Ads To Children Rhetorical Analysis

Before watching the documentary, my stance on advertisement to children were fairly positive. For me as long as the advertisements don’t promote sex, drugs, alcohol, or other inappropriate topics to children, advertising to them seems acceptable. In fact, last semester in one of my advertising classes, I was asked if I would be comfortable to promote McDonald’s Happy Meals to kids, knowing that the kind of food encourage kids to eat unhealthy. At that time, I didn’t feel it was unethical. I felt it was the parents’ responsibility to watch what their children eat and teach them the importance of eating healthy. After this documentary, my stance change. Watching the documentary was as if I took a step back and for the first time clearly see how heavily my childhood was affected by advertisement. I feel deceived. As I grew up, I naturally gain the ability to know what an advertisement is, but it never occurred to me the shows I watched, the characters I loved, the toys I had, and the games I played on the internet with my friends were all marketing tactics. I honestly thought they were created purely to entertain children and trying to teach themes lessons.
Now, I …show more content…
What are the positive outcomes that the documentary did not address? Are there any pros? Personally as a consumer who grew up in this heavily marketed and consuming society, I have learned to become immune to most advertisements and only pay attention to the advertisements I think are relevant to my life. Another optimistic side of this whole advertising to children is that although amount of attention paid to the details of how children act and react by advertisers and psychologists are creepy, these studies also have helped us understand children more and how adults could interact with children in such a positive way we never of a hundred years ago. Just like everything in this world, there are always good and bad