Advertising has had a powerful impact on children today. From songs to logos to characters, advertisers keep their audience in mind. Competition is the force that pushes advertisers to target children. Children are targeted by the slogans, animated characters and toys in these competitive advertisements. The textbook used in class (Huffman, 2002) describes that “advertising has many” methods to encourage the individual to “purchase its products and services”. The advertising company surrounds a particular candidate, such as a child, and immediately sinks its teeth into the child's mind to manipulate them into wanting their products. Through television, cartoons, and magazine advertisements, children are hit with one subliminal message after another. They are shown how this product will improve their status by making them the envy of all their friends. Whether it's a food or a particular slogan, a child can be the easiest target for advertisers to exploit. Many types of foods aimed at children have a slogan associated with them. Advertisements use these slogans to implant their product in children's memories. Goldfish crackers are an example. “I love fish because they're so delicious…” That's the theme of a well-known commercial advertising Pepperidge Farm goldfish crackers. The children sing the slogan over and over throughout the commercial. By the time the ad ends the line, the products inevitably remain engraved in the child's mind. The ad says "...and my mother says it's good", implying to children that their parents will allow them to eat this snack. Another example of a product with an addictive slogan is Oscar Meyer Bologna. “My Bologna has a first name, it’s OSCAR…” Instead of selling the product itself, this song aims to sell the brand. The Oscar Meyer Company is holding auditions for Oscar Meyer's next child. Again, their goal is to sell their brand. The company also offers another product with another catchy song, Oscar Meyer's Hot Dogs. “I would like to be an Oscar Meyerwiener…” The accent of this sentence is also the brand. Oscar Meyer's commercials use children to sing these songs and, like the goldfish commercial, the song was burned into a child's memory in the middle of a paper, without adult supervision. Many children who watch television are 8 years old or younger and do not fully understand the importance of the subliminal messages that companies send using their cartoons and catchy songs to entice the child to buy their products. I believe that advertising is a modern example of brainwashing and that without parental oversight and parental boundaries, the youth of our country will be so captivated by the power of advertising that their youth and innocence will disappear much more quickly than the previous generation . power of suggestion to sell a product. In the case of children, a company's advertising hopes to suggest that its product is the best. Many food companies target children in the hopes that they can influence their parents' choices when it comes to purchasing a product. Animated characters, slogans and toys are used to attract a child towards the product. WORKS CITED Dittmann, Melissa. (2004, June 6). Protect children from advertising. Monitor onPsychology, 35, 1-4.http://www.apa.org/monitor/jun04/protecting.htmlHuffman, Karen. (2002). Psychology in action. New York: Palomar College.