Teleadvertising and Children
"This page is Intentionally Left Blank"
Teleadvertising
and Children
S.K. Bansa1
Oxford Book Company Jaipur India I
ISBN: 978-81-89473-25-9
First Published 2008
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Preface From the earliest days researchers have sought reliable and valid measures of the effects of advertising. This volume continues that search. All of the chapters and commentaries show healthy tension between the more theoretical interests and dispositions of the academic community and the more applied, results-oriented interests and dispositions of real-world research. The bottom line, as the real-world participants would say, is that measuring advertising effectiveness is so complicated that, although it is both a valid, important academic topic and a consequential applied problem, neither academic researchers nor industry researchers are likely to make decisive progress without help. Instead, reliable and valid measures of advertising effectiveness are most likely to emerge from constructive criticism and mutually supportive interaction between the two camps. On that conclusion, the long history of the topic and the exchanges at this conference fully concur. In combining the academic and applied approaches, this volume contributes up-to-date theoretical formulations, methodological advances, and optimistic views of future . research. It offers partial added answers to some important problems and insightful forecasts of next steps. Dr. S. K. Bansal
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Contents
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
Preface
v
Introduction
1
Television Advertising to Children Children and Advertising Children's Exposure to Advertising Issues and Politics Impact of Advertising Influence of Advertising Affect of Commercials on Kids' Behaviour Affect of Commercials on Kids' Consumer Behaviour Effects of Education on Televisual Media Effects of Entertainment Intended and Unintended Effects Advertising Regulation and Research Advertising: The Concern Affect of Advertisement on Children's Health Orientation
Index
6 20 38 53 103 130 148 165 184 191 197 227 267 291 316
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Intr6duction
t f
t
Advertising is a powerful force in American cul-ture. It exists to sell products and tervices. In 1750 BC the Code of Hammurabi made it a crirhe, punishable by death, to sell anything to a child without fJrst obtaining a power of attorney. In the 1990s, selling products to American children has become a stan-dard business practice. American children have viewed an estimated 360 000 advertisements on television before graduat-ing from high school! Additional exposures include advertisements on the radio, in print media, on public transportation, and billboards. Commercials have even entered the classroom through programmes like Channel One-video equipment packaged with current events programming that contains commercials. The principal goal of commercial children's televi-sion is to sell products to children, with food and toys being the two most frequently advertised prod-uct categories. Advertisers generally use two ap-proaches to sell their products. The traditional method places commercials in programmes that are attractive to children. These commercials promote products unrelated to the programme being shown. The Second approf\ch, begun in 1982, features toy action. Figures as the main characters of a programme. Because these programmes are often developed by the market-ing division of toy cOq;'lpanies to market specific toys, they are frequently referred to as "programme-length commercials." The Children's Television Act of 1990 mandates that all broadcasters carry children's educational or instructional
2
[;;traduction I
programming as a condition for license renewal. One of the problems of the current law is that stations can cite public service announcements (PSAs) or short vignettes as evidence of compliance. These actions may fulfill the letter of the law; how-ever, they do not fulfill its intent. In fact, good evi-dence exists that the Children's Television Act of 1990 is being undercut already, even in the law's first year of enactment. Because programming practices can be challenged only at the time of licensure re-newal, local monitoring is essential. Local monitor-ing is the only way to ensure that stations are com-plying not only with the letter of the law, but also with the INTENT of the law, which is to create a better television programming environment for chil-dren. Networks appear to be violating the law's in-tent by airing cartoons and claiming them as educa-tional programming. In addition to improving the quality of programme-ming, the Children's Television Act of 1990 also lim-its commercial time during children's programming to 10112 minutes per hour on weekends and 12 min-utes per hour on weekdays. Part of this act directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to con-sider whether children's programmes based on toys constitute programme-length commercials. The FCC concluded that only those shows that include paid advertising for the toy(s) featured in the programme can be classified as programme-length commercials. Even though the FCC has enforced this guideline, it ap-pears that it is too narrow and should address all programme-length commercials. In addition, the Chil-dren's Television Act established the Children's Tele-vision Endowment Fund to encourage the develop-ment of new educational programming for children. Several European countries forbid or severely curtail advertising to children; in the United States, on the other hand, selling to children is simply "business as usual."The average young person views more than 3000 ads per day on television (TV),on the Internet, on billboards, and in magazines. Increasingly, advertisers are targeting younger and younger children in an effort to establish "brand-name reference" at as
[It troduction
3
early an age as possible. This targeting occurs because advertising is a $250 billion/year industry with 900 000 brands to sell, and children and Adolescents are attractive consumers: teenagers spend $155 billion/year, children younger than 12 years spend another $25 billion, and both groups influence perhaps another $200 billion of their parents' spending per year. Increasingly, advertisers are seeking to find new and creative ways of targeting young consumer via the Internet, in schools, and even in bathroom stalls. THE EFFECTS OF ADVERTISING ON CHILDREN
Research has shown that young children-younger than 8 years-are cognitively and psychologically defenceless against advertising. They do not understand the notion of intent to sell and frequently accept advertising claims at face value. Infact, in the late 1970s, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) held hearings, reviewed the existing research, and came to the conclusion that it was unfair and deceptive to advertise to children younger than 6 years. What kept the FTC from banning such ads was that it was thought to be impractical to implement such a ban. However, some Western countries have done exactly that: Sweden and Norway forbid all advertising directed at children younger than 12 years, Greece bans toy advertising until after 10 PM, and Denmark and Belgium severely restrict advertising aimed at children. There have been numerous studies documenting that young children under 8 years of age develop-mentally are unable to understand the intent of ad-vertisements and, in fact, accept advertising claims as true. Indeed, the youngest viewers, up to age 8, cannot distinguish advertising from regular televi-sion programming. In addition, advertisers have become adept at circumventing rules and minimiz-ing warnings. For example, the disclaimers "some assembly reqUired" or "when eaten as part of a com-plete nutritional breakfast" are spoken rapidly by the announcer or shown in small print, and are not un-derstood by most children.
Introduction
4
Commercials broadcast durin5 children's pro-grams also proplOte foods that may have an adverse influence on children's health. Television viewing has been associated with obesity, the most prevalent nutritional disease among children in the United States. Food commercials that are broadcast during children's programming often promote high-calorie foods which, when eaten too often, may contribute to the energy imbalance that promotes obesity. The barrage of advertising for food and toys, es-pecially on Saturday morning television, may also result in increased conflict between parents and their children. The American Academy of Pediatrics be-lieves advertising directed toward children is inher-ently deceptive and exploits children under age 8 years of age. FOOD ADVERTISING AND OBESITY
Advertisers spend more than $2.5 billion/year to promote restaurants and another $2 billion to promote food products. On TV, of the estimated 40 000 ads per year that young people see, half are for food, especially sugared cereals and highcalorie snacks. Healthy foods are advertised less than 3% of the time; children rarely see a food advertisement for broccoli. Increasingly, fast food conglomerates are using toy tie-ins with major children's motion pictures to try to attract young people. Nearly 20% of fast food ads now mention a toy premium in their commercials. Several studies document that young children request more junk food (defined as foods with highcaloric density but very low nutrient density) after viewing commercials. In 1 study, the amount of TV viewed per week correlated with requests for specific foods and with caloric intake. At the same time, advertising healthy foods has been shown to increase wholesome eating in children as young as 3 to 6 years of age. CONCLUSIONS
Clearly, advertising represents "big business" and can have a Significant effect on young people. Unlike free speech, commercial speech does not enjoy the same protections under
Introduction
5
the First Amendment of the Constitution. Advertisements can be restricted or even banned if there is a significant public health risk. Cigarette advertising and alcohol advertising would seem to fall squarely into this category, and ads for junk food could easily be restricted. One solution that is non-controversial and would be easy to implement is to educate children and teenagers about the effects of advertising-media literacy. Curricula have been developed that teach young people to become critical viewers of media in all of its forms, including advertising. Media education seems to be protective in mitigating harmful effects of media, including the effects of cigarette, alcohol, and food advertising.
-~Television Advertising to Children
This chapter introduces the issues related to advertising aimed at children and describes the concerns that it generates. In particular the debate about television advertiGing is discussed. This debate has raised many questions about the nature of advertising. Is it fair to advertise to children unless they fully understand the intent of the advertisers? If young children do not understand that intent, then when do they develop that ability? Is television an effective way to market products to children? Are the products (such as food and toys) typically aimed at children, the type of products that children should be encouraged to buy? Are children encouraged to buy or try unsuitable products (such as alcohol or tobacco) from viewing advertisements even when those advertisements are not aimed at them? Does advertising encourage a more materialistic attitude in children? Or is it appropriate that children learn to be effective consumers from an early age? Does encouraging children to buy products lead them to pester their parents and cause family disputes? Does television advertising present an accurate or misleading image of the world to children? Should advertising aimed at children be regulated? If so, how strict should that regulation be and, in a global market place, should regulators draw up common guidelines across different countries and cultures?
