11 NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF ADVERTISING ON CHILDREN AND ADULTS - PSYCHOLOGY - 2025

The negative effects of advertising can be numerous; create stereotypes, promote materialism, initiate violent behaviors, encourage individualism, low grades, waste of time and others that I will explain below.

Every day, children and adolescents are exposed to more than 40,000 advertisements a year on television alone, increasing this number if we include the internet, magazines, or the posters we see on the streets. Even in schools you can find advertising.

It is easy to think that they are only ads, and that they only interrupt us and cause us annoyance. However, even if we want to believe that we have complete control of our decisions, advertising can have more complex effects.

More current data indicates that advertising consumption is increasing. This is due to the invasion of ads also on the mobile devices that we use continuously.

Experts in Digital Marketing estimate that we are exposed to between 4000 and 10,000 ads a day approximately, a figure much higher than the one mentioned above.

We are continuously exposed to perceiving advertisements and, although many times we do not pay our full attention to them, their messages passively reach us. There is also the belief that many are designed to implant important memories in our minds.

These memories are built because the ads have emotional overtones, that is, they provoke us feelings. And feelings are essential when it comes to fixing memories in our memory. They also have a peculiar characteristic: they are usually beyond our conscious control and it is difficult for us to recognize and handle them.

Harmful effects of advertising

Naturally, entrepreneurs need to use advertising to publicize the usefulness of their products and thus attract potential customers. To do this, they develop strategies so that the product or service looks as attractive as possible to the consumer.

This generates a competition between different companies, improving and refining their techniques more and more so that the customer acquires their product and not that of a competitor. However, advertisements are often accompanied by negative consequences, whether anticipated or not.

1- Pressures on the media

Advertisers choose the media they see best suited to place their advertising, according to the demographic characteristics of the target consumers. They even pay attention to the content of that medium, whether it is consistent with the advertising message that your brand has or not.

The media must sometimes fulfill the wishes of advertisers, since in many cases the income of the media comes from companies. This can be viewed as subtle media censorship.

2- Promote materialism

It creates in people needs and desires that were not there before, making them believe that their value lies in everything they can acquire or possess. Therefore, this makes it easier for people to judge themselves and others based on their belongings.

It is clear that they also invite consumers to buy more and more sophisticated objects and more frequently. Coupled with this, advertisements often create a feeling that our belongings are old and need to be replaced with newer and better ones.

This is related to planned obsolescence, or the “throwaway” society, a phenomenon that describes the existence of products that have been intentionally built with a “use by date”.

That is, they create low-quality products, with the aim that consumers discard it quickly and are forced to buy a new one.

3- Create stereotypes

They tend to maintain and increase stereotypes, since, by addressing each one to a specialized audience, it reflects the groups in a very stereotyped way.

An example is the frequency with which women appear in advertisements for cleaning products, which maintains and increases in society the belief that cleaning is considered a female task. In this way, they promote generalized and usually false ideas about what the members of these groups are (or how they should be).

This is linked to feelings of social maladjustment when the person feels that they do not fit those falsely established stereotypes. This is very common, because despite the fact that the advertisements apparently reflect daily life, they are very far from reality.

4- Models of living and being that are not realistic

The lifestyles that appear in the advertisements function as a model for the consumer, called "reference".

They are used because potential customers will direct their attention to it by finding it attractive. The same goes for the appearance of models who are physically more attractive than the ad recipients.

5- Harmful effects on children and young people

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children under the age of 8 do not understand the purpose of the advertisements. They do not perceive it as an attempt to sell a product by a brand, but they absorb uncontrollably all the information that is coming to them.

Care must be taken to keep children away from advertisements because they are more vulnerable to them. Therefore, they indicate that they can increase childhood obesity, eating problems and increased consumption of alcohol and tobacco in young people.

6- It produces a little rational behavior

It encourages individuals to act impulsively, and according to instant rewards, rather than reflecting on their decisions. In addition to this, the feeling of responsibility for the long-term consequences decreases.

As we mentioned before, advertising is loaded with emotional content to awaken feelings in us. This can make us make unreasonable decisions.

7- Build an unreal image of the product

This occurs because it presents it idealized, exaggerating its qualities. For a product to be purchased, it is promoted by creating feelings of power and satisfaction in the user, or as a savior who solves serious problems.

In addition, they appear in contexts in which a standard of living is practically unattainable for most consumers.

It is also observed with great frequency that the advertised service or product does not match the real one. This gradually generates a feeling of mistrust in consumers who realize this difference.

8- Promotes individualism and selfishness

The reason is that it increases the competitiveness between people by measuring them by their belongings. The objective is to accumulate and renew goods, to overcome the other. Thus, the good of the individual is superimposed on that of society, forgetting cooperation and community ethics.

9- Trivialize or transform community or spiritual values

It is common in advertisements to commercialize a series of cultural and traditional values ​​that, depending on the ideals that are held, can affect some groups of people.

10- Ads are "for the rich"

If we had to meet all the expectations that advertising sets, we would have to be rich to be able to maintain that rate of purchases.

That is, the ads seem to be aimed at a very small part of society (which is the one with the purchasing power) that average people compare themselves to, creating a continuing feeling of dissatisfaction.

11- Debts

To resolve the tension generated by advertising, people are forced to consume.

In this way, satisfaction increases, but it is not something lasting, because there will always be a product to buy. As most clients do not have sufficient financial resources, it is increasingly common to borrow heavily.

How to avoid or minimize these effects?

It is practically impossible to avoid advertising, but an effort can be made to change your point of view and take advantage of the positive points and mitigate the negative ones. This obviously leads to an extra effort:

Think

When in front of an ad, analyze what it says and take a critical stance. Be aware that not everything he says is totally true, trying to also see the negative aspects that the advertised product could have.

Cultivate intrinsic motivation

It is related to the satisfaction of one's own values ​​and not to carrying out behaviors due to an external (or extrinsic) motivation that is more impulsive and materialistic. It is advisable to wait 48 hours when you want to buy something. Ask yourself if there is a problem with the purchases.

Buy movies, series, music

Keep in mind that free services for users must have a source of income, which in this case is advertising.

Adapt advertising

If you are a business, tailor your advertising so that it has a good influence on the community. Offer more ethical, quality and durable products that are really necessary.

It is advisable to avoid promoting stereotypes and focus on the qualities of the product sincerely. As for the problem of influencing children, advertisements can be directed at parents rather than at them.

Do you want to know more about planned obsolescence? Then you can watch the documentary "Buy, throw, buy."

References

1. Broom, K. (nd). The Unintended Negative Consequences of Advertising. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
2. Committee on Communications. (2006). Children, Adolescents, and Advertising. PEDIATRICS, 118 (6): 2563-2569.
3. Dachis, A. (July 25, 2011). How Advertising Manipulates Your Choices and Spending Habits (and What to Do About It). Recovered from Lifehacker.
4. Finn, K. (nd). Negative Social Consequences of Advertising. Retrieved on June 7, 2016, from Chron.
5. Marshall, R. (September 10, 2015). How Many Ads Do You See in One Day? Recovered from Red Crow Marketing.
6. Martin, MC & Gentry, JW (1997). Stuck in the Model Trap: The Effects of Beautiful Models on Female Pre-Adolescents and Adolescents. The Journal of Advertising, 26: 19-34.
7. (May 27, 2016). Effects of advertising on teen body image. Retrieved June 7, 2016.