I spent this previous weekend in the magical city of Paris, France. Since most of Paris's main attractions are spread apart throughout the city, my group took the metro everywhere. The metro is a prime location for advertising, and I was exposed to a lot of it while I was there. One observation I made while exploring the city was that French advertisement is meant to excite and seduce. I was alarmed to see these sexual ads in a public place. So many families with young children use the metro as a main form of transportation, and I find it disturbing that so many children are exposed to this content while using the metro. One ad that stood out to me displayed an almost naked woman and red lipstick prints in it. It was an ad for an "adult" club. Of course, there are ads in America that feature raunchy material, but they are usually located in places that children do not usually have access to. If ads do happen to be in public places that have a high traffic flow, like billboards on the interstate that advertise "adult" clubs and "exotic" dancing, there are not pictures of women being objectified plastered on the billboards. There are only words describing the facility. Do you think media should be regulated in public places or do you think that exposing children to sexual ads early on in life helps them become more comfortable with the subject?
I completely believe that sexual or risqué ads should not be allowed in public spaces. It's the job of the school or parent to educate a child, not scandalous women exposing themselves on a poster. I too was in Paris this weekend and saw the exact same media. On one side of a tunnel there would be an advertisement for Disney Land Paris, and the other would be one for "barely noticeable" condoms. If companies for products that can be inappropriate for children want to advertise they can do it via an exclusively adult medium. Something you pay for expecting to see that content, not because you bought a subway ticket for your seven year old.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lauren completely. I feel like pushing this explicit content onto young children can be dangerous. Although it may make them more mature at an earlier age, why is that necessarily needed? When I have kids, I will never voluntarily expose them to crude content like the "barely noticeable" condom ad like Lauren mentioned at such a young age. It makes me wonder if this effects children in a good or bad way towards their teenage years. No matter what, it should be up to parents to decide what they will expose their children too, and having to sensor their eyes while in public shouldn't be necessary.
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