Nowadays, in the developed countries, the need for regulation of advertising aimed at children is generally acknowledged. And that happens because children are a very specific target group with special features due to young age. Children do not have the skills to critique advertisements and are very fooled by them. They cannot recognize if all these things advertised are useful or not. Advertisements influence children in a negative way most of the times. For example, junk food advertisements lead to obesity. Advertising for toys and clothing products lead to consumer mania or antisocial behavior. Regulations should be imposed on advertising aimed at children should cover three areas: the amount of advertising, the advertising time and the concept (theme) of advertising. The amount of advertising intended solely for children should be reduced. Children are bombarded daily with ads from all media especially from television which is the most popular means among children.
This bombardment is equivalent to brainwashing for a toddler who has no the resistance to cope with a situation like this. Surveys have shown that many and successive ads cause stress and anxiety in children. Also the time spending on the ads should be reduced. Moreover, timing to run ads must change. To explain myself should avoid viewing commercials that interrupt television series with high viewership among children and adolescents. Regarding the concept (theme) of ads, should be banned ads highlighting a product trough social role.
The Research paper on Swisher Sweet Advertisers Children Advertising
... besides advertising practices come into play. Many American families are concerned about the effects these advertisements have on their children. ... to enable parents to spend more quality time with their children. Advertisers could attract kids away from screen- ... persuasiveness to enable parents to spend more quality time with their children. Advertisers could attract kids away from screen- ...
To be more detailed, advertisements today are not so much about the products but rather about the character of the consumers and how they should feel when they use or possess the advertised product. Messages to children are all about the happiness, social status or success which accompanies the possession or consumption of a certain toy or type of food. This type of ads that causes mimicry should be banned. All these regulations in conjunction with education in schools, information for parents and children, I believe will significantly reduce the bad influences of ads on children and adolescents.
