The Negative Impact of Advertising to Children
As citizens in the modern world, we are used to being bombarded with over 3,000 advertisements over the course of our day (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2006). Advertisements are so common that we often do not realize we are viewing them. Originally, an advertisement was a way to reach the world. In the early days of television, the programming had to be entertaining for many demographics, because there were only a few channels that targeted a mass audience. During this time, a focus was not placed on audience segmentation, because there were not enough media channels to segment an audience. Today, audiences are segmented through all forms of media. Through this increased segmentation,
To understand at what age children are able to comprehend various stimuli, Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development will be reviewed. From birth to age 2, during the sensorimotor stage, a child demonstrates intelligence through motor activity. Development begins mainly though interactions and experiences. A child recognizes that he or she is the agent of action and understands object permanence (an understanding that an object will not disappear once it is out of sight). During this stage, Children utilize skills and abilities they were born with, such as looking, sucking, grasping, and listening. During the pre-operational stage (age 2-7), thinking is done in a non-logical egocentric manner, memory and imagination are developed, language use matures and intelligence is demonstrated through the use of symbols. During the concrete operational stage (age 7-11), a child begins to diminish egocentric thought and a greater focus is placed on the behavior of others. In this stage, operational thinking develops, point of view can be taken into account and the seven types of conservation are developed (mass, number, length, liquid, mass, weight, area and volume). During the formal operational stage (age 11-adulthood), abstract concepts are developed and a concern is placed on the hypothetical, the future, and ideological problems (Duveen, Perret-Clemont, Psaltis, 2009, p. 292). The way these cognitive effects relate to advertising is based on the level of attention