Children and Teens As Victims of Marketing
Advertisements are all around us: on TV commercials, magazines, or on the Internet. It has happened to me many times that I was watching some very popular family TV show, where the family was having breakfast and they were eating for example a yogurt of a particular brand. I didn't really pay attention to it until I watched the next episode of this TV show, and I saw that they are eating the yogurt of the exact same brand as they did before. .What I later found out was that everybody from that TV show has actually always eaten a product of the same brand. I bet it wasn't a coincidence. That's the way how advertisements drive our attention. They want us to persuade that we need the products or services they offer. The truth is the opposite, we don't! The biggest victims of the marketing are children and teenagers. Marketers have found out that the best way how to make lots of money is to target children. Marketers know that parents spend more money on their children because they believe it makes them happy, so they tempt kids and assume that parents will buy them the particular product and eventually marketers make a profit from it. For example: The only reason why there are story book characters and heroes on the cover of the cereal box is that it serves as a temptation for kids. Marketers put the commercials of the coolest and newest toys always at the time when children programs are on TV so it drives the attention of the kids. 
Suddenly every kid wants to have "that toy from the commercial" because their friends are going to have it soon and they beg their parents until they finally buy them the wished-for toy. This "must-have toy" is just one of the many things that will toss in the trash, because another even "cooler" toy will come and replace the old one. My question is "Where do these cool trends come from? and Who make them up?" Marketers also assume that the most important thing that teenagers care about is sex, which is in my opinion an absolute nonsense. Therefore they have decided to place the appearance and sex on literally everything. You can find it in TV shows, Music programs and etc..Marketing also makes young girls feel insecure. Girls can see the skinny models with long legs and a perfect face in every music video or TV show they watch, and they want to look exactly like "the sexy models from magazines" do. These naive young girls don't realize it is all just a photo-shop and they would do anything to look like the models. They think that's how women should look like. Girls are on diets, and buy products that are supposed to make them skinnier. Eventually they become anorexic and bulimic, or both. 
I understand that advertisements make money, but where are the boundaries? Do we really care just about the profit? It seems to me like we put wealth and money on the first place and mental and physical health of children and teenagers is totally unimportant.
Advertisements are all around us: on TV commercials, magazines, or on the Internet. It has happened to me many times that I was watching some very popular family TV show, where the family was having breakfast and they were eating for example a yogurt of a particular brand. I didn't really pay attention to it until I watched the next episode of this TV show, and I saw that they are eating the yogurt of the exact same brand as they did before. .What I later found out was that everybody from that TV show has actually always eaten a product of the same brand. I bet it wasn't a coincidence. That's the way how advertisements drive our attention. They want us to persuade that we need the products or services they offer. The truth is the opposite, we don't! The biggest victims of the marketing are children and teenagers. Marketers have found out that the best way how to make lots of money is to target children. Marketers know that parents spend more money on their children because they believe it makes them happy, so they tempt kids and assume that parents will buy them the particular product and eventually marketers make a profit from it. For example: The only reason why there are story book characters and heroes on the cover of the cereal box is that it serves as a temptation for kids. Marketers put the commercials of the coolest and newest toys always at the time when children programs are on TV so it drives the attention of the kids. 
Suddenly every kid wants to have "that toy from the commercial" because their friends are going to have it soon and they beg their parents until they finally buy them the wished-for toy. This "must-have toy" is just one of the many things that will toss in the trash, because another even "cooler" toy will come and replace the old one. My question is "Where do these cool trends come from? and Who make them up?" Marketers also assume that the most important thing that teenagers care about is sex, which is in my opinion an absolute nonsense. Therefore they have decided to place the appearance and sex on literally everything. You can find it in TV shows, Music programs and etc..Marketing also makes young girls feel insecure. Girls can see the skinny models with long legs and a perfect face in every music video or TV show they watch, and they want to look exactly like "the sexy models from magazines" do. These naive young girls don't realize it is all just a photo-shop and they would do anything to look like the models. They think that's how women should look like. Girls are on diets, and buy products that are supposed to make them skinnier. Eventually they become anorexic and bulimic, or both. 
I understand that advertisements make money, but where are the boundaries? Do we really care just about the profit? It seems to me like we put wealth and money on the first place and mental and physical health of children and teenagers is totally unimportant. 
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