Television commercials have a huge impact on how it affects children. Commercials are the biggest form of advertisement geared toward children. Children between the ages of two and eleven view well over 20,000 television commercials yearly, and that breaks down to 150 to 200 hours (National Institute on Media and the Family, 1998). Television advertisements geared towards children have the biggest market by far. The advertising market in 1997 showed that children under twelve years of age spent well over twenty-four millions dollars of their own money on products they saw on television. Advertising also influenced the spending of over one hundred and eighty-eight billion dollars more (Kanner &

Kasser, 1998). Kanner and Kasser go on to say that advertisers have even hired psychologists as consultants to help the advertisers come up with fine-tuned commercials that attract children (1998). In 1999, a group of psychologists wrote to the American Psychological Association asking them to restrict the use of psychological research by advertisers to help sell their products to children. This letter also called for, "an ongoing campaign to probe, review and confront the use of psychological research in advertising and marketing to children" (Hays 1999). This letter wants the American Psychological Association to promote strategies that shield children from the manipulation and exploitation that psychologists when helping advertisers market their products to children. There is no end is sight for the finely tuned advertising child market. Some child advertisers boldly admit that the commercials they use exploit children and create conflicts within the family (Kanner & Kasser, 1998). Kanner and Kasser go on to say that, advertisers also work very hard to increase their products "nag factor". This term often refers to how often children pressure their parents to buy the item they saw advertised on television (1998). Gender roles are another topic that commercials show. According to the National Institute on Media and the Family, gender bias currently favors boys over girls in most advertisements. It also says that girls are more likely to show an interest in boys' products, than boys would be in girls' products. In addition, advertisers favor using boys in their commercials, even when the commercial is showing a gender-neutral product (1998). Since there are a large number of commercials aimed towards children, stereotypical behaviors in advertisements have a tremendous impact on how children view themselves. It also influences them to think about what they are able to do and what the commercial says they can do. According to the National Institute on Media and the Family, some typical gender role stereotypes advertised in commercials are as follows. Commercials that had boys often showed them in a non-home setting, showed them engaging in anti-social behavior, and showed them using more products in different activities than girls. Commercials with girls only, were more likely to be set in a home and girls in commercials only show socially acceptable behaviors (1998). The role of girls has changed from advertisements in the past because girls were shown doing only passive activities. Girls in commercials today are doing both passive and active activities. Gender role stereotyping in commercials often times influence children in a negative way. Television commercials have a huge impact on how it affects children.

There are laws and organizations out there help protect children from advertisers in the television industry. Advertising is a powerful took in American culture today; it exists solely to sell products and services. Advertising to children has not always been legal. In 1750 BC, the Code of Hammurabi made it a crime to sell anything to a child without obtaining consent (Shelov, S. et. al, 1995). Things in the advertising industry have changed significantly since then. In 1978, Michael Pertschuk, the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, tried to restrict television advertisement

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