Television Advertising to Children
7
Should'"we educate ry.ildren about advertising, and if so who should take on the role of educator? All these questions have generated debate and research and will be discussed in this book. Given the controversial nature of television advertising aimed at children, this chapter discusses issues relating to television advertising and explains why they have become matters of concern. This book touches on t~e different concerns by way of introduction to the controversies that have been generated, and in doing so, it mentions the different points of view that have been put forward. None of the issues are straightforward because most involve a debate between those who accept or argue the economic importance of reaching the large children's market and those who believe that children need protecting from the effects of advertising in general or from the advertising of particular products. Nonetheless, most of the issues that have generated debate are open to empirical research, and the results from this research will be examined in more detail in the following chapters. Children have spending power. In addition, they influenced family spending. In the United States, the amount that children have to spend doubled between 1990 and 2000, and similar trends are found in European countries The figures for other countries are equally impressive. For instance, it is estimated that only one fourth of Chinese children live in the main cities of China, but these children alone spend more than $6 billion of their own money and influence more than $60 billion of family spending. The market for selling products to children is potentially immense, and it is not surprising that in those countries that have established traditions of advertising, much of that advertising is aimed at children, often via television and other media. Children and teenagers in the United Kingdom and in the United States may, on average, spend between four and five hours a day, outside school time, watching some form of electronic media. In the course of that time, they will be exposed to a very large number of advertisements. Estimates
8
Television Advertising to Children
of how many advertisements vary depending on the age of the child, the country in which they live, and the particular channels they watch. It is suggested that contemporary children in the United States may view more than 40,000 advertisements every year, and it is found that more than 10 minutes of every hour of network U. S. television programmes were given over to advertising material. The sheer number of advertisements means that many children spend a significant proportion of their lives watching advertising. Marketers are particularly interested in how effective their advertising is in selling more products and establishing new markets. This includes finding ways to make existing media campaigns more effective within existing regulations or by campaigning to relax regulations. It might mean reaching children in different age groups-for example, reaching children younger than advertisers targeted in the past. The increase in popular programmes (e.g., Pogo channel in India) designed for very young children has opened up new opportunities for selling toys and associated material to ever younger age groups. The markets for such commodities can be global. Marketers may also exploit opening markets where advertising and marketing has been limited previously because as pointed out above, countries such as China have vast potential children's markets Advertising to children is, therefore, increasing, and despite new marketing approaches aimed at children, such as the Internet predominant way of advertising to children is via television. Television is an invasive medium because it reaches children in their own homes, and there is only limited control over the advertisements that are seen. Of course, children (and adults) may not always give their full attention to the screen during advertisement breaks because they can turn away or leave the room, but in practice, the viewer has the opportunity to see all the advertisements associated with any programme they watch. Parents may restrict the channels that children view or the times that children watch television. But parental control is obviously weaker if children have access to television
Television Advertising to Children
9
independent of their parents, some children have a television in their bedrooms. Some children not only have a television in their own room but a third of that age group also have a video recorder that in effect allows them access to programmes at any time. The underlying concern about television advertising is whether it exploits children, and this exploitation is sometimes described in emotive terms with references to "seducers" (the marketers) and "innocents" (the children, particularly young children). In this context, advertising is seen negatively with the criticism that advertising persuades children to buy products they do not need and spend money they may not have. Product advertising places an emphasis on possessions and on aspiring to a certain lifestyle. This ;s especially the case for branded products where the emphasis of the advertising is on purchasing not just a product but a product with a particular label, and as it is found, children can recognize brands and logos before they can read. Children's desire to possess products they have seen on television is said to lead to "pester power," which means that children pester their parents or other adults to buy things for them. This can be at the level of children negotiating products during family shopping trips-often successfully from the child's perspective. It is found that U. K. parents spend, on average, £7 ($10) more when supermarket shopping with children than without them. Pester power can also be long term when children wage a campaign of requests and demands in advance of birthdays and Christmases. For instance, it is found that three quarters of children had started asking for Christmas presents before October. Children's pestering can lead to family conflicts when parents refuse to buy products either because they cannot afford to buy them, or because they believe them to be inappropriate for their children (e.g., snack foods), and this may lead to anger, frustration, and disappointment. Such is the significance of children's influence in commodity purchasing, whether they purchase for themselves or through
10
Television Advertising to Children
their parents, that marketers have' increased the volume of research they conduct among' young consumers. Specialist agencies conduct research even among preschool children. Due to the large number of television advertisements that children experience, children inevitably are aware of far more products than parents are able or willing to buy. But some marketers have argued ,that pester power is not a source of conflict but more the basis for child-parent negotiation about what to buy. Others have pointed out that advertising may not always be the reason for children pestering parents It is suggested that many toys sell well with little or no advertising at all because they become part of a popular "craze." For example, the Harry Potter rar,ge of toys, games, and foods were marketed following the success of the Harry Potter novels, but the books themselves became a success mainly because of word-of-mouth between children. Other marketing phenomena like Pokemon take on an existence of their own that goes well beyond any initial advertiSing. According to this argument, therefore, children may well pester adults but not all such pestering is the direct result of advertising. Critics have argued that advertising encourages children to view important social and religious events (such as Diwali,Holi,Navaratra) in purely commercial terms. It is found that the children who watched more television advertisements asked for more presents and that they asked for more presents by brand name. The pressure to buy particular brands leads to a onformity across different cultures and more generally, the international market for rhildren's products detracts from local products and traditions. An alternative way of considering these issues is to point out that the globalization of chilc:.ren's markets and the use f)£ advertising means that 'children in different countries now have a greater choice. of products. They are no longer limited to locally produced goods, and aspiring to the same brands implies a desire for certain standards and a conformity that is actually positive in a world that, in both the past and the present, has been divided by national, cultural, and religious conflicts. It is suggested
T'i,';'biOll Adve'rtising to Children
11
that selling the same products to children in different countries does not necessarily damage local traditions and practices. It is found that European countries have many different traditions relating to events such as Christmas, Easter, or Halloween, which all generate a market for selling to children. But the different traditions all overlie themes and beliefs that are held in common, and marketers address these common themes rather than the expression of them in a particular culture. There are concerns about the advertising of particular products, particularly the promotion of food products. A iarge proportion of advertisements aimed at children promote food or drinks. For instance it is found that half the advertise-ments aimed at children on U. K. television concerned food. A third of these advertisements were for cereals, a third were for sweets and snacks, and most of the rest were for ready-made meals and other convenience foods. These are all products that have been criticized as being the less healthy food choices. Such food ad vertising is one-sided because little televisio.n advertising aimed at children emphasizes healthy eating. This is because of the relative wealth of the advertisers who market food products and who can afford extensive advertising campaigns and those who advocate healthy eating but do not have the same resources available to convey their message. Few health campaigns could match the size and extent of the marketing that might go into selling a product such as a chocolate bar. The result is that children are exposed to a large number of television advertisements trying to persuade them to choose sweetened drinks and snack foods, with little emphasis on alternative, more healthy foods. Children in some countries do not eat a balanced diet. Hardly any children meet recommended dietary re-quirements. But it is not clear how far the failure to eat a well-balanced diet can be attrib-uted to the E'ffects of advertising. Children's recall of food advertisements correlates with what they ask for during shopping trips and with what thE'y eat, and so there is a relationship between advertising
12
Television Advertising to Children
and eating choices, but the nature of that relationship is not always clear. The number of children with obesity has dramatically increased in recent years, and this may in part be due to the persuasive nature of food advertising. However, since the start of television advertising, the largest proportion of advertisements aimed at children has always been for food products. For this reason, marketers have pOinted out that the proportion of food ad-vertising is unlikely to be the only or the main factor in the recent growth in obesity. Other changes in lifestyle, such as lack of exercise, increased use of cars, sedentary occupations (including more time spent watching television and playing computer games), and different family eating habits (such as a dependency on convenience foods), may all be factors in the increase in children's weight. Advertisers could also point to the fact that children receive information about nutrition through other sources (such as school) and should be aware of healthy eating practices. Some have argued that the best way to market food to children is by stressing healthy eating and by including nutritional information that complements other sources of that information. Indeed, it is found that most cereal advertisements included nutritional information, but this usually consisted only of statements that the food was part of a balanced breakfast or brief de-tails of a specific nutrient such as vitamin C. Other food advertisements were less likely to include nutritional informatior. The use of nutritional information can be viewE-d as either a positive addition to food advertisements or just a marLL ing E ratety: ,t also raises the issue of how well cpildren '~ndustand and interpret such inforrr,ation. Other television advertisement3 such as adveri:isements for toys may be less controversial than food advertising because toys do not have the same sort of health implications. Nonetheless, specific issues are associated with toy advertisements. For instance, parents may be concerned that toys are presented in an unrealistic or inaccurate way. In many
feiL'I'isiOll
Advertising
to
ChiLdren
13
countries, regulatio:1s or guidelines prohibit advertisers from making exaggerated claims about the properties of the toys being advertised. Such rules might include presenting the toy in a context that shows its true size or making it clear how the toy is operated (e.g., by hand or by a power source).Advertisers may also be encouraged to say whether a toy needs to be assembled and, if so, whether an adult's help is required. The issues here relate to how conscientiously advertisers adhere to any guidelines and, even if they do, whE:ther children understand the disclosures associated with advertisements. It is found that although many advertisements aimed at children included visual statements (usually in small print) disclosing information about a product, such statements were presented so briefly that they required, on average, a reading speed of 160 words per minute. But even if children can read such statements, whether they can understand them is not clear. As well as seeing advertisements for products that are aimed specifically at them, children may also see advertisements for other products-ones that cause concern, such as alcohol, tobacco, and medicines. The frequency of advertisements for such products depends on na-tional regulations. For instance, tobacco advertising on television is not per-mitted in several countries, but children may well see brand names in programmes that include sports sponsored by tobacco companies. The effects of advertising such products might vary. It is found that such advertising had little effect on children's beliefs about the effectiveness of different brands. However, advertising other products might affect children and adolescents. This may be particularly the case when advertising associates products with lifestyles that are attractive to young people. Evidence shows that alcohol advertising does effect young people's brand preference (even before they are regular drinkers) and that young people's expectancies about alcohcl are partly influenced by alcohol advertising. Not only might children see alcohol advertising that is aimed at adults, but some alcohol campaigns, using animated characters and catchphrases, often seem to be aimed ilt the youth market. In the same way, researchers have shown
14
Television Advel tising to Children
that tobacco sponsorship on television affects adolescents' recall of cigarette brands and some cigarette advertisers have been accused of deliberately targeting young people in their advertising campaigns. But despite the influence of tobaccQ and alcohol advertisfng on young people, it is difficult to separate the effects of specific advertising and the effects of portraying these products positively in most television broadcasting. As it is found, alcohol drinking is frequently shown in positive contexts including celebrations, parties, and eating out. In contrast, the negative effects of drinking, such as drunkenness or ill health, are depicted much less often. Even though several countries now limit the portrayal of cigar~tte smoking on television, older programmes and films often show smoking as a common and acceptable social habit, and few programmes refer to the negative effects of tobacco. In these ways, alcohol and tobacco are more often than not shown in a positive and attractive light even when they are not being specifically advertised. There are also concerns about the way that products are presented to children. Adv-ertisers naturally want to present their products in the most appealing way;- and this might mean, for example, using. celebrities to endorse a product. This can increase children's liking for a product but inevitably raises issues about children's ability to realise that the celebrity is being paid for the endorsement and may, therefore, not be providing an objective recommendation. More generally, the use of popular chara~ters (whether real or fictional) from children's programmes may make it difficult for children to distinguish between advertisements and programmes. The blurring of the programme/advertisement distinction might be to the advantage of advertisers, especially in an age when s~me programmes are so closely linked to products that the programme itself becom~s a vehicle for merchandising. For example, in thi~ United Kingdom the BBC is a "noncommercial" channel but derives a large income from the sale of children's toys and games based on BBC programmes that have been specifically designed to include products aimed at children. But if blurring the distinction bet\vt'en programmes
Television Advertising to Children
15
and advertisements makes it harder for children to recognize when they are being targeted by marketers, this could be seen as a negative change in children's television. Marketers reinforce stereotypes when they use idealized images to promote products. For example, the family structure in many western countries has changed, and many contemporary children have very different family lifestyles from children of a generation ago. But this change is hardly reflected in advertising to children. Some argued that although a few television advertisements include atypical families and single parents, most portray happy nuclear families in which "mums use washing powder and dads use power tools". More generally, women in advertisements tend to ,be shown in the home and in' family roles, and ,men are more often shown outside the home and have a wider variety of roles, especially more authoritative ones. Though such families do not represent the experience of all children, there remains a lack of nontraditional families and ethnic minority families in advertising. Stereotyping can be harmful. To give one example, marketers use physically attractive people to advertise products. The use of attractive models may be based or.. the idea that people who are physically attractiVE: are often believed to have other positive qualities, including intelligence, competence, integrity, potency, and concern for other people. Therefore advertising a product using physically attractive models may help it to become linked to the other qualities that the viewer associates with physical beauty. However, using beautiful models in advertising can generate unachievable stereotypes. It is found that magazine advertisements that included attractive models had the most influence on girls who had a poor body image themselves. On one hand, this means that such advertisements are effective vehicles for selling products, particularly to a group who may see some of those products as a way to improve their self-image. On the other hand, girls with poor body image may be especially vulnerable to images
16
Television Advertising to Children
of physical beauty they view in advertisements. Such advertising may reinforce the pressures on young people to conform to ideals of beauty that are hard or impossible to achieve. There has been an epidemic" of dieting over the last few decades and includes primary school children. This, in tum, leads to the marketing of diet products, which although usually aimed at an older market, may also appeal to young children if they aspire to a particular body image. Though these aspirations may not be derived originally from images in advertisements, (because stereotypical images exist across all aspects of the media), advertisements can reinforce those stereotypes in some children and young people. 1/
Young children are thought to be particularly vulnerable to advertising because they know less about the intent of advertisers and the process of creating an advertisement. The assumption is that adults are less likely to be vulnerable to advertisements because they are aware that the purpose of advertising is to persuade people to buy products. Adults appreciate that advertisements are deliberately created to present products as attractively as possible and that the advertising message will be biased. Adults also understand who pays for and produces advertisements and that advertising is part of an economic system that depends on selling products. If adults have this level of understanding, we can assume that they are not likely to be unfairly influenced by television advertising. Advertising does influence adults (otherwise marketers would not spend money on it), but adults are well able to interpret the messages in the context of the advertisers' intentions. If adults are persuaded to buy products, their awareness of advertising prevents them from being unfairly exploited. Obviously, children are not born with any knowledge of economic systems; their awareness of advertising and marketing develops only gradually. An important issue therefore is establishing the age when children achieve a mature understanding of advertisements. There has been little agreement about this age, and the research into this issue is addressed in c.hapters three and four.
