Argumentative Speech: A need to ban television advertisements aimed at children

Argumentative Speech: A need to ban television advertisements aimed at children

There exists a strong need to ban television ads that are aimed at children because the children are just like flowers having immature and innocent minds and they are not at a position to assess the benefits and harms associated with the advertised products. “Advertising is the art of arresting human intelligence just long enough to get money from it” (Bagdikian, 2000). The present scenario has provided with a fact that great deal of advertising has been focused towards children. The products that are being promoted through television ads for this target group remains confined not only to the extent of toys and sweets, but the marketers are considering this segment as a potential to gain business and thus promote movies, games, music, drink to this class of vulnerable consumers. In many countries, this practice is coming under attack from the side of parents, public groups and other organizations, considering the adult television promotions as harmful for the society. According to Global issues organization, “Children serves as a captive audience for the marketers and in United States and an average child watches an estimate between 25,000 to 40,000 television commercials per year”.

Providing grounds for my arguments, I want to quote initially about few of the countries where the adverse effects of advertising promoted towards children has been considered and thus actions were taken accordingly. In Sweden since year 1991, the advertising during the prime time of children has been banned considering it a fact that a child under the age of 10 does not have the mental capability to differentiate between a commercial and a program. Until the age of 12, the purpose of an advertisement cannot be understood by a child. So, this example makes a point clear that at the younger age children do not have the capacity to make or understand a purchase decision. In United States a research was conducted by American Psychological Association (APA) asserting that a child under the age of 8 years do not have the ability to critically comprehend what is being communicated through the television advertisement and thus, are more vulnerable to accept the advertised information as accurate and unbiased. The resultant would be in the form of unhealthy eating habits as well demonstrated by the youth obesity epidemic prevalent in the present situation. For the provided reasons, American Psychological Association serves as evidence to my focus point of this argumentative speech that advertising that is being targeted towards children should be restricted.

The television ads focused towards the vulnerable target group of children creates a “must have” mentality in them. It means that ads lead a child to ask for the products and in case their request is ignored by parents, the child parent relation would be at stake (American Psychological Association (APA), 2004). As children do not have their own money and for the purpose of fulfilling any of their ...