Advertising is playing a big role in our everyday life. We can face with it on television, in newspapers and magazines, on the internet, on billboards and in other ways and different places. We often don't realize the impact of advertisements on our buying decisions. The aim of each advertisement is to convince people to buy a particular product. The advertisers use different techniques, to convince us to buy their product. Due to the fact that they can often convince an adult and educated person, it is alarming to have a major impact on our children. A large proportion of advertisements is dedicated to them. Children, especially the youngest constitute sensitive population, because their cognitive thinking is not fully developed yet. Therefore, they can not distinguish the difference between programming content and advertisement, in particular, they can not figure out the purpose and the persuasive nature of advertising.
In the research part of the thesis, I used the interview to determine attitude of primary school students towards advertising. I conducted a structured interview with students in the first, sixth and ninth grade. In the first part, I asked students some general questions about advertising. In the second part, we had a look at four printed advertisement and watched four video advertisements, later on we had a discussion about them. The results showed that students of all ages notice and pay attention to the advertisements, especially the ones they are interested in. However, they have a greater impact on younger students who do not fully understand the purpose of advertising. Most of the students are attracted to advertisements that are interesting, original, funny and engaging with music. We can conclude that advertisers want to attract the attention of children in different ways. More frequently as students see the advertisement, the more they remember. Advertisement triggers in students the desire for a particular product to purchase it, and they try in different ways to convince their parents to buy it. It is important that students in school learn about advertising and develop a critical attitude towards advertising and consumerism.
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