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Example research essay topic: American Medical Association Effects On Children - 1,853 words

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Advertisement Influence on Children For years, the population has been exposed to different forms of media. Newspapers, magazines, television, films, radio, and more recently the Internet are ways of promoting ideas, spreading news, and advertising products. Children are viewers of advertisement and it is not a secret that advertisement influences their perception of world. Advertisement can have both negative and positive effects on children, but unfortunately its influence in the majority of cases is negative. In 1998, US advertising topped $ 200 billion, a 24 % increase from the $ 161. 5 billion spent in 1990, and an 89 % increase from $ 105. 97 billion in 1980 (The Center for a New American Dream). The future shows no sign of this changing anytime soon.

The goal of big business is to get you hooked as soon as possible, the younger the better. If one company can acquire product loyalty, it could mean upwards of $ 100, 000 per person (The Center for a New American Dream). Product loyalty seems to be a good incentive to get people loyal as soon as possible. Corporate America is definitely aware of children. Big business is even more aware of how much buying power and control children have. Childrens spending has roughly doubled every ten years for the past three decades, and has tripled in the 1990 s (McNeal).

Kids 4 - 12 spent $ 2. 2 billion in 1968, and $ 4. 2 billion in 1984. By 1994 the figure climbed to $ 17. 1 billion, and only three years later in 1997 their spending reached $ 23. 4 billion (McNeal). That is quite a large sum of money. Therefore, it is clear that many advertisements are aimed at children; however, children are also influenced by advertisements aimed for adults. Especially alcohol advertisement has negative effects on children. There have been a number of campaigns to combat the undiscriminating advertising of alcohol to young people during the course of the last two decades.

Recently, President Clinton and the Food and Drug Administration of the United States have rightfully attacked alcohol company abuses in advertising, with the support of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), and the American Medical Association. (Hacker, George A. , May 16, 1996). Press Conference on Alcohol Advertising Reforms. ) According to Commissioner Kessler of the Food and Drug Administration, addiction to nicotine is a pediatric disease. If thats true for smoking, which kills users much later in life, then youthful alcohol consumption can only be labeled a pediatric disaster. His studies also show that the earlier children begin to drink the more likely they are to become heavy drinkers, use illicit drugs and suffer problems related to their alcohol and drug use.

These findings can only beg the question-does the presence of alcohol in media influence young people to drink? And do alcohol companies target youth in their advertising? Whether the media of communication is advertising, television, the Internet or movies, many studies have been conducted to determine an answer to this controversial issue. It is in my belief, after studying the topic; the presence of alcoholic beverages in different forms of mass media can heavily influence young teens and adolescents to drink.

It can also be said that in many cases, alcohol producers try to influence children in many of their advertisements. Budweiser beer uses an assortment of cute animals to promote its products, including frogs, ants, penguins, dogs, chimpanzees and horses-many of them animated, and clearly attractive to young children. A growing body of evidence shows that these ads attract, entertain, and teach young people about beer. The three Budweiser beer frogs, which croak Bud-weis-er in different patterns to form the word Budweiser, provide an example of beer advertising that appeals to young children. In criticism of the Budweiser frogs, James McNeal, author of Customers, and a Professor of Marketing at Texas A&M University writes that children often value frogs; adults often don't. After all, children do grow up with a strong interest in frogs, proven in stories such as A Frog Prince and Frog and Toad.

A study done by the San Francisco-based Center on Alcohol Advertising that tested 9 - 11 year old children proved that 73 % of them recalled the frogs slogan from television advertisements. Another Anheuser-Busch product, Bud Light also seems to appeal to younger consumers. A new series of their advertisements involve The Jerky Boys, two adolescent pranksters who spend their time making prank phone calls. According to Sound Data Incorporated, 26 % of music consumers who say they like, or strongly like The Jerky Boys are under the age of 21.

Recently, the American Medical Association conducted a study in which their objective was to identify the characteristics associated with tobacco and alcohol use portrayed in G-rated animated films. All of the films released between 1937 and 1997 that were available on videotape were reviewed. The results were surprising to say the least. Of 50 films reviewed, 25 displayed at least one event of alcohol use.

Alcohol was portrayed by 63 characters, for a total duration of 27 minutes. Their conclusion was that more than two thirds of animated childrens films feature tobacco or alcohol use in the story plot without any clear messages of negative effects associated with use of the substances (The Journals of the American Medical Association, Vol. 281 No. 12, March 24 / 31, 1999). The films that were studied by the AMA are seen by millions of children and adults, some, the most popular movies ever made. Many of the films are labeled masterpieces and are readily available to children in the theatres and on videocassette or DVD. While the content of the films is not necessarily used to influence children to drink alcohol, as opposed to Anheuser-Busch's advertising methods, it teaches children the wrong ideas about drinking, and causes them to make the wrong decisions.