Television Advertising to Children
17
The age of understanding has been much debated because it has many implications. If children do not fully understand the intent of television advertising, they may need "protecting" from those advertisements. Such protection may take the form of restricting the number, type, or content of advertisements, or it might mean banning advertisements altogether. In some countries, there may be selective bans on particular products; for example, in Greece, toy advertising is banned at certain times. Countries such as Belgium and Australia limit advertising within children's programmes or within a few minutes of those programmes, and Sweden bans all terrestrial television advertising aimed at children younger than 12 years of age. Countries such as the United Kingdom have a detailed code of practice to regulate advertisements aimed at children. The range of regulations in different countries reflects different beliefs about children's understanding. This divergence of views has serious implications for any attempt to standardize regulations across countries. For example, in 2001, Sweden proposed a Europe-wide ban on television advertising to children. Not surprising, this provoked much debate, and opposition, especially from marketers in countries that have less restrictive regulations than Sweden. Parents usually express concern about television advertising. It is found that many parents were concerned about the number of advertisements that children see, especially as they believed that children might be encouraged to want products they did not really need. Parents also felt t~at advertising led children to pester their parents to buy things for them and that young children might not fully understand the intent of advertising. Although there were some variations in responses between the different countries many concerns were similar. Though Sweden regulates advertising more strictly than the United Kingdom, parents in Sweden wanted even strongel. regulations. It is found that such findings pressure governments to increase the regulation of advertising aimed at children. Advertisers usually argue against any extension of regulations for a combination of reasons. Some marketers just
18
Television Advertising to Children
Claim that very young children even from the age of three years, have some understanding of advertising. Others emphasize studies that have shown· that young children can recognize particular aspects of marketing. For example, preschoolers c-an recognize some brand logos and they can distinguish between television advertisements and programmes. These studies are sometimes quoted as evidence . of young children's awareness. However, children's recognition of advertisements is not the same as children understanding their persuasive intent-a realization that may develop much later. Given the gradual development of children's awareness of advertising, much debate about regulation hinges on what is meant by "understanding" Marketers naturally put more emphasis on early recognition as evidence that children are aware of advertisements, and . critics place more emphasis on children achieving a full understanding of advertisers' intentions at a later age. How advertising is defined and which studies are quoted have resulted in a variety of conclusions about at what age regulation is necessary to protect children. Some authors have argued that adyertising has little effect on children and have suggested. that current regulations are more than sufficient. As pointed out earlier, many children's products do sell well without being advertised, and therefore marketers have argued that social fashions and peer pressure may be the most important factors in creating the desire to buy products Advertising is only one factor in creating demand but it is disingenuous to imply that advertising is ineffective. Advertisers do spend large sums of money on television advertising, and marketing communications aimed at children such as marketing via the Internet text messaging and marketing via schools is rapidly expanding. Such initiatives demonstrate marketers' desire to reach as many children as possible. Marketers sometimes use the phrase "getting older younger" which refers to the idea that toys and other products traditionally associated with a particular age group are now being bought by or for younger children. There is little doubt
Television Advertising, to Children
19
that children and young people are adopting fashions, activities, and lifestyles at an earlier age than in the past and therefore the concept of "getting older younger" has validity in terms of marketing the same products to younger children: This phrase, however, has sometimes been confused with the idea that children themselves are developing more quickly. For instance, some argued that children's cognitive development is now more rapid than in previous generations. If young children now have more developed cognitive abilities, the implication'is that their understanding of advertising intent might be more sophisticated at an earlier age and t~erefore regulation is less necessary. There is no evidence that children's cognitive development is any more rapid now than it ever was, There is therefore no reason to believe that contemporqry young children have greater insights into the nature 'of advertising than their predecessors had. It is argued that rather than extend regulations, the most effective way to help children q:nderstand advertising ,is through their parents He suggested that by discus~ing products, parents can inform children about the nature of advertising, and he gave examples of g~mes and strategies that parents could use to help their children understand more about advertisements. Further regulation and "banning advertising of any sort shelters or at least de~ays a child's understanding and decision making. ;
-~Children and Advertising Television advertising emerged as an important policy issue in the early seventies due to the work of public interest groups, such as ACT, and as a logical extension of identifying children as a special audience. Most television in the United States is commercial; it is a business whose basic goal is to attract viewers, primarily for the commercials. Children are not ignored in this process; they are an important audience because they watch a considerable amount of television and make and/or influence purchasing decisions. Estimates for the number of commercials seen by the typical child each yea r run from about 20,000 to 40,000.
THE BUSINESS OF CIDLDREN'S ADVERTISING Because children watch a lot of television and enjoy what they see, the medium is an important and attractive place for businesses to advertise. This does not mean, however, that just any old commercial will do. Commercials on children's programmes, like those on programmes for adults, are carefully researched and designed to maximize their impact. Corr:rnercials geared for the very youngest are kept simple with a clear contrast between the foreground and background, A" children get older, the messages get more complex and may tell imaginative and complex stories, often using elements of fantasy. Most commercials geared toward children emphasize having fun - the product is fun to eat, fun to do, fun to wear. Children's commercials are also likely to employ stereotypes and have very specific formal attributes.
Children ana AdlJo?rrisillg
2J
They also mdY be designed to make children fed ll~ore grown up. Those for "boys toys" (e.g., Hot Wheels, GI Joe) focus on strength and power; they tend to be loud, using fast cuts to mo.e fmm one scene to another. On the other hand, commercials for 'girls toys" (e.g., Barbie, stuffed animals) focus on softness apt.! cuteness; these commercials are dreamy, using fades and dissolves to move from one scene to another Advertising t(l children is profitable for businesses as well as the television industry. MatteI was one of the first tuy companies to advertise on television and its gamble paid oft almost immediately in increased sales. Television's advertisin6 success is reflected in the jump in MatteI's advertising budget from $150,000 in 1955 to $15 million in 1970. While common sense suggests that advertising raises prices, industry spokespersons have consistently argued that advertising to children typically reduces rather than raises prices for toys, candies, snacks, and cereals. For example, the Toy Manufacturers of America testified in 1975 that prior to television advertising, toys were typically sold to consumers at a 100 per cent markup from the price the retailer paid the manufacturer; today, with advertising, the markup has shrunk to about 36%. Except in the very early days of television, advertisers have paid less money to advertise on children's programmes. In fact, one of the reasons for the reduction in the number of children's programmes broadcast in the mid- to late tifties and the migration of children's programmes to Saturday morning was the unwillingness of advertisers to pay the same price to reach children as adults. Nevertheless the television industry found ways to make children's programmes very profitable .. First, programming is produced using extremely cost effective techniques, such as limited animation. Second, individual episodes of children's programmes are broadcast/cablecast fOllr or more times each season compared to the single rerun (typically in the summer) allowed for prime-time programmes. Third, and most important, however, is the fact that prior to the early eighties, the NAB code permitted twice as much lime for advertising on children's programmes as it permitted on
22
Children and Advertising
prime-time programmes. Moreover, today there are no limits Qn the amount of time that can be devoted to commercials; the guidelines have been eliminated with the understanding that the marketplace will prevail. Weekend morning programming thus continues to be an extremely profitable time segment. .
AMOUNT OF ADVERTISING A considerable amount of children's viewing time is devoted to seeing commercials. Although ACT has consistently worked toward having commercials eliminated from children's programmes, they have been unable to achieve this objective. In 1971, 12 minutes of each hour of children's Saturday morning programmes were devoted to commercials and some stations used more than 25per cent of the broadcast hour (especially during the pre-Christmas season) for commercial messages. The mid-seventies brought a little reductions in the amount of time devoted to commercials. In 1975 although 20 per cent of the broadcast hour was still devoted to non-programme materials, more time was given to public service announcements and less to commercial messages. In 1978 the patterns remained stable; in one hour of viewing time a child would see 15 commercial messages,S programme promotions, and 2 public service announcements.
,
These changes were short-lived. A recent analysis of samples of children's programming from 1983, 1985, and 1987 revealed that children saw more commercial messages even though only 12 minutes of each hour were devoted to nonprogramme material. In the eighties, these 12 minutes were divided, on the average, into 8 minutes for commercials (for 16 to 17 products) and 4 minutes (8 or 9 messages) for promotions, public service announcements, or drop-ins. Moreover, while th~ overall amount of time devoted to nonprogramme materials remained constant, the actual number of messages each hour increased from 22 in 1983 to 27 in 1987. These increases were due to the use of 10- and IS-second spots fOl\ products. In addition, the proportion of time devoted to product commercials increased while the amount of tim,e
Children and Advertising
23
devoted to public service announcements and drop-ins declined, going from 63 percent in 1983 to 79 pe~ cent in 1987. A study conducted in 1988, using a very small sample of Saturday morning programmes (9'hours), found an average of 21 commercials per hour. This figure is consistent '''lith those reported by Condry, Bence, and Scheibe because the author did not include public service announcements or drop-ins. Overall, the climate of deregulation has continued to allow stations to devote a considerable chunk of programming time to commercial messages as well as to increase the number of messages seen by each child. Consequently, in the late seventies, it was estimated that children saw about 20,000 commercials each year by 1987, however, the yearly figure· jumped to about 40,000, with over 30,000 devoted to product commercials. DO THEY WATCH
An important concern, especially of adveri:isers, is whether or not chiJdren (and adults) actually continue to watch television when the commercials interrupt the programmes. The underlying assumption of the advertising industry has lwen that viewers who watch a programme also watch the commercials. Nevertheless, it is common knowledge that many viewers leave the room and avoid commercials either because they are disinterested in them or want to get a snack or go to the bathroom. There is some empirical research in this area, revealing that vie\\ers are likely to avoid watching commercials. For example, Bechtel, Achelpol and Akers's in-home obserVational study of 30 middleclass families revealed that about one· quarter of all non-watching behaviour occurred du: ing the commercials. For the most part, research condl:'."",d in I1Llturali~tic (e.g., home) environments reveals that preschool dnd early elementary school-age children pay more attention til commercials than older children. Moreover, children, "..,pecially younger children, are more likely than adults to say '!ll'\' "like" commercials, especially commercials thClt are
24
Children and Advertising
humorous. Children are also more likely than adults to watch the commercials. The new technologies, cable with its increased number of viewing options, VCRs which provide a way to tape programmes for later viewing (time-shiftil1g), and especially remote control devices, have made skipping commercials very easy. Zipping and zapping are two terms that have recently entered our vocabularies. Zipping occurs when a viewer, watching a programme recorded on a VCR, fast-forwards through the commercials. Zapping, on the other hand, occurs when a viewer changes channels when the commercials appear or eliminates the commercials, manually or using a special device, when the programme is taped for later viewing. It is examined whether people zap commercials by asking respondents if and how often they change channels when commercials appear. They found that age is an important factor: younger people were more likely than older people to zap commercials. These adults also found that fifth and tenthgrade children were more likely to zap commercials than their 30something-year-old parents. In addition, the tenth-grade children were more likely than the fifth-grade children to be extreme zappers (zapped the commercials very often). There was also evidence that children did a lot of zipping when watching previously recorded tapes. It is found that 19 out of 20 adolescents in their sample of almost 1,000 adolescents (ranging from 11 to 21), turned down the volume and zipped through the commercials when they played back a tape. It is found that those adolescents (seventh- and tenth-graders) who had a VCR in their homes for a longer period of time were more likely to say that they both zipped and zapped commercials.
THE CONTENT ft is report~ that 80 per cent of advertising on children's programmes consists of four basic product categories: toys, ceredb, candy and snacks, and fast-food restaurants. More recent ,H1dlyses "Ilp!,orl this bd~ic finding. Toy commercials
Children and Advertising
25
are especially prevalent before Christmas, often comprising more than half of all commercials directed at children during these months. Most of the foods advertised to children are for highly sugared products, such as presweetened cereals, cakes, candy, and cookies; few commercials advertise nutritious foods. In a number of studies conducted during the seventies, found that the presentation formats in children's commercials were highly dependent upon the product advertised. Commercials for toys used "live" action scenes to demonstrate how the toy worked or what you could do with it; commercials for food, on the other hand, were animated or had an animated figure talking to real children. Musical jingles were also very important in children's commercials, providing a way for children to identify with the product.
