ignoring the criticality of broadcasting to children and seem to be exposing children to content that may negatively impact on their health and behaviour. Style of children programming and advertising To achieve their objectives, programmers and advertisers apply tactics bound to attract and create an interest in their target audiences who happen to be children in this case. One of the most commonly applied methods is using celebrities or celebrity images. The idea is that since celebrities are popular and famous, they can easily create a positive link between the product and the consumer (Alperstein 43). This would easily enable business. In children’s case, cartoon celebrities are used in most cases. For instance, animations of figures, mostly featured in Disney cartoons or movies are used to market children’s products. This strategy is controversial in that if expands the abyss between the understandings of advertisements and programs. In short, children can get confused since similar characters appear in both contexts. The power of convincing lies in the fact that children admire these characters and their interpretation when used in commercials is that they trust that whatever is promoted by them is definitely acceptable for them. According to Calvert (205), the other tactic applied in childrens advertising and programming is the use of special sound effects. This method includes the use of distortion, frictional camera tricks, animations, sound techniques, and transformation of objects in a manner that intrigues children. In most cases, such depictions imply to the children that if they use the certain products or watch some programs, they might become like what is shown. For instance, a drink or food which is associated with making children smarter in school may convince the children that if they used them, they would improve or be the best in school. Apart from misleading children, this technique ends up disappointing children when they find out that the advertisements “lied” to them. This method is however one of the most applied techniques of marketing since it creates a fast urge on the children and is quite easy to recall. The second strategy is by the use of metaphors. In the use of metaphors, a quality of one thing is transferred to another in a manipulative manner. In most advertisements and programs, strong metaphors are used to create vivid visual images which manipulate the minds of the viewers and use their imagination as a convincing tool (Rose 72). Children do not necessarily understand metaphors, but nevertheless, they are used without their knowledge by the programmers and advertisers. Some marketers use objects popular with children, such as “the rainbow” or “angels” to capture the minds of children. This, however applies if the metaphor used is within the child’s understanding. In the context of programming, advertisers use the broadcast media to market themselves. They do this by hijacking programs meant for children and creating an association with the program. This they do by sponsoring children’s programs so that every time children are watching their programs, the repetition that is used makes them yearn to own what is being advertised. Apart from sponsoring the programs, promoters of children’s products pay broadcasters to place advertisements strategically during children’s programs to gain better audience segments (Kundanis 154). This method works in that the product being advertised automatically becomes popular with children since advertisements, pop up at any point during the children’s viewing. Collectively, all these factors justify the fact that children are indeed major targets by programmers and advertisers. Effects of advertising and programming targeting children Advertising and programming aimed at children is limited in most developed nations today due to multiple factors. One of the major contributing factors is that children are inexperienced when it comes to consumerism. This makes them prone to “cunning” marketers and programmers who may easily manipulate them to fall for whatever they are trying to popularize. In the event that they fall prey to the marketers and programmers, then negative occurrences follow of which children are the biggest losers. Conflicts between parents and children can emerge from television-related situations or when children are demanding for things they see being advertised and their parents hesitate in providing them (Batchelor & Danielle 61). Programming can interfere with the use of the television such as when children feel they need to watch programs which they are used to. This may occur when they are required to do other tasks such as sleeping or attend school. Again, when other parties need to use the television for their own viewing, an overlap between children’s programming and important events such as news may lead to conflicts. While children’s programs may not be as bad, their misuse may lead to this occurrence. Secondly, advertising may also have the same effect. This happens when children get manipulated into buying products they see being advertised while their parents are against such. Advertisements are placed parents in situations where they are always saying no to children over time and again. This problem occurs since every advertiser has an effective way of convincing potential clients (clients) to yearn for their products. The tussle that occurs between parent and child ends up as a conflict (Comstock & Erica 169). The interplay between programming and advertising has been blamed by researchers for promoting controversial products. The idea is that during children’s programs, not all advertisements are meant for children. In a nutshell, adult commercials also feature during their broadcasting. According to Blades (91), the inclusion of advertisements targeting adults in children’s programming contributes to the use of alcohol and tobacco. Apart from substance abuse, these advertisements also expose children to content that can be termed as overrated to children. These include the knowledge of firearms, lotteries, and gambling. The problem is that all advertisements are devised in a manner that they are appealing and will convince most, if not all their audiences. As such, the excuse that children cannot understand adult advertisements should not be used at any one point. The marketing of controversial products and services