Many parents notice that their child rushes to the TV when commercials are shown there. The kid looks at them as if spellbound and sometimes does not react to the comments of others. What is so attractive advertising for children? Does it pose a potential danger?
Why is advertising so appealing to children?
Children begin to experience interest in advertising from an early age, sometimes it fascinates even infants. This is not surprising, because entire agencies are working on the creation of these videos, puzzled by the desire to attract consumers by all means.
Video: little girl's curious reaction to advertising
What harm can commercials have for a child
- Harmful to children's eyesight. But this can be attributed in general to watching television content.
- Children quickly remember advertising phrases and sometimes stop communicating normally - they often use them for no reason.
- Formation of unhealthy consumer behavior. A child of conscious age begins to demand that parents buy harmful products (chips, etc.), because advertising presents them in a very attractive light. Children who have seen enough advertising, subsequently become full-fledged buyers. And impressions from the TV screen influence the choice of goods in the store - a person tends to buy well-known brands, even if he is not completely satisfied with the quality of the product (for example, he looks not at the composition of a chocolate bar, but at its packaging familiar through advertising). The well-known logo "sinks into the soul" and turns into a part of a person's life. In addition, having seen enough inviting stories advertising fast food restaurants in childhood, an adult takes his children there instead of feeding him a healthy homemade lunch or dinner.
- Advertising can increase children's aggressiveness, increase the excitability of kids. Older students are interested in tricks demonstrated there, dangerous to health, risky scientific experiments. After all, the psychological purpose of such videos is to inspire a feeling of pleasure due to the purchase of a certain product. And children are much easier than adults to give in to their desires.
- In the videos, kids can see and hear things of an erotic nature (advertising of condoms, potency stimulants, etc.). This is deposited on a subconscious level, and in impressionable children it can cause neurological problems (enuresis, stuttering, etc.). Older children take everything they see literally, understanding the sexual context. This is how teenage girls learn distorted concepts of morality: they subconsciously want to be like the sexy heroines of commercials. Boys, on the other hand, like to identify themselves with brutal characters (machos), who also do not differ in morality.
- Some parents take advantage of their child's fascination with advertising to feed him. As a result, a stable TV-food reflex arises. This is fraught with problems with digestion, metabolic disorders.
- Spending a lot of time in front of the TV, the baby neglects useful activities: physical activity, reading, creativity, communication with peers.
- Some Western videos operate on the principle of neuro-linguistic programming (subconscious suggestion to a person of certain thoughts). It can have an unpredictable effect on the fragile psyche of a child. In most cases, this does not apply to domestic videos, but it’s better to play it safe once again.
As soon as the next commercial starts on TV, does your child run to the screen as fast as he can and look spellbound? We decided to tell young parents why children love watching ads so much. Is this not dangerous and is it normal from the point of view of development? Let's figure it out together.
Young children have a very weak fixation of attention: the child is not able to get carried away with something for a long time, for example, for 3-5 minutes. He will throw any toy in half a minute to do something else. No cartoon, much less a movie, lasts such a short time. But commercials, on the contrary, just continue on TV for about twenty to thirty seconds. In commercials, there is almost always high dynamics - the action is developing actively, the characters are constantly moving, performing various actions. The youngest children perceive advertising as information. And beautifully packaged, bright and affordable. Because of such short stories, the child does not get tired, and they do not bother him. Therefore, young children love to watch commercials on TV so much.
From the point of view of modern psychology, in principle, there is nothing terrible in viewing ads by a child. The other extreme is dangerous here - when the child spends all his free time in front of the TV. Still, it is better for a child to jump more, run, read books, draw and sculpt.
Gastroenterologists and nutritionists warn parents who use the TV on as a distraction to shove food into their child: there is a danger of becoming a habit of such eating. As a result, the formation of the “TV-food” reflex occurs, which in the long term leads to the removal of control over the amount of food eaten, the violation of metabolic processes and problems of the gastrointestinal tract. And finally, the habit of eating what advertising suggests is unlikely to do good service to your child's health in the future.
And one more important point. Unfortunately, in recent years the TV air has simply been flooded with advertisements for such things, which, according to the laws of ethics, are not publicly discussed. And children from a very early age are already aware that we are talking about something shameful, which is known only to adults, but it is better not to ask, "so as not to be scolded." Moreover, children in this age group are already well aware of the sexual overtones contained in a good half of the commercials. They do not yet know what it is: "All men will be at your feet", but they feel the erotic spirit contained in the slogan and the video clip. Excitation, not receiving discharge, is transformed into nervous disorders, causing a whole bunch of various problems with physiology - from enuresis to stuttering.
What happens: will the child always watch ads?
Not at all. When he gets older, he recognizes various images and concepts, gives them verbal (speech) designations, then he will begin to be interested in the world of cartoons. Until then, don't worry. Advertising for a baby is not particularly harmful, but only in doses. After all, it is not customary for us to involve "such a small one" in intensive communication with people, and even more so with animals. The child spends most of the day in the playpen with toys and sees mostly mom, dad or other household members. At best, there is a dog or cat in the house. However, the child already needs more communication with the world. It is at this time that active learning begins. And commercials at this stage just give at least some possibility of this knowledge.
Many parents are worried about children's increased interest in television advertising. Why do kids love to watch commercials so much and how bad can it be for their mental health?
A child watches ads without stopping, or why do children love ads so much?
Young children cannot fix their attention on any object for a long time, so they quickly lose interest in films and cartoons that last about an hour. But TV ads are only shown for a few seconds. It usually contains a dynamic, fast-paced plot, such information is better absorbed by kids.
Bright videos with colorful pictures captivate children and do not have time to get bored of them . That is why they so happily run to the TV every time they hear the sound of familiar advertising and watch it incessantly until it ends.
Expert opinion
Psychologists believe that this can cause excitement in children, which, without finding a way out, will eventually cause nervous disorders or physiological problems, such as enuresis.
As a result of the study, it was also revealed that advertising affects not only the psyche of babies, but also their consumer taste, which is why they have needs that are practically imposed by commercials.
Parents can take the kids with them on a visit, go shopping with them or on some of their own business. Preschoolers should study the world around them, and not spend all their free time in front of the TV. Children who have an information vacuum filled do not feel the need to watch commercials, even if they show children's products, such as diapers or toys.
Personal experience
- As soon as my two-year-old son heard the sounds of advertising, he immediately ran headlong to the TV . I no longer knew what to do, it was impossible to tear him away from what was happening on the screen until all the videos were over. I managed to change and feed him, and all this time he did not take his eyes off the TV. I had to show firmness and limit the time of watching programs now, I let the kid watch cartoons for about ten minutes, after which I turn off the TV.
- My daughter is 10 months old and her favorite activity is watching TV commercials . At this moment, she freezes and does not react in any way to others. I even tried to cover the screen with myself, everything is useless, daughter, it crawls around me and continues to look further. Now I don’t turn on the TV at all during the daytime, it’s better to take a walk with the baby or play some games with her at this time.
