The long haul impact of advertising to children

 Izzy Keller

ik926119@ohio.edu

Image from UConn Today

Each day, parents turn on Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and other family-friendly channels for their kids to enjoy. Advertising between or during shows has always been a factor when sitting a child down to watch television; however, most parents may not think of this exposure's impact on children. According to the American Psychological Association, kids cannot tell advertising and television programs apart until they are four to five years old. The same article says that kids cannot understand the persuasive nature of advertisements until they are seven or eight years old. When the layperson thinks of toxic advertising for children, they may think of advertisements for alcohol or tobacco, sexually charged ads, or maybe even ads for pharmaceuticals. However, advertising for electronics, unhealthy foods, and fast foods can be equally bad for young children.

Although alcohol and cigarette ads are not prevalent for children to view, they serve as a great example of advertisements' impact on children. The article "How Advertising Targets Our Children" by Dr. Perri Klass for The New York Times. Klass discusses how cigarettes and alcohol advertisements influence children and how that impacts future use by citing research that shows a connection between viewing alcohol ads and underage drinking. According to the Federal Trade Commission, they can do little to mitigate alcohol ads being shown to children; however, they claim many alcohol advertisers have agreed to specific guidelines to prevent alcohol ads on children's programming.

Fast food restaurants heavily cater to young children. For example, think about the McDonald's Happy Meal, the Chik-Fil-A play palaces, and the crowns Burger King used to give children who bought a meal. Additionally, many sugary and unhealthy foods advertise directly to children with the hopes they coax their parents into buying this unhealthy food. Take the Trix brand, which made yogurt and cereal, as an example. Their slogan, "Trix are for kids!" made it obvious who they had in mind for their advertising. Their cereal and yogurt had loads of sugar; however, the yogurt was discontinued in 2016, but the cereal is still on the market. Advertisements like those previously mentioned have had a noted impact on children's health.

According to the article from the American Psychological Association, "Studies have documented that a high percentage of advertisements targeting children feature candy, fast foods, and snacks and that exposure to such advertising increases consumption of these products. While consumption of non-nutritious foods per se may not be harmful, overconsumption of these products, particularly to the exclusion of healthier food, is linked to obesity and poorer health."

What is the solution to this ongoing issue: Should there be more accountability for advertisers for knowingly targeting some of the most vulnerable members of society? Or is this more of a reflection on the parents? Answers to this question vary; however, there is no doubt that children are impacted by the advertisements they see, even more so than adults.

Sources:

Image: https://today.uconn.edu/2017/06/food-advertising-kids-still-promotes-unhealthy-foods/

NYT article: https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/11/how-advertising-targets-our-children/?searchResultPosition=1

FTC: https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0391-alcohol-advertising

APA: https://www.apa.org/pubs/reports/advertising-children

Trix is discontinued: https://www.popsugar.com/food/yoplait-trix-yogurt-comeback-2021-48305765

The Gray Areas of Ethics in Advertising

Cameron Knupp

ck900019@ohio.edu

It can be hard to operate in the gray areas prevalent in American advertising. For example, advertising and marketing professionals have to make tough ethical decisions on artificial intelligence, marketing to children, and controversial advertising products like tobacco.  

Artificial Intelligence 

As a relatively new tool for advertisers, Artificial Intelligence is one of the more nuanced ethical dilemmas advertisers face. AI can now analyze a person's internet activity to predict their behavior with chilling accuracy. 

Not surprisingly, this information is precious to advertisers. The question is, how at what point does the use of AI cross the line? Some feel that AI can understand a person so profoundly constitutes an invasion of privacy. 

Jason Jercinovic argues in his article that with such an ethical gray area, it is essential that advertisers have ethical guidelines to lean on. Further, he says that companies must be transparent in their methods of using AI and give the public a chance to opt-out of these practices. 

I couldn't agree more; a system must be in place so that people can feel comfortable on the internet without the fear that they are being spied on.  

Marketing to Children

Via People.com

Children's brains are underdeveloped, making them unable to distinguish between what is an advertising and legitimate content. That makes kids extremely impressionable, begging the question, is it ethical to advertise to kids who can't tell that you're trying to sell them something? One glaring example of this gray area is McDonald's Happy Meal. For decades, the fast-food giant has marketed toys tied to popular movies, TV shows, and games to get kids to beg their parents to take them to the restaurant. This commercial promotes Mcdonald's "Sing 2" Happy Meal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgY9Fp7nRbM). 

