Mutational-and-Inmutational Consequences of the Influence of Advertising on Children and Adolescents

Abstract

The article is dedicated to theoretical analysis of national and foreign surveys on the advertising impact on the target audience of children and adolescents. Children and teenagers are the most vulnerable target groups in which the language of advertising, manipulative in its essence, is particularly influential and causes the greatest primary and secondary mutational-and-inmutational effects. Attention is focused on determination of the influence of advertising in the context of the metatheory of manipulation by O. Kholod, in particular mutational and inmutational consequences of advertising influence. It is analysed in the article psychological peculiarities of manipulative influence of advertising on the target audience of children and adolescents. The impact of advertising is considered as mutational (it causes a change in the outlook and behaviour model under the influence of advertising for the better), abmutational (no change), inmutational (change of outlook and behaviour model under the influence of advertising for the worse). Due to the social significance of the studied problem, the emphasis is focused on the staging of advertising influence on children and adolescents, in particular on changes in consciousness caused by advertising and changes of behaviour. It was found out that advertising influence stimulates interest of children and teenagers to advertised production. Interest as a motive induces practical action and causes changes of usual behaviour. Inmutational or mutational changes can be consequences of manipulative impact of advertising on children due to the message suggestion. The lack of any changes under the influence of advertising (abmutation) is possible under the condition of ignoring of content of the advertising message, lack of desire to act or lack of effective means for changes. It is established that children make a group of potential risk, and adolescents are a group of increased risk among another target groups of consumers of promotional products. It is determined that the influence of advertising on the target audience of children and adolescents should be considered as a matrakazh, which mainly provokes the inmutational changes of behaviour, the result of which is a social mimicry. Special attention needs to be paid to inmutational consequences of influence of advertising on children and teenagers: to deformation of motivating needs; to formation of negative image; to appearance of tendency to conformism; to idealization of the virtual world; to a cognitive dissonance; to stereotyped thinking and behaviour; to teenage nihilism, to social mimicry.