ADVERTISINGS INFLUENCE 1

The Effects of Advertising on Children and Youth: Literature Review

Caroline Nicholas

Appalachian State University

ADVERTISINGS INFLUENCE 2

Literature Review

Advertising in today’s society is very important as were are exposed to different types of

advertising 24/7 nonstop. It’s infiltrated every part of our daily lives as it has influenced our

choices, behaviours and thoughts. While obviously advertising is seen and accepted by all age

groups its exposure is especially impactful with children as the most the most vulnerable group

of our population is kids. Advertising especially current forms of advertising, like TV and online

media gives people concerns about its effects on young and not fully-developed minds. To

comprehend and understand the effects advertising has on children it’s become more common for

scholars, policymakers, and concerned citizens to emerge themselves in the ethical and critical

subject of advertising influence on minors. That’s what this Literature Review will be about. It

aims to deep dive into the relationship and connections between advertising and its influence on

youth. This issue incu, ed physiological, social, and ethical aspects which everyone views in their

own way. By reviewing the research done on this topic I hope to shed light on how advertising

shapes children’s perspectives and what people can do to prevent and or educate themselves on

this issue. This review will os talk bout the ethical considerations there are concerning

advertising companies directly marking toward children. While I believe the advertisement’s

effect on children is negative this essay will showcase other scholars’ and citizens’ opinions on

the issue. In an age where the media children are exposed to is hard to manage it’s important to

scrutinize its effects through academic research, giving readers insight into the persuasion and its

potential consequences.

While advertising has been around for a really long time it’s made more common by

social media and the advancement of the internet. Children are exposed to advertisements
ADVERTISINGS INFLUENCE 3

younger and younger as they have access to more media and ripe ages, but what exactly caused

people to worry and look into how advertisements affect youth?

“Food for Thought: a Novel Media Literacy Intervention on Food Advertising Targeting

Young Children and Their Parents” By Rachel M. Powell and Tyra Gross, address a very

important aspect of advertising. Focusing on the increasing issue of Obesity in children and

today’s youth. The authors emphasize statistics stating that the percentage of children 2-19 with

obesity is increasing causing a public health epidemic. While they acknowledge that there are

multiple reasons for this increase in statistics for example inactivity, unhealthy eating, and

laziness, they also point out that media and television play a very important role in influencing

children’s eating habits and dietary choices. (R. Powell & T. Gross, 2018) Overall the concerning

nature of advertising affecting children came from the concerning increase in obesity and

unhealthy noticeable habits in kids compared to children who were raised with fewer forms of

advertising and media around the household.

Advertising companies make a conscious decision when deciding who they want to

promote their ads to. Why choose children when adults seem to be the more reliable option? The

articles reviewed had varying opinions but it all came down to the children’s influence on adults

and owners of the household.

The Food for Thought article also points out how complex the issue is as advertising

companies push unhealthy food towards minority children. By targeting children advertising

companies are able to convince the parents. If you have children who are asking for something

they saw on TV you’re more likely to get it than something the adults saw themselves (R. Powell

& T. Gross, 2018) My second scholarly article “The Impact of Social Motivation on Children

Advertising” by Casey Hart that the influence on parents is what makes youth and ideal
ADVERTISINGS INFLUENCE 4

audience. Children that live in the USA control a decent amount of families spending making

them valuable as a consumer. Children have insane purchasing power which if companies can

access it will increase their chances of being successful. ( Hart, 2002) “A Dual-Step and Dual

RPocess Model of Advertising Effects” by Oliver B. Buttner, Arnd Florack, and Benjamin G.

Sefas highlights the same point. In the context of products created for consumption children and

youth are a lucrative audience for advertising companies because of their access to financial and

spending resources. The thesis of this specific article is that the impact of advertisements on

children is significant and a duel-step, dual-process model is what will help people protect

children from the influence of Ads. Children are highly influenced by advertisements and are

most notable for their naivety towards the outside world making it harder for them to use critical

thinking when seeing advertisements (Radmila,2017

The idea surrounding if all advertisements are ethical has been present in society for quite

some time but the issue becomes more problematic when looking and child influence of

advertisements as they are more susceptible to band compared to adults with fully developed

mental capacities.

Children’s exposure to ads plays a part in their cognitive development which can cause

issues. When looking at the ideas of social cognitive theory and the idea of priming

advertisements directly shape children’s expectations of the world which is unfair and can be

wrong depending on the advertisement and the amount of time they are exposed to it or things

like it. (Hart, 2002) The fourth article I chose “Does TV Advertising Affect Childre” By John R.

Rossiter explains how advertising contributes to both behavioural and cognitive effects on youth.

