Spend some time looking around the site, then respond to the following in a blog post:
- describe any examples of advertising or product placement you see
- analyze how you think this kind of marketing might affect a child who visits this site
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
"Consuming Kids: By Any Means Necessary"
Explore a virtual world that's popular with kids or a website where kids gather: Nicktropolis, PBSkids.org, or Discovery Kids are examples.
Spend some time looking around the site, then respond to the following in a blog post:
Spend some time looking around the site, then respond to the following in a blog post:
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I played a game from PBSkids.org andnoticed that advertising was very evident. In the game I played characters from the popular kids show Dragon Tales were involved. Kids who play this game are influenced to watch the show more often and maybe buy apparel, making PBS more money.
ReplyDeleteon club penguin they show a lot of the club otherwise staying that it show the product not only using games but also using trading card games to make the product shown.
ReplyDeletewell on nicktropolis there are like 10 product placements for things like i carly, harry potter, gushers, etc. a child would easily be tempted to view or purchase the things they advertise because its always there being advertised
ReplyDeleteThe games on the websites all have either licensed characters or a product within it. In the games on Nicktropolis, there are main characters all over the place. Also, there are links from that website to others. They're advertising games next to their licensed characters, associating them with each other. The linked games are probably paid advertisements, but they're disguised just as another game. They link to neopets and addicting games, for example, and send you to another website when you choose a game to play. PBS had all of their main characters scattered within their games, but there was only one advertisment at the bottom of the page. This might show that they're less oriented toward selling, but they're not omitted from the advertising status.
ReplyDeleteWhen I played the games in Nicktropolis I noticed that there is a lot of advertisment. When you play one game and it's over, another one pops up right after to make the child see their product. On PBS it is all about their shows not as much about products as Nicktropolis was. In some games you play they'll put in a product either at the top where you look for more games or even on the side. Every where on the page is covered in a different advertisment that targets all age and sex kids.
ReplyDeleteI played a few games on Build-A-Bear.com. The site is very influencing to have kids go there to make a bear. All the games have the bears in them and they even has printable pictures and computer wallpapers. In the games you can dress the bears, play as the bears, and things like that. It would have any kid that plays it asking mommy to go to Build-A-Bear to make one.
ReplyDeleteI visited the site of Nickelodeon and went to specifically the Spongebob section. They had 11 pages of games. All having objectives while having spongebob in them which makes me think that when kids play those games that they want to watch spongebob more and will buy products that have spongebob on them.
ReplyDeleteon club penguin intead of playing the games i visited the store. once i got there, there was loads of ads that these toys and books and cards are at target, wal mart, and toysRus. Disney was a bog part of it too. this will influence the kids to go to those stores and buy the products making the store money and the website more popular and addicting
ReplyDeletei went to nick . com and found that there was advertisement everywhere. many of them were for new movies and t.v. shows. one add was a movie called cloudy with a chance of meat balls??? what is that?
ReplyDeleteI went on nick.com and there were ads all over the place. Surrounding the game were ads and before each game they had an ad pop up. Most of the ads were either for other games on the site or shows on nick. A few ads were for up coming kids movies. The games involved characters from the nick shows. All this advertising causes kid to want to play more computer games and watch t.v. instead of doing activities.
ReplyDeleteI visited Nick.com and it many differnt advertisments in the games as well as the web site itself were evident. While loading the spongebob game a lucky charms advertisment was being played. Cereals such as these are popular among little kids. In the spongebob game characters from the show helped advertize the cartoon,by using its fun and appeal to want the kids to possibly buy spongebob apperel, and watch the show. These techniques helped advertize in a way for kids to want and feel the need to buy these things, helping support nickolodean and making them money.
ReplyDeleteve kids fine things.i have also noticed on some other kid sites that there are other ads on the website like one was for frosted flakes.
ReplyDeleteIn these childrens games when you play the main character you are always the good guy saving the day. Kids see this and want to be like the characters and it draws them to the product it is advertising. I played a tv show game and the character was a csi agent and you investigate who steals his hat. I think children get interested in this and become more into the show because they wanna be like them and idiolize them. And through out all of the games there are other side characters and placement adding to the game making kids more interested in the show its self sublimanally rather than just the main character.
ReplyDeletei went to PBSkids.org and i played with the games and not one game doesnt have a known character so if kids get online and play the games and if the enjoyed it they are more likly to watch the shows, and get clothes or etc. that have the characters on it.
ReplyDeleteI thought all the games where really quick and made for kids with short attention spands. I think its easy to manipulate children when theres games like dragon tales and clifford kisses.
ReplyDeleteOn Nicktropolis there are ads on the top and sides of almost page although it is there i dont know that it would really affect them that much. To me it seems like kids would see it as something that they have to get out of the way before the game comes up.
ReplyDeleteWhen Im trying to click any bottons on the PBSkids.org wedsitd, different voices come out. And those voices all likely encourage the kids to keep playing in their wedsite and that really can impact kids`curiosity which can make kids to caring about what they showed on the wedsite. But those voices for most adults sound more like noise.
ReplyDeleteI went to discovery kids and even a "supposed to be educational", or atleast more educational compared to other channels, site had known charaters all over the home page. Some of the games were more educational, but its still all about advetisment.
ReplyDeletei watch all of the advertising that popped up just by going to disneys site etc. everything was bright and caught your attention.. pbskids.org has little penguins of diff. colors and games on the sides you can play which advertise television shows etc. advertisments are everywhere!
ReplyDeletethere were alot of links to redirect kids to different pages with games and all sorts of childrens things to keep them from doing physical stuff and being active. There were tv shows, movies, other sites, games all on this one site. All of this stuff seriously attracts kids to the site and consumes them
ReplyDelete