Free Hook’em Young: Mcadvertising And Kids In Singapore Article Review Sample

Response to Paper

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The idea of making their products and advertisements with children in mind is actually the first of its kind. It is the only reason for the prosperity of McDonald’s until this day. History gives evidence of the fact that only ingenious ideas in business prosper.
The topic of the writers paper brings a question in mind. What if the marketing strategy of McDonalds focused its advertising and marketing on the usual crowd, adults? Would we even be able to know the name of McDonald’s till this day or would it have perished like so many other businesses.
Using images of their culture the McDonald’s advertising agency in Singapore has been able to grab the attention of young audience. With scenery of their country and television stars in their advertisements, they are able to promote their products.
It has been very truly stated in the last pages of this paper that food and television separates children from their parents. It shows and teaches them the love of material wealth and not to cherish their relationships with family.
In this paper, the author has stated data as a matter of factly and has written it in an amicable tone. Nevertheless, while reading it, I could not fail to feel a manipulative aspect of this marketing campaign. The advertisements target the young audience in their age of innocence, when they have not even begun to fathom the meaning of words like advertisement and manipulation. By showing similar objects, they first establish a familiar boundary through their advertisements. Later they incorporate thoughts and products which get inscribed in the minds of children.
Through introducing friendly characters like Ronald McDonald, who are always smiling and laughing and creating advertisements in which children are laughing and playing around Ronald, they make the other children believe that McDonald’s is a good place to be. Using emotional cues such as showing a man with a child eating McDonald fries, they trigger emotional feelings in children and think that fries will be the only way to get into their father’s lap and be with him.
Finally, no matter how we look at it, the revenue generators for McDonald’s are parents. By marketing for children, they target the parents by making the apple of their eye force their parents to buy them happy meals, fries, burgers and ice-creams. Not a single parent can say NO to their child. Consequently, parents will also eat food at McDonald’s when they bring their children. This will lead to more sales.
This sort of marketing strategy is a long term planning as childhood patterns are hard to shake-off as one grows up. This habit of eating will be their until the teenage and possibly their adult age and in such a manner McDonald’s would have created a permanent customer for themselves.

Works Cited

Chua, S. K., & Junaid, A. (2008). Hook’em Young: McAdvertising and Kids in Singapore. Asian Media Studies: Politics of Subjectivities, 37-54.