Children and Advertising

There are many things that children learn from advertisements; one of these things is their gender roles. Boys are taught to play with action figures and Lego, while girls play with dolls and Barbie. If a child does not want to play with their genders toys many people may think that there is something wrong with that child. Toys are also in agent in socialization, it teaches children how to perform their gender from a very young age. There are six points that we discussed in class about children and advertizing they are:
1) Postwar Period - was in the 50's, 60's, and 70's there was a reaction between advertizing, children and a broader consumer society
2) Advertising helps create childhood - when people have money they should spend it so people can have jobs and provide for their family. Children are the best resource of this because they have money to burn. They keep the supply and demand going. Advertisements help children become consumers and helps create childhood because it is not a naturally occurring thing. Also it is historical specific and culturally unique.
3) Child world - immersed in advertising, the rise of technology changed childhood, before children did not see very many advertisements in the things they did now they are surrounded by it when they are watching TV.
4) Childs mind - Children do not think that same as adults, they think about playing and they have hardly any problems in the world.
5) Gender - for different genders there are different toys as I have already mentioned.
Girls - Barbie is a cultural expectation for girls. I very much disagree with Barbie because girls think that they need to be just like Barbie, meaning thin, beautiful, social able, rich, heterosexual, and likes to shop. We all know that not everyone is the same and that no girl can be exactly like this. Therefore many girls have self-esteem issues and some cases it leads to depression
Boys - action figure are what boys are expected to play with, they create an expectation of muscular, and fighting for boys.
6) Implications - all these things imply call for regulation and I think that children need to be educated of what is out there and that they are not expected to be like the toys that they play with.