TV COMMERCIALS: IMPACT ON CHILDREN UNDER 13.   Term Paper ID:17953 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Research, fantasy vs. reality, desire for products, attention span, styles of ad presentation, effects on family life.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Research, fantasy vs. reality, desire for products, attention span, styles of ad presentation, effects on family life. Paper Introduction: The typical American child spends 30 percent of his waking hours in front of a television set (Anderson, 1990). For most children, this adds up to between 28 and 33 hours per week of TVwatching. Small wonder, then, that many people are concerned about the effects of television, particularly television commercials, on youngsters. Advertisers are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their persuasive techniques in this age of deregulation, and children are still the easiest targets of all. In this paper we will examine the impact of TV commercials on children under 13, with special attention to current research, the discrimination between fantasy and reality, the desire for products, the effects on children's attention spans, styles of ad presentation, and some effects on family life. Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Hestates, "Advertisers are using sounds to take advantage of the automaticsystems built into the brain that force you to stop what you're doing andrefocus on the screen. The ad was frighteningand confusing its young viewers by imploring them to use the toy to savethe earth. Cambridge: UniversityPress. Little can be done to control television advertising directed atchildren due to the continued deregulation of the industry. Furthermore, Ronald Reagan did his bit forderegulation in 1988 when he pocket-vetoed a bill which would have limitedthe number and times of adds in children's programming. Bridgewater (1984) found that young children are more susceptible toadvertised messages than are older children and adults because they areless able to tell the difference between a commercial and a regularprogram. TVGuide, 24-28. On the value of reflections in thedistorted mirror. However, recent research hasencouragingly revealed that television doesn't seem to have any suchdamaging effect. Levin (1989)maintain that, "Simply advertising products to children is unethical" (p.38). (1988, May-June). (1984, May). Studies (Aronson, 1984) haveshown that the more educated a person is, the more skeptical he is,although this skepticism does not make him immune to persuasion. The main effects of the 1 and 15-second ads have been toincrease the total number of commercials aired by 2 percent and to makethe use of attention-grabbing sight and sound gimmicks even more important(Trachtenberg, 1988). The FederalTrade Commission's Improvement Act of 198 determined that truthfuladvertising for a legal product or service can only be restricted underspecific, stringent conditions. Forbes, 12 -121.----------------------- 11 Greenfield, P. This was one case in which the Children's Advertising ReviewUnit (CARU) of the National Advertising Division of the Better BusinessBureau was successful in getting an unethical ad off the air. This trend started in 1983 with the Smurfs and Strawberry Shortcake.Now it is almost impossible to get a new children's show on TV without atoy company backing it, says Peggy Charren, head of Action for Children'sTelevision (ACT). Neurophysiologist Eric Courchesne warns that advertisers have alsobegun using sounds as well as pictures to manipulate young viewers. R. Carlsson-Paige, N., & Levin, D. Thus, the FederalCommunications Commission's 1984 ruling which did away with all limits onad time still stands (Carlsson-Paige & Levin, 1989). Society, 76-8 . References Anderson, D. (1984). By its very nature television advertising is repetitive, persuasive,and pervasive. M. An equally disturbing trend in television advertising, for bothadults and children, is the growing use of hypnotic techniques in many newcommercials. The consensus of the experimenters is clearly that children dopay attention to and learn from commercials: they remember slogans,jingles, and brand names, and they try to influence their parents to buythe advertised goods. A. Add to this thefact that we are talking about children, who are not adept at telling thedifference between ads and reality anyway, and we can begin to understandthe concern of those who advocate more regulation of the field. This lack of regulation of the content as well as the amount ofcommercials aired is particularly disturbing when one considers that arecent study (Bogart, 1988) of 1 TV commercials showed that 74 percentof advertisers claim that their brand is superior to all others and ofthese claims, fully 58 percent are wholly unsubstantiated. (1988, December 26). Sociologist Eliot Aronson has notedthat, "By switching channels on a Saturday morning, a child can watchRonald McDonald in up to a dozen colorful, fast-paced commercials eachhour; perhaps this is one of the reasons why the chain sells so manybillions of hamburgers" (p. Anderson (199 ) demonstrated that kids begin to payconsistent attention to television around age two. Still, many parents do worry about the teaching potential ofcommercials. Anderson (199 ) has been studying the effects oftelevision advertising on children for 17 years and he argues that there isno consistent evidence proving that watching television programs orcommercials significantly lessen a child's attention span or ability tothink and actively process information in any way. New York, 1 -12. (1984). He willstill tend to buy a specific brand for no other reason than that it washeavily advertised. Examples of this aural assault include whistles, car horns andcrashes, animal noises, gunfire, and