Hooray for Super Bowl Commercials…But Should Our Kids Watch Them?
Super Bowl 50 is just around the corner, which only means one thing. Well, two. The first being if your adoptive home is Colorado, and your son’s new favorite team is the Denver Broncos, then you are thrilled. And the second is all those original, entertaining commercials, which for many (myself included) are the reason to tune into the game. So anticipated are these ads, they seem to get at least as much post-game chatter as the game itself.
Which is interesting because apparently my generation (X) is a pretty jaded bunch. As in, more resistant to the influence of advertisements than other generations. Who hasn’t said, “I love that commercial where…but I don’t remember what it was for!” We X-er’s were some of the first to realize how “junky” those proof-of-purchase prizes from our favorite cereals were, and that sending away for something doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get it. (I never got those “Picture Pages” advertised on Captain Kangaroo or that autographed Dukes of Hazzard photo…).
But how do commercials affect our own kids?
It’s a question I never really considered until recently. Mainly this is because my kids play video games or watch Netflix or our own DVD’s. They don’t see many advertisements. However, the other day my son was enjoying Youtube, gaining inspiration for his Minecraft village. All of a sudden, a booming voice filled our house, sending me into the family room to tell my son to turn down the volume. But he hadn’t touched the remote; what blared from the screen was a commercial. For what, I have no idea (remember, I’m a Gen X-er), and I doubt my son did, either, but he was rapt…hypnotized.
And then I remembered the Christmas we were staying in a hotel and to our kids, it was like, well, Christmas. A television in every room. Access to the Cartoon Network and Disney Channel. Despite my husband’s and my attempts to hide remotes and unplug tv’s, our kids still managed to sneak extra viewing time and of course that meant they saw more commercials in an hour than they had in the previous six months. And it was Christmas. If commercials are drugs then the ones aired during the month of December are the crack cocaine of YOU GOTTA HAVE THIS! I almost flushed the remotes down the toilet. (Instead we got smart and took the batteries out.)
In a strange juxtaposition, commercials remind me of a great line from the musical Evita:
She didn’t say much but she said it loud!
When you get down to it, commercials (in any form) don’t say much, either, except that they are loud, and we must get whatever they are selling now (before time runs out! while supplies last!), and then live much happier, fulfilling lives because of our purchase, just like the people in the ad. You gotta give the writers/directors/producers credit; they are experts in the art of persuasion and will pull out all the stops to grab our attention. Many ads are geared toward adults but many speak directly to our kids and those behind the making of the hard sell know these three things:
- A multimedia approach holds kids (and our) attention. Think color, flashing words, music, quick scene changes and, yes, volume.
- Young kids can’t differentiate between the show they are watching and the ad, believing they are viewing one continuous program. Commercials featuring beloved tv characters are especially good at sucking in young children.
- Children can’t critically evaluate the content of commercials…meaning, for example, they don’t understand the difference between fact and opinion.
I was shocked to learn that kids view an average of 40,000 commercials every year. This number includes 2,000 beer commercials and anywhere from 4,400 to 7,600 ads for junk food. Wow. That’s a whole lot of influence injected into the programs our kids are watching, influence that can mold their behaviors, values, and health and be in direct opposition to what we as parents work to teach our kids.
Scary.
And we can’t assume that the commercials shown on channels like Disney send positive messages. A recent study published in the journal Psychology of Popular Media Culture looked at the content of commercials across 12 general television channels and 3 channels geared specifically toward kids. And the results showed that commercials with “negative” content (defined as violence, sexual behavior, disturbing images, etc.) were present at a similar rate on both general and kids’ tv. And here’s a surprise: there was a higher rate of “negative modeling” on commercials shown on kids-geared stations. this means that programming we may consider “safe” to show our kids is interspersed with ads that include, for example, smoking, underage drinking and the use of foul language.
And what’s more, “slapstick” violence seen on kids’ programming can be seen in ads for the same shows (because it is an attention-getter), underscoring the portrayal of aggression as funny or an easy out to the show’s featured conundrum. And many of us (my husband and I included…Go Packers!) enjoy “the game” over the weekend, and our kids watch with us. It’s easy to consider this a family event and acceptable programming for kids to view. But the ads shown during sporting events seem to fall into two categories: beer and Doritos. Many involve a spring-break-in-Fort-Lauderdale kind of vibe, if you know what I mean. These ads are full of that “negative modeling” that is so easy for us adults to overlook but our kids absorb like sponges. (Unless they are subtle like the one for the drug Levitra featuring Mike Ditka a few years ago. I don’t think kids would catch on to that one. But still.)
It’s easy to think that commercials during daytime and primetime viewing should be rated “G.” I know it’s an assumption I’ve made. But we have ads showing intense partying with alcohol, previews for blow ’em up movies and junk food. Lots of junk food. In a nutshell, the commercials run during our family-friendly viewing are not necessarily family-friendly. And what’s more is there’s little that industry monitors can do about commercial content; they can review the ads out there but have no legal recourse or authority over the advertising industry.
So what can we parents do? Do I have to say no to watching my son’ beloved Broncos in the Super Bowl because of the commercials? Probably not. I found some advice to help us navigate the magnetic personality of influential advertising:
•Enforce, and reinforce limits on screen time.
•Screens of any kind remain in the public areas of the house…even iPads and iPods. (I like this one…here I thought I knew what my son was watching on YouTube and then found out there were ads for God-knows-what.)
•Make screen time a family event. Of, course, we can’t watch everything with our kids but if we set aside the time to watch tv together, we can find those short, teachable moments about responsible alcohol use, “safe sex,” and problem-solving (aka, violence is not the solution).
•Limit the viewing of commercials by renting videos, recording shows without the ads or “fast-forwarding” through them.
•Talk about the ads you do view and discuss them. Ask kids “What do you like or dislike about what is being advertised?” “Is this a smart choice?” “Is this item in the commercial as good as it seems? Why or why not?” Talk about the difference between “wants” and “needs.”
And some interesting facts and findings:
♦Ads shown during sporting events contain a higher number of negative behaviors…including physical aggression and risky behaviors such as not wearing seat belts.
♦Commercials shown on MTV (does anyone still watch this?) has the highest rate of negative content across all categories and time slots, according to the study published in Psychology of Popular Media Culture.
♦The higher the rating of a television show, the higher the number of associated ads containing positive role models and behavior.
♦Per public service announcement (PSA) aired on television, there are over 25 beer ads shown. Furthermore, PSA’s focus on the “hard” drugs like cocaine (a good thing); however, PSA’s overlook alcohol, the substance most commonly abused by kids.
I’ll readily admit I am a cynical, somewhat jaded Gen X-er (I really just need to get over the Picture Pages already….) when it comes to commercial advertisements. That larger-than-life burger on my television screen does look fantastically yummy; however, I know that after being smooshed in a wrapper it isn’t nearly as appetizing. But my kids don’t know that. And I’m only just realizing that they don’t know that. And that a simple “no” to their requests for whatever they see on tv is not enough…the lifestyle messages of commercial ads can have an impact on the choices they make regarding their health, behavior and ideas about happiness. And I need to be there to help them understand those messages.
Go Broncos!!!
