The Negative Effects of Television Advertising on Children

The Negative Effects of Television Advertising on Children

 Project          

Group: 7

Tutor: Andrea Donakey        

Draft: final

Word count: 1449

The Negative Effects of Television Advertising on Children

Introduction

Of all the innovations of the 20th century, it is perhaps television which has transformed our lives more than anything else. Television is a kind of mass media with a profound influence on the public, while TV advertising plays a significant role in it. Television advertising, which is considered as a comprehensive art with an audio-visual compatibility, has a fast propagation speed and is easy to memorise. TV adverts are a popular form of entertainment; both catchy advertising slogans and special editorial techniques form a unique charm of television advertising. Due to the vivid images and the use of colour and music, TV commercials appeal to children.

Children, who occupy an important part in a family, are also an enormous consumer group. Many manufacturers regard the young people’s market as a business opportunity; therefore, the food, clothing and even school supplies of children’s commercials are increasingly prosperous. There is no denying the fact that some preeminent ads can bring a positive guidance to children and improve the aesthetic ability of younger.

However, some companies and advertising agents are merely concerned about profits. Those unhealthy TV commercials, such as junk food and wine, have already posed a threat to children’s development, especially physical and psychological health. In this essay, the negative effects on children arising from TV advertising will be considered, and some feasible solutions will be proposed and evaluated.

Negative Impacts of TV Advertising

1. Influence on children’s health

Putting aside the pros and cons of advertising content, the behavior of "watching TV" has an adverse influence on children’s health. More precisely, radiations of electromagnetic waves, rapid transformation of television images and bright color switch are not conducive to children's developmental vision. It fully demonstrates that watching too much TV advertising can be damaging to children’s sensory organs.

In addition, television commercials advocate an unbalanced development on child nutrition. “Children are bombarded with advertising messages that encourage them eat unhealthy foods such as potato chips, burgers and pastries” (Malik, 2009). As evident from the chart which shows that youngsters watch numerous fast food advertising in the United States each year, McDonald's and Subway have become the typical representative, accounting for 253.6 and 81.2 respectively among 6-11 children (Figure 1). However, over-relying on unhealthy foods may lead to excess food intake, which gives rise to childhood obesity and even cardiovascular disease (Livingstone, 2006).