To their credit, Mcdonald's has made an effort to make their Happy Meals slightly healthier, but the fact remains that kids are more concerned with the newest toy than they are about the calories in their Happy Meal. 

Tobacco

The adverse health effects of tobacco are well documented. 

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/basic_information/health_effects/index.htm#:~:text=Smoking%20causes%20cancer%2C%20heart%20disease,immune%20system%2C%20including%20rheumatoid%20arthritis.) states that "smoking causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung diseases, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis." 

With tobacco proven to be such a deadly product, many wonder if it is ethical to advertise it to the public. This fact is yet another gray area. On the one hand, I think that people must be responsible for their health. On the other hand, it seems unethical to promote such a dangerous product. 

Truth in Advertising

Madeline Harden 

mh361519@ohio.edu

Via Bree Fowler at Consumer Report

When thinking about truth and honesty in advertising, I recall false advertising cases, just like in the Volvo ad controversy where the car company faulty used a car with a reinforced roof for their ad involving a monster truck. 

But as I continued my reading, I realized my most significant personal issue with ads: my phone was listening to me. I'm sure everyone has been scrolling through Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, and they see an ad for the exact pair of shoes they were looking up on Google or just talking about. I could even just be thinking about getting a new pair of pants, and the minute I log into Instagram, there are ads for "cheap pants near me." Well, we are being listened to.

"The truth is, Facebook tracks us in ways many of us don't even realize and is so good at it, we think it's monitoring our conversations. But, instead, it uses sophisticated demographic and location data to serve up ads."

Rather than listening, companies and AI track. They track our searches, social activity, and even the emojis we use. Artificial intelligence may start to know us more than we know ourselves with robust processing and location data. Using our emotions against us to push their ads and get us to buy more products. 

There need to be ethical considerations anytime when working with artificial intelligence. 

An interesting question was posed in one of the readings, "for example, most would agree it's acceptable to leverage AI to target a consumer who shows interest in sports cars. But what if you also knew that the consumer was deep in debt and lacked impulse control, had multiple moving violations, and had a history of drug and alcohol abuse?"

AI is revolutionary and changing how we live our lives, but there must be guidelines when operating with something as old as ads and as new as artificial intelligence. There needs to be a system of transparency. Consumers need to be aware of the data being tracked or harvested. When ads are targeted, it needs to be clear that it is. Consumers deserve to be able to make informed decisions. And they also deserve the ability to opt-out when they like. 

While advertisers' main goal is to make a profit, there needs to be a consideration of the social impact. Consumer rights above all. 

 

Advertising Crossing the Line

 

Advertising Crossing the Line 

Mylan Foster 

mf173318@ohio.edu Facebook apologizes after a post of a minor's suicide is posted publicly on their site. This incident is a horrific event on a dating ad. In an article,  Simon Dumenco says that "she was subject to cyberbullying on Facebook after a photo of her alleged rape by four boys was shared online." So why is it so easy for these posts to be made and for the public? It is dangerous how easy it is for these kinds of posts to be shared and how long it takes these kinds of horrific posts to get taken down. Advertisements are often looking for something to stand out to the audience and grab everyone's attention, even posting the most horrific things to increase engagement.

These posts are sometimes too frequent and appear on our social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Twitter, etc. Those platforms need to do their part in protecting users from seeing illegal posts or even posts that are just disturbing to the majority of the public. Some platforms have tried to help their users avoid seeing content they don't want to see by adding an option to filter what you see and don't see on your account. In an article done by RAINN, they explain ways to filter out people commenting on your posts or even filter out certain words. For example, you may speak very differently with your friends. Still, if your family were to see that, it could be very alarming for them, so if your friend wanted to comment on something on your post, you can filter out certain words so that your family or others would not be able to see it. 

