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Amari King

Professor Frechette

Media Criticism

October 23, 2018

Reading Response Essay 2

Advertisements in movies, TV shows and online affect the way we think everyday.

Advertisements are inescapable in today’s world. Because of this inescapability, we must think

about, how this effects kids. Their high exposure to advertisements on all platforms results in the

spending of their own money and their parents money along with early recognition of popularity,

sexualization, and violence. This not only hurts our society as a whole, but hurts children on a

daily basis.

Advertisements are everywhere you look. From the clothes you wear with a logo, to the

second you look on Facebook. Advertisements are now in what we watch both in movies and TV

shows. In the video we watched in class called “Behind the Screens: Hollywood Goes

Hypercommercial,” it discusses how product placement became a highly popularized method in

advertising especially with beer companies in the 1950s. Although a characteristic of advertising

is building brand identity and customer loyalty, in his article, Brizzard states that “commercial

culture produces cynicism and materialism, both bad for public life” (Brizzard, 1970). A good

example of how our society has become more materialistic is the iPhone. Overtime, a new

iPhone generation comes out it is the most popular thing to purchase, not because we need a new

phone, just because it’s the “cool” thing to do.

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Now that advertising has changed society into being more materialistic, scientists have

become more interested in how our brains react to advertisements to answer questions as to why

and how companies “make” us buy their products. Neurofocus is a company that uses

neoromarketing to get inside of consumers minds to see what attracts them to their products.

According to the article, their goal is to “know you better than you know yourself” (Penenberg,

2012). Companies are constantly on the brink of invading your privacy to get you to buy their

products. A personal experience I have is whenever I'm around a store that I particularly search

online for, my phone uses my location whenever I'm near that store to send me deals on their

products. This is a good lead into another interesting aspect of branding. Omnicom Group is a

company that determines which Super Bowl ad is the best every year. They use facial recognition

on random people to watch commercials and is an “emotion-based data collecting” (Castillo,

2016). This means that companies can now have access to not only your location but to how

certain products and advertisements make you feel on a more personal level.

Also take into consideration the Marxist analysis. Karl Marx analyzed that “the idea that

the quality of the social life of a people or nation is driven by their economic

conditions” (Campbell, Jensen, Gomery, Fabos, & Frechette, 2014, p. 167). This means that the

better the economy is and the more money people are making, the more likely they are to buy

products and listen and watch advertisements. Most, if not all, ads are geared toward the

upperclass, however, it is also giving the lower and middle class to strive to be better and

purchase expensive items to make them look and seem in a higher economic class. Like I have

mentioned before, it’s all about materialism.

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Social media has become the norm around most kids all over the world. The pictures and

videos that you like can impact what advertisements may pop up. On the other side, the more

likes and views that you personally receive on an uploaded image or video can seem to have an

impact on your popularity. Receiving hundreds of likes or views seems to be the ultimate goal

when uploading to any social media. In the Netflix series “Black Mirror,” specifically the

episode titled “Nosedive,” the more likes you receive the higher your personal rating is. Having a

high rating like a 4.4, for example, would mean that you are very popular and are of higher

status. This seems to be the real life case in China according to an article by Khal. In it he states

that China’s “government has a similar scoring system that could net those with terrible ratings

onto the no-fly list” (Khal, 2018). The “Black Mirror” episode also seems to becoming a reality

in the sense that “researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a liar mirror that makes

you look happier than you are” (Waldman, 2013). Another example of this is a product that came

out from the show “Shark Tank.” These women developed a mirror that made you look skinnier

than you actually are. Both of these examples explain how, today, its all about the exterior and

less about true emotions in everyday life.

If kids’ and teenagers’ main goal, now, is to get high ratings, we have definitely become a

culture based on materialism and looks as described previously. This makes me think of the

video called “Generation Like” by Douglas Rushkoff. In this film it is made clear that the more

views on videos on youtube, the more that you can make money or get endorsed, therefore

materialism and popularity is the main goal. Kids now feel like “the more likes you have the

better you feel” which is an unhealthy way to live (Rushkoff).

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Children are also impacted by marketing and ads more than adults are. The internet is the

perfect place for advertisements directed at kids and teenagers because, today, that is where they

spend most of their time. Believe it or not, “young children are increasingly the target of

advertising and marketing because of the amount of money they spend themselves, the influence

they have on their parents spending (the nag factor) and because of the money they will spend

when they grow up” (Beder,1998). In the video “Consuming Kids” it makes clear the fact that

even car and gas commercials are geared toward kids because parents want to keep them safe

and make sure that they enjoy the car that’s being bought. I have experienced this first had with

my youngest sister Margaret. Whenever she sees a commercial or ad online she immediately

begs my mom to buy it for her and 80% of the time she is successful. This marketing towards

children really works.

It’s also important to recognize the sexual side of the internet. Kids spend so much time

on the internet that parents are focused on just that, however, music and television is also

exposing kids to so much more than intended for young ears. “Parents don’t know that

sexualized song lyrics are a growing trend” because kids use headphones that make it impossible

to monitor them on that level of interaction (Epstein, 2018). Also, television is exposing kids to

sexual content as well. TV and music both go hand in hand through research that “shows 75

percent of sexual material seen on TV and 69 percent is fund in music” (Whatcott, 2011). Having

three very young siblings, I over hear some of the television shows that they watch on a daily

basis and I catch myself laughing at jokes that they have no idea even happened because of the

more mature content that Nickelodeon and Disney Channel allow. The book series and movie

called “Fifty Shades of Grey” had a huge controversy based on sex when it became very popular.
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Teens were being exposed to a type of sexualization that some felt were too far. Parents were

being forced to intervene and prevent or explain to their children or young adults that society has

sex and love being represented the wrong way. In an article a mother wrote, “If an entire theatre

of women three times your age couldn't see how damaging this plot line is, how on earth are

teenage girls and boys supposed to?” (Lewsen, 2017). This says a lot about our society and our

inability to not sexualize everything and the inability to explain love and sex to children in a

proper way.