Commercials attract children's attention by using production techniques such as repetition, unusual visual or sound effects, animation, violent activity, fantasy, and magic. It is found that the average 30-second commercial had four verbal and four visual repetitions of the product name, with some iingles having ten or more repetitions. It is found that children's commercials contained a lot of "camera magic" the appearance or disappearance of objects, the transformation of objects, or the mysterious flight of people and things - as well as fantasy settings and situations. Overall, commercials for children tend to be fast-paced with enchanting music, jingles, fantasy, and appealing characters. Food is associated with fun, positive attributes, rewards, and exciting celebrities. Commercials for food products are also likely to be humorous, stressing the fun these products would create. Most of the ads do not mention sweetness or make nutritional claims and one-fourth mention premiums associated with the product. While dietary goals have consistently recommended reduction in the consumption of refined and other processed sugars, most food commercials directed at children promote the use of such sugars. It is found that 70 per cent of food ads
26
Children ,and Advertising
promoted products high in fats, cholesterol, sugar, and salt, while only 3 percent were for fruits and vegetables. It is found that only 7 per cent of comJ1lercials promoted dairy products, fruits, and breads; the rest were devoted to the easily massproduced and profitably marketed, but low-nutrition, packaged products. A comprehensive review of much of the relevant research concluded that research on television advertising has led to a sophisticated technology for selling products to children as well as socializing them to eventual consumer roles. During the seventies advertisers, under pressure from citizens groups and consumers as well as the NAB and the Toy Manufacturers Association, began to include verbal qualifiers, disclaimers, and information about products in commercials. It is found that two-thirds of a sample of toy commercials containep the following three qualifiers: "items sold separately," "batteries not included," and "some assembly required." Other common qualifiers include "artificially flavoured," "not sold in stores," "the fun part of a balanced breakfast," or "in specially marked boxes." Although these qualifiers are placed in the commercials, they may not be very effective. Many qualifiers are spoken very rapidly by an announcer at the end of the commercial or are written (some with very small type and at the very bottom of the screen) and superimposed on the comElercial. Consequently, children must be able to read to get this information. Moreover, the actual words used in the qualifier, such as "some assembly required" may be too difficult for children to understand. Other types of disclaimers, such as warnings about possible hazards or other consequences, or information about product cost or durability are rarely found. Finally, children's commercials, like those for adults, do more than just sell products. They also sell ;J. life-style and contain some subtle, and other not so subtle, social messages. For example, commercials geared to children usually have a voice-over format and ~he authority figure, in nine out of ten commercials, is a male. When the voice-over is a female, the
Children and Advertising
27
product is often more "feminine," for example, food, a doll, and so on. The spokespersons in commercials are also most likely to be adults and white . . Children's commercials also contain a considerable amount of aggression a's well as pro-social behaviours. It is found that a minute of commercials contained three times as much aggression, often involving nonhuman characters, as a minute of children's programming. They also found that the only frequently appearing pro-social behaviour was sharing and helping (altruism), most often in public service announcements and non-cereal commercials. It is found prosocial behaviours (sharing, affection, courtesy) in commercials for Barbie, Care Bears, and McDonald's. UNDERSTANDING COMMERCIALS
Children's uderstanding of commercials is a particularly salient issue. Research in this area has focused upon two areas: 1.
Whether children can differentiate between programmes and commercials. 2. Whether children understand the selling intent of commercials. A considerable portion of this research is based on a cognitive model and' concerned with ascertaining ways to make children more critical consumers. Children's ability to distinguish between commercials and programmes has serious policy implications. A number of studies found that by the time a child was five years old she or he could make simplistic distinctions, between commercials and programmes; for example, commercials were short. These studies also found that, as children got older, they could make more complex distinctions; for example, programmes entertain while commercials try to sell. In addition, children as young as three and four could differentiate between programmes and commercials, especially child-oriented commercials. It is found that while all the children in their sample exhibited a drop in attention when a commercial interrupted a programme, the youngest children (between five and seven) were less likely to do so.
28
Children and Advertising
As just noted, this area of research has important policy ramifications. Specifically, in 1974 the FCC issued guidelines, still generally followed today, that commercials should be clearly separated from the programmes in which they are embedded. This has generally resulted in messages such as "we'll be right back after these messages." Unfortunately, a number of studies found that the most commonly used separators do not enable children to differentiate adequately the commercials from the programmes. Consequently, although the existing body of research provides mixed evidence that children, especially older children, are able to make simple and perceptual distinctions between programmes and commercials, it is problematic to assume that children truly understand the purpose of commercials. Understanding the purpose (selling intent) of commercials thus emerges as an important empirical question. From a methodological standpoint, finding the answer to this question has often relied on a child's ability to articulate the persuasive intent of advertising. On the whole, the research has found age-related differences in children's understanding of (or ability to articulate) the selling intent of commercials. Children who are five or younger do not really understand (or cannot adequately articulate) that commercials are trying to sell something; they are more likely to think that the commercials provide helpful information. By the time a child has reached the age of seven, she or he has begun to understand that commercials are trying to sell s~mething and by age eleven or twelve, children are well aware of a commercial's selling intent and can articulate this message quite clearly. Overall, research has consistently found that children under age six cannot adequately explain the selling intent of commercials. Although age is an important factor in a child's understanding, studies using nonverbal measures 01 -.vmprehension have found that children as young as four have a rudimentary sense of a commercial's selling intent. Nevertheless, it is important to realise that a child who says that commercials want us to buy things still may not fully understand the persuasive nature of advertising.
Children and Advertising
29
It has a-lso been posited that a child's ability to understand the persuasive nature of commercials is dependent upon the ability to make several cognitive distinctions. Specifically, children must
1.
Be able to discriminate between the programme and the commercials, 2. Know that commercials have sponsors, 3. Be aware that there is a specific audience for this message, 4. Be aware of both the symbolic and realistic nature of commercials, and 5. Be able to recall when they have found differences between what they saw advertised and what they got when they purchased the product. Consistent with increased understanding of the persuasive nature of commercials, it is not surprising that children's trust in commercials declines with age. For example when asked to five- to twelve-year-olds whether they thought commercials always told the truth, more than half of the fiveyears old but only 5 per cent of the twelve-year-olds said that they did. Today's era of deregulation has led to a number of programme practices that appear to fly in the face of findings of research conducted over the last 20 years. Consequently, in 1990 we are again faced with many of the same problems we faced in 1970 relating to children's advertising and their understanding of commercials, for example, the reinstitution of host selling and the increased number of programme-length commercials. Host selling is an important issue because children cannot easily distinguish between commercial content and adjacent programme content when the same primary characters appear in both. Guidelines issued by the FCC and the NAB in 1974 specifically mentioned that host selling tactics in children's programmes should be eliminated and there wa~ fairly widespread compliance with these guidelines. This agreement,
30
Children and Advertising
however, was nullified by the 1982 federal court decision abolishing the NAB code. Consequently, children's . programming has become dominated by product-related programmes and the Children's Advertising Review Unit of the Better Business Bureau!? reports an increase in the use .of . host ~elling. . Nevertheless, a recently conducted content analysis of commercials in three hours of programmes offered on one Saturday,morning on ABC, CBS, and NBC (N-=191) found no host selling ads. Butcher, citing the possible limitations of his very small sample, notes that the three major networks may be voluntarily adhering to principles against host selling. This, does not, however, address the question of programme-length commercials, whose numbers are on the upswing but are practically always shown on independent stations. EFFECTS OF ADVERTISING
Atkin (1980) outlines three theoretical perspectives that are pertinent to the impact of adyertising on children. First, conventional persuasion paradigms suggest that commercials provide information so viewers <;an learn about products and their attributes, form positive images about the products, and then consume them. S'~cond, social learning theory suggests that the behaviours seen in commercials can be modeled (e.g., eating or playing with toys), leading to greater consumption. Third, cognitive developmental theory predicts that children can und:erstand the advertising process, learn about commerciais, and eventually be able to resist their persuasive tactics .. In general, watching televisioI) is related to wanting to have the things advertised on television. Children who were asked to write to Santa to tell him what they wanted for Christmas and where they got,the idea' for each thing they wanted listed ~elevision as one of the four places they learned about gift ideas. It is found that, awareness of television as a source of product information increased with age and that most children, when asked if they wanted the things they saw
Children and Advertising
31
advertised on television, said yes, it is found a strong positive relationship (r = +.59) between watching television commercials and liking 12 foods frequently advertised on television. Studies have also found that mothers say their children learn about products when they watch television. Children who watch more television are also more likely to ask for the products they see advertised, although this decreases with age. For example, in a senes of studies, found that more than half of a sample of preschool and kindergarten children, but only one in t~n children in the fourth and fifth grades, said they asked for things they saw on television. It is noted that the information given by children about purchase requests was generally substantiated by their mothers. In a study combining both laboratory and observational techniques, it is found that children who paid more attention to commercials in the laboratory made many more attempts to influence their mothers' purchasing decisions in the supermarket. Children are also likely to eat foods and use the products they see advertised on television. It is found a positive relationship between eating candy and reported amount of television viewing. Also found a positive relationship between watching ads for mouthwash and deodorants and using these products. Also found a positive relationship between viewing and eating non-nutritious, heavily sugared foods as well as eating between meals. Advertising exposure leads to brand specific as well as generalized consumption. Survey of fourth to seventh-graders revealed a strong positive correlation (r = +.41) between viewing and eating eight highly advertised cereals and a moderate positive correlation (r = +.27) between viewing and eating five less advertised cereals. Similarly, he found positive relationships between viewing and eating both heavily and lightly advertised candies. In addition to specifically influencing what products children want, ask for, and eat, commercials also provide information about life-styles and things that mfly be good or bad for them. For example, the scores of commercials about
32
Children and Advertising
food have an important impact upon children's knowledge of nutrition. Although many commercials for breakfast cereals talk about a "balanced breakfast," many children do not know what this means. In a laboratory setting, found that four- to seven-year-old children did not know what a balanced breakfast was and that frequent exposure to television commercials in the home environment contributed little to these children's understanding of a balanced breakfast. It is found that black children believed that to maintain good health they should take advertised medicines, eat vitamins, drink Coke, and eat fast foods. In addition, it is found that seven out of ten children thought that fast foods (McDonald's) were more nutritious than the food they had at home. Over a two-week period, children's snack and beverage choices were significantly affected by exposure to messages about food seen on television. Children viewed one of four films during their rest period: no commercial messages, candy commercials, public service announcements, and commercials for fruit. Rest period was followed by snack time, during which each child could choose one beverage and two snacks (recorded by an observer). The no-message condition was just as effective in influencing a healthy food choice as the PSAs and fruit commercials. In addition, an accompanying survey revealed that the children knew what they should eat, but their behaviours were more related to the commercials they had seen than to what they thought they should do. In another study, it is found that children who saw commercials for sugared snacks and cereals were more likely to choose sugared foods, while children who viewed nutrition PSAs chose more nutritious foods. Moreover, this study revealed that when exposure to sugar-related commercials was doubled there was a corresponding increase in the preferred number of non-advertised foods containing sugar. Also found that PSAs and nutritious commercials were not effective unless they were produced with the same high-quality prdduction detail as commercials for "non-nutritious" foods.