The Lush Content Agency gives out many ways to make sure that your content is targeted toward the majority without it very offensive or disturbing. In addition, this agency helps companies and organizations develop ads that will be effective and able to better the company's image. Their approach: "Over the years, we have refined our approach to creating newsworthy content. This method enables us to fuse the logic of good strategy with the magic of great storytelling to help you connect with your audience. The Lush approach is one that our long-term clients are familiar with and – combined with our focus on creating authentic, newsworthy, and transparent content, it's proven to be a winning formula." That tells the audience that they are willing to work and that their content will not be their best work. 

https://lushthecontent.agency/our-approach/

https://learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet02-xythos.content.blackboardcdn.com/5c1270dbb5a74/17567175?X-Blackboard-Expiration=1648760400000&X-Blackboard-Signature=PblY%2F9vUNzr9DAfCD4pTLdSeSbcZGEZ97oyoAs4%2FITY%3D&X-Blackboard-Client-Id=100342&response-cache-control=private%2C%20max-age%3D21600&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27Possibly%2520the%2520Worst%2520Facebook%2520Ad%2520Ever.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-Security-Token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEH8aCXVzLWVhc3QtMSJIMEYCIQCs5tmgxOcTX8lo%2B9iwm4rTd09cJz%2FFZglvjIZ22smCjgIhAIMyfKkjOLwXO3tpIYE%2BKm%2BiVBW6CZ19%2FTZyvLG7nxKWKvoDCBgQAhoMNjM1NTY3OTI0MTgzIgz8rcEdGjJV%2BtArvE0q1wPDpuSrGpnt9ek50vUbLpoJ2H3tvBBGuxW5D2YCINXxH2LiqZrDNe9%2Bid8d0GzOtl7l3Y%2FMFFiXUMxeQ4Eg1gupAzELTWER8k2%2BEaBeSsGmfrSRlHBFZAof4snb57IuFriRdrgEIBvQkIYi%2FHOUkQj4jAanNE%2FqbzFQuomtlXzQqoCItAy%2Fax0EusjWkVVfV%2Fgy3T5BRopx%2BGfxym868r4ENiJb2DFY70fdBAP1KIqXuBnT469Az5cPK%2BO%2FQf8CiMsCHAgOv2SwFu0Axl2y7ApMWyjsJJeef%2Fb1dbqW3bo1lO1U%2BG%2FBvp4zgrS%2BoaxBizvgG3VIyZn%2FQccLVPGD10V7zbXIp5soAmPzsxlzI1yKeohYJPIYA7ruM4%2Fuo6fukHJQRnV4IIawF2MIMvUDn1idOSOv%2FtN8Keuv2PTymRJywprqUFVBAimTt%2BQVVcT%2FW9%2BNzCIvVUOEW54iY2m%2FeD5eBbePNaAi2YdAUA5yO2%2F6sWunUgWRtqTfjlknaBTSRNX7v18TnBMjSR4ysd3dX36xJOVoNcyk%2BaqnU2sWTIT5pnqTva55a4m2oAq2UHAgQqQeuAwEkErrfnj%2FrxQ4Tvt58JrH%2FEZeEiQmnW5Uta%2Ba6jme5KB7%2Bv4wrvWWkgY6pAGFCc7Dm0i6%2BIFPpFMBBJcSAiqdYmABdSQ6Yn2JY2Wf8MI9FxCYIQDXwwW5eWD4qnvAmsltcHpnrhBE1ypzIyLusgZ1%2B71RzL6Zv3XnLWLeIGX0zH27h5xsBt%2FUYU%2FSwNVBr92iuSefoDo6uJVtndHy3k8h0z7Of6uI8z3%2BNFQalHFgtoFk%2FCytxu1XjlWAUCbk49Fc9P%2Bfgf7m1ETp6PizMd39wg%3D%3D&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20220331T150000Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-Credential=ASIAZH6WM4PLQPIGEUW6%2F20220331%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=d79f77d686be0915c6202df65b5ba8cb93d9b8559824fa0e5475851b2efd40d5

https://www.rainn.org/articles/how-filter-block-and-report-harmful-content-social-media

Audio-targeting and AI - what are our smartphones listening to?

Maddie Fisher

MF909217@ohio.edu

Image sourced from Pixabay

Does your phone have digital assistant software like Siri, Cortana, or Alexa? Then chances are, your phone is listening to you – and it’s completely legal. What started as a tool to assist smartphone users with their day-to-day tasks has turned into an opportunity for advertisers to target audiences specifically. 

Say you open Siri to ask about nearby gyms, and then suddenly, you see fitness ads all over the internet. That is only one of the millions of examples that machine learning has pried its way into the minds of smartphone users. Norton says to “think of your smartphone as a verbal search engine.” Every time you use digital assistant software, you provide data that will be collected and will likely be used for individualized advertisements. 

While advertising companies can use the data collected from intelligent assistant interactions, background audio-targeting is still an illegal invasion of privacy due to user permissions settings. While spyware or malware does exist to collect illegal data, unaffected phones are not supposed to interpret background noise. However, massive rumors are circulating in disagreement. 

