Remember this ad?
Posted on 12/06/2006 12:44:15 PM PST by presidio9
Children should be exposed to fewer television ads for anti-impotence drugs and more for birth control, and need to be shielded from an advertising onslaught in general, the leading U.S. pediatricians' group said on Monday.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, in a new policy statement, urged doctors, parents, legislators and regulators to limit children's viewing of television and access to the Internet, move some TV ads to later hours after bedtime, and restrict how alcoholic beverage makers promote their products.
"If we taught kids media literacy, you can essentially immunize kids against advertising," said statement author Dr. Victor Strasburger, a pediatrician at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
The average American child is bombarded by 40,000 product advertisements a year in all media ranging from television to billboards created by the $250 billion U.S. advertising industry, said Strasburger, adding that children younger than 8 years are especially gullible.
He said advertisers and broadcasters bear a responsibility to teach and not just exploit child consumers.
"We'd like to see more birth control ads," Strasburger said, "and less ads for erectile dysfunction drugs because it makes sex seem like a recreational activity."
He said there was no evidence that advertising birth control products would increase promiscuity.
The pediatricians group urged the U.S. Congress or government regulators to restrict the airing of erectile dysfunction drug ads until after 10 p.m. when fewer children are watching television.
"I would like to see parents energized and more sensitive to the impact of media on kids," Strasburger said. "If they observed (American Academy of Pediatrics) guidelines to allow children no more than two hours of entertainment media a day, that alone would limit exposure."
Studies have shown a direct relationship between advertising exposure and youths who try smoking or drinking alcohol, he said.
Children who watch more television -- presumably exposing them to ads for fast food, snacks, soft drinks and candy -- are more likely to be obese, although no studies show a direct correlation between advertising and obesity, he said.
"If we can make the airwaves healthier, and make advertising healthier, then it makes more sense than putting 50 million children on a diet," Strasburger said.
An advertising-industry spokesman said food companies and advertisers already have responded to the obesity epidemic by promoting healthier products and by following recently revised guidelines for commercials directed at children.
"It's not like the industry is out there ignoring this," said Jim Davidson of the Advertising Coalition. "Everyone in the food industry knows we have a challenge in childhood obesity."
Tobacco and hard liquor have long been restricted from advertising on television and Davidson noted brewers have pledged not to advertise on TV programs where children make up more than half of viewers.
The statement, published in the academy's journal Pediatrics, also sought to limit televised ads for alcoholic beverages to show just the product and not bikini-clad women or cartoon characters, and to ban tobacco advertising of any kind.
Australia has banned all tobacco advertising, Strasburger said, and Sweden and Norway have barred TV ads directed at children aged 12 years or younger.
Getting to the point now that radio and television programs are more advertising than programming.
Children should not be exposed to any of these ads.
Here is a major problem that I have with TV. You will have a show on that is rated for General Audiences or TV Youth or whatever. Usually it is a sports broadcast of some kind. During these shows the network or cable company puts on inappropriate ads for Viagra, Cialis, etc...
I agree and so should Birth Control ads.
As for the addition of birth control ads, that is just plain stupid.
WABC Radio in NYC, home of Rush, Hannity, Levin & Ingraham definitely seems to have as much commercial time as programming time. The clock in my car is broken and I wanted to hear the time on my way to the train this morning. They had a commercial break with 10 (count 'em 10!) commercials in a row.
The TV stations have no problem selling ad time for most sporting events. They don't need to take those ads.
Well, imagine a commercial interrupting with "and we will return to you after a short pause", and then "regular programming" occurring. Indeed, one should ditch TV altogether. What good is there besides extreme weather alerts? - perversity, idiocy, baboonery, and then more of the same. Radix omnia malorum televisia est.
Remember this ad?
ROTFLMAO! They can't be serious. They are 100% backwards. Typical liberals.
You're right.
And what bugs me about this is that they have these Viagra, Cialis, and other such ads on during their shows. Which I believe is hypocrisy on their part.
I might have read this on FR, but supposedly a true story.
A woman whose young son was really into dinosaurs reported that as he was playing one day, the TV was on in the background. An ED commercial came on and the kid asked his mom, "What a reptile dysfunction?"
This is where social conservatism and fiscal conservatism come to a crossroads. A socially conservative view takes the kids away from the television. The fiscal conservative wants the free market to dominate and therefore sell commercials to support television programming, the commercials in turn advertise consumer goods which sell and make companies create more goods to perpetuate the economy. Where does this lead?
Please don't flame me about not being conservative, or pointint out the flaws in conservatism. I'm playing devil's advocate here more than anything. It all comes down to parenting, do you raise your children, or does the television?
Agreed and notice the men get younger and younger... Next, teens will need this.
Too damn many pill ads, period.
I see too many of them myself, and I am no kid.
This is where a Conservatives common sense, belief in God, and right and wrong come into play.
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