Children and Advertising
33
Heavy viewing is also related to low nutritional knowledge and incorrect perceptions about the validity of nutritional claims in food commercials, as well as to greater consumption of non-putritious foods, such as candy, salty snacks, and desserts. While research reveals the potential negative impact of television upon diet, a number of laboratory experiments have revealed that pro-nutrition messages also can have an impact upon children's food choices and knowledge about nutrition. Roberts and his colleagues found that children who saw public service announcements about nutrition had higher scores on a test of nutrition knowledge than the children who did not see these PSA&. It is found that both PSAs and programmes that promoted good health practices and nutrition influenced both intended and actual food choices of children. Children who saw an episode of "Fat Albert" about problems related to eating junk food chose significantly fewer sugared foods than the children who did not see this programme, even when commercials for sugared food had been edited into the programme. This research also revealed that children who saw PSAs for healthy foods were more likely to choose these types of foods than were the children who were exposed to commercials for foods high in sugar content. Finally, research revealed that children are able to recall and make sense of disclosures about the problems associated with eating too much candy and sugared cereals. It was examined the effects of pro-nutrition television programming on kindergarten-age children's nutritional knowledge, food preferences, and eating habits uc;ing a pretestposttest control group design with ten 20-minute videotapes compiled from popular children's programmes and public service announcements. While the study found that the children recalled and retained information from the pronutrition messages, they failed to change either their food preferences or consumption habits. I
Bolton's study of households (262 children aged two to eleven from two-parent families, with a working television set)
34
Children and Advertising
in Cleveland, Ohio, revealed that the children's exposure to television food advertising influenced their diets by increasing the number of snacks and decreasing nutrient efficiency. Bolton concluded, however, that the overall influence of food ad vertising on children's diets was very small and would only be harmful to those children who, for other reasons (small food budget, limited kpowledge of nutrition), were not well nourished. Unfortunately, much of this research has been conducted in the artificial setting of an experimental laboratory and we do not know either the long-term effects of such exposures or whether in more natural settings the effectiveness of these types of messages would be reduced. In addition, pro-nutrition messages are generally more effective for older children because younger children are not yet able to cognitively process or fully understand the information presented. ADVERTISING FOR MEDICINES
Another area of considerable importance is whether the advertising for medicines has an impact on drug use and/or abuse. Studies focusing upon these issues, however, are relatively rare. Overall, while studies indicate some relationships between exposure and drug use, the data do not indicate that children are strongly disposed toward using proprietary drugs from viewing commercials for these products. A study of students' perceptions of advertising's role in drug usage and in attitudes toward drugs revealed that pharmaceutical advertisements were not any easier to recall than other heavily advertised products and that advertising, per se, was not a frequent topic of discussion among fifth:-, seventh-, and eleventh-grade students. The students did indicate, however, that" other" youngsters might be influenced by advertisfng for pharmaceutical products, cigarettes, and beer and that elementary school children were more likely than older children to be affected by advertising in general. Kanter suggests that campaigns for over-the-counter drugs which
Children 'and Advertising
35
present symbolic cultural approval might have a greater potelJ.tial influence on younger people. Similarly, he posits that younger age groups might be the groups most receptive to an~drug campaigns. In a modified panel study of both illicit and proprietary use among teenage boys, found a positive, but relatively weak, relationship between exposure to proprietary advertising and reported drug use. In addition, this relationship was accentuated in homes in which there were numerous proprietary medicines around the house and where the mother initiated dispensing of medicines. These authors also found a negative relationship between exposure to drug advertising on television and the use of illicit drugs. medicin~
Using a convenience sample of 2:;6 youngsters between 'ten and twelve, found that as exposure to' advertising for medicines increase~, children perceived that people were sick more often, worried about getting sick, approved of medicine, and were more likely to report that they felt better after taking medicine. Atkin found no relationship between exposure to medicine advertising an~ usage. , . An analysis of 673 interviews with mother-child dyads in 1977 in the Philadelphia metropolitan area found limited evidence of a relationship between advertising for proprietary medicines and conceptions about medicine and requests for medicine among children. There was a positive relationship between exposure to these ,commercials and illness experience and illness anxiety but no relationship between exposure and perception of the incidence of illness in the general population. There were also positive relationships between exposure to commercials and the child's belief in the efficacy of medicine, the intent to take medicine when ill, and requesting medicine from a parent. Children in this sample were exposed to approximately 718 commercials for proprietary medicines per year (about two per day). UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF COMMERCIALS
Exposure to commercials can also have a number of unintended consequences, such as increased parent-child
36
Children and Advertising
conflict, increased unhappiness, and increased materialism. While most commercials do not urge children to "ask Mom or Dad to buy this for you" children, nevertheless, often ask their parents to buy advertised products after seeing commercials. Even though these kinds of child-parent pressures would exist without television, viewing commercials may create considerable conflict. For example, in a supermarket observation study, it is found that two-thirds of the times when parents said their children could not have a specifically requested product the child would start to argue with his or her parent. Studies also revealed that those children who watched more television were more likely to say they would get into arguments with their parents when their parents told them they could not buy the product they requested. Commercials may also lead to a lot of disappointed and unhappy children. Few commercials give any information about the price of the product, what it is made out of, or how well it will perform. In many cases, children may be misled about what a toy actually can and cannot do and are disappointed when they get the toy and try to play with it. Finally, most children are disappointed, at one time or another, in the gifts they receive. Research has shown that such disappointment may be more prevalent among those children who watch more television. For example, children who were heavy television viewers were more likely to be disappointed after Christmas when they did not get all the things they had asked Santa to bring them. A last unintended consequence of television commercials is that children may become more materialistic and select a material object over a socially oriented alternative. For example, after four- and five-year-old children saw commercials they would rather play with the toy than their friends. In addition, these children said they would rather play with a "not-so-nice" peer who had a particularly desired toy than a "nice" peer who did not have this toy.
37
Children and Advertising
SUMMARY
Given the commercial nature of American television, it is not surprising that children are exposed to thousands of commercials each year. Although children see lots of commercials geared primarily for adults, they also see many commercials created especially for them. Children, who were once thought to be an insignificant segment of the market, now make up an extremely profitable demographic group. Children not only make their own purchases (especially as they enter the preadolescent and adolescent years) but also influence many family buying decisions. Commercials in children's programming are usually for children-related products, such as toys, cereals, snacks, and other sweets. These commercials stress having fun - how much fun a toy is to play with, how much fun a snack or cereal is to eat. Commercials rarely provide information about cost or durability. The commercials also have a variety of effects. First, they help sell these products and create a market for specific products. Second, they have a lot of unintended or secondary consequences, such as increasing parent-child conflict, unhappiness, and materialism. Finally, as noted above, the current era of deregulation has led to a number of programme practices that fly in the face of findings of research conducted over the last 20 years. Consequently, in 1990 we are again faced with many of the same problems we faced in 1970 relating to children's advertising and children's understanding of commercials. While it is still widely acknowledged that children are a special audience with special needs, everyday practices of the industry as well as those charged with overseeing the industry have done little to address this issue, particularly in regard to advertising.
-~Children's Exposure t~ Advertising Estimates of the number of commercials seen annually by most u. S. children have grown fr-om 20,000 per year in·the 1970s to 30,000 per year in the 1980s to 40,000 per year in the early 1990s. More recently it is indicated that the average viewer (encompassing both children and adults) is exposed to approximately 60,000 commercials per year, underscoring the consistent escalation in the number of marketing messages conveyed on television. . Our focus in this chapter empha~izes commercials specifically· targeted to children. Although a· substantial. amount of children's viewing after the preschool years includes programmes primarily intended for adults the advertising on such programmes is generally less salient for youngsters and thus less likely to exert direct influence on child audiences. ~ndeed~ it demonstrate~ the reduced level of "purchase influence -attempts" by children after watching adult-oriented ads as compared to advertising for child-oriented products. Accordingly, the emphasis here is on comrrtercial~ designed specifically for children, for it is these ads that are most likely to attract children's attention and to have-the most immediate effect~ on young viewers.
is
Concern about advertising to children first gained public attention about 1970, when a new child advocacy group, Action for Children's Television (ACT), began to champion the
Children's Exposure to Advertising
39
cause. ACT commissioned Boston University Professor F. Earle Barcus to conduct a series of studies that provided a rich history of the children's advertising environment at the time. One of Barcus' first discoveries was that the amount of time devoted to commercials in children's shows, averaging as much as 15 to 16 minutes per hour, far exceeded the amount of advertising time in virtually all other types of programming. This evidence, coupled with research demonstrating young Children's unique vulnerability to commercial persuasion, led the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1974 to adopt a policy limiting advertising 'during children's programmes on broadcast television to no more than 9:30 minutes per hour on weekends, and 12 minutes per hour on weekdays. Studies have documented a general pattern of compliance with these time limits during the 1970s and 1980s. However, in 1984 the FCC deregulatecl all of its policies limiting the amount of advertising time that could be aired by broadcast television licensees, arguing that marketplace competition would serve as effectively as government regulation to keep excessive commercial practices in check. Congress soon reversed the FCC's decision to deregulate advertising to children, adopting statutory limits of 10:30 minutes per hour of commercials during weekend children's programming, and 12 minutes per hour during weekday shows, as part of the Children's Television Act of 1990. In a noteworthy development, these time limits were applied for the first time to cable television networks as well as broadcast stations. There is some evidence that the amount of commercial advertising during children's programmes on cable television may be lower than ,that found on broadcast channels. It is reported that broadcast networks aired the greatest amount of commercials, averaging 10:05 minutes per hour during children's shows, followed closely by independent broadcasters at 9:37 minutes per hour. In contrast, cable channels averaged much less time (6:48 per hour) devoted to commercial messages. These data, however, were gathered in the early 1990s, and the academic community has yet to
40
Children's Exposure to Advertising
provide an update on cable's advertising levels, so this finding should be viewed with caution given the significant changes that have occurred in the media en'!ironment over the past decade. NON-PROGRAMME CONTENT
There are other forms of non-programme content besides commercial advertising found in breaks during children's shows, including both programme promotions and public service announcements (PSAs). Neither of these formats are defined as advertising for purposes of the regulatory limits on advertising to children. Thus, to identify the total volume of persuasive messages presented during children's programming, one must add together the time devoted to traditional advertising messages and the time devoted to these other types of segments. Early studies examining commercial content reported only the sheer number of programme promotional messages rather than the overall time devoted to such segments. Barcus observed an average of S programme promotions per hour, whereas Condry et al.found a mean of 4.4 prom os per hour between 1983 and 1987, with both samples of programming drawn primarily from network broadcast channels. In the early 1990s, Kunkel and Gantz reported that network broadcasters averaged nearly 1 minute per hour (0:58) of programme promotions, but that independent broadcasters (2:S2/hour) and cable networks (2:S3/hour) devoted much more time to these segments. The most recent data available, gathered in 1998, indicate that programme promotions during children's shows have increased on the broadcast networks and held relatively stable on cable channels. Across six commercial broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, UPN, WE), programme promotions averaged 4:05 per hour, compared to 2:25 per hour for cable networks. In this study, a sizable proportion (40%) of all promotions airing during children's shows were for prime-time, adult-oriented programming. Public service announcements during children's programmes occur with some regularity, albeit in small
Children's Exposure to Advertising
41
amounts averaging between 30 secunds and 1 minute per hour. PSAs are found more frequently on Saturday morning children's programmes than elsewhere in the television environment and television industry officials indicate that child and family issues are their top priority in deciding what PSAs to air. With the changing nature of advertising styles, some product commercials are now designed to resemble PSAs, which raises new challenges for young viewers just learning to successfully categorize the different types of persuasive messages found on television. For example, Fox described a Pepsi-Cola commercial campaign entitled "It's Like This" that featured a documentary style in which kids talked about their problems in short segments aired in black and white, with each speaker interrupted by a brief colour visual of a red, white, and blue Pepsi can. Fewer than half of ninth through twelfth graders who saw such ads thought they were real commercials, instead assuming they were some other form of noncommercial content such as a PSA. One ninth grader, for example, responded, "It's not really a commercial, it's just a commercial sponsored by Pepsi". This blurring of the boundaries between commercial and noncommercial content is an increasing trend that we consider further later in this chapter. In summary, the average hour of children's programming on broadcast television appears to include approximately 10 minutes of product commercials, 3 to 4 minutes of programme promotions, and up to 1 minute of PSAs. Collectively, this means that up to 25% of a child's time spent viewing television may consist of watching messages meant to persuade and to influence subsequent behaviour. These figures may be slightly lower for cable, although the evidence for this medium is somewhat dated and in need of reexamination. PRODUCT TYPES
In an overview of his numerous content studies conducted throughout it is observed that more than 80% of all advertising
42
Children's Exposure to Advertising
to children fell within just four product categories: toys, cereals, candies, and fast-food restaurants. The stability of this pattern has been confirmed by subsequent research over the years. The data appear to have held remarkably stable over time, with the modest exception that toy commercials seem to have surged in the 1980s through the 1990s and to have displaced some of the candy/snack ads that aired previously. This shift likely reflects an increase in toy marketing stimulated by growth in product tie-ins with children's programmes, which were first allowed in the mid-1980s following the FCC's deregulation of its previous restriction on programme-length commercials. Another pattern that has held constant over time is the seasonal variation in product advertising that occurs each year during the pre-Christmas months. During this period, toy commercials gain a much larger share of the market, jumping from their normal rate of about one in every four or five commercials to half or more of all ads in children's programmes at Christmastime. This increase in toy advertising generally displaces commercials for cereals and candy/snacks, which then reemerge after the holidays in their normal volume. Most of the foods advertised to children are for highly sugared products, such as presweetened cereals, candy, snacks, cookies, and sodas; few commercials advertise any healthy foods. The propensity of advertising to children to feature unhealthy foods has been linked to a number of negative outcomes, including a lack of understanding of proper diet and nutrition as well as obesity in childhood. Similarly, the advertising of toys, particularly at Christmastime, has been associated with increased purchase-influence attempts that trigger parent-child conflict when parents cannot honour all of their child's product requests. THEMES AND APPEALS It is reported that roughly half of all commercials targeting adults include salient product information such as price,
Children's Exposure to Advertising
43
quality, or availability. In contrast, commercials targeting children rarely provide information about specific product attributes. The most common persuasive strategy employed in advertising to children is to associate the product with fun/ happiness. For example, a commercial featuring Ronald McDonald dancing, singing, and smiling in a McDonald's restaurant without any mention of the food products available there would be categorized as employing a fun/happiness theme. It is noted that this pattern was also common with cereal advertising, which frequently features spokes characters (e.g., Tony the Tiger, Cap'n Crunch) in an adventure scenario. In contrast, it is impossible to discern the major grain used in the cereal in most cases unless it is included as part of the product name, such as in Bran Flakes. Interestingly, in the small number of ads aired for healthy food products, the fun! happiness theme still predominates as the primary appeal (47%), whereas a health/nutrition theme is only rarely employed (6%), even when it would arguably be most salient.