The Washington Post says that “it’s an old wives’ tale” that our phones are always listening. Since big data companies have access to nearly every user interaction online, they don’t need to listen. They know what users are searching for, what posts they’re looking at on social media (and for how long), purchasing histories, and more. “Ask Help Desk: No, your phone isn’t listening to your conversations. Seriously.” uses the example of a smartphone owner having a conversation about Disney World and suddenly seeing online ads. While that may seem like an eerie coincidence, perhaps that user looked at flights to Orlando after the conversation, and AI technology used that data to recommend a popular nearby activity, which would ultimately be Disney World. 

We now know that everything we do online contributes to our digital footprint. Big data companies can track everything we do online and use it to target us in advertisements directly. In addition, the development of AI in smartphones has contributed to data companies knowing users individually. While that may make the public feel uneasy, total privacy in the digital world doesn’t exist. It may be unethical, but it is our reality. Innovative technology has evolved the marketing world, and there is no sign of that slowing down. 

 

When Does Advertising Cross the Line?

Kendall Kraft

kk922418@ohio.edu

Picture from DazeInfo

At the Interactive Advertising Bureau's annual leadership meeting, fraud was the most prominent topic of conversation. Unfortunately, the fraud problem is out of control, and artificial intelligence and other internet algorithms worsen the problem. I understand the advertising industry's need for human behavior, but to what point does tracking everyone's online move cross the line?

Assessing the entirety of one's every word, every picture, and emojis seems to be an ethical concern when gaining consumer data. However, nothing is private for people, especially on the internet. Therefore, there has to be a line drawn for a consumer's private and personal information, rather than it being used for the marketing industry's gain. 

When there are slip-ups as big as the 'Worst Facebook Ad Ever,' the entire industry needs to self-reflect. The Facebook ad was a picture of a young Canadian girl to promote a dating app for singles. Unfortunately, the young girl hanged herself and took off life support from a coma before this ad's promotion. The ad was not just disturbing for the girl's loved ones but proved that Facebook "social context" advertising had significant flaws.

Advertisers are also targeting your mood. The ethics behind companies using algorithms to post articles to reflect your mood or ESPN not posting advertisements of your team if your team is losing are controversial. Media companies claim they can do their job better and promote what the viewer needs based on their mood. Except at one point, should be privacy matter?

It is scary to think about the amount of access these technology companies have to us. If they can promote ads based on our mood and behavior, what else can they do? Some companies have tried to fight fraud and keep their ads ethical, but the amount that promotes ads unethically has taken over our privacy. The argument between companies giving their viewers what they want and our privacy should be easy. However, there still should be some private and personal things for technology users.  

Is Advertising Affecting Children?

After reading Perri Klass's blog on How Advertising Is Affecting Children, I reflected on a few things. First, It is crazy to think about how exposed we are to advertisements. According to Statistia.com, 46% of people spend 5-6 hours a day on their phones. In those 5-6 hours, we, including children, are exposed to hundreds of advertisements and may not even think about it. Even though we do not think about it, "even a 30-second exposure to a novel product, one that you've never seen before, changes their preferences for a brand." 

 

Are children being affected by advertisements on TV?

Picture:  perfectlensworld.com

Why there should be a bigger concern on ad fraud

 Logan Humphrey

lh129720@ohio.edu

Picture from PrestaShop

The scary reality of ad fraud becoming more and more persistent should be a significant concern. Unfortunately, it will become harder to avoid these types of frauds, including artificial intelligence and algorithms, which influence what will pop up on our social media pages and websites.

It doesn't help that advertisers are knowingly aware of their fraud usage and continue to use them. Whether or not it is effective should not be the primary concern of the advertiser; instead, they should focus on the privacy that they might be invading. It seems more plausible to get more consumers by not targeting their moods and online behaviors. Advertisers should do what is best for the consumer or inform them why they are seeing a particular ad on their screens. 

A scary thought that comes from ad fraud is that private and personal information is being collected by an app or a website and used to cultivate ads that would fit best based on that personal information. So there is a fear about the purpose these data are used for. 

Ad fraud contributes to several remarkable results in many different business exchanges. Unfortunately, some are aware of the fraud but continue to use it to their advantage. They are investing in a dangerous tactic, which could lead to trouble in the long run when it eventually gets out of hand. 

