ADVERTISING TO CHILDREN

One way to break down the field of media literacy is to differentiate between the textual or contextual approach.  The contextual approach tackles system-level issues of media ownership and the consumer culture, and analyzes how those power structures affect and change the media environment our students grow up in.

 

The textual approach, on the other hand, focuses on the interaction of audience and media, and examines the relationships between media usage and such issues as attention span, body image, and ethnic identity development, among many others.  It aims to arm consumers with the intellectual ability to ask and answer the Five Questions outlined by the Center for Media Literacy:

 

• Who created this message?

• What creative techniques are used to attract my attention?

• How might different people understand this message differently from me?

• What lifestyles, values and points of view are represented in, or omitted from, this message?

• Why was this message sent?  (Source)

 

The goal is to make students aware of the intentionality of media--that it is created with a purpose and an end goal--especially in advertising.  

 

Advertising is a particular subset of the larger media culture that is especially important for students to be wary of.  Besides selling actual products, ad campaigns and company branding use ideas and emotions that offer a personality and/or lifestyle with which the student associates.

 

Advertisements fit into at least one of four categories, depending on the tactics used and the underlying messages of the ad: 

• Product information: an explanation of the features of the product and why a consumer should buy it.

• Emotional association: a product is associated with such emotions as happiness or the feeling of success.

• Lifestyle association: the branding of a product or company is associated with a larger lifestyle or persona.

• Shock value: the ad is blatantly offensive, gruesome, sexualized, or absurd in an effort to gain attention.