Doing this project in school I think was a really good idea because it helped us see that this world isn’t all safe like we thinkit is. It shows that they media only cares about making money so they corupt kids and show them all these advertisements to make them think in a certain way about prodcts. Also what is said about children as young as 6 months knowing these logos and watching commercials so later on in life they can recognize them and then be able to buy at the stores. This is really insentsitive towards the parents because they wonder why kids only like a certain store or a certain food but the money still flies out of their pockets. Also the US is the only place in the world that doesnt really control the medis and they are able to show basically whatever they want. This is my opinion on why these advertisments need to change.

Do you want kids to grow up eating only McDonalds? Do you want them only buying at a certain store because of a commercial they saw on the television? I think not but this will happen if we don’t stop mass advertising to young children. Advertisers will do this no matter how young the child because to them it’s just a way to make money. They get to kids of any age especially little ones because the younger they are the more naïve they are. They use the sneakiest of the sneaky techniques to get to them. Advertisers will do anything to get through to kids these days.

My first example of the big companies to get to the young kids is through a technique known as buzz advertising. What they do is get celebrities to wear their products and merchandise. Kids who idolize them as heroes decide to be just like them and go out and buy what they saw them wearing plus more. It gets so much money into the pockets of theses companies. Another way is to get “cool” kids from the community to wear their items. The non-“cool” kid’s think that will make them cool so they go buy what they saw, putting money into the companies’ hands, and thinking they are cool.

The second example of this kind of advertising for big glam companies is to use immersive advertising. They use this by getting to little kid sites likes neopets.com and display their products. McDonald’s lets you virtually buy food from them to use for your pet but that also makes kids want to go to the actual store for the real food. Disney also uses neopets.com and you can watch little trailers of movies they are about to make, this makes little children want to go see the movie giving the companies more money. Through sites like this parents think this is really harmless and don’t anything. So money is just flying out of their pockets.

My third example of getting through to teens is viral advertising. They use sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Xanga to get through to almost the teen. They spread little advertisements through your whole friends list, sending it to your friends friends and so on and so forth spreading like a virus. It gets to almost everyone and most people can’t tell that it’s advertising. Companies are smart and use these sneaky techniques to get to our society. They also use data mining to get kids and by this they track websites that you go on and then use that to attack you. Hoping that your friends have the same interest they also send those things to them.

My final example of this kind of advertising of through psychology. A study showed that kids thought a carrot tasted better wrapped in a McDonalds wrapper. This is just not right because the exact same carrot one wrapped in a plain wrapper, and one in a McDonald’s wrapper should taste the same but the Golden Arches make all the difference. Kids think this is all better but no its not. Doing this is very unethical and very unprofessional. They should be able to find better ways to get to kids other then brainwashing them. Other studies show that at the age of 6 months old babies have seen over 100 commercials and that by the age of 6 years old they can recognize over 50 logos from different companies including McDonalds golden arches.

In conclusion, if we want our kids to grow up in a society controlled by advertisements and golden arches and wrapped up food that tastes better then the original then we can continue on the way we have been living then keep it this way. Certain but if we want our kids to grow up in an environment that is healthy and that has controlled advertising then we should act now to stop the major ways to get to kids to buy their products. In my opinion theses advertisements control some of how we live and tell us that one thing is better then another thing. Then later they say that this other thing doesn’t compare to them. They try and display a certain appearance for people to see and think is better for them. But what they don’t understand is that no matter what there is a circle that goes back to what they thought was bad becomes something good. Laws need to be made that censor what can and can’t be shown or said on TV. This would really help our society in growing correctly without interruption to child growth. If this cannot be done then advertising should be stopped completely. It doesn’t have to been this drastic but that will happen if we aren’t careful with what is put on the television.

In an article that we read today it talks about how advertisers get their products sold through kids that are really young. They do this because just telling kids that they will be cool doesnt work so companies give their products to “cool” kids so others will want to buy the product. Advertisers build brand name loyalty by having thier products made in counrties with cheap labour so that they are well made and that they can gain their trust so that people keep on buying their product. This also means they dont have to pay the workers as much money as they would have to. Advertising companies also use what is called Buzz/street marketing. What they do is they give “cool” kids their merchandise and tell them to wear it. Other people see this and think it will make them cool; so they go out and buy the thing they saw and other producta made by the company. The final way advertisers get kids to by their products is through movies, music and video games. A lot of rated-R movies are directed towards children that shouldn’t be watching those kinds of movies; music that has profanity; and through violent video games. Kids who are under 4 years old see these things and want to buy toys that are based off of them and eventually want to get the real thing. This is how marketers get their producs to kids.

In this article it talks about how the website neopets.com uses immersive advertising to get to kids. Some kids as soon as they get home they go on instead of doing homework. McDonalds, Disney and some other places are advertising to kids through immersive advertising. Immersive Advertising is when they put the advertisement in the games and through the whole website. Neopets uses immersive advertising because when the kids are playing games some of them are for McDonalds, or they are showing off a new movie. Also to feed pets you can buy from popular stores that are in the real world not just virtual. My opinion on immersive advertising is that when it gets to be to much then it could be pretty bad for the kids. If the children who use this know that it isn’t all right then they are okay but some of them want what they see. This is very affective to get young children to buy their products since if they see it they want it. Also it is very good for the companies that are getting advertised on the site because they get a lot more money.

Today in class we watched a movie that talks about how propaganda and censorship is going on in North Korea. When their leader Kim il-Sung died in 1994 all of the people where mourning their loss and cries could be heard everywhere. When the 2 men came from the US everywhere they went it was deserted except for tour guides that were just waiting for new tourists. When they visited stautues of the leader even though they weren’t from Korea they had to give flowers and bow to him. Only certain people in Korea are allowed to look foreigners in the eye and they are the ones that speak english, german and spanish. Outside elderly and handicapped are not to be outside. When the men visited a school they were greated by kids dancing but they are the ones that look the healthiest. They did this because they want to portray to others that kids and families are well nourished although some families are starving. As they are going around the city they notice children carrying torches because they are practicing for a cecremony in October and they practice for 6 hours a day every day until October 10. Part of the propaganda is when one man was called because he was told that there were thousands of swallows were at the mounument to Kim il-Sung and they were bowing their heads to him. Everywhere the men went they were follwed by 2 or 3 other men that were always in hearing distance. The only privacy that they got was in their hotel room where the hotel was practically empty. Finally from where I got up to the men went to a museum that talked about World War II and how it affected the people there. Mothers were separated from their children. The mothers died in fear from what might be happening to their children and children were killed.

In this article it is talking about what is happening over there and their news coverage. An order was made that news reporters couldn’t keep broadcasting anything or they would have to a pay a fine of 83,000. Peoples phone lines have been disconnected and stations had their equipment taken away. Some people are brave enough to keep broadcasting their news on radios, internet and for those who are lucky and have it satellite dishes. I think that Musharraf silenced the media because he probably only wanted his opinion to get across the public. The other side of the story in this article is the side of the people this affected. The effect of this on the public was that everyone in the country wasn’t able to know what was happening with the governement and things that were really important.