2). According to Tepperman and Curtis (2009) “television is the primary medium accessible to your children and is a potent agent of socialization” (Tepperman & Curtis, 2009, p. 66). Easy access to media combined with the fact that “children are bombarded with over three thousand commercial messages each day” (Barbaro, 2008) leads one to the conclusion that marketers are exploiting children’s socialization process to create lifelong customers. According to Hill (2011), consumer culture does not offer children any sort of empowerment or real freedom of choice. All it does is trap kids in an “endless quest of acquisition tied to identity” (Hill, 2011, p. …show more content…
Hill (2011) explains that girls are “swamped by ultra-thin ideals not only in the form of dolls but also in figures that appear in comics, cartoons, TV, movies and all forms of advertising along with all the associated merchandising” (Hill, 2011, p.358). These messages directly relate body image and ownership of goods to girl’s self-identity and Dittmar (2006) claims that the “ultra-thin female beauty ideals have been linked with the extraordinary prevalence of negative body image and unhealthy eating patterns among girls and women” (Dittmar et al., 2006, p. 283). Furthermore, young boys also fall prey to the social pressures of modern advertising and marketing; they are subject to an overwhelming number of violent advertising for toys, food, and media programs during their formative years (Barbaro, 2008). Studies have “repeatedly found positive associations between media violence and aggressive thoughts, hostile emotions, and aggressive or violent behavior… in both children and adults” (Jones et al., 2010, p.