using messages such as cigarettes giving one “pleasure” are overly misleading to the inexperienced consumer, and that is a child. Children programming which is a subcategory under the wider media context has the effect of stereotyping just as the media does. Programming (television and advertisements included) largely affects the way that people think towards others and the world. Programs and advertisements may influence the way that the audiences worldwide on matters such as race, gender, and other factors with the discriminating ability (Grusec & Paul 566). First, the contemporary media portrays of women with slim bodies as the “acceptable” type of being female. This is because programs and advertisements will use slim ladies in most cases, and in some cases, ladies with bigger bodies are used as funny objects. This occurs in both programming and advertisements. For instance, in cartoons, young kids will be seen insulting or bullying their friends who are bigger in body size. Additionally, and as (Gunter 21) states, children as young as three years have been influenced by programming and advertising to understand that there are specific jobs for men and women. This creation is made up of features such as a woman being always shown in home environments, men are offered more roles than women, women are mostly seen serving men, and finally, roles termed as hard are allocated to men. Gunter (22) adds that in the United States and the United Kingdom, research had shown that male presence in advertisements outnumbered the female presence by far. The issue of gender discrimination is fostered by the fact that females can be altered to fit into male roles while the same is rarely replicated. When these creations are developed in children, they grow up adhering to them. In the end, discrimination is transferred onto the younger generation. In the United States, (Kotz and Story 1296) write that most of the advertisements accompanying children’s programming are mainly about food. This is in comparison to school-related products and services, toys, and clothes to mention but a few. In a study they conducted, it was recorded that of all the total advertisements broadcasted, about 56% of them are about food. This issue is furthered by the observation that about 43.6% of this figure were in the sweet, oils, or fat group. These foods are usually high in sugar or colour which provokes the imagination of children and makes them demand for them. The problem is that most of them are processed foods which are more of junk than they are nutritional foods. The association of unhealthy advertising to children has been attributed to the growing rates of obesity and other health disorders associated with unhealthy eating (NBC News n.p.). In short, contemporary programming and advertising contribute to the deterioration of children’s health. Regulation of children advertising and programming Tensions have emerged regarding the issue of programming and the advertisements targeting children. The reason being that most countries have set up regulations to the programmers and marketers while at the same time, the regulated parties are coming hard against the regulations sing using rights. The existing regulations so far work by either regulating the advertisement or airing of certain programs and advertisements, attempting to aid children to understand programs and advertisements (Shaver & Ann 60), and finally limiting what is shown or marketed to children. For instance, the United States has regulations such as limiting the total time set for advertisements to 10.5 minutes per hour and 12 minutes for the same time during weekends. Sweden is far stricter, banning all forms of advertising targeting children or advertising during children’s programs. The same applies to Belgium (Moyer-Gusse & Karyn 69). Such regulations protect children against manipulation since they lack the necessary corresponding cognitive defense. The most commonly applied regulation is limiting or restricting the advertisement of controversial products or broadcasting of overrated material to children. This happens by mainly restricting advertisement of alcoholic drinks and cigarettes to protect children from being persuaded into consuming them. The final type of regulation being applied is aiding children or protecting them from the confusion that arises in differentiating advertisements from programming. This is mostly applied when advertisers tend to use popular children media such as celebrities and cartoons to market themselves. For instance, the use of Disney characters to market a type of food during a cartoon show is mainly restricted since it would confuse the children (OGuinn, Chris & Richard 67). To save the situation, there are policies put in place to help this such as announcing “”we take a commercial break” before an advertisement is introduced. Similarly, announcements such as “we are now back to the show” help to tell s\children that a break is over and programming has resumed. Finally, the use of program rating and parental advisories also helps protect children from overrated programming and/ or adult advertisements. Conclusion According to the research, children in the contemporary world are preoccupied with more entertainment than they sleep or participate in physical activities. They spend more time in front of television screens. This occurrence has exposed them to a risk, and that is being targeted by marketers and programmers who will apply any tactic to lure them into buying their products or services. Advertisers and programmers have been accused of negatively influencing on children by exposing them to overrated content with the objectives of convincing them into buying. The result of such has been parent-child conflict, impulse buying, health problems such as obesity, and indulgence in negative behaviour such as substance abuse. Due to these issues, most countries have come up with policies that regulate what children are exposed to, when advertisements can be aired, the duration that children are exposed to such, and finally setting measures to help children differentiate between programming and advertisements. In a nutshell, all these measures are put in place to secure the inexperienced consumer from manipulation and from being misled by what they are exposed to by advertisements and programs. 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