A child sees hundreds of animated films while growing up. When the characters in Pocahontas, or Mulan, for example, are portrayed as consuming large amounts of alcohol, it can give the child an early impression that alcohol is condoned in society. Because films are of so much significance to children, the messages put forth in films can often contradict the messages that have been reinforced by their parents. The idea that children are influenced by alcohol in the media, and brewers youth targeted advertising campaigns can be examined in both objectivist and interpretivist theories.

Both have overlapping ideas, however, the majority of my arguments have seemed to stem from the objectivist, realist theories. Many of the anti-advertising campaigns and encourager's of censorship in the media have obtained all their fact from behavior, cause and effect, experiments and surveys -- all of which fit into the theory of objectivism. On the other hand, the alcohol companies and film producers, etc. , who believes that the presence of alcohol in the media cannot possibly influence a child to drink, would formulate their arguments as interpretivists. Because surveys and facts have argued against their theory that children are not influenced by alcohol in the media, they would reinforce to the public, what their meanings, values, and intentions really are.

They would argue that a child cannot possibly be influenced by anything he / she sees - it is the child that ultimately decides what is right or wrong. Their arguments would be that multiple truths exist - some youth are more vulnerable to the media than others, for example. They would also examine what people really do in their lives. For example, do thirteen-year-old children watch a beer commercial and run out and buy a case of beer right away?

Despite what arguments can be formulated by either side, I believe, in this case, the objectivist theories cannot lie. As Hacker proved, alcohol is the leading cause of death for young people, ages 15 to 24. The world cannot close their eyes to the fact children are dying because of the excessive use of alcohol. The problem must be nipped in the bud if we are to end the 52 % drinking rate in grade 12 classes across North America (Hacker).

If the media does not influence the youth of our society to drink alcohol, then the question is -- what does? We know that peer pressure and parental influence can be partial factors, but as the evidence clearly supports, children are most affected by alcohol in the media, and will continue to be unless regulation and censorship is put forth by our governments. However, alcohol and tobacco advertisement are not the only types of advertisement that negatively influence young individual. Contemporary advertising industry exploits children by using the most efficacious techniques, among them psychology. Apparently children constitute the segment of market most liable to subconscious persuasion of commercials, which, in turn, translates into tremendous efforts of marketers to exploit childrens gullibility.

And on the closer survey of western giant toy companies revenues, these efforts appear productive. The complexity and subtlety of mechanisms working in this branch of advertising business is particularly worth further analysis. Obviously, the aim each advertisement is first and foremost to make money and to draw as many clients as possible. Childrens vulnerabilities are cunningly manipulated by psychologists whose main aim is to trap the unconscious customers into the ambush of consumerism. Materialistic values rooted early in childhood shape the psyche of a future youngster, teenager and eventually a grown up. At all those stages the victim of this process is conned into fallacy that he cannot be happy without constantly buying top products.

The sooner the marketers achieve this goal the better for them, as their investment will yield a tremendous profit. Children as a target group of customers represent probably the most lucrative segment of advertising industry because they influence at least three different markets. First of all, the direct market which s sustained by the money spent by children themselves (direct market embrace: toys, sweets, gadgets); then parental market which is influenced by children (mainly: toys, clothes, food) and, last but not least, the future market, which is acknowledged to be also very important. As Sharon Bender, one of the speakers at the conference Caring for Children in the Media Age, remarked: advertisers recognise that brand loyalties and consumer habits formed when children are young and vulnerable will be carried through to adulthood Consequently, the habits developed during childhood will emerge again in later life. These children become parents themselves and will probably buy their children products with which they are emotionally bound. These adults, exposed to the impact of advertisements, may suffer harmful effects.

What was shown in a survey proves that people highly valuing wealth and related traits are prone to higher level of distress and lower levels of well-being. Furthermore, they are unable to maintain firm connection to their communities. Of course this is not meant to criticize the affluent but only to explain what effects may result from the commercial message inserted into developing brains. Particularly interesting seem the methods of inserting this message into the childrens subconscious. Children are...


Free research essays on topics related to: anheuser busch, effects on children, animated films, food and drug administration, american medical association

Research essay sample on American Medical Association Effects On Children

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