MEDIA ADVERTISEMENT ON IMMORAL ACTS

Media Advertisement on Immoral Acts-Ethical Integrity

Media Advertisement on Immoral Acts- Ethical Integrity

Introduction

Television advertising has an effect on virtually every person. This is due to the fact that most homes in UK have not one, but two to three televisions. Sadly, as one of the largest groups to be negatively effected by advertising are children. “British children spend an average of 4 hours of television a day, 28 hours per week watching TV; by age 18 they have watched 22,000 hours of TV--more time than they ever spent in the classroom.”. There is a whole host of harm that is being done to our children through the over exposure of today's child-focused television advertising. It seems that in the name of making the almighty dollar, television marketers are willing to target any age child without discrimination. This has led to numerous ailments in varying degrees from malnutrition to teenage alcohol abuse and promiscuity to the early on-set of child obesity. (Crawford, 2008)

Discussion

Sex appears to be one of the number one subjects in the minds of most admen. As depicted in a recent Carl's Jr. television commercial, it does not matter that it is a hamburger being marketed, apparently they believe it takes sex to get buyers out there to purchase their product. Unfortunately, in the course of the grease (or perhaps it is drool!) dripping down the “good-ole boys'” chins, their granddaughters, daughters and nieces are starving themselves to death all in the name of so-called beauty. Malnutrition, anorexia and bulimia, the sad results beleaguering our young girls and is all in an attempt to look like the ever-glamorous “sex goddess” making love to a Bentley while seductively eating a hamburger. (Strasburger, 2005)

On a less sarcastic note, malnutrition and eating disorders are only one of the negative aspects of the push in today's media that “sex sells”. There continues to be tragic results of teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases (STD). According to the (Campaign for our Children's Educator Resource Center, 2006) about two-thirds of all STD's occur among 15 to 25 year olds and that about “1 in 4” young people contracts an STD before finishing high school. To date, this year alone, there have been 291,948 babies born to teens between the ages of 15 to 19 year olds, with an alarming 583,756 pregnancies within the same age group. Unfortunately, in many advertisements the portrayal of young hot bodies is misleading today's young people that this is the norm. The more exposure adolescents have to sexual content, the more sexually active they become. According to a research by the Society for Adolescent Medicine, it was concluded that the children getting their information on sex from the media have a skewed impression of the subject. “The majority of the sexual content in the media depicts risk-free recreational sexual behavior between non-married people,” say the researchers. “Media programming rarely depicts negative consequences from sexual behavior, and depictions of condom and contraception use are extremely ...