Implications of toy advertising on urban families with children

¶ … Toys Advertising for Children on the Urban Families

Recent events have raised public awareness regarding children and the fact that they are extremely vulnerable to a series of environments in spite of the fact that authorities are doing their best to protect them. The number of predators that are primarily interested in exploiting children in also on the rise, and it is particularly important for society to discover when it is safe and when it is not safe to allow children to interact with certain environments. Children in general actually encourage some individuals to take advantage of them through the behavior they put across, this further contributing to the gravity of the situation and making it difficult for parents to come up with an effective response. Because of their strong determination to sell their products, contemporary toy producers have gone as far as creating advertisements that virtually change the values and moral standards children usually live by.

Advertisers typically consider children to be nothing more than consumers, perfectly able to filter the information they receive and capable of defending themselves from negative environments. However, because of the advertising they are provided with in their early lives, individuals grow up to be important consumers in their adult lives. Researchers believe that in contrast to grown-ups, children are unable to understand that commercials are designed to attract them and cannot protect themselves from the intelligently put messages in toy advertising-for example.

Even with the fact that toy advertisements negatively influence children in believing that it is perfectly normal for them to want some toys that would otherwise seem uninteresting, some toy producers have even taken their marketing techniques further. They focused on making a toy's box or a toy's TV advertisement seem as if the respective object is larger, better, and multipurpose, even with the fact that it was not. "Advertising treatments should enable a child in the audience to determine the scale and size of the toy, to realize if it is self-propelled or manually operated, and to know whether some degree of self-construction is needed once the product has been acquired" (Gunter, Oates & Blades, 2005, p. 160). Consequent to seeing a TV commercial regarding a toy, children are likely to get the impression that the device is bigger and has more functions than it actually has. This is primarily because the visual and audio techniques advertisers use prevent children from discovering more about the actual toy they see. A great deal of toy manufacturers in Europe has actually supported a series of official codes emerging as a result of toy advertising being harmful (Gunter, Oates & Blades, 2005, p. 160).

When it is done merely for the purpose of bringing finances to toy producers and with no regard to the aftermath it leaves on children, toy advertising can influence young ones to employ a materialistic behavior and to feel less willing to listen to their parents. Given the fact that it has not been until the recent decades when toy advertisements have become particularly worrying, most studies concerning the topic are modern, even with the fact that toy advertisers have most probably been engaged in attracting children long before the seventies and the eighties. Children are apparently more able to understand hidden messages in advertisements as they grow up. However, "As children get older, they are more likely to display irritation and skepticism while watching commercials"(Moniek, 2000). Young children however have difficulty understanding the persuasive nature of advertising and the fact that commercials are merely a method of selling products (Moniek, 2000).

When hearing the terms child and consumer, people generally think about the TV era, post-WWII years, and baby-boomers. However, children were influenced through advertisements much earlier, with early twentieth-century kids being bombarded with advertisements from radio devices, newspapers, magazines, and street signs. Corporations have then seen the opportunity they had through exploiting children as consumers and came up with various methods through which they could promote their products. Children living in urbanized territories were especially appealing as consumers and corporations started to expand their markets so that they would incorporate kids. Even though they had just been established, cinematographs were also essential getting children to buy products. "Movie palaces tempted children with thrilling celluloid adventures, dime stores and candy shops drained spending allowances and spare change from their pockets, and department stores enveloped them in a juvenile dreamworld of lavish toy departments and stylish clothing" (Jacobson, 2004, p. 1). Parents immediately realized that their children were used and that through falling victim to advertisements children nearly become uncontrollable. Society as a whole was alerted as a result of this and authorities started to focus on educating children regarding their role as consumers and how they had to refrain from being influenced by everything they saw or heard (Jacobson, 2004, p. 1).

