Advertising

School, family and church all have an effect on teenagers, but nothing will ever measure up to the effect that advertising has on our nation's youth. The advertisements

target our youth by way of radio, television and newspaper. Advertisers use special tactics to persuade youth to buy their products.

With the ever growing world of mass media becoming more accessible to children, we must realize the effect advertising has on the youth of today. Multiple television sets are commonplace in today's homes. "Today, at least one television set is in 98.2% of American households." (Television Bureau of Advertising, 2001) Television viewing is no longer a family activity. "Fifty-six percent of thirteen to seventeen year olds have a television set in their bedrooms." (Gentile & Walsh, 2002) Advertising reaches more and more people every year.

Children spend more time watching television than any other activity except sleeping. "By age 18, the average American teenager will have spent more time watching television-25, 000 hours-than learning in the classroom." (American Academy of Pediatrics) Children are also bombarded by ads every day through television, radio, and print. Advertisers now focus their ads more heavily towards children and teens than adults. Many ads that are "adult" ads are now appealing to younger people by having young attractive people in the advertisements.

Television is the fastest growing market with advertising. It has grown so quickly because the message can appeal to the eye, the ear, and the mind. Television ads are quick, persuasive, and enticing. The advertising and marketing budgets aimed at children approached $12 billion dollars. "Four hours of television programming contain about 100 ads." (Minneapolis Star Tribune, 1999) The cost of owning a television has dropped, therefore making ads reach more people than ever before.

Radio advertising has always profited well in the United States for many reasons. Radio is very cheap and effective to a certain point. Radio does not have the visual aspects that television has but it can contain catchy phrases or jingles. Radio is better than television in the aspect of targeting and audience. Many radio stations have local advertisements to appeal to people in a certain area. Radio stations also have a very distinct listening audience. Radio stations can pinpoint their target groups by doing numerous surveys around the broadcast area. Many hip-hop and hits radio stations have a large group of youths listening everyday. So advertisers make ads to appeal to a certain age group or gender.

Print advertisements have many positive aspects as well as television and radio. Billboards are seen by many people on the roads everyday. Billboards are effective because they reach a lot of people with huge ads. Billboards also are designed to appeal to the eye with bright colors to attract the driver to read the product being advertised. Newspaper ads are also effective because they reach many people and they are the least expensive way of mass advertising.

Advertisers use certain techniques to lure the customer to either buy the product or read the rest of the advertisement. One way advertisers try to appeal to many people by making their ads appealing to an array of age groups. They do this by making an "adult" ad contain many subliminal messages to appeal to youth. Advertisers also try to narrow down their age group of consumers to save money and increase effectiveness. Advertisers use certain colors and pictures to help catch the eye of the consumer easily. For example restaurants will use many yellows in their ads because it sends a message of hunger to the consumer.

Gender advertising is very important in youth because they are very gender bias. Young men are being taught that being over weight means that you are unattractive and lazy. Children are also very gender bias, for example boys won't play with Barbies because they are "girl toys". Advertising therefore needs to try to appeal to both men and women for the best results. Young women are constantly bombarded with beauty products because in American society women are constantly seeking to improve their appearance. This effect of the media has had an enormous affect on American children because they are constantly being shown beautiful people in advertisements.

Body image created by advertisers has had a very large effect in the world because children see the attractive person in the advertisement and think that they need to look like them. "At age thirteen, 53% of American girls are "unhappy with their bodies." This grows to 78% by the time girls reach seventeen." (Brumberg, 1997) This fact has brought upon other problems with youth such as anorexia, bulimia, and depression. One out of every 11 commercials on television has a direct message about beauty not even counting the number of indirect messages. Americanized countries or even any other industrialized countries with the direct influence of television are found to have considerably more problems with eating disorders.

Food advertising also affects our nation's children with obesity as well. Surveys confirm that hours spent in television viewing correlate with poor diet. This may be because television does not involve much activity therefore burning fewer calories, or the influence that the advertisements have on the food they eat. Children often hear an advertisement for a fast food restaurant on the radio stations they listen to and the television stations they watch. This has become a growing problem across the world but has affected the United States the greatest.

Tobacco industries have been blamed for many years for directing their advertisements towards teenagers. Many people have blamed advertising for underage smoking in America because the ads are appealing to young and active people. "4.1 million adolescents, ages 12 to 17 smoke." (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1996) Facts have proven that the most heavily advertised cigarettes are most popular in teens. "The three most heavily advertised brands of cigarettes (Marlboro, Camel, and Newport) are smoked by 90% of all kids who smoke."(FDA, 1998)

Advertising has taken much of the blame for underage drinking in the United States as well. Parents have been expressing their disapproval for many years about the content of the advertisements made by the alcohol industry. In 2001, beer and ale companies spent over $695 million to advertise their products on television. "When asked to choose their favorite television commercial in a spring 2002 study, more teens named commercials for Budweiser than any other brand, including Pepsi, Nike and Levi's."(Television: