Christine Neals

4/27/12

EDU 100

Alternative Assignment

Advertising or Brainwashing?

It’s no secret that television commercials and magazine advertisements are

filled with subliminal messages affecting how we feel about the product and

whether we have the urge to splurge or not. Ever since I was young and saw the tall,

thin supermodel advertising a chocolate product she would never be caught dead

eating or a cool cowboy striking up a cigarette attracting the eye of a scantily clad

woman, I have been fascinated with advertising and how it works. There are so

many children in the world today who are growing up faster than ever and I feel a

big part of this is advertisements children and their parents are being brainwashed

by. What makes an ad or a television commercial effective? Why does it seem to be

that sex truly does sell and is this effecting children like it does adults? How do we

reinforce the right messages to our students and children in general when they are

being bombarded by all this false advertising?

The commercials you tend to see on television networks such as PBS are

usually filled with child-friendly characters such as Clifford, Curious George and

Elmo. Commercials on channels geared towards very young children are usually

quite innocent and friendly since they are most likely being aired on a publically

funded network. However, once the child gets to be a little older and begins to

watch shows on networks such as Disney Channel or Nickelodeon they begin to see

commercials for clothes, shoes, toys, and food, among many other things. This is

when advertising really begins to affect children’s thoughts and opinions about

products and affects the decisions they make when purchasing products. Seeing

familiar actors, celebrities or athletes children look up to endorsing a certain brand

or product will make the child more likely to want to purchase the product rather

than if a less-known actor was the endorser. Using these well-known faces children

can look up to definitely has an impact on whether or not they want the product.

The fast food industry is a master when it comes to false advertising,

especially amongst impressionable children. They use techniques such as taking

familiar nursery-rhyme songs such as “Do you know the muffin man” and re-mixing

them to sing about the McDonalds blueberry muffins. Children hear a song they’re

familiar with but instead of the usual words there are new lyrics regarding

McDonald’s fast food, which leaves a familiar and lasting impression in the child’s

mind. Other fast food chains such as Burger King use celebrities like Mary J. Blige to

film commercials about their new crispy chicken wraps. Children and young teens

see a face and singer they’re familiar with singing about Burger King’s food and

want to go out and get it. False advertising is not the only cause in childhood

obesity, but it is not helping the situation either. Parents and teachers need to be

aware of these catchy tunes and commercials children see every day whether it be

on TV, in a magazine, or even walking by a billboard and warn them of the dangers

of false advertising.

According to the Stanford School of Medicine’s “Scope” Blog1; a group of

pediatricians and researchers at Texas A&M International University conducted a

study to see just how much fast food advertising affected children between the ages

of 3 and 5. The study split a group of 75 children into two groups, “one of which

watched a series of two cartoons and a commercial for French fries, while the

second group watched the same cartoons and a commercial for apple slices with

dipping sauce”. After viewing the cartoons and commercials the children were

allowed to pick one coupon for either the French fries or the apple slices with help

from parents. Half of the parents urged their child to pick the coupon for the

healthier option of apple slices and dipping sauce while the other half remained

neutral in the decision. “Among the children who saw the commercial for French

fries, 71 percent chose the fries coupon if their parents remained neutral while only

55 percent of the children chose the French fry coupon after being encouraged by

their parents to chose the apples”. However, of the children who saw the

commercial for apple slices “46 percent chose the coupon for French fries if their

parents remained neutral while 33 percent chose the coupon for fries after being

encouraged to select the apples.”

I don’t think Fast Food chains should be told to take commercials off of

specific channels that are geared towards children, it’s not 100 percent their fault

the child is opting for fast food. The commercial being aired may lead the child to

ask for fast food for dinner but it is the parent or teachers responsibility to educate

children of the dangers of obesity and provide them with tasty and healthy

alternatives to fast food. Some may argue that Fast foods are misleading children

and are harmful and wrong, but I feel the Fast food companies are actually being

smart. They know giving people visuals of their food will make them crave it,

therefore increasing their sales. Although this technique may be seen as “evil” or

unfair the Fast food companies are only trying to rake in as much money as possible.

