УДК 33
Бахадиванд Чегини Захра – магистрант кафедры Журналистики Филологического факультета Башкирского государственного университета.
Аннотация: Эта статья направлена на решение проблемы негативного воздействия рекламы, ориентированной на детей. Также целью настоящей статьи является повышение осведомленности детей и подростков о рекламе и о том, как родители и семьи могут остановить негативное воздействие рекламы.
Abstract: This article, aims to address the detrimental impacts of advertising that target children as well as raising the awareness of children and adolescents on advertising and how to halt the adverse impacts of advertising by parents and families.
Ключевые слова: эффект рекламы, дети, подростки, новое поколение.
Keywords: advertisement effect, children, adolescents, new generation.
One could claim that many corporations and investors worldwide have come to acknowledge all in the course of the past century that investing in children and adolescents will render abundant profits. The remarkable point is that this revenue enters these corporate and investor financial cycles immediately. Children and adolescents spend billions of dollars annually for a variety of expenses that designates this group as an integral part of advertising and investment systems in today's world. In parallel, organized advertising departments, economic, and extensive commercial entities have been established worldwide, which have devised their marketing policies towards ensuring the purchase of their goods by children and adolescents. Researchers have conducted numerous studies that focus on the corresponding impacts of advertising on the personality, social interactions, nutrition behaviors, mental health, disputes, and family dynamics of children and adolescents given how these marketing and advertising policies all target this particular group. Accordingly, many studies are still ongoing.
Advertising and marketing adverse products, including junk food, tobacco, and alcoholic beverages, is directly linked to the increase in conditions among children and adolescents. The extensive studies conducted on obesity and weight gain in children indicate that obesity and weight gain observed in the individuals of this group is largely due to their exposure to junk food advertising (Jordan and Romer, n.d.). In other words, junk food advertisements ensure junk food consumption among children, whereas some individuals deem that prolonged inactivity that may appear in the form of watching TV or some networks is the reason to blame for their weight gain.
The advertisements promoting e-cigarettes have influenced teenagers towards e-cigarettes, which not only did not deter them from smoking but rather did increase smoking among this group, even though tobacco advertising has been banned in many countries for over four decades. Moreover, we have observed that adolescents and youth comprise the largest consumer group of e-cigarettes, which alone has led to further tobacco consumption and smoking among the same group (Lauren M and Stanton A, 2014).
In parallel, adolescents' exposure to alcoholic beverage advertisements in many Western countries has provoked adverse consequences. Alcoholic beverage advertisements increase the likelihood of alcohol consumption that occurs among adolescents(Anderson, Bruijn, Angus, Gordon & Hastings, 2009).Furthermore, it is anticipated that alcohol consumption will develop more among adults who have encountered alcohol consumption during their adolescence (RW, T and MR, 2006). The remarkable point about adverse product advertisements is the type of marketing and advertising policies that are employed, which exposes children and adolescents to invalidating images that impair the personality development and mental health of the exposed child (Valkenburg and Buijzen, 2003). This exposure motivates the vulnerable group towards materialism, consumerism, and fast-fashion culture. For instance, the food advertisements with weight loss themes cause discontent with one's appearance, which occurs more often among adolescents, and subsequently provokes a drop in the individual's self-esteem, or directs the youth towards following inappropriate diets. With all these in mind, the targeted children and adolescents are exposed to a heightened risk of falling prey to eating disorders, namely anorexia and bulimia nervosa in the future. Piaget's theory of cognitive development designates that the child is an active participant in the development process and does not merely relent to biological growth or external stimuli. Accordingly, if a child encounters a novel situation or object, the child will attempt to absorb it. Thus, the global marketing system overseeing advertising for children targets Piaget's theory to expose the child to a novel situation or object to incite the child's curiosity. Evidently, this sense of curiosity in the child is an indirect means to market and sell the target product, which leads to gaining profits and capital for the producer of that product at last. In other words, advertisements targeting children and adolescents are an attempt made to alter their lifestyle in the future and, unfortunately, the unwanted (perhaps even wanted) rise of consumerism and fast-fashion culture is the outcome of such product or service advertisements.
A family is a social unit that, in addition to serving as a role model, renders a major influence on both the purchases of children and the programs children watch. Remarkably, the family remains the first and most familiar faces a child encounters well into their adolescence. Children indeed get their information about the market from various sources, but parents are deemed as the most significant source of information for children. The purchasing and consumption patterns are one of the many skills and attitudes that children and adolescents acquire primarily through the family. Disposable household and per capita income, also known as family income, is one of the most influential factors determining the consumption pattern of children. Affluent families that are financially inclined to purchase goods manufactured by expensive brands indeed define the consumption pattern of their children towards the same trend.
A child's taste is fundamentally shaped by the family during the first decade of life. Lifestyle, preferences, habits, desires, income, and intentions of parents are the most relevant factors impacting children's purchases.
Finally, it is remarked that children have not adequately attained development in terms of analysis and social and mental arrangements. These circumstances pose children and adolescents as a target for the majority of social damages, and the aftermath of this adverse propaganda will linger in their minds for a long spun time. The family and parents, as the first group of children's role models, play a valid role in developing a conventional consumption pattern and raising the awareness of children and adolescents in the face of glamorous advertisements seen in the world of media conglomerates.
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