Children and TV advertising

Hi i'm an a level media student and would like you to take a moment to air your views on the following question:

How are children, aged 3-10yrs targeted by toy industries?

Thank-you[/b]

I like the idea of banning toy adverts like in Greece they can't air toy adverts before 10pm and in Sweden and Norway all advertising aimed at children is forbidden.
I think children tend to take notice to certain adverts like ones with cartoons, animals, children or songs.

I have seen many adverts of toys in Sweden. I have been living in Sweden for a long time Did move to the UK for like 6months ago.

I actualy don't see anything wrong with toy ads targeted at kids. Toys are for kids and kids deserve to know what new toys are out. Parents can control the gimmes by reserving toy shopping for chritstmas and birthdays only, like I do. Just make sure your kids are aware of the rules. Also, not every toy is all that it seems as it is in the ads. Parents need to talk to kids about advertising gimmicks. Think of ads as a way to teach your kids about the world of marketing and sales. The more you teach them now the easier it is for them to know how to spend their money wisely later. Sheltering your kids can make them unprepared for the real world.
And don't be afraid of letting your kids know if you have a tight budget on expenses. Let them get a feel of how important it is to be money cautious. If the kids are old enough to understand about dollars and cents, bring them to a toy store and show them the cost of the toys they want.
I remember when I was 6 it took me 2 years just to save $50 to get a walking puppy toy. It took me so long because I was buying candy too often.

Oh, also there is a great berenstein bear book called "The Berenstein Bears and The Trouble With Commercials".

I'm not sure how it works in other countries? but in the uk it could be a problem to ban advertising toys or anything else aimed at young children. Fairly recently it was banned to show any junk food ads during childrens television. A lot of the profits from these adverts went towards making childrens telelvision as some of the junk food manufacturers sponsored the making of these programmes. Once they weren't allowed to advertise during the ad breaks between shows they were pulled as sponsors. We now have a very limited amount of new childrens tv being produced. I think if they pulled toy ads too we wouldn't see any new childrens tv programmes being produced for a while. I actually hate advertising of any sort they bug me like mad, i also hate the way the adverts are so much louder than the programme itself (anybody else noticed this?) i suppose it is so you can still hear them when you go to the kitchen during the ads to put the kettle on? However i honestly think if it wasn't for adverts then things would be even worse than they are now and we would all be doomed to watch 70's and 80's reruns forever! lol

last year when my daughter was ill, she was at home just before christmas and her christmas list was a mile long as she was watching TV and the advertising was constant.

as a rule they dont pay attention to it. but then my kids are older and dont want toys just laptops and ipods!

i dont have a problem with it now

My 5 1/2 year old has a bad case of the "I wish I had thats" and it's driving me nuts to the point that I have music on more now as back ground noise than the tv.... She will be sitting there coloring or engrossed in something not watching the tv at all and then a commercial comes on and has her full attention immediately.... I know it's only a matter of seconds that I'm going to hear "I wish I had that".... I tell her to put it on her Christmas wish list. I also tell her that she can't expect to get everything on her wish list... 2 reasons, Santa can't give every kid every thing and mommy can't afford to buy everything. She saw the add for Friendly's family resturants the other day and then was singing the jingle to it.... she said "can we go to Friendly's, because everytime I see this commercial it makes me want to go there" I told her yes, that's what commercials (adverstisements) are for and I told her she should just ignore them.

Charlotte has recently started singing a long to adverts, so we threaten to turn the tv off

George takes notice of the ads more than I like too.

Hey I love the mini wheats song.

I can't stand those peek-a-boo dolls and that damn song. What a waste of money those would be. Their just dolls crammed into oversized lockets and other jewelry.

Our Saturday and Sunday morning's are a nightmare In between cartoon's they place toy adds so all we hear is "can i get that?can you buy me that?i want that" :teeth:This continues untill lunch time when the adds/cartoons stop.We also use the "write a christmas list"for him but normaly by lunchtime he has forgotten all about the toys he has seen or wants.lol