Wednesday, February 9, 2011

TV Commercials and their Effects on Kids?

When a doctor comes up with a diagnosis of an emotional problem as the cause of a medical problem, only the patient knows the feelings he or she is going through. Not a parent, a spouse, a sibling, a friend, a teacher or a student, would know what the patient is going through . Parents of a minor do get hurt and so do adult children  of elderly people. No one can come close to the pain the patient feels. The patients' councilor or the patient's "buddy" who is willing to help the patient get through the process of acceptance and dealing with reality may get a general idea of the pain that the patient feels. So please do not put the patient through any more anguish especially if the patient is coherent and sharply intelligent and astute. Now don't you think the urgently warranted attitude is that of understanding ? Shed all the stigma, the facade, the arrogance and the the touch ups the artist gave your family portrait and accept the diagnosis and embrace the patient.
This world is made up of hundreds of good things, but again it has  hundreds of bad and painful things. There are things that can benefit human beings and then there are things that can harm human beings. So please do not add to the things that can harm human beings by having a wrong attitude about various illnesses, conditions or problems.
In the eightys the commercial for "Candy Apple Cooler"  made a lot of little girls want to look like Alisa Malino. A few decades ago the little girl on the salt box made little girls twirl their umbrellas and say "when it rains, it pours". A couple of days ago a concerned parent posted on Facebook that her daughter wants to know how to be depressed so she can look like the girl in the commercial for a depression medicine because the actress caught her eye. So the actress may be pretty and this desire could be just a silly preteen emotion. I just hope that the parents would try to find out if there is an underlying issue and also hope that they will educate her about the seriousness of depression or other emotional conditions

2 comments:

Hockey Cardboard said...

saw something on Ellen (sad, I know) about Portia De Rossi, model, who just didn't eat because of the image she saw portrayed on TV for models - waif thin and not eating - she spoke about how she did all that, and regrets every minute of it - healthy eating is the key

Monalisa said...

Munir, its not only the commercials, its the whole system of media. Commercials, yeah they play a great role too.

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