baby cries, all of which can be heardin advertisements for various toys. Such increasedfamily tensions can only be viewed as matter of course in a world wherechildren trust Tony the Tiger more than their teachers (Bridgewater, 1984)and where over half of the children in one survey said they would ratherhave a television set than a father (Aronson, 1984). It has investigated 238 casessince it was formed in 1974 and it found 83 percent (2 ) of these to beconfusing, inaccurate, or inconsistent with the self-regulatory guidelinesof the broadcasting industry. This sort of inundation ofthe marketplace may have reached its zenith with the currently popularTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which is a cartoon, series of toys, cereal,clothing line, and part of the Universal Studios tour. G.I. Why you watch some commercials- whether you want to or not. Writer Leo Bogart (1988) believes that televisionadvertisements affect cultural values by selectively reinforcing certainsocial attitudes through constant repetition and by presenting role modelsfor the viewers to emulate. Bridgewater, C. Freeman. This effect may be partly due to the fact that as children get older,they also generally become more educated. The multiple meanings of televisionadvertising. The children are won over by theglitzy commercials and are quite incapable of understanding the ethicaland\or financial arguments their parents out forth regarding why theycannot have certain toys (Carlsson-Paige & Levin, 1989). It is worthy ofnote that these are precisely the features most characteristic ofadvertisements aimed at children. As examples of these techniques, Wineburgcites rapid scene changes, repetitive phrases, pulsating music, andrecurrent flashing logos on the screen (Freedman, 1988). Advertising: The young and thevulnerable. Advertisers arebecoming increasingly sophisticated in their persuasive techniques in thisage of deregulation, and children are still the easiest targets of all. Ads forchildren's toys or foods are typically fastpaced, colorful, noisy affairs,and it turns out that there are sound neurological reasons for this.Flashing images on the screen so quickly that they barely register is agood attentiongetting gimmick because sudden changes in scene cause aninvoluntary increase in brain activity which, in turn, is linked to theability to remember a commercial better (Freedman, 1988). "Children cannot make informed decisions, nor do they havefreedom of choice; their minds are made up as soon as they see flashy adson TV programs connected to a toy" (p. Children under seven are particularly vulnerable to televisionadvertising because they do not realize that the purpose of the commercialis to sell them something - they just accept commercials as presentinginformation or entertainment like any other program (Greenfield, 1984).This confusion is heightened by the fact that many children's shows todayare based on popular toys, thus blurring the line between program andcommercial even further. E. New York: W.H. If parentsdo not take this responsibility, they may soon find their childrenbeginning to resemble Superstar Barbie and G.I. Fortunately, by thetenth grade only four percent still believed that TV ads were truthful evenmost of the time. (1988, July 18). 39). Aronson, E. Greenfield (1984) found that very young children take all of whatthey see on television, except cartoons, to be reality. Also, they say, children can't makelogical judgments regarding the relative merits of the toy in question norcan they decide if the toy is actually as good as it is portrayed in thecommercial. Any lingering doubts that TV advertisements do in fact manipulatechildren can be easily dispelled by a brief look at some research on thesubject. It is in this sense that theypresent a united front. This study focussed on counteracting the power of televisionadvertising through the use of schools, but parents could easily implementthe same strategies at home. Commercials seem to be getting shorter as well as getting faster-paced and more sophisticated. This finding is borneout by a survey (Aronson, 1984) of mothers which determined that 9 percentof preschool-age children had asked their parents for food or toys they hadseen advertised on TV but to which they had no other exposure. Trachtenberg, J.A. Pollay, R. Consequently, they tend to pay more attention to advertisementsand be less aware that the ad is trying to persuade them of something.This same study also showed that young children, in this case fourth-graders, were more likely to actually change their behavior as a directresult of seeing a TV advertisement than were older children. It resultsin sex role stereotyping by steering the boys and girls to differentproducts without ever bringing the message of sexism to the level of verbalawareness (Greenfield, 9184). The children's hour. Not only can children not distinguish between advertisements andregular programming, they also cannot adequately distinguish between TV andreality. For most children, this addsup to between 28 and 33 hours per week of TVwatching. The Education Digest, 37-39. You can't ignore these sounds" (Freedman, 1988, p.6). Research has shown that the impact ofcommercials can be significantly affected by discussion and instruction.Researchers at UCLA have developed curricula to help second through fourth-graders understand the nature and purpose of commercials and to make betterconsumer decisions. since they are morewidely known than any other ideology or set of myths. (1988, February 2 ). This is an example of how recurrent formats set upexpectations which affect children's responses to new material. Kanner, B. It has been proven that when dealing with very similaror identical products mere familiarity can make the crucial