Advertisements play a major role in influencing the buying decisions of customers. as the time goes, there has been a increase in the number of ads targeting children because advertisers are aware that kids are the center of families. Most of these ads are aired in the evenings when children are back from school and sitting in front of the television. Some people opine that commercials targeting young kids should be banned. I agree with this view to a great extent because in my opinion excessively promotional ads have a devastating effect on children.
First of all, children are easily manipulated by the adverts which take them to the virtual world and coax them to purchase products that are not always worth their money. For instance, toys of the poppy video game are very popular among teenagers and sales of these toys are very high in the market. Secondly, the advertisements are delivered in many ways that children start nagging their parents to buy those products. The fast food place McDonald’s employs this strategy. Their ads attract more and more teenagers to eat fast food which is not good for health because it contains high levels of fats which cause obesity and diabetes in children.
Another reason to restrict ads is that they may even put the lives of children at risk. Children often imitate the dangerous stunts performed by celebrities in commercials and often lose their life or cause themselves serious injuries because they are not aware of the consequences
To summarize, most ads targeting children are overly promotional and have a negative impact on children. Hence the government must ensure that they are not aired during prime time. However, ads promoting good habits and social commitment must be shown in the evenings when most children are in front of the television.