Many people feel strongly about banning fast food advertisement but what

they don’t realize is that there are so many other subliminal messages out there

even more dangerous than these. For instance, when thinking of cigarette

advertisements we picture cowboys, celebrities, “Mr. Cool” Joe Camel, and beautiful

women lighting up with a smile on their face. We see these commercials and are

aware of how they affect adults but they are forgetting our children see these ads as

well and are even more impressionable than we are. Many different forms of

subliminal messages include sexual innuendoes such as phallic symbols, half

dressed women, the word “sex” itself, as well as all the familiar logos we see in TV

shows all the time such as students using Mac Books, actors drinking from a coke

can and including other products that are sponsoring the program.

These tricks have been around since advertising began, even way back in the

50’s. One well-known subliminal message study was conducted by James Vicary in a

New Jersey movie theatre back in 1957. Vicary flashed the words “Eat Popcorn” and

“Drink Coca-Cola” for 3/1000s of a second and were displayed once every 5 seconds

throughout the movie. Suddenly people became thirsty for coke and hungry for

popcorn, which increased sales for popcorn by 57% and sales for Coca Cola by 18%.

The same method is used today in a more obvious way. When watching a television

program or a movie and seeing an actor walk across the screen eating a hot dog, we

are suddenly left craving a hot dog. This method has proved to be extremely

effective in the food industry.

Many people tend to focus on how sexual messages affect adults, but what

they fail to remember is that our children are seeing what we watch whether we

know it or not. Just one moment of walking through the room and seeing what we

have on the television leaves a lasting image in a child’s mind whether we are aware

of it or not. A perfect example of this happened to me just recently. My seven-year-

old cousin was walking through the room when I had the TV on while an

advertisement for AXE body spray was being aired. The commercial consisted of a

teenaged boy who sprays himself with the product and is immediately surrounded

by beautiful models practically throwing themselves at him. A few moments later I

smelled a strong cologne scent coming from the room he was in. I walked in to find

him spraying himself with a bottle of his older brothers AXE spray. When I realized

he had seen the ad I couldn’t believe how quickly what had affected his decision to

run and find the product and practically douse himself in it. Today more than ever

we need to teach children that there are many false advertisements out there that

are very silly and unrealistic.

The biggest issue I have with false advertising is the extreme use of

Photoshop. More and more companies and magazines are over-using Photoshop to

go beyond “enhancing” a photo but instead completely changing the shape of a

persons body, hair and eye color, skin tone, and background to make the image look

as “perfect” as possible. Children are seeing this and from a very young age are

learning to hate their bodies and have serious issues such as body dysmorphic

disorder. Seeing these beautiful women with perfect skin, large breasts and a tiny

waste puts the impression that THIS is what all women should look like into a young

girls head. These issues also occur amongst young boys who see “G-I Joe” look-

alikes on the cover of magazines with six packs and perfect smiles. Recently

Glamour Magazine has begun to address this issue of “How much is too much?”2. In

the article, Shaun Dreisbach takes a photo sent in by a subscriber of herself and her

husband on the beach. After a “normal” amount of re-touching done by most

magazines and advertisement campaigns, the couple thought the image was “scary”

and extremely shocking to see how many differences there were from before to

after. Altering images for an ad campaign is becoming more popular and becoming

increasingly unrealistic and extreme by the year.

With all the commercials spanning from Dunkin Donuts to Nike, from

Cosmopolitan Magazine to Burger King, children are surrounded by false

advertisement and dangerous messages. Teen pregnancy, fattening fast foods,

cigarettes, expensive toys and electronics, weapons and thousands of other items

are seen daily in the eyes of our children and students. We cannot prevent our

children from seeing these advertisements but what we can do is stop them from

becoming brainwashed by a company and giving into peer pressure and faulty

marketing.

Some Advertisements I found containing subliminal messages…

Citations

(1) Stanford School of Medicine “Scope” Blog, Oct. 6 2011,

http://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2011/10/how-food-advertising-and-parents-

influence-affect-childrens-nutritional-choices/

(2) Glamour Magazine, Shaun Dreisbach, 2012,

http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/2012/02/retouching-how-much-is-

too-much