IELTS TASK 2: ADVERTISING AIMING AT CHILDREN

Nowadays a large amount of advertising aiming at children should be banned because of the negative effects. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Living in the information age, more and more people, particularly young children, are bombarded with advertising in mass media. While there is a widely held view that advertisements exert detrimental effect on children’s development, it is my fervent conviction that such marketing strategy brings about several benefits, and thus should not be prohibited.

Admittedly, it is true that sometimes, up to a point, some advertisements more or less spur impressionable children to make impulsive purchases and manipulate them into following the will of advertisers. There is mounting evidence that in the formative years when the children is gaining knowledge and learning new definitions, their exposure to such advertisements, without doubt, facilitates fallacious conceptions which in a way have negative impacts in the future as children grow up. However, this is only applicable to cases with exaggerated and misleading way of advertising. There is no disputing the fact that human can control and decide the content of an advertisement, and thus holds direct responsible for creating it. Inarguably, advertising is still an effective and beneficial means of marketing, both for consumers and businesses, and it depends on human to use it wisely.

Conversely, in many circumstances, advertisements can afford children surprising benefits. It is no exaggeration to say that the upsurge in advertisements can broaden children’s horizon of knowledge by providing them with useful information about the products and their difference in comparison to other brands. Equally important is that advertisements aimed at children can also help parents pay heed to useful and relevant products during the upbringing of children. A telling example is that a variety of nutritious milk commercials allow parents to keep abreast of which product is the most suitable for their children in terms of both finance and quality without being confused by the diversity of choices available on the market.

From the preceding discussions, although the negative effects of some particular advertisements aimed at children merit great attention from customers, the benefits that advertising brings about are evident and overshadow the shortcomings. However, it is advisable that children and parents stay alert to the influence of the advertising in order to make reasonable and necessary purchases.

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