Adverts influence children more than you know

By Carol Natukunda
I woke up one morning to fi nd my son seated attentively and giggling to himself. He was watching his favourite advert: A boy no older than fi ve enters the house dirty. His mother reprimands him and sends him to take a bath. He rushes to pick up soap, scrubs himself, before pouring a whole bucket of water over his head.

My son, who is not even two, yelled and clapped for this boy he was watching. This is an antiseptic soap advert. Just as I picked up the remote to switch channels, my little boy threw a tantrum.

Apparently, there was an even more hilarious one: A mother, having forgotten to put margarine on her child’s slice of bread for break, dashes, on a little bike, to catch up with her child’s school bus; just so she can butter the bread.

I would not be surprised if the next time I gave him a choice between plain bread and a buttered slice, he would pick the latter. Our children seem to be under some sort of siege. Just sit down to watch TV on a particular day and count just how many adverts have children in them either, directly or indirectly.

From cooking oil and packed foods, to detergents and soaps, utensils and petroleum jelly, every advert seems to literally bombard our children with all sorts of ideas. And there is a catch, according to Eric Karanja, an independent parenting specialist and clinical psychologist. “Advertisers know that children will pester their parents for anything they want or everything in the household from cars to toothpaste,” he says.

Indeed, Diane Ndaba, a mother of two, agrees: “We prepare unprocessed fresh milk from the farm. But ever since my fi veyear- old son saw packed milk on TV, his preference changed. He would cry, break cups and wouldn’t keep quiet until I gave in. If you prepare fresh milk without him seeing it, he will take it. But should he realise the milk is not from a pack, he will claim it smells bad and refuse to take it!”

Another parent, Sharon Beyendera, had thought not going with her daughter to the supermarket would help things, but she has learnt that it is way more challenging to limit the many angles from which adverts come in today’s 24/7 media world. Apart from TVs, there are online promotions, cell-phone updates — even Twitter and Facebook — reaching her 11-year-old directly.

“The other day, she told me I have to buy her jeggings (skinny pants) and I was shocked!” says Beyendera. “She had seen them on the Internet.”

What’s at stake?
Beyond making us prone to unnecessary shopping and spending, our children’s health and outlook on life can be affected by the quantity of adverts they are exposed to. Study after study reveals that advertising can affect a child’s eating habits, resulting in overweight children; especially with the junk food and beverages. Such eating habits become hard to break.

Karanja concurs and says adverts can also change children’s behaviour. “They start judging their self-worth by what they own. If they do not get it, they may be tempted to steal or be depressed.” Certainly we cannot shield your child from every advert, but you can fi ght back.

Karanja gives the following tips:
For pre-school /kindergarten Limit exposure. Let them watch only children- tailored programmes like cartoons and try as much as possible to skip/switch channels in case there is such an advert.

You could mute adverts so that it is hard for your child to make sense of it. Primary school Teach your child how to be critical of adverts. You can watch all kinds of advert  together and then in a story-telling manner, talk about how the messages try to get them to buy a product when it is not necessary.

For example, say you already have honey to spread on your bread; that it plays just the same role as the margarine on TV. Explain the true purpose behind adverts. This will help your children know how they are being infl uenced. Teens Teach your child the importance and value of money.

Teens may demand a certain brand, perhaps due to peer pressure or to look cool, not because they need them. For example, a child can use sh1m to buy the advertised latest designer clothes and another spends it on buying a laptop, which can do many things and in fact, make more money if they are using it to write articles for a newspaper or do stationery work for his fellow students at a fee.

MY CHILD’S FAVOURITE ADVERT
The Yoli Yoli MTN advert- Barbara
The Bell Larger advert- Paul
The Tik Tok UTL advert- Diane
The Scotts advert- Lucy
Today changes with Orange- Lucky
The Ribena advert- Esther
The Sunlight advert- Hanifah