Unethical companies are screwing over those trying to advertise ethically and fight ad fraud. The CEO of Dstillery, Tom Phillips, is sincerely upset about these companies, stating "We're out there trying to do it the right way. By comparison, we're facing a prisoner's dilemma against competitors who show great results from fraudulent traffic." 

Juniper Research reports that in 2021 alone, 68 billion dollars was spent lost to ad fraud and an 8.4 billion increase from the previous year. Moreover, it is predicted to grow by an even more significant margin this year. 

If there isn't more of a more significant concern towards the ethics of ad fraud, the problem will only worsen. There are several ways advertisers can work with websites and social media apps to help market their company more ethically. Even though it has been costly, stopping these fraudulent advertisements would have more consumers trusting and buying into what these companies are trying to sell or market.  

A Beautiful Yet Necessary Documentary: "Art Heals: The Jingle Dress Project"

Image Source: West Seattle Blog

Racism is defined as "prejudiced against or antagonistic toward a person or people based on their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized." It is a reprehensible yet actual fact that the United States is racist. Not just toward people of color, but anybody and everybody who is not a white, straight male. Among more than I can count on my two hands, this racism found in the United States includes the indigenous peoples. 

Just today, I got the privilege of being able to sit in on a presentation by Eugene and his daughter Erin Tapas. The Tapas is a part of the Navajo tribe of America. Last year, they and three other women traveled around the country, visiting places where their ancestors walked to spread hope, healing, and awareness. They did this through dancing and pictures and called their objective the Jingle Dress Project. Jingle dresses are essential to the Native people and symbolize healing within their tradition(s). By bringing these dresses and the dances that accompanied them across the country, constantly to state/national parks, they spread this healing across the land, uplifting the communities they visited. However, they did not just do this to spread healing and hope; they also did this to spread awareness about the world's missing and murdered indigenous women. Eugene Tapahe has worked for a few news stations/newspapers and has a Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Graphic Design. They followed along with the dancers, taking pictures of them to help spread this awareness even further.

I listened to these two phenomenal people speak as they presented their pictures, explained the meaning, and emphasized their reasoning. They then played the documentary that was done for their project by PBS. If you have the time, I would highly recommend watching it. Before attending this presentation, I knew that racism was rampant in the United States. I just did not know just how detrimental it was. The United States needs to change, and it needs to change fast. People are people, no matter how they look, speak, act, or what they believe in. The Tapahe's left the audience with a message that I have often told myself and others when the situation requires, and it was: treat other people how you would wish to be treated. 

I couldn't agree more.

The importance of The Economist in China

The Economist cover 2016

Wu Chen successfully launched the first Chinese-language news app by The Economist in China. Chen was the editor of CFO magazine China Magazine and worked for BusinessWeek in Hong Kong and Bloomberg News in Singapore, making him more than qualified for this job. 

Chen launched The Economist Global Business review in a Chinese-language format. China is infamous for its censorship, especially for news media. They will censor anything they think is detrimental to their country. Here are a few big-name publications censored in China: CNN, The New York Times, BBC, Wall Street Journal, etc. For this reason, the launch of The Economist Global Business Review app is so important.

Wu Chen and his team over at The Economist found a niche in the China economy and China-related commerce, which is very important in the magazine industry. However, they need to be careful because one wrong move may lead to being blocked. This situation happened once to The Economist in 2016 when it covered the President of China Xi Jinping with the heading "Beware the cult of Xi." The article was about Xi Jinping and his concerning rise to power.

Concerning the app in itself, the future looks bright. Wu Chen claims that he would not consider the project a major success yet, but they have all the tools necessary to grow. He emphasized the multi-media side of the app, providing subscribers with podcasts, videos, and articles. He pointed out how start-ups are changing the business model of their publications, with most making their viewers pay for the content. Chen points out how most viewers are willing to pay for good content if they have to. The rates of paying subscribers for publications with a solid digital platform have increased tremendously since 2021. For example, The New York Times saw 445,000 new digital subscribers in the third quarter of 2021.

The interface of the app is similar to those of other apps for magazines, the initial screen is a scroll down the page with all the most relevant articles at the time, but then the user can easily navigate to other features of the app through a drop-down bar at the top left of the screen.

Wu Chen is an innovator and always keeps up and stays ahead of technology against his competitors. He emphasized how "a successful business model provides the anchor for growth in his presentation."