Children are exposed to more advertisements than ever before. The average child sees 40,000 television ads per year. This does not include the ads kids are exposed to during video, Internet, and product promotions. Advertising targets our emotions. It is often hard to resist that emotional appeal. Children under eight are not able to tell the difference between the program content and advertising. Parents can help children understand the intent of advertisements by: 1) The American Academy of Pediatric recommended guidelines for media use state children's total media time (with entertainment media) should be no more than 1 to 2 hours of quality programming per day. Television viewing for children younger than 2 years is discouraged. 2) Taking time to be with children when they use media. Talk about the advertisements. Help them understand what they see and what it means by asking questions about the ad. What part is real? What part isn’t real? What part of the ad caught your attention? How did it make you feel? Who made the ad? What are they trying to get you to do? 3) Be clear about your values on marketing and commercialism. Your children will pick up on your values and attitudes. 4) Create your celebrations around culture and tradition, not commercialism. 5) Participate in community and national events that support commercial-free childhood and media literacy such as "Turn Off the TV Week" and "Buy Nothing Day." References: Linn, Susan. Consuming Kids: Protecting Our Children from the Onslaught of Marketing and Advertising. First Anchor Books Edition, August 2005. Kunkel, Dale PhD, Wilcox, Brian L. PhD, Cantor, Joanne PhD, Palmer, Edward, PhD Linn, Susan EdD, Dowrick, Peter PhD. Report of the APA Task Force on Advertising and Children, February 20, 2004. Bar-on, M; Broughton, D; Buttross, S; Corrigan, S; Gedissman, A; Gonzales de Rivas, M.R.; Rich, M.; Shifrin, D., PEDIATRICS Vol. 107 No. 2 February 2001, pp. 423-426 Policy Statement AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS: Children, Adolescents, and Television Committee on Public Education

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