*act

1st speaker:

Hi, I’m “1st speaker”, and what you’ve just witnessed is the effect that media and marketing has on
teenagers. Fans perceive Ronaldo’s haircut as something that is to be glorified and gets the same exact
haircut, whether it suits them or not. The next day they come to school and well… you know the rest. So
today “name of speakers in sequence” and me are going to talk about how media and marketing have
an influence on teenagers.

But first let’s ask ourselves, what is media? Media are the communication outlets or tools used to store
and deliver information or data. But nowadays, it is so much more than that. We live in a world where
the media dictates the way we dress, look and behave. Our society is becoming more and more
materialistic, where we desire goods, products and spend money on items that are unnecessary. The
influence of mass media has an effect on many aspects of the human life, this can include: voting a
certain way, individual views and beliefs, or even false information that can skew a person's knowledge
of a specific topic. Media is an ever-changing field and is being critiqued now more than ever by the
general public. The overall influence of mass media has increased drastically over the years, and will
continue to do so as the media, itself, improves.

There are mainly 3 types of media:

1. Mass media, which consists of broadcast media such as television and radio, and print media.
2. On ground Media. A good example would be the clear men under 17 football tournament.
3. Online Media, which many of us are familiar with as social media.

Now let’s talk about marketing. Marketing refers to activities undertaken by a company to promote the
buying or selling of a product or service. It is the act of selling something to
someone. Marketing includes advertising, selling, and delivering products to consumers or other
businesses.

We’re familiar with the 5 senses: vision, hearing, smell, taste and touch. But little do we know that
marketing employees exploit these senses to convince us to buy their product. Let’s take a look at an
example:

For years, car manufacturers have been studying not only how to build the best cars at the right prices,
but also how to market those vehicles so more people purchase them. And exactly how they do that
might surprise you. That new car smell? That satisfying “thunk” when the car door closes? The soft,
plush feeling of the seats? None of this is coincidence; they’re all carefully calibrated characteristics
intended to inspire feelings of excitement, safety and luxury — and convince you to purchase the
vehicle.

In fact, car manufacturers even use something called “engine-sound enhancement” on luxury sports
cars.

I’d like us to take a look at teenagers. Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and psychological
development that generally occurs during the period from ages 13 to 19. It is a crucial stage in the
development of a person and what they’re exposed to in this time period drastically shapes the type of
person they turn out to be. So, to see how much media adolescents consume I’d like to invite “3 rd
speaker to the stage.”

2nd speaker:

Thank you “1st speaker”. We all know how much teens love to engage in social media. Everywhere we go
we see teenagers on their cell phone. Even when they’re together, they’d rather spend time on social
media than talking to each other in real life. When 2 people are in the same place, they pull out their
phones instead of interacting with each other to avoid the awkwardness. It’s gone to the point where
they must HAVE to post what they’re eating.
According to Hootsuite, out of the 164 million people that live in Bangladesh, 63 million have internet
access. 23 million of which are daily social media users.

But wait that’s just online media, what about mass media. Well according to Bangladesh NGOs Network
for Radio and Communication or BNNRC 6.5, million people in Bangladesh tune into radio daily. Except
now they don’t use big clunky boxes. Now, they just have an app on their phone to do that.

Let’s take a look at how many people still watch tv. Nielsen 2017 survey revealed TV is the most viewed
media in Bangladesh as viewership rose to 84 percent in 2016 from 74 percent in 2011. I repeat 84
percent people in Bangladesh watch tv. That’s 136.9 million people that watch television.

Well what about print media, that media is slowly fading away, right? While it is fading it still has a large
reader base. The National Media Survey (NMS)-2018, conducted by Kantar MRB Bangladesh, a research
organization, showed that around 6.6 million people read Prothom Alo EVERY DAY, and that’s just
prothom alo. If we include others the number just keeps going up.

So this is the amount of people in Bangladesh that engage in media on a daily basis. It becomes easy to
see why marketers would use media to advertise products, but how do they use this. Let’s take a look at
typical commercial targeted towards adolescents.
*video plays
//speaker explains how this commercial effects the way teens think. //

To explain more about how media influences the way teenagers behave, let us invite “3 rd speaker” to
the stage.

3rd speaker:

Thank you “2nd speaker” The media is a huge part in everyone's lives and they have a significant
influence on the actions we partake in on a daily basis. Though adults don't usually fall into the pressure
of the media, young children and teenagers are highly susceptible to what the media is telling them to

do and what's 'cool'. But what is this so called “cool”. Depending on who you ask the answer may
vary. But it can be generalized as an aesthetic of attitude, behavior, appearance and style which is
generally admired.

Whenever we connect to social media, whether it be TV, youtube or beautyblog, we often find every
other company is marketing their new product as “The next big thing”. In order to make sales they
exaggerate about the quality and sometimes uses of their merchandise. People who fall for these are
mostly teenage girls. Nowadays, it is media which influences what women purchase. Here’s an example:
media allows people to keep tabs on celebrities who post about what new products they have so-called
“bought”. As a result, teens get prompted to buy the same thing as their role model. Fun fact: not only
does this give them a sense of fulfillment, but also satisfaction.

