As a child I loved watching TV programs on Saturday mornings. I would get mad when a show went to commercial. That is until I saw the shiny new toy the girl my age was playing with and of course the cool new one that went into the happy meal, then I forgot about it. After seeing the catchy commercial, I would run to my mother and try to mention it in a sly way. “You know McDonald's has a new Monster's Inc. toy in their happy meal. Isn't that great? “I now realize that back then I was being targeted by big companies to ask my parents for things I didn't need or weren't good for to make money. Advertising today is affecting the health of today's children because they eat unhealthy foods advertised to them on television, the Internet and even in school. Therefore, a passionate discussion about possible solutions is being prepared. Advertising is the paid, impersonal, one-way marketing of persuasive information from an identified sponsor and disseminated through mass communication channels to promote the adoption of goods, services, or ideas. (“What is advertising?”) Chuck Blore, a partner in the advertising firm Chuck Blore & Don Ruchman, Inc. once said that “advertising is the art of arresting human intelligence just long enough to gain money". (Shah, Anup.). Children are targeted and manipulated every day by companies like McDonalds, Burger King and General Mills and they don't even know it. Child psychologist Allen Kanner reported in 2000 that three-year-old American children typically recognize around one hundred company logos. (“Advertising.”) Children between the ages of four and eight do not recognize that ads are paid commercials intended to convince them to buy something. Children see approximately 6,000 advertisements…middle of the page…live and up. (Thomas, 13) There are possible solutions to the problem of advertising aimed at children, some already used in other countries. Works CitedAdvertising." Current Issues: Macmillan Social Science Library. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Opposed Viewpoints in Context. Web. 4 December 2013. Cooper, Dr. Anthony. "What is Advertising?" 16 January 2014. Kravis, Anders “Stop advertising aimed at children”. Online video. Youtube, 5 March 2013. Web. 15 January 2014. McGinnis, J. Michael., Jennifer Appleton and Vivica I. Kraak Food marketing to children and young people: threat or opportunity? DC: National Academies, 2006. Print.Shah, Anup “Media and Advertising.” 04 March 2012. Web. 04 December. 2013