There are a lot of factors in our first world society that could lead to a materialistic mind set. There is, however, one factor that stands out among all others; this is advertising. Advertising has been proven to spur materialism, especially among children. This is not really the fault of the child or even the parents. These days, advertising cannot be avoided, no matter what measures are taken. The excess advertisements that we see on a daily basis stimulates more desire for an array of products. American children have spent an estimated $500 billion in retail. Children are especially vulnerable to advertising because they have little sense of cost. Suzanna Opree has done extensive research on the effects of advertising on children, and her research revealed a strong correlation between the amount of time exposed to television and materialism.

Opree studied the connection between the amount of television that children between the ages of 8 and 11 watched and from this, found the amount of this time that was spent watching advertisements. She then asked the children questions like “Do you feel unhappy if you can’t buy the things you actually want to have?” and “Do you think that other children would like you better if you had a lot of expensive things?” They found a heavy correlation between the answers to these questions and the expression of materialistic values by these children. Opree concluded at the end of the study that children that were exposed to more advertisements, had a greater desire for the things they saw being advertised and therefore were determined to be more materialistic than those children who were exposed to less.

Opree also studied the average happiness of children that were exposed to certain amounts of advertisements. There was also a correlation between the amount of advertisements watched and happiness of children. For this study, Opree and her team focused more on tweens because this is the age that signs of materialism begin to show. Opree found that the children that watched for television reported being less happy with their lives than those that did not. Opree explained that this phenomenon is a result of the techniques of advertising agencies. The message that children are receiving from these advertisements are that buying a certain product will make you happy or popular. Since children can’t attain all these products, they are vulnerable to unhappiness. Children that have this mentality in their youth, carry it onto adulthood, causing them to be materialistic adults and still never feeling satisfied.   

So what can parents do to have more grateful and happy children? Well, there is little they can do about it. Since advertising is so prevalent in our society it is almost impossible to shield children from it. Instead of trying to shield children from it, Opree suggests teaching children about the goal of advertising. At a young age, children and tweens are unaware of the manipulation that they are succumbing to when they are exposed to advertisements. If parents educate their children on this manipulation and how it should not affect their view of themselves and others, children will be more educated about their surroundings.

Education about the techniques of advertising is something that, I believe, everyone should be educated on. We are manipulated everyday without even realizing it. Although this specific study was done with children, everyone is vulnerable to the effects of advertisements. Agencies can make any product desirable through various techniques. Because advertising is so prevalent in our society, we are more aware than ever of everything that we don’t and most often, can’t have. It is no coincidence that materialism has increased among our society at very similar rates that advertisements have increased. It is important for everyone to be educated on what they are being exposed to on a daily basis. Every advertisement, no matter what it is, is meant to make you feel something. This feeling is what we need to be educated on. If we realize it is the actors or the dialogue of the advertisement making us feel a certain way and not the actual product they’re advertising, our mindset may change. With this knowledge, our society may become happier overall.