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Lexie Castor
UWRT 1101
Ms. Hamby
November 24, 2014
Bullying
There is no doubt that bullying has been a problem since the beginning of generations.
Although bullying still remains the same, it has evolved through time and continues to expand its
definition. Bullying is generally defined as unwanted, physical or verbal behavior from another
human being; but there are many different forms nowadays, such as social bullying, physical
bullying, verbal bullying, or cyber bullying. The most common form of bullying is verbal, but as
technology advances in the world around us, more and more children and teens are exposed to
interactions over the Internet. Cyber bullying is more prone to escalate to the top of the bullying
pyramid and bringing awareness to this issue is becoming more and more challenging.
Bullying is not limited to just teenagers, it can affect groups of all ages, such as young
children and young to middle aged adults. According to makebeatsnotbeatdowns.com, 90% of
4th through 8th graders report being victims of bullying. Young children are more susceptible to
being bullied or becoming the bully simply because they do not know the difference between
what is right and what is unacceptable. They could easily believe it is okay to bully or allow
someone to bully them, especially if it is occurring in their home from siblings, family members,
or even parents.

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Bullying in the workplace is less common, but nonetheless still happens. The New York
Times found that about sixty percent of workplace bullies are men, and they tend to bully male
and female employees equally. When one is faced with harassment or put downs from someone
in their line of work, bullying is not capitalized as much as it is in younger childrens classrooms
or in the bathrooms of high schools. Understanding how to handle bullying from coworkers or
bosses is a whole different ballgame in itself simply because one has more at stake than they did
when they were in elementary school.
Targeting these different target markets can be simple, yet challenging because times
have changed and not every method used a few years ago will necessarily work in todays day an
age. When my group and I thought about how to reach our three target markets, children in
elementary school, teenagers in high school and college, and young to middle aged adults in the
workforce, we tried to come up with ways to reach out to them and to help them become more
aware.
Children are creative, imaginative, yet simple human beings. Grabbing their attention
with colors and pictures with relatable characters and funny comments was the easy part when
brainstorming how to inform them about what bullying is, how to spot it, and how to prevent it.
We came up with the idea of a childrens picture book. Similar to the D.A.R.E. program that
speaks to children in schools about bullying, our childrens picture book tells a story through
animals. Why this is more effective than a one-time school program is because a child can hold
onto the book, take it home, and see his or her favorite animal(s) going through the same
experience he or she may be going through and understand what to do. Always having it there
beside them to even reference back to if they need comfort in something that is ideal to the
situation. Having a younger brother at the age 5, I know what it is like to see and hear him grasp

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onto words and phrases quickly after hearing them and repeat them later on or to see how he
plays with his toys and interacts with other kids on the playground. It is stated by fact that by the
age of 3, a baby's brain has reached almost 90 percent of its adult size. The growth in each region
of the brain largely depends on receiving stimulation, which spurs activity in that region. This
stimulation provides the foundation for learning, according to childwelfare.gov.
Since children learn a lot from such a young age, knowing how to get important messages
to them is essential to them learning right from wrong to their fullest. Teenagers are the same
way, but tend to be much more stubborn and think they understand what life is all about.
Reaching out to teenagers, like my group and I, is not always an easy task.
When walking the halls of your high school, dreading to get to the next class, one
typically would not notice the boring white flyers on the walls or lying on the floor, telling you
about a lame event to attend to that following week. This is one way student organizations or the
school reaches out to teens, my group and I followed suit, but with a different twist. On the flyer
we created, we added color, patterns with big letters to catch ones eye as they passed by and
little information to let one know what it was about right away so you could look at it, see what
was important, remember it, and carry on. The twist that makes our flyer different from the rest
is the famous celebrity influences. We advertised certain celebrities like Demi Lovato because of
her experiences with bullying and her motivational approach to stopping it. This entices people
to come out and see famous speakers speak about something that needs to be put to rest today;
but getting the word out by school flyers alone would not entirely accomplish anything. This is
where social media and the advances of the internet come into play.
Since we all live in a day an age that is solely reliant on different forms of technology,
advertising about nearly anything, is right at ones finger tips. Using the internet to ones

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advantage can instantly spread the word through multiple sites like blogs, tweets, posting
pictures on Instagram, posting a video on YouTube, etc. This is how my group and I used our
resources and attempted to reach out to our last target market, young to middle aged adults.
Using our knowledge of technology, we created something like a podcast or a voice over.
Since all businesses use computers and cellphones, we had to get ahold of our oldest target
market on their way home from work on the radio or on a TV commercial or even through
sponsored alert text messages. The governor of the state was our main spokesman because it
gives the listener a sense of comfort and hearing his voice lets one know that he means serious
business and that you can trust him to know how to handle situations like harassment in the
workforce.
No matter how old someone is, bullying can occur anywhere and at any time. No matter
in what form, it can still be considered bullying. Psychologically, emotionally, and physically
being bullied can drain you and even being the bully can have the same effect on an individual.
We were surprised at how profoundly bullying affects a persons long-term functioning, said
lead author William E. Copeland, PhD, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and
Behavioral Sciences at Duke University. This psychological damage doesnt just go away
because a person grew up and is no longer bullied. This is something that stays with them. If we
can address this now, we can prevent a whole host of problems down the road, according to
forbes.com.
During this entire process, my group and I accomplished a lot and came to understand
more than I believe we intended too. There were a few bad decisions made and a few decisions
that we did not make all together, but overall we ourselves became more aware of bullying and
the issues it can create and the harm it can cause. The target markets we choose were effective

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ones because we covered three areas of different age groups and we believed were affected by
bullying the most. The styles of genres we used were informative and helpful to our target
markets as a whole.

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Work Cited
Lett, Jeff. "Bully Facts and Statistics." Makebeatsnotbeatdowns.com. N.p., 2009. Web. 23
Nov. 2014.
"The Psychological Effects Of Bullying Last Well Into Adulthood, Study Finds." Forbes.
Forbes Magazine, 21 Feb. 2013. Web. 23 Nov. 2014.
"Understanding the Effects of Maltreatment on Brain Development." How the Brain
Develops. N.p., 2009. Web. 23 Nov. 2014