Other common themes/appeals are closely tied to particular types of product ads. For example, tastelflavour/ smell is by far the most frequent appeal used in commercials for cdeals, snacks, and drinks. Commercials for toy products are the most likely to convey information about product performance, although fewer than one in five such adD employ this as their primary theme/appeal. In addition to themes/appeals, advertising to children typically includes formal features, or production conventions, meant to elicit attention to the screen and thereby increase the impact of the ad. For example, commercials attract children's attention by using unusual sound effects, lots of movement and fast pacing of visual cuts, and fantasy or magic that involves appearances/disappearances and mystical flight of people or objects. Finally, commercials for children often employ creative use of music as well as jingles to help aid in product recall.
44
Children's Exposure to Advertising
DISCLOSURES
Another common feature of advertising to children is the use of product disclosures and disclaimers such as "batteries not included" or "each part sold separately." The frequency with which such messages appear in advertising to children ranges between one in every three ads and one in every two. Studies make it clear that young children do not comprehend the intended meaning of the most widely used disclaimers. Although fewer than one in four kindergarten through secondgrade children could grasp the meaning of "some assembly required" when shown a commercial, the use of child-friendly language such as "you have to put it together" more than doubled the proportion of children who understood the qualifying message. The phrase "part of a balanced breakfast" is another frequent disclosure, included in most cereal ads to combat the concern that sugared cereal products hold little nutritional value for children. Consistent with the data on toy disclaimers, it is found that fewer than one in three 4- to 7-year-olds had any idea what the term "balanced breakfast" means. Rather than informing young viewers about the importance of a wellrounded nutritious breakfast, this common disclaimer actually leaves many children with the misimpression that cereal alone is sufficient for a meal. Children's understanding of disclosure statements is greatest when both audio and visual formats are employed to convey the qualifiCation message. However, only about one of every five children's commercials with a disclosure uses this approach. Cereal commercials most commonly employ an audio-only strategy to c~:mvey the "balanced breakfast" information, whereas toy ads rely primarily on visual disclosures in textual form. These findings regarding children's interpretation of disclosures and disclaimers in television commercials underscore the importance of considering how children of different ages make sense of advertising messages.
Children's Exposure to Advertising
45
CHARACTER GENDER AND ETHNICITY
As with all television content, advertising can contribute to a child's perceptions about how the different genders behave and how people of different ethnicities may interact. The proportion of male and female characters featured in commercials across television overall is generally considered to be equivalent. In contrast to this pattern of relative balance, several studies of advertising to children found a male bias in the range of 54% to 64% of featured characters. Recently, however, a broad-based study of roughly 600 children's ads that aired in 1997 and 1998 found almost identical numbers of male and female characters suggesting that gender equality within children's advertising may be improving. Many children's advertisements target one gender over the other in framing their message. For example, toy ads frequently target either boys or girls because toys are strongly gender linked in the minds of both children and parents. When a gender bias exists in advertising to children, boys are consistently the privileged group. This disparity is attributable to the advertising adage that girls will consider using boys' products, whereas boys will not typically associate with girls' items. Although male-oriented ads have consistently predominated in advertising to children, the degree of bias has clearly and consistently diminished over time from 84% of all single-gender ads in the 1970s tp 72% to 76% in the 1980s to 67% in the 1990s and to 63% more recently. Some studies have examined the level of activity or passivity of the actors in commercials, and here again boys fare somewhat differently than girls. Verna noted that the overwhelming majority (87%) of girls ilihildren's advertising were passive, whereas most boys (72<%) were active. Similar findings regarding activity levels hav been reported for toy advertisements for children's advertising in general and for Australian as well as U. S.-based children's commercials. Aggression is an extreme form of physical activity, and numerous studies have found that advertisements directed at boys are moderately to highly likely to contain aggressive
46
Children's Exposure to Advertising
behaviour, whereas commercials directed at girls almost never depict aggression. Finally, commercials targeted at girls are much more likely to be set in the home than commercials targeted at boys. The diversity of thmc representation in advertising to children was first studied in the 1970s and found to be lacking, with at least 90% of all characters apparently White. During the 1970s, fewer than one in four commercials depicred any ethnic minority figures and those who were included were more likely to play token roles than to be featured characters. More recent research suggests some change in the direction of equality of ethnic representation, although this topic has not attracted as much research scrutiny as in the past. It is reported that 13% of all prominent human characters in a sample of Saturday morning commercials were non-White, whereas it is found the identical proportion of minority haracters in advertising o~ Channel One, a national news &ervice airing in junior and senior high schools. Another study of Saturday morning commercials noted that a non-white character was observed in almost every commercial pod analysed. In summary, it appears that television advertising to childr n continues to reflect many common gender stereotypes, and to present little diversity in terms of the characters featured in the commercials, although there are some modest indications of improvements in the most recent data examining these topics. POLICIES SHAPING CONTENT OF ADVERTISING
Both industry self-regulation and formal governmental regulation playa role in shaping certain aspects of the content of television advertising to children. Since the 1980s, the television industry has not maintained industry wide selfregulation of any sort; judgments about the acceptability of both programming and advertising content are rendered at the level of the individual station or network. Self-regulation by the advertising industry is accomplished through the
Children's Exposure to Advertising
47
Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU), a subsidiary of the National Council of Better Business Bureaus. The CARU operation, which is funded by contributions from the advertising industry, relies on the good faith and cooperation of advertisers to accomplish its work. The CARU guidelines are intended to "encourage truthful and accurate advertising sensitive to the special nature of children." Guidelines are established in such areas as product presentations and claims; sales pressure; and safety concerns. Within each area, a range of criteria are included that indicate practices to be either avoided or required. Some of these standards are fairly specific, such as the requirement that" a product should be demonstrated in a way that can be duplicated by the child for whom the product is intended." Others are more vague and general, such as the admonition that" care should be taken not to exploit a child's imagination." Although many elements of the guidelines are not amenable to any empirical evaluation of compliance, those that are were examined in an independent study of more than 10,000 commercials directed at children. Overall, just 4% were found to present violations of CARU standards. Among the most common violations were ads that placed greater emphasis on a premium than on the advertised product, which occurred most often with fast-food commercials. Children's advertising content is also shaped to some extent by formal governmental regulation. Certainly the limits on commercial time during children's programmes discussed earlier in this chapter playa significant role in constraining the overall amount of advertising to children. In addition, the FCC maintains several policies that restrict several specific advertising practices targeted at children. One such policy is a restriction on host selling during children's programmes. Host selling refers to the same character appearing in a programme as well as in an ad placed adjacent to the show in which that character is featured. This practice is prohibited because it exacerbates the young child's difficulty in discriminating programmes from commercials, which is the first level of defence for children against commercial
48
Children's Exposure to Advertising
persuasion. For example, Bugs Bunny'could not be used to promote a cereal product in a commercial aired during The Bugs Bunny Show. In contrast, however, Bart Simpson is allowed to promote Butterfinger candy bars during a commercial interruption in the prime-time programme The Simpsons, because the show is not considered a children's programme. The FCC specifies that a children's programme is a show originally produced for and primarily directed to audiences of children aged 12 and under. In addition, an ad featuring Bugs Bunny promoting a cereal product may be aired during any other children's programme not featuring his character, including the programme immediately preceding or following The Bugs Bunny Show. A second FCC policy, known as the programme-length commercial restriction, prohibits ads that are closely related to the theme or content of a programme from airing adjacent to that same children's show. This policy would prohibit a commercial for a Bugs Bunny costume or playset (regardless of whether or not the Bugs Bunny character appeared in the ad) from airing during a break in The Bugs Bunny Show. This policy has been significantly relaxed since its origin in 1969, when it was more broadly applied to restrict any programme based primarily on a children's toy product. In one of its earliest applications, it resulted in the programme Hot Wheels, a cartoon based on the MatteI toy car products of the same name, being removed from the airwaves. Under current FCC policy, a Hot Wheels programme would be permitted, although no Hot Wheels product ads would be allowed during the show. Finally, a third FCC policy mandates that programme/ commercial separation devices must be employed at each commercial break during a children's programme. These devices, known as "bumpers" in the television industry, are roughly 5-second segments that say something like "and now a word from our sponsor" before and after each commercial break. As with the host-selling policy, this regulation is intended to assist child viewers in distinguishing between programme and commercial content on television. In practice,
Children's Exposure to Advertising
49
however, these devices have not proven successful over the years in improving young children's capability at discriminating programming from advertising. There is some indication this is primarily because the separators are not perceptually distinct from the adjacent programming content. ISSUES
As advertisers have increasingly recognized the economic value of marketing to children, many new and innovative practices have surfaced in an effort to reach child audiences. One key example of this trend is advertising in the schools, which has grown dramatically in recent years. Among the wide range of marketing strategies employed are presenting commercials on televised newscasts that are mandatory viewing for students (e.g., Channel One), providing corporatesponsQred educational materials for use in the classroom (e.g., food companies provide support materials about nutrition; insurance companies provide support materials about safety); and inserting brand-name product placement pictures in textbooks (e.g., children learn to count by tallying M&Ms). Another new advertising venue is the Internet, where many Web sites frequented by children include significant commercial matter. Advertising in this new medium poses a broad range of interesting questions in terms of how children are affected by types of content quite distinct from the content that is possible on television. With interactivity children can convey their interests and preferences, which may result in a Web site transmitting more carefully tailored messages in response, potentially increasing the persuasive power of advertising as compared to traditional mass-market commercials that take the same shape for everyone in the audience. An issue of greater significance for children is the increased blurring of the boundaries between commercial and noncommercial content that is possible on the Internet. Advertising on Web sites includes traditional "billboard" ads, but is hardly limited to them, encompassing "branded
50
Children's Exposure to Advertising
environments" provided by companies such as MatteI and Frito-Lay. These sites provide entertaining games and activities embedded within depictions of the company's products, as this excerpt illustrates: "Emblematic of this trend is MatteI's Barbie.com web site .... The site offers a variety of on-line activities designed to appeal to girls, such as sending epostcards, receiving newsletters, entering contests, and voting for their favourite Barbie." For children who are just developing an understanding of the difference between commercial and noncommercial messages, advertising on the Internet may prove to be more effective precisely because it is not so easily recognized as the commercial matter that it actually represents. Developments in these areas have so far eluded the attention of academic researchers, which in turn has allowed such advertising practices targeting children to grow without much attention from policymakers. These new developments are symptomatic of a culture in which children seem to be surrounded by attempts at commercial persuasion at virtually every turn. Learning to deal with slick, attractive ads for products of dubious value has clearly become an unavoidable part of growing up in America. CONCLUSION
Children are a particularly sensitive audience for advertising because of their limited ability to recognize the nature and purpose of commercial messages. As a result, young children are more easily persuaded than are older children or adults. This chapter focused on the content of the persuasive messages directed at children by television advertisers. Child audiences today spend, on average, more than 15% of their time with the television set watching product-based commercials. The commercial advertisements directed to children are limited primarily to four product types: toys, sugared cereals, candy/snacks, and fast-food restaurants. The appeals employed to promote these products offer little information
Children's Exposure to Advertising
51
to help evaluate the product, focusing instead on efforts to make the merchandise appear fun and attractive to the child. Product disclosures and disclaimers, which are presented ostensibly to help protect the consumer, are not easily comprehensible to the intended audience in most advertising to children. Additionally, the portrayals of gender and minority figures in advertising to children still seem stereotypical when viewed from an overall perspective, although there are some modest indications that this situation is improving. Children can convey their interests and preferences, which may result in a Web site transmitting more carefully tailored messages in response, potentially increasing the persuasive power vf advertising as compared to traditional mass-market commercials that take the same shape for everyone in the audience. An issue of greater significance for children is the increased blurring of the boundaries between commercial and noncommercial content that is possible on the Internet. Advertising on Web sites includes traditional "billboard" ads, but is hardly limited to them, encompassing "branded environments" provided by companies such as MatteI and Frito-Lay. These sites provide entertaining games and activities embedded within depictions of the company's products, as this excerpt illustrates: "Emblematic of this trend is MatteI's Barbie.com web site .... The site offers a variety of on-line activities designed to appeal to girls, such as sending epostcards, receiving newsletters, entering contests, and voting for their favourite Barbie." For children who are just developing an understanding of the difference between commercial and noncommercial messages, advertising on the Internet may prove to be more effective precisely because it is not so easily recognized as the commercial matter that it actually represents company's products, as this excerpt illustrates: "Emblematic of this trend is MatteI's Barbie.com web site .... The site offers a variety of on-line activities designed to appeal to girls, such as sending e-postcards, receiving newsletters, entering contests, and voting for their favourite Barbie."
