Advertising and Its Effects on Teen Culture

In the 21st century, advertising is part of everyday life.  You are bombarded with ads while watching TV, driving, listening to the radio, reading a magazine or browsing the internet.  Eventually, all of the advertising can get to your head and actually change how you act, dress or what kind of music you listen to.

Everyone has their own set of morals and ways to act and react.  Over time, these ways to act and react.  Over time, these ways naturally change.  Sometimes, the change isn’t natural at all.  Some teenagers try to be like the people in advertisements.  At times, this could be a positive if something like volunteering or helping out in the community is being advertised.  This isn’t usually the case though.  Most of the time you are perceived as “cool” by the advertisement if you act a certain way, or use their product.  I have a real example of something that I saw on tv the other day.  A new Axe commercial is on advertising their shampoos and styling gels.  It says that if male supermodels can’t pick up girls without using their products, “What chance do you have?”  I couldn’t believe what I had heard.  They were flat out telling guys that you will not get a girl without using their product.  Pretty low if you ask me.  This is an example of how the media is telling teenagers what is “cool”, and not reflecting what real teens think is actually “cool”.

            A large part of teen culture is fashion.  Many teens just have to wear the latest shoes, tops and sunglasses.  Where do these fashion trends come from?  I can tell you that most of the time, these trends aren’t coming from the teenagers themselves.  Magazines influence teens (the magazines usually are targeting teens/young adults) with ads that have cool slogans or hot models.  Have you ever seen an “ugly” girl modeling clothes before?  I didn’t think so.  If all these good looking people are wearing this or that brand of clothing, it must be cool, right?  Tactics like these are what draw teens into purchasing the company’s products and give teens less influence on their own culture.

I like to think that the largest part of teen culture is music.  Most teens listen to some genre of music whether it be rock, rap, hip hop, country, techno or metal.  The rock stars and pop icons that create this music have a huge influence on teens.  Who creates these icons?  The first thing that pops into my mind is MTV.  MTV has the power to turn any band into superstars.  All MTV has to do is find any unknown band, give them show time and market them like crazy.  These bands can become stars overnight.  Teens seem to eat up whatever is being shown on MTV.  For this reason, any advertising from shows like MTV, is influencing teen culture instead of reflecting it.

As we see more and more advertisements every day, we have to stop and think.  Who’s culture is this, ours or the big corporations?  At this point in time, I have to say that advertising these days is not reflecting teen culture, but influencing it instead.