While watching the cartoon channels with my son the other night, i was shocked at what was advertised, and how many times. When watching a cartoon for 30mins, you are most likely to endure a break half way through, roughly for about 5 minutes.
It is during these breaks that the evil occurs! I lost count of the different products aimed at the children watching the programme. Every single advert was advertising a childs toy. From pre-school to slightly older children, girls and boys, they are all targets.
They people behind these adverts are not stupid, they know exactly how to market their product, aiming them at children who are in the mind set of "i want one", a phrase many parents are accustomed too.
It angers me because it's not fair on the children, advert after advert of gimicky crap that they don't need but that looks so dam amazing on tv they just have to have it!All because they wanted to watch their favourite programme! Would it really hurt to just watch a programme without all the rubbish and hassle in between?
Mind you the cartoon programmes themselves are aimed at sucking as much money out of you as possible. Take power rangers for example. It is far to simple to only have one type of ranger......they have to have over 5 different current series. Not forgetting the different ways they appear, costing more money.
Why is it impossible for companies to just allow all the merchandise, children would be happy with just one type and style of toy, if only they were given the chance!!
Because at the end of the day MONEY is the root of all evil. This is what breeds lying, corruption and deceit. Money equals power. Even if they have to prey on the innocense of children and you're right, it's totally wrong.
ReplyDeleteNot too long ago there was a lot of publicity surrounding Ofcom's bid to ban junk food ads during kids tv. I understand that adverts are necessary to fund the channels but to what extent? Perhaps there should be some investigations and reviews conducted in all aspects of advertisements forced onto children.