Write an article for the school magazine on the topic - 'Impact of TV advertising on children'.
Answers
Abstract
Many parents believe that contemporary Television advertisements are changing the behavior of their children. Children demand more of the products whose advertisements they like. According to them, TV ads have a lot of impact on children who may resort to blackmailing and nagging their parents to purchase the advertised products. Whereas a few parents opine that TV ads are a source of knowledge to them. But no one can deny its importance as a factor that drives their product choice. The present study strives to find out whether children love watching television so much that they prefer it over social interaction, physical and developmental activities or they just use it as a leisure activity. TV ads also educate the children regarding many issues. It can also help in inculcation good habits and civic sense in them. This aspect cannot be left unseen. Today’s interactive television is a huge ocean of knowledge to which the older generation was deprived. This study is an attempt to know which side of the coin is more powerful. Is TV advertisement a source of nuisance among our children or is it trying to make them better citizens of tomorrow?
Introduction
Today, children are less innocent flowers and rather more practiced consumers with detailed knowledge of various products and brands available in the market. An average British child between eight and 13 is exposed to 22,000 television commercials a year – 300,000 if you include radio, television, print ads, billboards and the Internet. This places British youth third in the ranks of media-exposed kids in the world – after the US and Australia. (Martin Lindstrom, 2003)Today even in India, Television has come up in a huge way and advertising is a huge multimillion-dollar industry that has an enormous impact on the development of a child (Clay, 2000).Parents believe that there is change in the behavior of children when they watch television ads. Television ads sometimes have a negative impact on children since whenever they come across an advertisement, they demand to purchase the advertised product. Refusal of such requests often results in conflict. They think that children need some kind of protection from advertisements. (Sullivan, 2005) Television advertising offers product and brand-related ideas and information to children that results in purchase request to parents (Sullivan, 2005). This issue- to what extent television advertisements is effective in defining and changing the buying behavior of children-is worth investigating, and has motivated us to undertake this study. Indian marketers are increasingly targeting children because they find children are the only market segment that do not change their preferences rapidly and are easy to influence through advertisements.