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Communications Essay

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Communications Essay
Communications Essay

The average American children and teenagers today are very easy targets of the commercial business. What do teenagers and kids love the most about television? Most parents believe television shows keep children tuned in for hours at a time. The Children s Television Resource And Education Center (#1) found among that 28 million children commercials are really, what keep them watching.
The commercial business is what keeps most products on the market. Catchy songs, flashing colors and scenes related to having fun traps kids into commercials. In one single year, a child or teen will watch 20,000 commercials according to James Bryant from Media, Children and the Family (#2). It comes from the most popular TV stations such as Nickelodeon , MTV or CBS . In a single hour of television, approximately 18 thirty-second commercials are shown. Today 80% percent of the commercials directed at teens and children are for toys, cereals, and fast-food restaurants. Kids believe the nutritional or technical claims of the commercial and the product becomes a necessity to them not just a want. Parents cannot explain to them why this product is not a necessity and has no real value. The message that parents believe that should be spread is Children should not measured by what they own, but by who they are. (US West Parents Foundation # 3)
Children are especially vulnerable to TV ads for toys, "junk food," or cereals with high sugar content. Because of this, children networks such as Cartoon Network , or
Nickelodeon , have agreed to limit certain advertising to children. Industry-financed groups such as the Children's Advertising Review Unit of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (# 4) have developed guidelines on advertising to children. Congress recently passed legislation designed to reduce the number of minutes of advertising time during children's programming. This legislation also stops certain exploitative or uncalled for promotions of superhero

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