Effects of Advertisement

In the past few years the growth of advertisement has increased at a high rate, this is due to the wide spread of media and the adoption of the television and expanded with the growth of television. Marketers and advertisers specifically target youth because of their spending power. Not only are what adolescents spend their money on being influenced they also have spending power as future consumers and have influence over their parents money. The reason that the youth are being targeted rather that the parents is because of the huge amount of power that teens and children have over their parents buying choices from where they eat to what car they buy. People in the advertising and marketing industry use a variety of techniques to attract these customers to their product. All this advertisement can have a huge effect over the billions of dollars made each year in consumerism.

Although parents are the ones with the money, youths are the ones being targeted, . marketers and advertisers specifically target youth because of their spending power.The Consuming kids image displays how kids are now being born to consume, the image conveys this through a baby with a bar code on its back. In the Consuming kids image a quote is shown that directly presents the idea that kids are being raised to consume “We have become a nation that places a lower priority on how to thrive in society, intellectually, even spiritually, than it does on training them to consume.” (Schor, Born to Buy).Youths are also easily influenced and more vulnerable to advertising, research has shown that young children younger than 8 years are cognitively and psychologically defenseless against advertising. Youths are constantly exposed to massive amounts of advertisement, adolescents view 40,000 ads per year on tv alone. That level of exposure to advertising every year has let to children ages four to twelve spending 30 billion dollars in 2002. In ages twelve to seventeen 112.5 billion was spent in 2003.

One of the main reasons that marketers target kids is for the influence they have over their parents wallet, the youth shape the spending patterns of their families. They influence where their family spends their vacation, what car they drive, and the food they eat. In Image two the girl tells her mother “See Mum. Normal people get to eat those tasty snacks five times an hour.” displays how marketers target children so that the children can persuade their parents to buy the product advertised. The girl in image 2 has been manipulated into asking her mom for the advertised product. A good example of the power that adolescents have over what their parents buy is their sway over 500 billion dollars a year in household purchasing. In 2004 total U.S marketing expenditures were estimated at 15 billion dollars to target products to children.

Marketers use a variety of techniques to attract audiences. Some of these techniques include  repetition, catchy and interesting production features, branded characters, celebrity endorsement, and stealth advertisement. Stealth advertisement is a more recent method of advertisement, the idea behind this technique is to conceal the intent of the ad. In image 3 advertisement of mr.clean is hidden in a street road for people to see every day. This image shows how marketers put advertisement all around you throughout your day without you even noticing unless it is pointed out to you. In the advertising business it is thought  that advertising is most effective when consumers do not recognize it as advertising. A good example of this would be in a movie where the main character would drive a specific car or have a specific type of phone. If the consumer's guard is down then they are more vulnerable to persuasive arguments about the product.

Another effective way of marketing a product is through the technique of repetition, the theory behind this that familiarity of the product will increase the likelihood of the consumer buying it. Image 4 displays how marketers use the repetition of a brand to cause consumers to buy their product by showing a McDonald's sign with a second McDonald sign right besides the first sign. This is an example of how brand names and logos get advertised everywhere to create familiarity of the product. The more familiar the consumer is of the product the more likely they will choose the more known product when deciding between two products.

Each of the images have shown how marketers and advertisers specifically target youth because of their spending power. Image one shows how society has raised the children of today to become consumers. Image two displays how children are used by advertisers to get to their parents money. And image three and four demonstrate marketing strategies to help influence the consumers. In summarizing each of these images supports how advertising targets the youth.