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Ethical Problem:
Since the expansion of children’s media it offered new opportunities for advertisers, but have they gone too far? Should product placement in movies, films and other media outlets be controlled?
Before the 1980’s product placement and marketing to children was regulated. It wasn’t until congress passed the FTC Improvements Act that took away the media and marketing deregulations. The 70’s Seminal Trade Commission had a band on advertising to children eight and under. But that forever changed in 1980 when congress passed the FTC Improvements Act that mandated the FTC will not have any authority to pruirgate any rule in children’s advertising proceedings. This act leads to an unfair trade practice and children being buried in media bliss.
Radio, television, movies and other media products provide materials which forge our very own identities; our sense of selfhood, our notion of what it is meant to be male or female, our sense of class, of ethnicity and race, nationality, sexuality and the “us” vs. “them” mentality. Media images help shape our view of the world and contribute to our deepest values. We are immersed into a world of media and consumerism.
Product placement also known as embedded marketing is a form of media advertisement where branded goods or services are placed in a context such as movies, music videos, television story lines and news programs. In the 1980s major changes occurred within the children’s advertising industry. Companies began to see more potential in selling to kids. “James McNeal, was a man who estimated that children’s purchasing power would help expand the type of products that are marketed to kids, as well as increase of volume of dollars the companies were willing to commit in categories such food and leisure” (Schor 365).
This ethical issue reflects the utilitarian approach which emphasizes ethical action that provides the most good or does the least harm, in other ways, it produces the greatest balance of good over harm. From a corporate action, it is the one that produces the greatest good and does the least harm for all who are affected e.g. customers, employees, shareholders, the community, even the environment. Media conglomerates operate the media markets amd are shaping our communities values, beliefs, fears, norms, etc. “The media forms of pedagogy that teach us how to be men and women. They show us how to dress, look, and consume; how to react to members of different social groups; how to be popular and successful and how to avoid failure; and how to conform to the dominant system of norms, values, practices, and institutions. Consequently, the gaining of critical media literacy is an important resource for individuals and citizens in learning how to cope with a seductive cultural environment” (Kellner 7). Conglomerates pushing product advertising is taking advantage of the vulnerable persons in our world and molding their ethical values and beliefs. This does not help out for the greater good because these media messages are influencing our world in a negative. Taking the true value of life out and consuming it with material and social identities.
Transmitting information about products alone advertising media complex to ensure that commercial communication is characterized through mirroring not how people are acting, but how they are “dreaming”. It is primarily “social” life and not “material” life that seems to be telling us about things and how we connect them to the important things in our lives. Advertising can be viewed as a new religious system in which people construct their identities through the commodity form which brings in supernatural magical world where everything is possible when purchasing a product.
The three Rs of elementary school are Reading, wRiting, and aRithmatic. We know these skills are a crucial part of academic development. There is also evidence for a fourth R in academic development—Recess. Recess is not just fun time; it is valuable break time and valuable physical activity time. And there are specific reasons why withholding this fourth R is a poor punishment for classroom misbehavior. In my own city, withholding recess is against district school policy. Yet, despite this prohibition, bench sitting time during recess is still assigned by some teachers for classroom or lunchroom misbehavior. What is the cost of this disciplinary tactic?
First, withholding recess is especially anachronistic given the amount of sitting time at school (approximately 6 hours for the typical school day) and the current epidemic of obesity among youth. Exercise is a crucial part of obesity prevention and health promotion in children. Indeed, there are ongoing national agendas to increase activity among children, with recommendations from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and First Lady Obama's Let's Move campaign serving as prime examples. But there are also campaigns for enhancing physical activity in school for the goal of academic development.
This brings us to a second argument against withholding recess activity—physical activity promotes on-task time and academic success in classrooms. As discussed previously in this blog, mood enhancement as well as promotion of attention and memory is one of the core cognitive benefits of regular exercise in adults. These benefits also appear to extend to children, with findings of both brain growth and enhanced cognitive performance with physical activity in youth. Research indicates that even 15 minutes of post-lunch exercise can improve cognitive performance that very school day.
Indeed, depriving children from activity at recess is particularly self-defeating when the broader academic benefits of exercise are considered. Some of this evidence comes from the national TAKE 10! Program that is dedicated to disseminating structured 10-minute activities to the elementary school classroom. This innovative program directly combined exercise and learning in strategies such as the Invisible Jump Rope—having children recall basic counting, addition, and subtraction facts in the classroom while jumping. As reviewed in a special 2011 supplement in the journal, Preventive Medicine, there is reliable evidence that the TAKE 10! program of exercise-learning periods in the classroom can promote better reading, math, spelling, and composite scores among grade school students, as well as reduced time off-task in the classroom. This is exactly the result teachers want, and it was achieved with more physical activity not less!
Educators clearly need an immediate tactic for aggressive behaviors on the playground, including time out from that activity (bench time) if needed. However, for classroom or lunchroom misbehaviors, strategies other than recess activity reduction need to be emphasized. In short, physical activity during recess deserves protection. It is not only a fun activity for children, but, according to the available evidence, can promote academic goals as well.
I can't close without emphasizing that responsibility for exercise promotion does not end at school. Children have their academic homework after school, and likewise, physical activity needs to be part of this after school time as well. Also, the evidence is in that prolonged sitting has dramatically negative health costs to adults. We need to intervene early in the lives of our children to reduce prolonged sitting and promote exercise both in and out of school. And if we exercise enough ourselves, we may be smart enough to figure out how to pull our kids away from videogames long enough to do just that.
Copyright Michael Otto
Drs. Michael Otto and Jasper Smits are authors of Exercise for Mood and Anxiety Disorders: Proven Strategies for Overcoming Depression and Enhancing Well Being.
For information on bringing TAKE 10! strategies to your elementary school see their website.
