Television Advertising and its Effect on Children

The average preschooler watches thirty hours of television a week (Rosemond 26). This is more time than is spent in unstructured play time. By age sixteen, that child will have watched 16,000 hours of television versus only 12,000 spent in school (Rosemond 26). These numbers are frightening when it comes to the development of a child. In conjunction with the time spent in front of the television set, is the impact from advertising, those slick, hard-sell ten to sixty second sales spots designed to induce the viewer to purchase a product. In children's advertising, the advertiser is aiming in two directions: at the children and at mothers likely to be watchin

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(Waters 69 and Meyer 67). Television is a most powerful medium for reaching into a child's consciousness. The image-centered reality of the medium has never been overlooked by the toy-makers, only the presentation is now more sophisticated and tied to aggressive superheros. The hot new toy of the season does not emerge by accident. It is carefully orchestrated through advertising, publicity events and guest appearances by the toy characters in movies and on television shows. Most companies hire psychologists to advise them on why children are attracted to certain toys and how to make the toys come alive on the television screen (Adams and Fuchs 81). Toys are designed to help mold a child's needs and desires. One of these needs - to understand and simplify the world - accounts for the popularity of such toys as "Rambo" and television commercials that portray simplistic cultural stereotypes (Adams and Fuchs 81). The introduction of these toys through television has created the situation where children think they can not live without a certain toy. A child's development is a sequential unfolding of self-concept, morals, intellect and ways of interacting and developing social awareness. If parents are not careful, these "
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Approximate Word count = 1783
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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