Sexualization Of Advertising Essay

Today's teenager is tomorrow's potential regular customer, and the overwhelming majority of smokers first begin to smoke while still in their teens.... The smoking patterns of teenagers are particularly important to Philip Morris- Internal Document of Philp Morris
Corporations are exploiting or neglecting (sometimes both at once) children’s unique vulnerabilities and needs (76). A massive and growing kid marketing industry is targeting children with increasingly callous and devious methods to manipulate their forming and vulnerable emotions, cultivate compulsive behaviour, and addle their psyches with violence, sex and obsession (77). In the process, they are exhibiting reckless disregard for the safety and wellbeing of these children. Whether marketing unhealthy products to children, recommending unhealthy dietary alternatives, presenting distorted image of body and self, sexualising the childhood or driving them towards materialism, the questionable practices of marketers have all seriously compromised the physical and

For marketers, sex sells. It taps deep feelings and emerging curiosities of children (87). But there are serious costs associated with sexualization of childhood. Research links media sexualization to a series of tangible harms to girls: lack of confidence in and comfort with their bodies, eating disorders, low self-esteem, depression, distraction, shame, anxiety, self-disgust, unhealthy sexual attitudes and practices, and sexual problems in adulthood(88). Beyond the issues of selling unhealthy products and sexualization of kids, marketers promote materialism among kids. Research has linked overly materialist attitudes in both children and adults to unhappiness, anxiety and depression, weakened emotional attachments, less ability to empathize and cooperate with others, and narcissistic, manipulative, and antisocial