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Children's Exposure to Advertising
For children who are just developing an understanding of the difference between commercial and noncommercial messages, advertising on the Internet may prove to be more effective precisely because it is not so easily recognized as the commercial matter that it actually represents. Developments in these areas have so far eluded the attention of academic researchers, which in tum has allowed such advertising practices targeting children to grow without much attention from policymakers. These new developments are symptomatic of a culture in which children seem to be surrounded by attempts at commercial persuasion at virtually every tum. Learning to deal with slick, attractive ads for products of dubious value has clearly become an unavoidable part of growing up in America.
-1>Issues and Politics
CHILDREN AND COMMERCIAL COMMUNICATIONS
In all cultures and at all times in history, children have been nurtured, cared for, and brought up to take their rightful place as adult members of society. Although the history of childhood is tainted by abuse, individually and collectively, against children, the general principle remains that we as a people take care of our offspring. One of the purposes of this chapter is to look at the concerns and anxieties that people in the 21st century feel about just one aspect that appears to threaten the well-being of the younger members of their culture-the real or imagined threat posed by the presence of commercial communications. What are the problems? Is it unfair to subvert the developing rationality of children with sophisticated marketing techniques? Should children be protected from the wilder excesses of the commercial and material world? If parents won't do this, who will? Should the state step in? In this chapter, we see that some of these concerns are well founded and others are based on false assumptions about the role of advertiSing, marketing, and promotion in general. Here you can find the evidence and the arguments, but the decision is yours. These are your children and this is their future. I hope that this chapter makes you think but also helps you make up your mind. The debate is not just a cool evaluation of alternative arguments and a winnowing of contradictory findings; it's inextricably tied up with politics, values, attitudes, and ultimately visions of what children are like and what they deserve.
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Issues and Politics
Where shall we start? Twenty years ago, when the first version of this book emerged, the world of media was relatively simple by today's standards, with TV advertising to children dominating the discussions in the popular and academic literature. Advertising in magazines and on billboards was relegated to a minor issue as far as advertising to children was concerned, and the focus of concern was on television advertising and its effects on children and younger people in general. There was some worry about whether media representations in ads would cultivate an unattainable and undesirable body image concept in young and impressionable pubescent girls, and this concern has not gone away. There are still anxieties expressed that commercial communications convey images of food, for example, that encourage poor diet as well as arguments that body images of models will precipitate eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa or bulimic conditions. However, the media landscape has changed beyond all recognition. Although these changes are documented exterLsively elsewhere in this book, we can perhaps summarize them by saying this: More choice is available to the child, who is very much in charge. In 1981, interactive media was nonexistent, and the only interaction children had was with primitive video games. Choice for kids then was being able to select from a range of three to four broadcast channels at most, and to "negotiate" within the family for a time for viewing after school and on Saturday mornings. ("Negotiate" is in quotes because most families had one TV and it is well known that the member of the family in charge of the remote control is rarely the child and usually a parent-often Dad.) Broadcasting with a "diet" that tried to satisfy all the wants and needs of a demographically defined population was the dominant model. For example, it is argued that Saturday morning children's television had attempted to satisfy the different interests and wants of cohorts of children of various ages by organizing programming that appealed to the youngest children early in the morning and programmes for older children later in the morning. The aim was Ito buil9 a
Issues and Politics
55
continuous audience flow designed so that switching to the other networks was minimized. Note that the reason for structuring the "kidvid ghetto" was not concern for the interests of children in different age bands. The market was specialized, and one of the principles of selling in a specialized market is to seek a relatively high response rate from a smaller, selected audience. The concept of demographic purity is often mentioned in the literature with this meaning. The goal of the marketing strategy is that only a certain type of audience watches a particular programme and the associated advertisements as the impact of the advertisement would be wasted on other, non target groups. Demographic purity was the aim of Saturday morning programming, by which different age groups of children were selectively attracted at different times in the morning. This strategy was designed to promote brands of interest to different groups of children. It is not surprising that an effects model of influence was still used by media researchers as a popular way of conceptualizing the rO~e of media in the child's life. The image of many millions of children passively viewing a restricted range of televisual content was not an inaccurate picture of what was happening in homes across the nation. Things have changed, and in the early 21st century the average household in Europe or the United States or in many cities in Asia has many access points to enter the world of communications. Consider a household with children. They will have more than one TV set. There will be a telephone with a landline, and possibly a dedicated line for Internet use. Mobile phone use by children is increasing: In the United Kingdom, whereas only 22% of children aged 9 and 10 years use mobile phones, this figure has increased to over 60% for 11 - to 12 -year- olds. However, there are cross-national differences, and many countries in Europe (where the geography is more conducive to cell phone coverage than in the United States) have remarkable figures for mobile phone ownership. Powell and Wicken (2002) compared survey data in the United States and the United Kingdom, and whereas only 44% of 12- to 17-year-olds in the United States owned or
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Issues and Politics
used mobile phones, the equivalent figure for the United Kingdom was 75%. Many urban households in Europe and many more in the United States have cable feeds for hundreds of TV channels, or have installed satellite dishes that can receive various bundles of TV transmissions at different subscription rates. A computer with Internet capabilities and storage devices that include CD-ROM and DVD is available in many homes. The television receiver will no doubt be linked to a video recorder (VCR) and possibly a DVD player. There are other forms of stoIage like TiVo, a solid-state store that affords instant playback and smart memory to prompt the user to record frequently viewed programme categories at the touch of a button. There is a growth in digital television, with an associated interactive capability and choice of camera angle at sporting events. What used to be known as "MTV" is now a generic category for many branded channels, some with interactive capability such as viewer voting onscreen for the most popular music videos. Children use the Internet frequently. A 6-year study on Internet use by children (79% from the United States) showed that a quarter of children in 2001 could be classified as heavy users, "spending ten hours or more online each week-up from an average of just 19% for the previous four years." Hence, it would appear that children of the new media age have a wide variety of media from which to choose. It can be argued that the child is an active consumer of media (and other goods and services) from an early age and displays a wide variety of associated skills, from setting the controls on a VCR to sending text messages using an abbreviated message code on a mobile phone. Nevertheless, anxieties and concerns about children and media have shown no signs of disappearing. Additionally, as new media have emerged, concerns have grown, ranging from worries about pornography and advertising on the Internet to violence in video games and marketing in schools. Why should this be so? I have argued elsewhere that advertising to children is an activity that produces concern and anxieties in adults, and
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Issues and Politics
that the reason behind these worries maybe misplaced. This does not mean that marketing and promoting goods and services to younger people is a benign activity, harmless to both society in general and children in particular. We have to look at the evidence carefully, and I intend to develop this side of the argument later in the chapter. But if we look at the issue of why advertising to children has been a recurrent anxiety for many decades now, we see that some of the emotional energy discharged is targeted at myths and misunderstandings of both the nature of children and childhood, and the nature of promotional communications. It is only by cutting through the rhetoric that we will be in a better position to make a more dispassionate judgment on this vexed question. There are many reasons why people should feel uncomfortable with the general idea that marketing and commercial promotion are legitimate activities. To a certain extent, advertisers are their own enemy. For example, I have on my desk a glossy colour brochure inviting me to attend an "Annual Kids Marketing Summit" in London entitled Tapping Into the Hearts & Minds of Toddlers, Tweens & Teens. Inside I am told about "winning the hearts and minds of 3-13s" and "penetrating the kid lifestyle .... Although the intended readers of this kind of message are advertising practitioners who know from experience that so-called kids are fickle and that new brands fail more often than succeed, the language used reflects a particular way of thinking about marketing to children. Children are seen as passive recipients who are targeted and probed and seduced into purchase. In fact, children are far from passive and marketing is not a black art in which psychologists are priests of darkness. However, in order to establish just why advertising to children is seen in a negative light, it is necessary to look at several themes. I review these in light of changes in the media landscape over the last 20 years. II
ADVERTISING
Pollay reviewed much of the popular writing from the United States by cultural critics on advertising, but these
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Issues and Politics
criticisms were predominantly based on advertising and promotional activity before the radical media changes described earlier in this chapter. One set of criticisms was based on the persuasive and pervasive nature of advertising. Advertising is everywhere, cultivating particular attitudes to problems or creating problems where none previously existed. This way of thinking about advertising can be considered as originating from a root metaphor. Root metaphors deeply influence our thinking. They can be specified as principles that guide thought and that can be found in sayings, vivid images, metaphors, and idioms in language. They frame the problems we are dealing with and constrain the ways we think about them. I have argued that the root metaphor that guided this thinking about advertising can be described as "advertising as dry rot." If society is conceived as an old building, then advertising can creep in undetected and influence the very fabric of society, corrupting the basic moral and spiritual values the culture holds dear. Advertising should now be seen in popular imagination as more insidious rather than less, just because it appears in less recognizable forms. For example, one of the issues in the academic literature of the 1970s was the extent to which advertising was flagged as visibly separate from the programme context. It was argued that physical signals that were recognizable as such should be used to separate programme from advertisement especially when the audience was comprised of children, because they might not be able to recognize the difference. Advertising at the beginning of the 21st century can be found everywhere in its different forms. Web-based advertising, for example, is not immediately recognizable but is present in banners on Web sites. Little is known about how children understand this form of promotional activity. Promotional activity such as sponsorship and branding in the context of sporting events, or the use of product placement in popular films, is commonplace. The development of computer technology such as that used in TiVos will threaten the existence of spot advertising on TV, because the economics of such advertising depend on being able to guarantee purchasers
Issues and Politics
59
f
that an end audience of demographically defined households, based on audience research, is assured. Zapping and replay on- demand confounds this data. In addition, marketing activity has developed into so-called "viral marketing" where fashions are socially engineered by the tactical cultivation of youthful opinion leaders. Viral marketing has been aptly described as spreading a message through electronic word of mouth and is a recent development in marketing to children and young people. Agencies are encouraged to be ironic or postmodern in their approach to creative solutions for campaigns that are directed at an ever-more cynical and cool population of "tweens." The landscape looks less recognizable as conventional advertising than it did 20 years ago, and one would predict more anxiety about the presence of advertising now. The origins of the anxieties that people feel about advertising and marketing to children can be found, in my opinion, in three main sites. One is concerned with the preconceptions and assumptions that are brought to bear about the nature of commercial activity in general and advertiSing and marketing in particular, and a similar set of visions of what children and childhood are really like. Put the two together and a nightmare scenario emerges, as we see later in this chapter. The second is concerned with the vehicle that carries commercial communications-whether it is the Internet, mobile phones, video game consoles, or television. And, finally, there is the issue of the location of such activity, whether it is the home, the school, or the mall. Let's look at these in tum. ADVERTISING AND CHILDREN
Advertising is one aspect of the general social arrangements in any culture that surround the economic activities of commerce and trade, and can be seen as its communicative function. Commercial communications have a positive role to play inasmuch as information is transmitted from trader or manufacturer to consumer or retailer, as well as between and within commercial organizations. This flow
