In Class Assignment Week 5- Unfair Advertising Practices

Unfair advertising practices are advertisements that aren't adjusted correctly for different niche audiences with different demographics. One type of a special audience that needs advertising directly focused on their niche is children. Children need this special type of advertising because they are not matured and have a lack of maturation; maturation is predicated on knowing what something is and having experienced that thing. "Think of maturation as a series of gates along the path to higher media literacy" (Media Literacy 57). Once one reaches a more developed level of maturation, they are able to break down and process media in a more effective and coherant manner, once they have reached a higher level of maturation they will also have experienced more and be able to relate to what they are seeing in the media. An unfair advertising practice for this niche audience would be something about a serious relationship, they are not going to relate to the relationship that is occuring in the commercial, they are going to want to see a commercial that is appropriate and applies to their age group, it needs to be something relateable. This special audience needs to be protected from harmful or confusing advertising. Children need to be able to see the difference between program content and commercial content. "Young children are fuzzy about the difference between program content and communication content" (Media Literacy 62). Now there are new laws in place that require this separation to occur, childrens minds can be clouded very easily with the programming they see on television. Now there is a clear line where advertising practices can become unfair and unjust toward certain special niche audiences.

Potter, W. James. Media Literacy. 4th ed. Minneapolis: Sage Publications, Inc, 2007. Print.