Effects TV Commercials have on children and adolescents

           

Today, there are all sorts of mediums that are being used to advertise products to persuade consumers. Television has become one of the main mediums for advertisements. According to Campbell et al. (2013), “…a single thirty second TV ad can influence the brand choices of children as young as age two” (p.407). This is significant to understanding how broadcast infomercials can have a major impact on the decision making of consumers at an early age. In order to possibly produce results, there are various tactics used towards genders, adults, adolescents, children, in countries, ethnicities, cultures and languages. These kinds of strategies may also effect the development of individuals. My research focus is to identify what kinds of psychological and sociological effects do television commercials have on the children to adolescent audiences in the United States. There were three advertisements that were constant in my research. One was food advertisements and it’s correlation to obesity. Second, body commercials and it’s association to body image. Third, toy infomercials and gender roles/aggression development.

In the United States, there are now more children and teenagers tuning in to watch television. According to Campbell et al. (2013), “children and adolescents influence up to $500 billion a year in family spending on everything from snacks to care – they are increasingly targeted by advertisers” (p. 407). This demonstrates the importance the role of children and adolescents have on consumerism when it comes to family. This also entails how children possibly perceive what they view as necessary. McNicholas (2011) found, “children are watching more television now than they were 15 years ago, and exposure to food advertisements has a strong influence on their food preferences. Research conducted in the 1990s revealed that food advertisements during children’s peak viewing hours promoted foods of low nutritional value” (p. 5). Researchers also found that commercials shown more than once had a major impact to the experimental group desires. Children watching television correlated with their parents. Most of the participants also desired food products depending on the type of setting of the commercial, no matter if the food was artificial or nutritional (Borzekowski, et al., 2001, p. 45). With the majority of children being the audience, there are beliefs that commercials influences and forms an image about their role in American society. Peterson (2002) found, “…there is evidence that African American children and teenagers view more television than their white counterparts and they are more likely to evaluate television advertisements as being more realistic and believable...” (p. 304). This is significant because it demonstrates how much this form of medium has a mental effect on an audience group of Americans that are classified as the minority.

When it comes to toy ads that target children, there are a lot of gender-centered messages that are portrayed in television. Larson (2003) found, that about 600 commercials displayed aggression as a primary form of expression. The study also demonstrated that an injury of an object/person not directly caused by a character or fortuitous was the prominent type of aggression shown in most commercials. Also, when it came to gender, commercials that included boy with girls revealed significant forms of aggression than boys-only and girls-only infomercials. However, the race that demonstrated all forms of aggression in television commercials was white children (Larson, 2003, p. 73). There have also been studies that suggest girls prefer the product that is being shown in commercials that are male targeted. Due to most of the toy commercials demonstrating gender roles like aggression, there is an increase of aggression development among male children particularly white. There have also been studies that identify the increase of negative views and importance of body image from adolescent females viewing television commercials. This study revealed that television commercials in which involved female images, can have long-lasting and detrimental effects on the perceptions of what is ideal physically for girls (Hargreaves& Tiggemann, 2003, p. 372).

While there are all sorts of mediums that are influential and prominently used in today’s society, there are mediums that are targeted to certain audiences such as television. The majority of advertisements being viewed today tend to be targeted on children and teenagers. The kind of advertisements that were dominant in my research was food, body and toys. With researching these types of advertisements, there were associations that were presented such as, obesity, negative self-image and aggressiveness. I chose this topic because I am very interested on how much media effects our mental and social development. It seems to prove how much television commercials affect our daily lives more than we can begin to imagine.

References

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Borzekowski, D. L. G., Robinson, T. N., & Peregrin, T. (2001). The 30-second effect: An experiment revealing the impact of television commercials on food preferences of preschoolers. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 101(1), 42-46. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/218406572?accountid=14407.

 

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Hargreaves, D., & Tiggemann, M. (2003). The effect of "thin ideal" television commercials on body dissatisfaction and schema activation during early adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 32(5), 367-373. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/204648170?accountid=14407.

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Larson, M. S. (2003). “Gender, race, and aggression in television commercials that feature children”. Sex Roles, 48(1), 67-75. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/225374290? accountid=14407

 

McNicholas, P. (2011). Content analysis of television commercials targeted at children. (The William Paterson University of New Jersey). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 36. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/901109772?accountid=14407. (901109772).

 

Peterson, R. T. (2002). The depiction of African American children's activities in television commercials: An assessment. Journal of Business Ethics, 36(4), 303-313. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/198056556?accountid=14407.

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