difference inwhich product is actually bought. Afterthree one-half hour lessons, all of the participating children found theadvertised products less desirable and the commercials less credible(Greenfield, 1984). The 1 and 15-second ads are replacing someof the traditional 3 -second commercials. The first 15-second ad appearedin 1985 and was so successful that today advertisers are spending $3billion, nearly one-third of their network advertising budgets, on theseshort spots. Mind and media. Indeed, parents might be well advised to takesome aggressive steps toward inoculating their children against theonslaught of television propaganda thrown their way every day. Richard Pollay (1987) takes Bogart's ideas onestep further. Freedman, D. Bogart, L. Viewers are stimulated to seek outproducts in response to needs they may never before have been aware of -probably because the sense of need has been newly created by theadvertiser. This conclusion is supported by another study (Aronson, 1984) whichdetermined that 12 percent of sixth-graders believed that televisioncommercials told the truth all or most of the time. On the otherhand, those ads intended for girls had more fades, dissolves, andbackground music. The problem here is that although theoffenders almost always cooperated with CARU, it usually took months forthe issues to be resolved, by which time many of the ads had alreadyfinished their runs and were off the air anyway (Kanner, 1988). Psychology Today, 16. Indeed, much of the research bears out Carlsson-Paige & Levin'sclaims. Although advertisersdisagree about what specific products you should be buying (or begging yourparents to buy for you) they all agree that you should be buying somethingor other in any given set of circumstances. The social animal. Pollay says, "Condensed TV spots are the mythic tales formodern times and the problem/solution format is a miniature morality play.It is as myths and morals that ads most durably inform and educate" (p.1 7). Television commercials create a demand in the consumer (whether he isfour or 4 ) for a particular product. He maintains that commercial slogans and jingles may, atthis point, be our only common culture in the U.S. TV Guide, 4-7. Elliot Wineburg, psychiatrist and assistant clinicalprofessor at New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine, firmly maintainsthat hypnotic techniques are being used in certain commercials eitherdeliberately or incidentally. Joe rather than themselves. Joe and Transformers are actually produced withmoney from toy company marketing budgets, and Thundercats has offered ashare of the toy profits to the broadcasters. Inthis paper we will examine the impact of TV commercials on children under13, with special attention to current research, the discrimination betweenfantasy and reality, the desire for products, the effects on children'sattention spans, styles of ad presentation, and some effects on familylife. 65). However, CARU is often less effective. Small wonder, then,that many people are concerned about the effects of television,particularly television commercials, on youngsters. It is therefore unsurprising that many parents are dismayed bythe enormous tensions that are sometimes created within the family bytelevision advertising. Parents report that they experience a significant amount of discordwith their children over toys or other products advertised on televisionand which the children therefore desire. Interactive toyslike Mattel's Captain Power almost have to be purchased in order for achild to understand and participate in the television show (Kanner, 1988). (199 , March 3). The commercial for Captain Power was recently forced off the air byseveral children's interest groups, including ACT. They also stressed paying attention to the actualinformation in the advertisements and asking questions about it. Viewer fatigue? (1987, July). (1989, September). H. How TV influences your kids. Researchers at the University of Kansas have investigated clusters offeatures in ads that are directed at boys versus those directed at girls.They found that the commercials for toys intended for boys had lots ofaction and sound effects, frequent cuts, and loud music. Pollay notes that stereotypes for ages, occupations, and familyrelations, as well as for race and sex, are presented in commercials.Advertisements teach the viewer what is appropriate in terms of fashions,food, lifestyle, activities, and norms of behavior. Next to the essential innocence and gullibility of children, the mainreason for the enormous success of advertisements for children's productsis the growing sophistication of advertising techniques. They contend that this is the case because kids are incapable ofconsidering internal motivations so they don't realize the ad's onlypurpose is to get them to buy a toy. Shorter commercials are especially worrisome to people who chargethat watching TV shortens children's attention spans and makes them unableto concentrate on any one thing. Similarly,almost two-thirds of the mothers surveyed reported hearing their kidssinging commercial jingles learned from television by age three. It continually endorses not only products, but also therelated values, attitudes, and behaviors associated with product usage ingeneral. The typical American child spends 3 percent of his waking hours infront of a television set (Anderson, 199 ). Later they believeanything on TV that could happen in real life is real, and still later theybelieve that what they see on television represents something that probablyhappens in the real world. Journal of Marketing, 1 4-1 9. Education professors Nancy Carlsson-Paige and Diane E. Whychildren's television should be regulated. However, there is some hope. 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