COngentive understanding of commercials increases with age and exposure but it can still be

damaging to little kids as their brains aren’t fully developed ( Rossiter, 1979) It is unethical to
ADVERTISINGS INFLUENCE 5

knowledgeably promote something to children that could potentially damage and or slow down

their bride processes and ability to differentiate facts from entertainment. (Rossiter, 1970)

The fourth article I read “Effects of Profile Targeting on Children’s Response to Online

Advertising” by Van Rejmersdal et al investigates the impact of profile targeting advertising

companies use as a strategy. Profiling targeting influences children’s responses to online

advertisements and can potentially put them in a dangerous situation because profile

advertisements use personal things about the audience and consumer to find a way to promote

items based on the personal information of children can be dangerous and shouldn’t be

something that advertisement companies are continuously practising. ( Rejimersdal,2017)

While all the articles i read knew that advertisement’s influence on children was

concerning not all of them had prevention methods that could be used to protect our nation’s

youth. While not all articles had methods some did, Preventing advertisements from affecting

children’s development is important as it will affect future generations. a dual-step dual princess

model to showcase the limitations that need to be put into place to stop children from being

negatively affected by advertisements. The process includes creating memory structures based on

ad exposure so that kids are able to make decisions themself without relying on advertisements.

Understanding and controlling your perspective on the advertisements shown helps you not be

endangered by their persuasive power which is extremely influential to younger children and

youth. ( Buttner, Florack, Benjamin, 2014) Understanding the underlying mechanisms that drive

the effects of advertising on children is important because it makes those around aware if the

digital impact that’s possible for youth. The first article that i chose from popular source “

Exposing the Prevalence of targeted Advertising in Children’s Products” by Girard K. showcases

its thesis of highlighting the importance of families and educators looking closely at the privacy
ADVERTISINGS INFLUENCE 6

protections in advertising and the digital realm when it comes to children being exposed to

advertisements. The authors evaluated popular protection methods and the harmful effects of

targeted advertising just like another article i mentioned. If we keep children’s media access

monitored we can decrease the amount there affected. ( Girard, 2022)

In conclusion, all the articles talked about and emphasised ethical considerations related

to advertising practices affecting youth. In this generation because of all our technical advances

digital media and constant exposure is an important topic and an increasing issue. People need to

stay vigilant and remain aware of how it could be affecting us and those around us. All the

articles I used for the most part had the same ideas concerning ethics just varied when talking

about why advertising to children should be studied and or how the problem should be fixed.
ADVERTISINGS INFLUENCE 7

References

., Girard K. “Kids Are Exposed to Targeted Advertising Across the Industry | Common Sense

Education.” Common Sense Media, 21 March 2022,

https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/kids-are-exposed-to-targeted-advertisin

g-across-the-industry. Accessed 9 October 2023.

“Advertising: how it works on kids & teens.” Raising Children Network, 12 October 2022,

https://raisingchildren.net.au/toddlers/play-learning/screen-time-media/advertising-childr

en. Accessed 9 October 2023.

Buttner, Oliver B., et al. “A Dual-Step and Dual-Process Model of Advertising Effects:

Implications for Reducing the Negative Impact of Advertising on Children's

Consumption Behaviour.” Journal of Consumer Policy, vol. 37, no. 2, 2014, pp. 161-182.

DITTMANN, MELISSA. “Consumerism--Protecting children from advertising.” American

Psychological Association, 1 June 2004, https://www.apa.org/monitor/jun04/protecting.

Accessed 9 October 2023.

Hart, Casey. “A content analysis of social motivations in advertisements targeting pre-teens.”

Southwestern Mass Communication Journal, vol. 30, no. 1, 2014, pp. 1-26.

“Marketing to Children | CSP Global.” Online Programs from CSP Global,

https://online.csp.edu/resources/article/marketing-to-children/. Accessed 9 October 2023.

ADVERTISINGS INFLUENCE 8

popovic, Šević. “CHILDREN'S ADVERTISING: MATERIALISM AND CAUSED

CONFLICTS WITH PARENTS.” Casopis za Društvene Nauke, vol. 41, no. 1, 2017, pp.

157-173.

Powell, Rachel M. “A Novel Media Literacy Intervention on Food Advertising Targeting Young

Children and their Parents.” Journal of Media Literacy Education, vol. 10, no. 4, 2018,

pp. 80-94.

Reijmersdal, van. “Processes and effects of targeted online advertising among children.”

International Journal of Advertising, vol. 36, no. 3, 2017, pp. 396-414.

Rossiter, John R. “Does TV Advertising Affect Children?” Journal of Advertising Research, vol.

19, no. 1, 1979, pp. 49-53.