The T.V. tuned to his favorite station. His favorite show has just taken a break. He doesn't get up or change the channel, nope his favorite part of the show is up now. The commercials, he sits in mesmerize attention , ready to be told what he wants for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They show him all the goodies mom is going to get at the super market next time she goes. The greatest medium ever invented to install the sellers product deep into our brains. In no other way can they get such a focused group, where the audience is so suggestible, a child . They know to get them while they are young and then they will be consumers for whatever product is being sold. Ad agencies have a constant and captive audience all day and night, they are ready to become consumers. The commercials are almost as exciting and fun filled as the T.V. shows we watch. As it shows he is so into the T.V. Teddy is almost a distant memory. Notice how the television is in the dominant position. It's high up on the entertainment stand so the child has to look up to it. There are also no other objects in the picture that would take your focus away from the main point of view, the television. The frozen pops are at the front of the crowd calling for the boy to reach out and grab them. Not much of any dinner products either, mostly snacks, cereals, and a drink or two. Most of the boxes are red or some other bright color as well making them standout even more.Where is the family in this picture? No other brothers or sisters just the one child alone to make his decisions. I believe it means that more and more a television is in charge of raising our kids and they learn what to eat, and how to walk and talk from a thing we label the idiot box. There is no adult to tell him to turn off the T.V. He only has his best friend with him, like this is the best thing to be doing with his teddy bear and it appears Teddy is just as into the commercial as the child. Just the two of them watching all the bright colored advertisements pass by their eyes. One by one he wants them more and more, not much he can do about it. The carousel of the fruity cereals and that delicious frozen dinner with the desert included of course come on to fill his mind . It appears he would not move even if he wanted too. There is to much on the T.V. for him to miss! Most of the advertisements have cartoon characters to appeal to a child. It commands his complete attention it even seems like he has forgotten about every thing else. The colors are bright and more often than not a prize is included or some kind offer. If you buy it you can win a trip to Disney or a free BMX. I also look and see how all the products are jammed together like it's just one after the other. His shoulders are slumped over as though he is lost in the world of advertisements . He is facing away from the camera, so that he could be any boy in this picture. There are some good foods in the picture to, like the apple all the way in the back. That way it represents the small percentage of advertisements for the healthy foods during his television time. The message is loud and clear our children are being over stimulated with ads from mostly food companies selling our kids bad eating habits in a colorful box with a Toucan Sam or Dora on the front. Think about it, from the time we are born the television becomes more and more a part of our lives. From the time it's on to the time we shut it off our brains are conditioned by the Ad companies on what we should buy. They have armies of people working to make sure the products they are selling come on at the best time to catch the attention of our children and therefor we as parents consume for them. They know if they see it enough that the next time at the super market he or she is going to be reaching for the box of cereal with the cool cartoon character or the prize at the bottom. Most of the time it gets tried once maybe twice then it's stuffed deep in the cabinet, fridge, or freezer until it goes bad, but that was the thing they wanted that week. It is also what the advertisement agencies want because it is time for the next great box of sugar disguised as a healthy fruity breakfast. To much time in front of the T.V. it goes in one ear stays in there a while until the decision is made to try something new. What can be said about the article mostly is that no matter what your kids watch, they will be exposed to a massive amount of advertisements for mostly food that will in the long run cause them to have health issues. So what do we do, it's hard to constantly keep an eye on what our children watch. The best thing to do is limit the amount they watch and then try to get them to watch shows where the amount of commercials are limited or they aren't all junk food related. The fact of the matter is that why you have control over most of what your child eats, make the healthy choices for them. I don't mean never let them get something they see on the T.V. but you can always find something that doesn't have sugar as the first or second ingredient. It is a fact that we as a nation our more over weight or obese than any other nation. That is something we can change, if we don't protect our kids from themselves who will? I know those guys on Madison Avenue are counting on us to continue to let our kids become consumers of all the garbage they push on us.If we show them the right way then hopefully the message will be passed on from one generation to the next. Only time will tell and if we continue to allow our children's minds to be made up by cartoon characters and prizes that they will never see, then are path is chosen. If we can even walk down that path, because we might not all make it!
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