Do you agree or disagree with the following statement Television advertising directed toward young children aged two to five should not be allowed Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer

I most definitely agree with the statement made. Young children are continually developing are are very receptive of all information they get. The marketing business should not make profit of the malleable spirit of young children.

First of all, children aged two to five are in the stage of their live where they will pick up everything they see or learn. Therefore parents should be focusing on educating their child in manners, like saying “thank you” and “please”. The job of a parent should not be made more difficult than it already is by making a child nag for what they want (what they have seen in commercials). If parents always obey to the needs of their child, the media will create a lot of spoiled childs.

A second point of concern is not the parents, but the kids themselves. At that age they should learn how to interact with people, both with their same age friends as with older people. They should be learning specialized social life skills, that form the base of our everyday society. For their own good it would therefore be best if they are not influenced by media, but instead are allowed to focus on the more important things in life. Since this is a particularly important phase in their lifetime, materialization should not become a priority for them.

As a final point, advertising companies might like the fact that it is forbidden as well. As I already mentioned earlier, kids are very malleable at that age. Therefore if parents don't like your product, they may force this belief onto their children. This way you already lose one potential customer without even trying. This belief will follow if they grow up and probably stay with them. If you wait until children are 6 years old however, they can make their own opinion and with the right strategies, your product will catch on. This belief will also stick and ultimately make your company more succesful.

In sum we can say that all three parties would benefit if the suggested rule is passed. The parents ensure a safe education for their children in valuable life lessons, the kids learn to cooperate in a society, and the advertisers make sure they can establish the brand image they want. For all these reasons I agee with the statement that television advertising to young children should be prohibited.