Careful What You Consume

Brittani Roper
br159612@ohio.edu

Ads. They are everywhere. From listening to Internet radio, streaming music, or searching a topic on Google, advertisers have a way of find you wherever you may be. Although advertising has been around for ages, things have changed because of the way in which people consume media. As the way we access information changes, advertisers are becoming more creative and deceptive by the day.

One way developers have made it easy for consumers to control the amount of ads they view online is ad blockers. Gone are the days where it takes five minutes for a web page to load because of slow pop-ups and advertisements. Even with this software, marketing and advertising companies still can track your every move online with a simple click on your favorite shopping websites. Ad blocking software is just a small and temporary solution to a big problem.

Advertisers are indeed affected by this development. With ad blocking software people do not have to view this content, and essentially these companies end up wasting their money. According to an article by Steve Rubel, "The Solution to Ad Blocking is to Double- Down on Earned Media" companies are beginning to turn to earned media to replace a once lucrative paid media strategy. With this format, companies literally have to earn attention through users' activity on social media. Our generation alone has experienced many campaigns, issues, and other events gain recognition, advertising space, and media coverage through social media.

http://nyti.ms/19zRr6P

Protect the Children

Developments such as ad blocking software on the Internet and parental controls have allowed parents to control what their children watch. Technology is everywhere, which means children are exposed to some of the same advertisements if not more. Psychologists know exactly what their doing when they create ads geared towards children, and that's the problem.

So what is the best option when dealing with the way children watch advertisements? There really is not one, advertisements are bound to reach your children at some point. In an article on CBSNews.com research has shown that most children today own a cell phone way before their high school years. This research also sparked a question about how young is too young to have a cell phone. With technology in the hands of so many kids parents cannot escape.

It is this simple: when kids see a product they want, they pester their parents about it. However, none of these ads are for products that kids need, and many parents may be unaware that their children are consuming a lot of harmful advertisements. The top four products that are being marketed to children are fast foods, sugared cereal, sugared drinks, and candy.

Since advertisements are coming at children through more than just television, it is important to make sure your child does more than sit and look at a screen all. Educate them on having a balanced life, and since their is no escaping technology take time to educate about that too. On the advertisers end, Matthew McPartland raised a great point that "All advertisers need to be evaluated on if their ad is ethical or severely detrimental to children's' well being."