Youth In A Suspect Society: Advertisement Analysis

To begin with, the diversity within society is being manipulated by the advertisement industry to benefit themselves against the youth’s generation. Downey, Eccles, and Chatman provide within their book how youths have taken into consideration the different ways people interpret and interact within their social group as members, as well as the consequence along every action (17). In other words, youth have to be careful of their action because people for different interpretations of ideas. Also, diversity treats people‘s membership in social within categorize sections and those within a given social group is viewed as people within the satisfaction due to their difference (Downey, Eccles, and Chatman 17), and the commercial advertisements
profit the most due to the division in society. For example, when marketing their product to a specific social group, such as: ‘‘African Americans, woman, and white males,’’ through the drawing on the individual language and symbols, one can be the ‘‘representative’’ within their given group (Downey, Eccles, and Chatman 18). In ‘‘The Culture of American Consumption,’’ Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon, who are the authors of Sign of Life in the USA, provides an example of how much influence advertisement has on diversity within youths. A young African American boy comment how he felt the need to interchange his skinny jeans for baggy jeans on his return back home to avoid any confrontation with his community (Maasik and Solomon 85). Within the African American culture, the baggy jean culture is a symbol for the authenticity of their social group (Maasik and Solomon 85). Advertisements approach in separating the social groups has an effective reaction on youths that youths don’t have the confidence to challenge themselves in steping out of their own social group. As youths feel the need to be part of a group. The advertisement world has leaned toward the World Wide Web to target the youth’s attention due to the expansion of the digital world. In ‘‘Media’s Influence on Social Norms and Identity Development of Youth,’’ Sabrina Lea Worsham, who is the author of this blog, presents within her blog, how on an average American adolescents would spend around six and half hours per day engaging in some type of media (para. 4). Obviously, this is an extensive amount of time one would spend using these type entertainments on a daily base. However, youths are not only entertaining themselves, but also subconsciously being bombarded with an abundance of information, offering suggestion of the type of person they want to be or could be, seen through pop ups, side ads, and suggested product placement (Worsham para. 4). In ‘‘Encyclopedia of Children, Adolescents, and the Media,’’ Jeffrey J. Arnett, who is a Professor at Clark University in Massachusetts in the Psychology department, mention how much influence the media has on the youths due to the media constant bombardment of images, ideas, products, and lifestyle (288). Due to these evidences, it’s not a surprise how youths aren’t influenced through these ideas in how they should act and forming one’s identity, whether the information provided is reliable (Worsham para. 4). Along with that, media is shown to be everywhere and avoiding it is impossible, so youths becoming influenced has become a futile process.
In ‘‘Youth in a Suspect Society,’’ Giroux mentions how within America, children are being overwhelmed by commercials, while having commercials thrown at them on a daily base, youths are contributing to advertisements effort in persuading them to buy because youths spend more time with these technologies that delivers them nonstop ads (46). Also in ‘‘Transitions of Youth Citizen in Europe: Culture, Subculture and Identity,’’ by Andy Furlong, who works at the University of Glasgow as a Professor of Sociology in the School of Business and Management and Irena Guidikova, whose the Head of the Division at the Council of Europe, where this book was published. They mentioned in addition to Giroux comment, how all media are providing young people with an ongoing source of new material for creating media symbols (85). The term ‘‘media symbols’’ could be interpreted as the desires advertisements feeds their consumers, known as the social acceptance in a youth’s identity. It’s an go-to tactic because the media outlet is mostly preferred by young people, having a secure and stable position in an adolescent’s life, advertisements end up offering a ‘‘special kind of knowledge’’ (Furlong and Guidikova 85). This ‘‘special kind of knowledge’’ is associated with the nonstop ad providing direct and indirect messages to youth. It surprising to realize the