Toy manufacturers generally inspire from popular sources in creating toys, looking into book, film, or real-life famous characters with the purpose of designing particular toys. Through the elements they use in toys, advertisers can actually promote something else, such as pieces of clothing, jewelry, food and drink, and real life individuals. The fact that a multitude of toys are inspired from characters in the media can be observed from looking at toys such as "Thomas the Tank Engine train sets; Rugrats, Teletubies and Bananas in Pyjamas jigsaw puzzles; Looney Tunes playing cards; Pokemon Monopoly" (Kenway & Bullen, 2001, p. 66). Media characters are also used as a method of creating toys that virtually have nothing to do with the source they were inspired from, but that are connected through some way to their names or to other toys based on media characters. Numerous contemporary TV programs are based on toys, further contributing to advertising them to children who virtually feel that they absolutely have to grab hold of the replica of the cartoon characters they see on TV. In most cases this "replica" has nothing to do with the cartoon it is meant to look and behave like and is thus nothing more but a cleverly advertised toy. Given that advertisements are more subtle this way, children (and even adults in some cases) are less able to realize that they are influenced in buying a particular toy. Children can normally distinguish between a commercial and a full time TV program and are thus (to a certain degree) likely to protect themselves from the influential nature of commercials. However, when commercials are actually a part of TV programs, it is virtually impossible for young ones to realize that what they are seeing is meant to persuade them in buying toys (Kenway & Bullen, 2001, p. 67).

TV advertisements set the path for products meant to come later and consequent to the issuing of a children's TV program, for example, kids are predisposed to becoming determined to be in possession of any kind of toy that they believe to be related to the respective TV program in some way. From seeing advertising coming in from several sources, children fail to understand how society works and gain a distorted image of the world. It is not until they reach a particular age that children realize that some advertisements put across false notions regarding the products they are meant to promote. Only when they influence their parents in buying a series of products that turned out to be nothing like what they saw in commercials do they realize that advertisements can be exaggerated. Consequent to a prolonged issuing of a commercial program, people can observe how toys are bought in large amounts and the request for specific toys increases, given that kids become devoted to getting the characters they see in advertisements (Ramsey, 2006).

Present day children are extremely vulnerable to being influenced in buying products, especially because they live in environments where they and those around them consider that one is but a loser if he or she is not in possession of the latest or the most famous toy on the market. Children thus are reluctant to be considered losers by those around them and go through great efforts in order to persuade their parents in buying them what they want. Advertisers are well aware that children are among the most vulnerable consumer groups in society and as a consequence do anything in their power to target younger and younger individuals, since these are easier to influence and have become authentic consumers. The methods some corporations use with the purpose of attracting an underage public are dishonorable, but in spite of this they work perfectly and it is almost impossible to stop them.

Action figures have come to be widely used by pre-school children, in spite of the fact that most are inspired from TV characters that are recognized for their mature-oriented appereance. "The packaging for one action figure recommended for kids four years old and up, invites them to "join in the blood bath" by playing the Nintendo version of the game -- even though it's M-rated (for ages 17 and up)" (Media Awareness Network). It is obvious that these toys are not merely meant to develop constructive abilities in children, since they are practically supporting kids in behaving violently.

One of the best examples of the degree to which advertisers are ready to extort money from the masses is the Pokemon chain of toys. Pokemon characters can be seen in numerous TV programs and even though most people relate to them as being nothing more than cartoons, the program can be considered to be primarily meant to advertise. "With a cast of 150 characters and new ones appearing monthly, Pokemon characters "star" in Gameboy and Nintendo 64 software, Warner' Pokemon: The First Movie (1999) and Pokemon the Movie 2000, comics, books and trading cards. Hasbro produces the Pokemon toy range. Pokemon 3ds have been used to sell Smith's crisps and Kraft Singles and Pokemon products are offered as prize incentives by Quaker's cereals and Welch's jellies" (Kenway & Bullen, 2001, p. 67-68). Children are typically crazy about collecting stuff, ranging from marbles to some of the most expensive toys on the market. Pokemon's advertising plan was more than ingenious (in spite of its simplicity), as given that advertisers knew how children were vulnerable to advertisements and collectibles, their decision to create 150 Pokemon characters could not have came at a better time. The consumer culture was quick to respond to the advertising campaign entitled "Gotta Catch 'Em All" and children came to be obsessed with collecting as much Pokemon toys as they could. Parents were virtually helpless in front of such a movement and could do little to stop their children from buying expensive toys that were obviously worth much less than the prices they were sold for (Media Awareness Network).

Toy commercials in the present are not only responsible for persuading children to think that the product advertised is good for them, but they also influence them in considering that it is natural for them to want more and more toys. In addition to that, because of the fact that advertisers are simply interested in producing effective commercials, particular advertisements put across a perfect environment, making children feel as if everything around them is improved if they get their hands on the toy advertised. Minorities are in most cases discriminated through such commercials, considering that most advertisements present the white middle-class urban family instead of involving members belonging to particular groups (Ramsey, 2006).