Violence has also had a huge impact on children and teens along with sexualization. “The

Mean World Syndrome” film really had an impact on me. I constantly watch the news and feel

depressed and sad after because news channels only show violence and arguments and bad

storms. This truly has an effect on the way we see the world which can impact the future of the

world because this is what kids are seeing as well. What’s even worse is that not all news is

correctly told throughout the media. Fox News is constantly being criticized because of false

claims and, “cable news is on at all hours, meaning that hosts have too much time to fill with

blather and half-constructed thoughts and theories” (Wempel, 2017). Most parents today feel that

television is more violet then ever and how “stressful that violence can be” on both parents and

kids. Parents are struggling to keep their kids away from the violence and kids are witnessing

and trying to process such violence (Hanks, 2014). The ironic part, however, is that “anxieties

about media violence are used to sell us on blanket censorship, ideology, and a variety

of products” (Mediasmarts). This means that companies notice the concern about media violence

and push products for you to buy to help with the never ending anxiety from the fact that kids

“…cannot easily tell the difference between real life and fantasy” (Media Violence: Facts and
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Statistics, 2005). An example of this that I have experienced in my own home is the ability to

“parent control” TV and internet, meaning that certain websites and channels are blocked from

being watched and used, however that has to be paid for.

Connected to this is media oligopolies. A media oligopolies is when only a couple of

huge corporations controls a market. The goal is for a company to control many aspects of the

market so that, no matter what, the money always goes back to them. On example is Disney.

Disney is not just dependent on just their TV channel, it also has a huge role in movies. These

characters also show up in foods that kids eat like fruit snacks. Because Disney characters appear

on fruit snacks, they receive a portion of the products sold. The goal is to compete with other

oligopolies and even though “media oligopolies are what we live with,…what we need are

regulations that offer them incentives to act for the benefit of democracy—even as they go about

their priority task of maximizing profits” (Campbell, et al, 2014, p. 188).

Our future depends on the kids in this world. It’s important to recognize that advertising,

sexualization and violent content, with the help of self image and media oligopolies, can effect

children in the most negative way. Being able to recognize and explain how the media works

both on the internet and on TV will benefit our society in the long run. The messages that society

is being fed is mostly negative and having the ability to choose whether or not to believe it or act

on it is very important, not only for ourselves, but for the future of our society; and our future

society are our current children.

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References

Beder, S. (1998). Retrieved from https://www.uow.edu.au/~sharonb/children.html

Brizzard, C. (1970, January 01). Notes for McChesney's "The Problem of the Media"...

Retrieved from http://problemofmedia.blogspot.com/2007/04/chapter-4-age-of-hyper-

commercialism.html

Campbell, R., Jensen, J., Gomery, D., Fabos, B., & Frechette, J. D. (2014). Media in society.

Boston: Bedford/St. Martins.

Castillo, M. (2016, February 17). How your device lets brands tap into your emotions. Retrieved

from https://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/17/how-your-device-lets-brands-tap-into-your-

emotions.html

Epstein, V. (2018, January 31). The Impact of Song Lyrics on Our Children: What You Need to

Know. Retrieved from http://www.kars4kids.org/blog/the-impact-of-song-lyrics-on-our-

children-what-you-need-to-know/

Hanks, H. (2014, January 22). Is TV more violent than ever? Retrieved from https://

www.cnn.com/2014/01/20/showbiz/tv-violence/index.html
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Khal. (2018, June 01). Horrifying 'Black Mirror' Episode Coming True in China. Retrieved from

https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2017/12/nosedive-black-mirror-episode-

coming-true-in-china utm_source=facebook&utm_medium =social&utm_campaign

=kwkw&kwp_0=638118

Lewsen, M. (2017, February 18). A Letter to My Children About Fifty Shades of Grey. Retrieved

from https://www.bonbonbreak.com/letter-children-fifty-shades-grey/

MediaSmarts. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://mediasmarts.ca/digital-media-literacy/media-issues/

violence

Media Violence: Facts and Statistics. (2005). Retrieved from http://www.mediaed.org/handouts/

ChildrenMedia.pdf

Penenberg, A. L. (2012, September 07). NeuroFocus Uses Neuromarketing To Hack Your Brain.

Retrieved from https://www.fastcompany.com/1769238/neurofocus-uses-

neuromarketing-hack-your-brain

Waldman, K. (2013, August 07). Fake Mirrors May Soon Ensnare Shoppers in Webs of Lies.

Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/08/07/

incendiary_reflection_mirrors_make_you_look_happier_than_you_are_so_you.html

Wempel, E. (2017, October 04). Opinion | Fox News's clueless coverage of the Las Vegas

shooting was perfect fodder for Trevor Noah. Retrieved from https://
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www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2017/10/04/trevor-noah-blasts-fox-newss-

clueless-coverage-of-the-las-vegas-shooting/?noredirect=on&undefined=&utm_term=.

0fc9f61850c4&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1

Whatcott, A. (2011, August 10). Kids exposed to sexual content more through TV than Internet.

Retrieved from https://www.deseretnews.com/article/700169779/Kids-exposed-to-

sexual-content-more-through-TV-than-Internet.htm