Does advertising actually affect children? Yes. Children younger than eight year old are defenceless against advertising because they don’t understand what advertising is. The world is dealing with paradox of choice and manufacturers are spending lot of money to make their product standout. Advertisement have certain effects on our kids. Don’t you all agree on it?
As advertisements have positive as well as negative effects on kids. Some positive effects are they can be a source of information, they can educate the children about the new product in the market. Certain advertisements which are about hygiene product can help to inculcate good habits in children. Advertisement that present other children engaging in activities like helping out in the house or saving can influence children to do the same.
As there are few positive effects of advertisement, some adverse effects are persuasion to purchase product they like can be a real problem. Sometimes children interpret advertisement in a wrong way. They tend to focus on negative thing rather than positive. Advertisement may also develop materialistic idea of the world in the children when their innocent minds are regularly exposed to content that having the best things is necessary for comfortable life, children may give undue importance to material. Food items advertise junk food and it is visually appealing, targeting young children. So this tends to affect eating habits of child.
Now a days it becomes important for parents to become active participants in helping the children to develop critical judgement and value of non-materialistic comforts in life. When a child ask for specific produce, initiate conversation with them about why they want it. This will give us a chance to explain them how advertising works, point out flaws in advertisements.
Hence the best way to prevent negativity caused by these advertisements is to educate your child about finer concepts of marketing world.
Sangeeta Chavan
