CHOCOLATE FOR MORONS?

Many food companies, including chocolates, advertise to children and teens. After all they are the ideal advertising audience. They are receptive, influential with their friends and parents, and have a whole lifetime of purchasing ahead of them.

Recently, parents have been worried about the influence of advertising on obesity among children. In some parts of the world food companies have complied with regulatory bodies on the content of advertisements that are aimed at children. Obesity is also a problem that the parents can help with by supervising the calorie and type of food intake of their children.

What is really difficult is when food companies advertising, including that of chocolate, influence children to be "fatheads"- plain dumb!This is more difficult for parents to control or tackle because it often needs complex explanations.

This week, I saw the most moronic chocolate wafer television advertisement ever. On prime children's time. This 30 second advertisement showed an imbecile, unshaven and obviously unwashed,being fed in bed by two giggling women, on strawberries dipped in chocolate. It didn't seem to do much for the imbecile as he continued to have a blissful imbecilic expression throughout. The advertisement was for a strawberry flavoured chocolate wafer.

Can you imagine chocolate that is scientifically proven to improve the cognitive and learning shills seems to have had no effect on the manufacturer, the advertising agency or the cast in this television advertisement. Obviously an imitation.

Here,s where the manufacturer and his agency has misread their audience. A child of five is already deft with the computer. He or she has been exposed to good tasteful programmes on television(if parents are wisely choosing the channels and programmes).
They can rationalise, they can evaluate, they can be unreceptive if they choose.A bad advertisement is a rude and ugly intrusion into a child's experience.

An advertisement, especially on television is bad when it is cheap to look at. Obviously cheap to produce. When it is ugly. When it is untrue.
It is bad when it conveys no message of value,or is confusing or irrational message to a child or a teen.And when it does the product undeserving harm.
It is bad especially when it undermines the child's belief on what is good from all his or her points of view.

There are fortunately very good chocolate and chocolate candy ads with slick, easy messages. It's not too difficult for right down, chocolate is the ideal taste for a fun and relaxing moment. It's a clean, every body's environment friendly story.