huge volume of advertising youths are exposed to through the media (Arnett xxxvi). According to Arnett, there is about forty entries on advertising offering an abundance of irresistible details that are convincing and settling (xxxvi). So, the idea that a youths’ identity could be influenced through different route other than the advertising means is impossible, for everything and anything could be advertised to influence people. Youths are directing their attention to the media as a form of resource to discover who they are. As previously mentioned, youth are noticing their surroundings and trying to conform within their social being, and the media offers that sense of reference through youths’ daily entertainments. Just as the media use television commercials to gain consumers, the World Wide Web is an addition. Because during an adolescent development, thoughts of how to ‘‘fit in society’’ is a tough time for them. As Furlong and Guidikova comments, young people are challenged in society through the coping stage of the sense of growing up, within the media and youth culture; youths are drawing up resources that they choose to learn about themselves and the World, also about ‘‘the alternative ways of being an individual on [this] World’’ (86). Advertisements are aware of their position in a youth’s life. In ‘‘Sex, Lies, and Advertising,’’ Gloria Steinem, who is best known for being a leader in transforming the image of women in America, insists that ‘‘we do know it’s the advertisers who are determining what [youths] are getting now’’ (251). As a woman who has worked at Ms. magazine for over thirty years, she is experienced to the ways advertising businesses operate and advertisements ways of behaving simpler with other category of people. Also, advertisements main tactic to influencing youths is known as the art of persuasion. As the media and consumerism influence youths, ‘‘models’’ become the influential behavior of needs and wants also used on youths (Furlong and Guidikova 274). The ‘‘models’’ Arnett mentions are people, such as celebrities, who are the admiration of youths and youths are known to emulate the behavior they respect. It has been observed the reactions young ladies would have toward the beautiful models they would notice in ad campaigns, these young ladies would convey to others how they feel the need to have a body comparison of beauty standards with the models, and the need to enhance their beauty in the belief that attractiveness is the most important in life (Worsham para. 5). As a result, these young ladies felt the need to change their appearance due to the influence of these type of ad. Although, advertisements, such as those type of ads, aren’t great towards an adolescent self-confidence, those advertisements missions through those types of campaigns is to raise emotions in their consumers in their message, accomplishing their mission to sell a product. Furthermore, in ‘‘Youth culture, the mass media, and democracy,’’ Bradley J.
Porfilio, who works in the Educational Studies department as the Assistant Professor and Paul Carr, who works in Educational Foundations as an Assistant Professor worked together on this article where they presented their discovery on the youth culture and mass media. They claim how in ‘‘today’s historical stage, media culture has possibly become the most dominant force defining the sense of self, driving our understanding of the ‘Other,’ and providing ‘symbols, myths and resources’’’ in creating this normal culture (Porfilio and Carr para. 2). Besides, the claim about the ‘‘other’’ is stating the part of a person’s personality which isn’t conscious to them. The ‘‘symbols, myths and resources’’ mentioned have to do the representative of the concepts and ideas. Although, such symbols used are changing constantly, the world of advertisement pitches different symbols and messages every so often because as advertisers are scaning the youth scene, new identity-forming elements are created evertime, which are turned into industrial products and disseminated worldwide to be used against the youths (Furlong and Guidikova 86). Furlong and Irena points out how ‘‘the cultural geographies of youths social space change relatively fast,’’ such as treads and youth culture fads will continue to change (110). Thus, many youth cultures are constantly being reproduced and renegotiated (Furlong and Guidkova 110).
Also, there has been much research done by media researcher who has notice that the media doesn’t only have a mere correlation with children’s development, but also a huge influence on their development (Arnett xxxvi). For this reason, advertisers continuous observation of the different trends among youth are being expanded to reach their interests and needs; and continue to stay relevant in youths’ lives. As children and adolescents continue their journey through life, they will continue making ‘‘media choices based on their individual characteristics’’ (Arnett xxxvi), and advertisers will continue to have a leverage over the youths. To sum up, advertisements will have and continue to have a huge influence on youth live due to the involvement the media has with youths. The involvement advertisement has with youths, leave youths in a vulnerable state. Youths are put in a vulnerable position because they are at the age of self-discovering and advertising offers different option of what would interest them. Also, as young adolescents, beings your own unique individual self isn’t an admired attribute because youths are unsure of who they are and their true desires. So, advertisements group adolescents into categories which would fit either their race or gender. While doing this, advertising is gaining a healthy amount of consumers. Then as youth focus their attention towards technology, a wider marketing is opened to youths. As a result, youths cling to the advertising world to direct them to ‘‘themselves.’’ Advertising present is assertive to youths with the messages and products that they are the needed items in their lives to fit within this society. Although, the sense of identity is a social concept which ones engage in every day, but through a youth eyes, they are incomplete without one and advertising comes right along.