Quote:
Originally posted by brianna
I would really like to see some response to advertisement directed at children. the fast food mentality is something that we are raised with and it is incredibly difficult to resist a product that was pushed at you during an impressionable time.
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This is the aspect that I believe is largely overlooked by the masses. Someone may say that "You make your own decisions and are responsible for them" and that is true to a large extent. When we say these things, we are rationalizing that we have all been raised with a fair and balanced idea of good/bad, right/wrong, etc.
The single largest cultural influence on a childs life is television. In many/most cases, children see things and situations on TV before they experience them themselves and so TV has molded an impression of correctness upon their psyche. When children are bombarded by constant commercials showing all the cool people doing 'X' or eating 'Y', they are being taught that these things are not only correct, but required for them to 'fit in' with their peers. These children now, do not get to the part of the logic chain where Healthy/skinny choices come into play because they have been superceded by societal 'peer' influence.
Example:
My two sons have never drank a soda in their lives until recently and they are 5 and 8 years old. This was a very conscious choice on the part of my wife and myself. They were recently given soda at their daycare center for the first time and that night I was told, "Dad, I want to start taking a Coke to drink instead of my juice. All of my friends have Coke for snack time and I want to drink it too. I tried it and I liked it, so can I take Coke tomorrow?" I explained to him that Cokes weren't as healthy as the juice/water drink that we send with them and so they couldn't take sodas. He (the 8 yr old) CRIED because everyone else would have sodas and he wanted them too. He doesn't care about the health reasons behind not drinking the colas, he wants to fit in!
Regulations on advertising would NOT prevent this from happening, but it WOULD go a long way towards minimizing the effects on children who do not have developed decision-making skills. I try to teach my children the reasons behind advertising at every opportunity and they are starting to become a little more aware that the commercials are just designed to get their money.
And money makes the world go 'round...