It is not magic that makes girls feel that way. Guess what it is… it is their manipulative measures. Girls
tend to believe in the beauty of models than themselves. This made the producers post photo-shopped
pictures of models as well as surreal images of their merchandise with labelled guarantee to make us
feel pretty because “WE ARE WORTH IT”.

Everywhere in social media you would find sponsored video made by popular beauty influencers
popping up. Here’s another example: These people dab layers of highlighter and face flashlights from
different angles just to make their cheekbones glow blindingly. This is their trump card. Lastly websites
are being spammed with overrating reviews which, of course, tempt female teenagers to run to the
nearest stores.

*Speaker walks up to the cosmetic advertisement and points at it

This is a typical cosmetic commercial. It makes teenage girls feel insecure about their appearance and
tells them “You’re not perfect, buy our product and you’ll look good.” This creates an unnecessary
anxiety within them about their looks.

Now let’s take a look at this.

*Walks up to pakhi dress advertisement.

In the Star Jalsha serial Bojhena se Bojhena this dress was featured. This dress was so glorified and there
has been such a craze surrounding this style that for everyone, from young children to adults, “Pakhi”
was at top of the list. It’s all good, but there is a dark side to this fashion obsession which has reportedly
resulted in at least three deaths and one divorce. As per newspaper reports, the youngest victim of this
fashion mania was a class II girl who took her own life as her father did not, or possibly could not afford
to buy a Pakhi costume for her. This is how the media drives this superficial need inside of us. Creates
this anxiety that unless we have that object we won’t be socially accepted.

How many of you want the latest iphone?

*Walks up to iphone advertisement

This smartphone which originally was intended to be used as a tool, has become just more than a
phone. It has become a symbol of wealth. The advertisements of these phones glorify it in such a way
that people cannot resist but fall into the trap of thinking that buying it will bring happiness In 2011, a
teenage boy in China was dying for an Apple iPhone 4, which was the company's hot new phone at the
time. In order to get the iPhone 4 he so craved for, Wang sold one of his kidneys for the equivalent of
$3,200 USD. This was more than enough for him to get the iPhone 4 for himself. Unfortunately, that is a
decision that would change the course of Wang’s life forever.
Wang learned that his surgery was not a successful one and has now ended up placing him in bed for the
rest of his life. Wang later learned that the wounds from the surgery did not heal well, got infected and
eventually affected his other kidney too. For the rest of his life, the 17-year-old now has to undergo
dialysis.

This is another prime example of how media and marketing shapes the way adolescents think and
behave. To elaborate more on this I would like to invite to the stage “4 th speaker”.

4th speaker:

Thank you “3rd speaker” The role the mass media plays in our society is phenomenal, media
communication components have expanded as technology has advanced, if we refer to electronic media
and the accessibility of global news with the click of a button. Media is continuously making the society
believe that luxury items are necessities, it should be highlighted that media shapes the society to such
an extent, that individual opinions are also affected so that they are in agreement with the mass media.

With 24-hour news channels, phones, the Internet, and television, young people are simply trying to
figure out how they fit into this world, and they look to media for the answer. This, however, is the new
norm. Young people grew up with all of this, and parents are trying to catch up. Even so, we need to
limit screen-time, especially if it is filling a void for the child or interfering with face-to-face
conversations.

I’d like to come back to this graph. We know that a large number of teens are exposed to media. But,
what kind of content are they exposed to? And how does this affect them?

FOMO or the fear of missing out is a common phenomenon experienced by teenagers. It is "a pervasive
apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent". This social
anxiety is characterized by "a desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing". This is
the reason teenagers take out their phones every time and open up social media.

Teenagers see their popular friends going to expensive restaurants everyday on social media and think
to themselves “Gosh, I wish my life was like that.” This creates an anxiety within them and this builds up
depression. It contributes to bad mental health, which leads them to take their own life over matters
which seem so silly to others.

Let’s go back in time, to July of 2016. I’m sure we all remember the Holy Artisan incident. The attack was
done by teenagers. Teenagers who were convinced, MANIPULATED by misleading blog post and
facebook post to kill others for the sake of religion.

Let’s fast forward a little bit to August of 2018. When after students were killed in bus accidents
students all over Dhaka city protested by controlling traffics themselves. This is also an effect of social
media. However, unlike the previous example this is a positive effect. It encouraged adolescents to raise
their voice and stand up for what’s right.

So, basically media isn’t entirely bad. If used properly it can encourage good behavior.
The same goes for marketing. While it can inspire materialistic needs. It can also be used to inspire
productivity among teens, like the football tournament. It can also be used to inspire creativity like the
Berger young painter’s art competition.