Dollars & Cents for Youth
Lesson 5 - Study Course For Parents
Main Ideas
• Key Words
• Money Talk
• But First This Important Message
• How Does Advertising Work?
• Things To Do
• Lesson 6
Main Ideas
-
TV and radio advertising constantly
urge children to buy, buy, buy!
-
Products are designed especially to
attract children to purchase them.
-
The advertising industry see young
people as an excellent market.
Key Words
Advertising - A way manufacturers try to
sell their products to consumers.
Merchandisers - People who sell products
to the public.
Money Talk
Many of the things that children want come
as a result of high pressure advertising on TV and radio, magazines, movies, and
the internet and newspapers.
Children in elementary school and high
school are deluged with advertising. The "youth market" is a big one,
and advertisers have sizable budgets to reach this group. It's important,
then, that the right attitude toward money be learned at a very early age.
At an early age children learn that
something called "money" buy things. TV commercials about toys are
recited to parents by children who have not yet learned to read a single word.
Children exposed to highly developed sales
techniques in most TV and radio commercials about toys are constantly pressured
to buy, buy, buy. Persuasive entertainers encourage them to identify happiness
with possessions and endlessly urge the purchase of new gadgets, breakfast
cereals or expensive toys.
Teenagers today are important consumers.
They spend billions of dollars in the marketplace each year. With that economic
power, little wonder they are subject to many pressures from disc jockeys,
record companies, cosmetic manufacturers, beer and cigarette industries, and
others.
The commercialism of the new "youth
culture" is extended to the 9-to 13-year-olds who are also a target of
fashion, record, and even cosmetic manufactures.
Teenage credit cards are not a status
symbol. They are promoted by stores as a sign of adulthood and as a "way
for teenagers to learn" how to be consumers in today's world.
As parents you must help your children
understand the role of advertising in our marketplace.
But First This Important
Message...
Are those words familiar to you? They
should be because during the course of a day you will have seen or heard one
advertisement approximately every 13 minutes. The average American encounters
approximately 76 advertising messages each day.
What is Advertising?
Advertising is a means of communicating a
message. Advertising is, in fact, the salesman for most goods and services
consumed in the United States. As we look at advertising in the marketplace, it
has two functions, to inform and to persuade. We have to be alert to these two
functions and use the contents of an advertisement to our advantage. By using
the factual content of an ad, oftentimes we are able to make sound purchasing
decisions.
The Positive
Like most things, advertising has two
sides. On the positive side it:
- Provides jobs for thousands of people.
- Provides free radio and TV.
- Subsidizes your magazine and newspaper subscriptions.
- Creates competition between products and stores.
- Saves you time by providing pertinent information to use in comparison shopping.
- Introduces new products.
The Negative
- On the negative side, advertising:
- Costs money, which is reflected ultimately in retail prices.
- Causes many people to make unwise choices.
How Does Advertising Work?
Advertising's main aim is to get you to
buy. One very effective way is to appeal to emotions. Let's look at a few
examples:
The desire to be like others. For example, an ad may imply that all teens wear a certain type jean, and if you don't, you aren't very important.
Fear. Such ads say, "Why lose your sweetheart
because you don't use____________?"
Snob appeal. These ads imply that buying a certain item makes you a leader or a success.
Comfort and enjoyment. Such ads suggest physical pleasure, such as good food, proper exercise, or fit.
Sex Appeal. These ads want you to think a product alone will make you popular with the opposite sex.
Desire for a bargain. Low prices are stressed.
Instant happiness. These ads imply that you will be assured of happiness as soon as you buy and use the product.
By knowing what an advertisement is trying
to do, one can better decide if the product being advertised is what is needed
or even wanted.
Things To Do
Family
Discuss various types of advertising you observe in the course of a day. Talk about the emotional claims as well as the information provided.
These are some things to look for in an ad:
|
Information
- Style
- Color
- Size
- Weight
- Shape
- Quantity
- Where Available
- Who makes it
- What it is for
- Regular price
- Sale Price
|
Persuasion
- Impressive illustration
- Uses in general
- Vague claim of economy
- Indefinite statement of quality
- Coupons offered
- Implications
- Play on hopes - health, glamour, "a new you," romance, enjoyment
- Play on fears - pain, social
- accident, halitosis
- Price: $30, worth $40
- Selling elsewhere for
- Should sell for
- Certified value
- List price
- Made to see for
- Savings up to
- Now only
- Below cost
- Your last chance
|
Analyze an advertisement:
- What is written down, shown on TV, or heard on the radio or seen on the internet?
- What does the ad really tell you?
- What do the advertisers want you to think?
- What do you think?
- How can the ad help you?
- Make up a new product as a family. Let
all family members old enough make up advertisements for the product.
Present the ads and discuss. Try to identify the emotional appeals each
person used to "sell the product."
- Find newspaper, magazine, and
internet ads that appeal to emotions. Make a collage using the ads.
Discuss the ads. Hang ads on family bulletin board (or refrigerator) for
awhile to encourage wise use of advertising among family members.
The Preschooler
- As you watch TV together, talk
about the commercials. Help the young child recognize unrealistic
claims.
- Provide children experiences that
keep them away from the TV.
The 6- to 12-Year-Old
- Continue the activities mentioned
in the preschooler section, but expand the discussion of claims.
- Discuss how TV and radio
commercials affect your family and its choices.
- Study newspaper, magazine, or
internet ads, paying special attention to frequently use
"selling" words and claims that could or could not be proven.
- Talk about how ads are made to
appeal to different markets - young children, teens, senior citizens,
etc.
- Let children write and record,
draw, and/or act out ads they create.
- Encourage children to make a
poster of different ads and tell other family members about the ads they
cut out. Talk about the various emotions the ads are using to sell
products.
The Teenager
- Continue with activities for other
age groups, but expand.
- Help teenagers understand the
positive aspects of advertising.
- Explore career opportunities in
advertising with the teenager.
Remember, we need advertising to make
our free market system work, but we don't have to let advertising control
us. We can use advertising to help us get the best buys for the money we
spend.
Lesson 6
The next and last lesson in this series
looks at a number of questions you might have concerning your child and money.
This material was originally prepared by Joyce H. Jenkins,
Extension Family Resource Management Specialist, and Naomi H. Willis, Extension
Instructor of Home Economics, and is being used with permission of Clemson
University Cooperative Extension Service. Recommended to Arkansas by Wanda W.
Shelby, District Extension Family Resource Management Specialist., University of
Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service.
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