December 2, 2011
Child obesity rates in America have reached historic highs and sexual images of physical perfection are seen in much of today’s advertising with an astound prevalence. Many images seen have been shown to be less than honest, with the bodies of models being airbrushed after capturing the picture to enhance those bodies’s flawlessness.
Imagine a new dietary supplement comes out (note: dietary supplements are not regulated by the FDA) and purports to be advertising to adults only, but the context of the commercials strongly suggest the advertisements are marketing to teens. The ads seem to be preying on teen insecurities and with an epidemic weight problem and increasing pressures in t.v. and magazines to be thin, many teens could be expected to consider to use the product. The product is advertising on air time of shows that are viewed by young adults, but also has a large audience of teenagers.
The product has demonstrated that it is effective in causing effective weight loss, but due to the product genre’s relative lack of regulation and oversight, it did not have to prove itself safe and concerns are being raised that the product may cause long-term detriment to heart health.
Should advertising of this product be regulated?
What established precedents might allow for the regulation of this commercial speech?
What cases in the past could be referenced to help illustrate the issues of this matter?
6 thoughts on “Advertising to Children”
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December 2nd, 2011 at 10:22 am
There may be a need for this advertisement to be regulated. For example, maybe restrictions could be placed on it for what channels it is being shown on. If it is clearly targeting younger teens, it should probably not be shown on channels like Fox Family or the Disney Channel. However, I’m not sure that putting specific guidelines on the advertisement is fair if it is content based.
Also, as to whether the advertising of the product is regulated or not, teens have a mind of their own and should be able to realize the product is not a healthy way to lose weight. Also, it is up to a parent to explain the their kids, no matter how old they are, that these kind of weight loss aids will not benefit the teen. I obviously still feel that these are negative messages that are being sent to young girls, but in today’s culture there are going to be messages like these and we have to be prepared to ignore them.
December 2nd, 2011 at 12:30 pm
I’m not so sure if this product should be regulated because there are many body-building supplements out there that, when taken with other things, can be detrimental to one’s health. Or, when these products are taken too much, there are known side-effects. That being said, I think the dietary supplement should have to have side-effects listed in the commercial or a disclaimer stating that the supplement is best for certain ages.
Therefore, as long as there’s certain disclaimers stating the unsafe possible consequences of taking this supplement, the supplement should be allowed to be advertised and sold. One case in particular comes to mind about disclaimers that we haven’t talked about in class was the one in which a lady sued McDonalds after she spilled coffee on yourself leaving her with “bad burns.” McDonalds now has disclaimers on their coffee cups warning the consumers of the scolding hot coffee within the cup.
December 2nd, 2011 at 5:20 pm
1) Yes I do feel that advertising of such a potentially dangerous product should be regulated. However, we live in a time of technology which makes parenting ten times harder than what it was say…ten years ago. With that said, while its not ideal to have a commercial like this available for all teens to see and then try. I do not feel like there is much that can be done. If the teens see these commercials and even if a regulation is put down on it, there will be some other way for them to access a weight loss supplement because the pressure to be thin is very high.
2.The main way that I can think of in terms of regulation would be to put an age and an informed consent for all persons who purchase this product. By doing this, the company is within legal rights by selling to a minor. Even though again this is not the ideal situation.
3.This situation reminds me of liquor or any alcoholic substance. Under the age of 21, you are not allowed to “purchase” or drink alcohol or you will be punished by law. However, as I mentioned earlier people will ALWAYS find ways to get around the law!
December 4th, 2011 at 10:59 pm
It sounds like the product has never been proven, it states, “concerns are being raised that the product may cause long-term detriment to heart health.”
I would say it would be hard to regulate something that is speculated. Perhaps those long-term effects were only for an extremely small pool of people.
I think any medical advertisement concerns should be taken serious however. This project should be closely reviewed on these concerns. Unfortunately I feel it is hard to measure how it may affect teen’s mindset. If there is no teens present in the ad, it is hard to prove that the ad is linked to how teens perceive themselves to the drug without reference to the TV or magazine ads these kids may or may not get these ideas from.
I feel perhaps a publication on the product such as we do for tobacco, that is may be linked to heart complications. I think if it knows that warnings should be place on there and they try their best to do so, I can’t see why you can take away their freedom of speech. As long as every ad is factual and they are doing their best to print concerns, they are doing their best efforts.
December 5th, 2011 at 2:07 am
I think you have an awesome question here. I think that this type of material would definitely need to be regulated, especially if the advertising seems to be geared toward the young adult audience. I think the kids of today are so hyper-aware of their body image and the fact that it is not meeting this “perfect” or “ideal” body image that is projected on TV and in magazines. Because of this, I believe that the kids of today are more likely to buy a product such as this weight loss pill to meet the standard that media is setting. I believe the whole issue of cigarette ads is something similar. Cigarette ads are notorious for focusing on a very young audience to hook customers in early. The reason that the pills are similar to cigarettes, is because both have a potential health hazard. In the case of cigarettes the health risk has been more documented historically. However, the fact that this drug has not been approved by the FDA means that it could be seriously harmful or even fatal for teens and young people. The reason that we have organizations like the FDA is to protect the public from harmful materials. If the advertising for the diet pills is reaching teens and young adults, then there needs to be regulation on the advertising, especially if the drug has not been tested.
December 7th, 2011 at 10:09 am
Im not sure if this is an issue of free speech, but an issue of how much control the FDA should have over pills and dietary supplements. But since they can’t, then the advertising of this pill should be controlled to a certain extent.
The problem is that there is an endless cycle that has led to the increase of obesity in teens and children. Fast food resturants are able to advertise in every medium with millions of dollars at their disposal. While this may not be the only reason for obseity, its impact on the epidemic can not be understated. Yet these resturants have unlimited resources to get their name and product out to the masses.
This, combined with the current state of our society that promotes laziness and inactivity, have led to get-thin-quick medicines and machines. These have become almost as popular as the foods and videogames that caused obseity in the first place. But, while food and video games can be used lessed or cause less damage when someone has self-control and limits those things, using pills may cause more damage. Pills can have negative chemical side effects that no fast food burger or video game would ever do.
So this culture of laziness that expects fast results with little work will embrace diet pills even if they might have side effects. So all that can really be done is to make sure that advertisements really focus on those and allow the consumer to know about them and make an educated choice about whether or not to use it.