With the expansion of commercialism and advertisement that targets teens, our youth of today are blinded by materialistic values. Technology has made it increasingly easier for marketers to target the youth of our population, causing them to continuously want more and more. The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood created a documentary which discussed the ethics of advertising to kids. In this documentary, the researchers discovered that when asking kids "what do you want to be when you grow up?" answers have evolved from concrete jobs such as astronauts and policemen, to statements such as "I want to be rich." Materialistic objects have become the main focus of our youth's lives, disregarding important virtues as simple as kindness and respect. Policemen and Firemen are no longer the heroes of our society, we now look up to businessmen and celebrities who own a lot of material things. Some teenagers will go to great extremes just to get "rich," without taking into consideration who they are stomping on and who they are harming while doing so. Jobs that involve cheating people out and selling drugs are common amongst teenagers because it is a quick and easy way to earn cash. Furthermore, material items have caused our youth to grow up before they are ready. Little girls will dress like their favourite skimpy pop stars and young boys mimic the aggressive behaviours of their favourite action movie heroes. Even more than that, children are being exposed to these movies earlier on because the rating system is getting less and less strict.
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In Quebec, it is no longer legal to advertise to children, however, due to our large amount of American content, child advertisements are still being viewed everyday. Greater efforts must be enforced in order to truly make a difference. Kids are growing up into teenagers who forget what is really important and what they should really be working towards. Jobs used to be about duty and playing a role in society. Nowadays, it is about individual gain in order to be able to own as much stuff as we can. The questions that we must ask ourselves is firstly, is it ethical to advertise to a population who does not understand or even realize what is being done to them? And secondly, do these material items truly make us happy in the end? Our society has to get back to focusing on real emotions, rather than concrete objects which we can own. Solidarity and community will soon disintegrate through individualism and greed. Let's stop letting advertisers decide on what should make us happy. Let's stop wanting material objects that don't mean anything in the end. Let's look back and reflect on who the real heroes in our lives should be.
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