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There are several means through which producers can market their products and services. But advertising is the most favored and most common form of marketing technique (Nawathe, Gawande and Dethe 2001). In the year 2004, commercials placed in the print media in the United States increased by 14.7%. Those that were placed in Television grew by 13% (Robertson, 2006). This is a huge growth by all means. The upshot of this is that children continue to be increasingly exposed to adverts both in the print media and in electronic media like television and cinemas.

It is safe to presume that adults are aware of the fact that the intention of the adverts is to manipulate their feelings and emotions and make them consume the product or service been advertised. The same cannot be said for children who are aged eight years or below (American Psychological Association [APA]: 2005, 11). A task force that was set up by the American Psychological Association to carry out a study on the effects of advertising on children in the year 2005 was the one that came up with these findings. The task force was convinced that “it is obvious that children below the age of eight are not aware of the persuasive intent of advertisement. This makes them, an easy target for this form of persuasion” (APA, 2005). This is of great concern given the type of products that are marketed to these kids. They include unhealthy foods such as candies, sweets and sodas (Wallace, 2009). This, according to the task force, is an issue of public health concern dimensions.

People who are opposed to advertisement that is aimed at children are of the view that it has several undesirable effects on them (Moniek, 2000). They contend that these effects range from those afflicted on their moral fabric, belief and value systems (Spencer, 2001).

2.1: Understanding of Advertisement Intent in Adolescents

As indicated earlier, adults-at least majority of them- are aware of the persuasive intent of advertisement. But is this the case amongst adolescent and especially children? The truth is that this segment of the “consumer” is not aware of the intentions that are behind the adverts they are exposed to (Ugur and Abdulla, 1993). They are easily influenced by these commercials. The major reason is that children and adolescents at this age are trusting and accept uncritically what is propagated by their adults (Moniek, 2000).

Adverts, been created and directed by the adults, are accepted uncritically by the children. They also lack the obligatory cognitive skills that are necessary to screen and criticize stimulus that they receive from their surroundings (Gunter, Oates and Blades: 2008, p23). Adults, having developed their cognitive skills, are able to screen the stimulus from their surrounding enabling them to selectively internalize those stimuli. This is not the same for children and adolescents. They internalize every stimulus that is directed at them from the external environment. These stimuli include the adverts and commercials beamed via the radio, television and other forms of media. Children inter本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。