Too Many Commercials For Kids
I think compared to most kids our children do not watch a lot of television. They do watch TV in the morning after they wake up and they may watch one show in the afternoon after a nap. I have shows that I like them to watch and others that I do not. They also rarely watch live television. I TiVo the shows I like on Noggin, which doesn’t have commercials during the show. They also love shows on PBS, no commercials for the golden arches or silly Barbie dolls there either.
A study done on commercials in 2005 found that “Food is the number one product advertised to kids, followed by media such as music, video games and movies”.
You know what kind of food they are talking about, it is not fruits and vegetables.
The study found that 8-to-12-year-old children see the most food commercials, an average of 21 a day which is 7,600 ads per year, 13 to 17 years old viewed 17 food ads a day, an annual total of more than 6,000 and kids ages 2 to 7, saw 12 food ads per day, or 4,400 a year.
That is a lot of candy, snacks and fast food ads.
After food, the most common products in televisions ads aimed at children and teens were music, video games and movies.
We know advertisers love teens and kids. They want the cereal box with the toy inside, they love the toys from their favorite movies and have you seen the gummy snacks lately? Every box is another character from Cinderella, to Spiderman to Animal Planet.
Don’t even get me started on the cereal aisle.
It is bad enough that they come home from school and ask me for all of the things they never knew existed that their friends had like yogos, or gummy snacks.
This study made me realize that I will be taping our kids shows and skipping the commercials for a long time to come!
commercials, kid’s tv, kid’s shows, television for kids, kids, teens, toddlers, food for kids, snacks, fast food
August 30th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
McDonalds does sponsor children’s programming on PBS. So yes, there is a commercial at the beginning of certain shows for the “golden arches.”
September 1st, 2008 at 9:05 am
There are commercials at the end or beginning, but because I Tivo them, I stop it before they see the commercials. As soon as the show ends they are off to play anyway!