Advertising is used by companies to persuade the public to buy their products; adverts communicate to the customers on the products offered by the particular advertising company with an aim to influence their buying decisions . Fast food eating culture is common in the US and by extension in most countries across the globe. One of the leading fast food restaurant chain in the US and across the globe, KFC, has consistently advertised kids’ meal. In one of the adverts with a slogan “feed the kids chicken” promotes the fast food eating culture in the US. Fast food has been fronted by many experts as the leading cause of obesity in kids. A culture without advertisement would have a collective humane solution that ensured the future generation had a world truly fit for human habitation. The effect of advertisement in the society is not pretty since it does not promote values that are in favor of human wellbeing but for profitability, environmental sustainability and a fair society hence it is detrimental and needs to be changed (Schudson, 2013).
Commodity frontier of schoolchildren according to Pugh (2009) is how the kids cope with the incessant ads for the must-have toy, the latest shoe, the coolest game since they are being raised in a contemporary consumer society. Children don’t cave into or resist capitalism they build worlds of their own. Economy of dignity comes in when the children have to fit in, Allison Pugh says “ They set up their own Lilliputian 'economies of dignity' which poignantly determine who does and doesn't feel worthy of belonging to the group” (Pugh, 2009). This brings social inequality.
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Kids represent an important demographic to marketers because in addition to their own purchasing power they influence their parents’ buying decisions and are the adult consumers of the future. Corporations cynically target young children offering some surprising reasons behind parents’ motivation to put their kids’ material needs first, the author says “Corporate marketing acts as a powerful mint always churning out shinier coinage, but not always dictating whether or how those tokens are used” (Pugh, 2009).
There should be more corporate regulations to control marketing and more parental responsibilities. Pugh (2009) stated “Going well beyond the standard story of manipulative advertising that turns our kids into greedy little consumption addicts,” hence corporates should not allow manipulative ads to air. Parents on the other hand should instill discipline in their children and teach them to be responsible. This will allow the kids understand good and bad and what can be available and those that cannot.
References
Pugh, A. J. (2009). Longing and belonging: Parents, children, and consumer culture. Univ of California Press.
Schudson, M. (2013). Advertising, the uneasy persuasion (RLE Advertising): Its dubious impact on American society (Vol. 6). Routledge.
