AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF UNETHICAL ADVERTISING ON ADOLESCENTS

Since India is a country that does not have regulations against commercials to children, it felt necessary to study this area further. The purpose of conducting this study is to provide a better understanding on how advertising to adolescents have negative effects on them and also how it can be very influential in a way as to alter their decisions and even personalities. According to Dotson and Hyatt (2005) in the past years, the level of media exposure in households has changed drastically and as the media usage is increasing it consequently becomes a dominant influence on children's consumer socialization. Yes, we can say that there are a few positive influences of advertising on adolescents, but they fail to outweigh the negative effects brought about by unethical advertising. It is necessary to study on the topic as it is important to understand and know better about consumer socialization and the media exposure to unethical advertising to understand the gravity of the harm being done to adolescents.