HOW ADVERTISERS TARGET CHILDREN

By Ina Woolcott

Medical experts are fearing for the health of children and young adolescents who are being constantly bombarded with advertisements on TV, internet, buses, billboards, magazines, radio etc.

There are around 40,000 ads a year being shown on TV alone that are thought to aid the rise in obesity - which is sometimes described now as a pandemic! - Poor nutrition, cigarette use and alcohol consumption amongst the youth of today. There are calls for the media education to help reverse some of the negative effects of advertising.

A start has been made by Britain who recently banned junk food commercials being aired during children's programs. There are also other European countries that have restricted advertising aimed at children and adolescents alike. There is still a long way to go though!

Parents need to become aware of the fact that children from birth are thrown into consumerist tendencies. It seems to be acceptable in this day and age. Young children under a certain age find it hard to tell the difference between a TV program and a commercial. They think its real and parents should make the effort to inform their child(ren) that adverts are not real. They should also realise what pressure kids are under from the marketing industry.

The sick thing is these companies deliberately start targeting children at a young age so they are brainwashed into wanting to consume these things. They want children to grow up with certain labels and brands imprinted in their minds and carry these impressions around with them for the rest of their lives! This doesn't stop just at junk food, it also includes clothes, the newest technology, toys, holidays, music etc.

Children lack the maturity to make decisions when it comes to things like what they should eat and what is good for them. They don't worry about calories and the fat, sugar, cholesterol, E numbers, MSG (monosodium glutamate) artificial sweeteners content etc.

Of course all kids love ice cream, happy meals (change that to *rappy meals), chocolate, crisps, sweets. To them sugar tastes good. They are not aware what a negative effect junk food can have on their bodies.

Children are being commercially exploited through the intense marketing of products. They aren't good at making informed decisions. It is sad that the system is abused and the people who promote things like alcohol, smoking and junk/snack food knowingly do so as all they are interested in is their bank accounts.

We as parents need to be aware of this. We need to inform our children about nutrition. Even if it is just basic.