Influence of Advertisement on Children in the Digital World

In the recent years, marketing to children became an essential part of their growth as the companies’ marketing strategy focuses on the availability of quick dividends. The advertisement companies spend huge sums of money to reach to their targeted group, who buy things at huge price and the whole family’s decision is based on their likes and dislikes. This targeted group finds brand royalty in products which in turn nurtures the marketing agendas. As the channels to influence the youth increased, its ubiquitous influence is felt everywhere. This article focuses on the various researches that have been conducted to study its carnivorous nature which create some serious concerns about the practice, especially when it is related to life-style, food habits etc. It also analyses the changing behavior of children with the aid of Piagetian theory, Schachter’s Externality theory of obesity and Consumer theory. A study has been conducted as a part of this paper to analyze the impact of advertisement on children and their parents. It focuses on: how ads are persuading children through online, audio-visual media, how food habits and gender perception have been negatively influenced by the commercials and what parents and other elders can do to help them.