ADVERTISING ESSAY

       AD TARGETING CHILDREN

One of the powerful forces in American culture is advertising. Advertising is a tool for communicating information and shaping markets. Most advertising companies spend a great deal of time and money trying to understand the human behavior from the point of view of motivation and drives and then tailor their ads to appeal to those audiences. As talked about in Jib Fowles "Advertising Fifteen Basic Appeals," advertisers are trying to bypass the logical, cautious, skeptical powers of the consumers and emotionally appealing to their minds. They are trying to find out the deep-lying desires of the consumers and also working hard to discover the place where there messages have the greatest likelihood of getting by consumers’ defense.

I have chosen to write about McDonald’s ad targeting children. McDonalds has been very successful and most of its success can be attributed to its advertising campaign explicitly targeting younger audience. In the ad you can see four kids in casual clothing dancing and following the most well-known clown mascot in the world. The clown is happily playing a guitar and enticing the kids to follow him to McDonalds. The kids seem to be enjoying and having fun.  The background in the ad is all white. There are no words, just the picture of kids with the clown. There does not seem to be anything more to this ad, but as often is the case in advertisements, appearances can be deceiving. When we take a closer look at this add we realize that this ad does not promote fast food at McDonalds.  The main meta-message in the ad is that McDonald is the place where kids can have fun and enjoy.  Basically the ad promotes excitement and fun for kids at McDonalds. 

McDonalds has definitely been one of the most popular fast food places where people of all ages can have food, but its way of attracting costumers is mostly through children. They are advertising and targeting children thinking that if you appeal to the kids, the kids can then convince or force parents to take them to McDonalds.  For many companies, part of advertising means creating cute little mascots or advertising icons that will catch buyers’ attention. Ronald McDonald, first introduced in 1963, is a clown-like advertising mascot designed by McDonalds Corporation to appeal to young children, as children are very fond of clowns. Clowns are associated with being fun, silly, and friendly which are all things that children enjoy. In the ad the clown’s costume is bright and inviting and he is shown interacting with normal kids in their everyday lives. Children do not realize that Ronald McDonald is just a guy in a costume and make-up. They see the mascot “Ronald” on television, in coloring books, signs, billboards etc., relate to the character, admire him and are reminded about McDonalds. The clown in the ad also has the famous McDonald’s logo on his dress which helps children who do not have the knowledge to read or write to understand that the ad is about McDonalds. Ronald the clown mascot does more than just lure customers to the cash register, he represents an affordable family-friendly restaurant.

McDonalds feels that even though it’s important for kids to eat a well-balanced diet it is also equally important for them to play. They promote excitement and fun and invite kids to enjoy the casual environment and carefree experience. The kids wearing causal clothing in the ad implies that McDonalds has a very causal environment. A trip to McDonalds is in and of itself an adventure and the experience is what sells to children. As talked about in Jib Fowles "Advertising Fifteen Basic Appeals," many advertisers like appealing to the need for escape because the sensation of pleasure often accompanies escape. It might be difficult to imagine that people will be persuaded to abandon good restaurants for McDonald’s but the advertising strategy of McDonalds is to entice the kids by promoting freedom, “freedom is the pitch here, the freedom that every individual yearns for whenever life becomes too oppressive” (Fowles 82).  Kids exposed to McDonald’s advertisement are invited to momentarily depart their everyday life for a more carefree experience.

Selling products to American children has become a standard business practice. The United States is one of the few nations in the world that think that children are legitimate targets for advertisers (Pozner 109). Most fast food restaurants in USA are targeting their advertising at children and students, an important market for them, as they have realized that children’s do play a powerful role in the adult consumers' decision-making process. Children represent a great target for advertisers and marketers across the world as they are not only easily swayed by advertising; they are great at encouraging their parents and other children to buy these products. According to the new study by Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, fast food advertisements directed to children ages 2 to 12 have increased 21 percent since 2003. The study also found that in 2009 alone these fast-food restaurants spent $4.2 billion on marketing. The advertising companies know that kids usually do not pick an eating place because the food is healthy; rather they pick an eating place where they can enjoy and have fun. According to the FACTS study forty percent of children aged 2 to 11 ask their parents to go to McDonald's at least once a week, 15 percent ask to go daily and most importantly 84 percent of parents said they gave into these requests at least once a week.  It is a fact that parents will more likely give in to their kids’ demands of what they're more likely to eat.

Today there are so many products in the American marketplace, unlike other countries, that an advertiser has to figure out a way to cut through the considerable hub-hub in any way possible, which includes the emotional appeal, in order to stay in the business. Hence even the simplest direct advertisements carry subtly powerful messages and have quite an influence on the people.

Works Cited:

"Fast Food FACTS — Fast Food Facts in Brief." Fast Food FACTS — Home. Web.22 Feb. 2011. http://www.fastfoodmarketing.org/fast_food_facts_in_brief.aspx.