This is not understood by most children. They do not understand the intent of the advertisement and they accept the advertising assertions as real and believable. Other food commercials that are shown during children's programming depict high-calorie foods that become harmful to the children's health when eaten in abundance. "Television viewing has been associated with obesity, the most prevalent nutritional disease among children in the United States" (Sissors, 153). So while the child is watching television instead of playing outside or running around having some sort of exercise he or she is inside watching television that promotes an unhealthy lifestyle. Also, according to Sissors, the bombardment of advertising of such things as food and toys often results in greater conflict between the children and their parents. Commercials target children to believe that they should get what they see advertised in order to have more fun. Mills and Chaisson note that there are two significant types of parents, "some parents argue with children, while others purchase advertised toys to keep children from experiencing distress from not having what they want" (122). Robertson adds, "North American children nag their parents to buy them something on average of 15 times during each shopping trip, but Mom gives in only half the time" (340). These factors are detrimental to children not only in their physical health but their mental health as well.
The effects of advertising on children do not stop there. The advertising of alcohol and beer as well as cigarettes is damaging to a child's health but more so to an adolescent's health. Adolescents are in a transitional stage of reasoning. They are old enough to reason and understand a commercial or an advertisement but they are still greatly influenced by them and their contents. Because teenagers have a wider range of television viewing, they are more constantly bombarded with the beer and alcohol campaigns that are shown on television.