Ads really do brainwash you. As an adult who enjoys their animation once in a while, its shocking to see the kind of advertising that our children are bombarded with each day. Each one is about consuming a product, and each one appeals to their sense of joy when consuming it. 

Children are naive, and the FMCG companies make full use of this characteristic of the human growth cycle. Children today are exposed to food items laden with high sugar, artificial flavours, and plenty of additives, but they are packaged in such a wonderful way that one would believe that it is the best thing a parent could give their child. 

Such is the power of advertising that now children are refusing to eat the traditional food items that so many millions of Indians each every day. I have heard stories of children simply refusing to budge from in front of a McDonald's till they are taken inside and fed. Similarly parents are now being targeted by these ads with 'solutions' to their children's fussy eating habits. She does not eat her poha or upma or other breakfast options? Replace it with a bowlful of sugar laden cereal and watch her lap it up.She's hungry after school? Whip her a quick instant noodles in only a few minutes, and watch them thank you again and again. Never mind the fact that instant noodles are cooked in palm oil and are loaded with preservatives and artificial flavouring. Ads today tell children what they should eat, and tell parents how their children can eat them better.

This evening when i switched the television on, there was an ad for a juice brand that once again, was positioning itself as a solution to a child's fussy eating. The kid was refusing to eat his papaya, and when replaced with the juice, lo and behold, the kid asks for a second helping of the juice, much to the pleasure of the mother. 

Its a very sad state of affairs. Parents are increasingly not finding the time to look after their children, and have replaced their presence with the television, and their learning with money. Now children have a lot more money to spend on food, clothing, electronics, and a host of consumer goods that I couldn't dream of owning as a child. Urban kids are growing fatter and fatter with a bigger and bigger sense of entitlement.