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can have a facilitative effect like any other communlcation network, because all participants have access to information and can make decisions more effectively and rapidly. Taken with the spur of competition, it can be argued that advertising "lubricates" the economy. Although advertising as oil is an image that advertisers and businesspeople are keen to promote, it is not one that is shared by commentators on advertising, who tend to be more critical in their comments. It is suggested that the messages in advertising tap into our most serious concerns, like interpersonal and family relationships, the use of affluence, our sense of happiness and contentment, and so on. Unnikrishnan and Bajpai argued that young consumers will also believe that advertising tells us our way of life will change for the better if we buy, use, and own certain products. Jhally underscored this theme by warning of "commodity fetishism" by which people worship commodities as a result of advertising, and that advertising creates false expectation~ that make consumption a habit or way of life. Thus, a picture of advertising in the popular imagination emerges in which it is seen as a major source of influence on our ways of thinking, feeling, and acting on the material world. There is also an unease that this influence is beyond our control and that it cultivates images that are detrimental to our well-being. Whether this is actually true is irrelevant to the argument that focuses on why people in general are concerned about advertising and, in particular, advertising directed at children. Although "the consumer as victim" is only one of the images of the consumer that has emerged in the discourse surrounding advertising and consumption it is a representation that is enduring. There are other concerns about advertising that are very central to the argument about advertising to children. Advertising carries information, but this information is not just a factual representation of what's in the product or the brand. Exactly what lies beyond factual information is difficult to establish, but it would appear that the other factors can be subsumed under the general head of information that is designed to influence us emotionally. The cold presentation
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of facts about a brand is better processed by some sort of calculus of costs and benefits (i.e., in a rational way, perhaps, bounded by "satisficing"; because of constraints imposed by time or circumstances or the sheer number of criteria to consider. Beyond that there are various ways of emotionally communicating the various selling propositions about a brand. First, it has always been generally accepted that some legitimate exaggeration about the brand is acceptable. This puffery is characteristic of the advertising genre and involves presentation so that food always looks perfect, clothes are immaculate, and so on. But there is more to advertising than that. It uses rhetoric, both visual and verbal that is carefully designed to evoke emotions about the brand. In a sense, it is no different than the imagery that poets use to invoke complex feelings in a reader or the verbal skills of a lawyer who attempts to convince a jury of his or her client's innocence. Many people will see poetry as a legitimate use of rhetoric, and it would be difficult to argue that children should not be exposed to poetry because they are too young. However, the use of rhetoric in the court and in advertising might be seen as an activity to which it's dangerous to expose children. Why? Because of truth. In poetry, truth is in the words and the emotions themselves, but in advertising and court, rhetoric gets in the way of truth. Children, then, are too young for advertising just because they can't counter argue and, in general, stand outside the flow of communication and critically evaluate it. This inability to erect cognitive defences against advertising suggests that advertising should be banned for children or at least children younger than a certain age. There is another aspect of advertising that should be considered-the promotional aspect. Advertising, quite simply, provides biased information, so that the case that is made for the product is the best case that can be made. In this respect, advertising is similar to advocacy in court (where the case for the client is paramount) or self-promotion (e.g., presenting oneself at interview). My contention would be that the factual information that is there for consumer evaluation, together with rhetorical and promotional affect-based
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communicative forms, produce a heady cocktail in the marketing mix in general and in advertising in particular. Reason and emotion sit together awkwardly at the best of times (in Anglo-Saxon cultures in particular), and their presence in the same message called advertising means that advertising will tend to be demonized. I mentioned earlier that the language used in marketing to kids can be insensitive at best and offensive at worst, and in that sense marketers to children are their own worst enemy. But there is another theme that appeared to emerge when J looked through the various invitations and promotions for commercial conferences on advertising to children: The words children or child are rarely if ever used. Instead, these little people were kids. Kids and children are not the same, and the connotations are very different. Children go to school and wash regularly.. They are dutiful and eat their vegetables. They are born pure and need to be protected from the sinful adult world. Kids, on the other hand, are junior anarchists! They make a lot of noise, don't ever sit stilt and play tricks with grownups as their victims. Bart Simpson is a kid. Kidhood (as opposed to childhood) is a wild and free time, and kids have license to do what they want until responsibility comes along. They're imps, and of all the images of childhood, the imp and the innocent are the main ones. Kids become tweenies. Kids are streetwise, hang out in malls, and love the right stuff. Marketers love kids. It seems, then, that advertisers and marketers appropriate an image or a social construction of children and childhood that best suits their ends. Kids, the robust self-contained and selfmaintained streetwise creation, will be comfortable in the world of commerce, goods, and services. But will the child? Certainly not! Children need protection from the strange mix of reason and emotion-of hard sell and subterfuge-that is advertising in the public imagination. It is no accident that Vance Packard, in his notorious book The Hidden Persuaders entitled one of his chapters "The Psycho-seduction of Children." The anxieties caused by advertising to children are based on an implied relationship in which advertising is seen as the seducer and the child is viewed as an innocent.
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It's not just the world of advertising that is seen as dangerous for children but good for kids-the world of commerce and industry is often viewed as malevolent, and there are historical grounds for assuming this was driven by changes in the economy and consequent constructions of childhood. Kessen argued that the changes from a rural to an industrial economy in the United States in the 19th century resulted in far-reaching changes in the way people viewed the family and childhood. Because many West European societies have also gone through this rapid period of change, and because many third-world societies are now also going in this direction, Kessen's claims must be taken seriously. The world of commerce and industry was centreed round the town. This was where men worked-this was where wheeling and dealing, haggling, arguing, buying and selling, and negotiation in smoke-filled saloons occurred. The world of commerce and industry was rough, tough, sinful, and self-interested. In contrast, the world of the home-where men returned with a "Hi honey, I'm horne"-was romanticized and transformed into an idealized world of domestic bliss and motherly values. Childhood was sentimentalized. Children were to be protected from the decadence of downtown, and to be a child was to be innocent and pure. This vision of home as a sanctuary was, of coarse, not solely a result of large-scale changes in patterns of work in the United States. Home in a frontier setting was a refuge, a place that needed to be protected from marauders, real or imagined. Home was where childhood and motherhood existed and thrived. There are two aspects of advertising to children that are especially relevant in the context of n':!w technology: the vehicle that carries advertiSing and the context in which advertising is found. I next look at these in tum. Although advertising has a history that goes back several centuries, it was only in the 20th century that its audiovisual potential was realised with first radio and film t:dvertising and then television advertising. In the United Kingdom, television was seen in a positive light when it was introduced, and until 1955 all television broadcast was regulated by the state, under
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the control of the BBe. The BBC had long stood for respectability and firm moral righteousness and, at that time, memories of the World War II and the fight against Nazism were very much alive. Television did not carry advertising. The BBC's reputation and the absence of advertising or even any hint of commercial activity meant that television was safely corralled from the imagined perils of the commercial world. Consequently, TV was seen as a window on the world and as a new hearth that would bring the family closer. Indeed, as Seiter argued, this image was also common at that time in the United States, where TV was seen as promoting family harmony and togetherness in the media. This image did not last long. I would argue that a contributory factor was the introduction of advertising, with all the connotations of the adult world of commerce. The window on the world image-in which the family extends its horizons and gains a wider, more informed vision of the workings of the external world-can only exist if the medium (television) is essentially seen as benign, credible, and trustworthy. Given a state broadcasting system and a respectful and trusting population (as Britain was in the 1950s), then one can adopt this stance. Advertising (and I have argued that advertising has a special privilege as a medium in terms of being perceived as threatening and dangerous to children) is a contributory factor to a change from seeing television as a way of extending one's vision of the world to imagining television as a conduit that allows all sorts of uncontrolled information into the household. The benevolent image of television as a positive vision of all the best that's out there has been replaced by a more scary and malign image of multichannel TV pumping programmes that are heavily laced with promotional communications and that are potentially subversive to family life into the sanctity of the home. Television is delivered by satellite and by cable as well as the traditional broadcast route, and there are hundreds of channels carrying commercials, programmes that are sponsored, and channels that are devoted to shopping.
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Promotional information in the form of television spot advertising is not the only carrier of information that invades the sanctity of the home. Indeed, even 30 years ago radio carried advertising, the mail carrier brought direct mail shots, and newspapers and magazines carried advertising. In most of these examples, however, the ad was clearly identified as separate from the content of either the paper or the TV or radio programme. The presence of ads on mobile phones in the context of the Internet, in video games, at sponsored sportsall suggest a blurring of the demarcation lines between advertising and the context in which it occurs. This tendency would suggest public anxiety with advertising to children could increase rather than decrease. In summary, the nature of advertising to children and the vehicle that carries this advertising will influence the anxiety that people feel about advertising and promoting goods and services to children. I have suggested that the home is perceived as 'a sacred place that deserves to be protected from the onslaught of commercial communications and, more recently, asimHar concern has been voiced about the extent to which commercial sponsorship has invaded schools. Geuens, De Pelsmacker, and Mast observed that in-school marketing is common in the United Kingdom, extensively practiced in Finland, but banned in Denmark so there is no pan-European consistency here. The use of the term sacred here may strike some readers as excessive, but there are good anthropological grounds for arguing a case that the child is not just a slippery concept and there are special reasons for invoking the sacred-profane distinction.
Although the distinction is recognized in anthropology and will be familiar to many readers through the work of the well-known sociologist Emile Durkheim it was the publication of a much-cited paper in the late 1980s that marked the extension of the idea into consumer behaviour. Here it .was argued that religion was now secularized and aspects of the secular, consumption in particular, were made sacred. This neat reversal could be observed in certain everyday patterns of behaviour such as shopping, creating a home, and collecting.
,
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Belk et al.'s interpretation of the distinction is wide ranging and also psychologically valuable, and can be applied in the context of children and advertising. Before doing so, however, I describe the terms and how they can be applied to human behaviour and experience. Many behaviours in everyday life can be characterized as ritual. For example, we have set ways of approaching and behaving toward religious objects, whether they are the texts of the Koran, the sign of the cross in Christian religions, or how to circle round a stupa in Nepal. Sacred and profane are terms borrowed and extended from their original meaning, and can be understood as the elevated or special versus the ordinary. They are complementary terms in that one can only be defined and understood relative to the other. Although Belk et al. identified 12 properties of the sacred, there is no reason to suppose all 12 would have to be present in order for a case for sanctification to be made. For example, the events of September 2001 in New York and Washington are often referred to in a standard way as "9/11" or "September 11" and the New York site of this tragedy is known as "Ground Zero." Proposals for a memorial of remembrance and the presence of pilgrims bear witness to the need to sanctify, although the presence of ecstasy and flow (in Belk et al. 's list) are obviously absent in their literal sense but present in many as intense grief. Belk et al. took us on a tour of some of the sacred sites of contemporary culture, including shopping malls, department stores, and, of course, the home. Sanctity can be achieved in other domains, such as kinds of time, objects (e.g., the automobile), symbols, and experiences (e.g., eating). The school, in my contention, is a good candidate for elevation. Schools are places where children are educated, and although the rituals are less obvious now than a generation ago they are still intrinsic to the process in a transformed way. Children may not sit in rows and teachers no longer wear cap and gown (as they used to in the United Kingdom), but there are still expectations for group behaviour and rituals such as graduation, sorority and fraternity initiations, and so on. In addition, the history of schooling in many cultures overlaps
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with the history of monastic life and scholarship. One of the characteristics of the sacred is the expectation that certain behaviours are inappropriate or even taboo. These prescribed behaviours are learned as culturally appropriate patterns and can change over time. Funerals can be formal and solemn in England, where people wear black, or noisy and emotional in China, with participants dressec' in white. Religious services might have been formal, serious, and solemn 50 years ago, but now are often informal with laughter, praise, and music. I would contend that schools are places where information is critically presented and both sides of any argument get a hearing. Education is evidence based and rhetoric is kept firmly in its place in the literature and poetry classes. The peculiar mix of reason and emotion that characterizes advertising is then seen as inappropriate in the setting of school. Cook argued that the literature on marketing research in the 20th century represented and construed the child in certain ways. In particular, by the 1930s, it was recognized that children develop through stages and that marketing was an activity that should be tailored to the child's perspectives and preferences. It is interesting to note how even at that time and in the 1950s books on marketing to kids were available, based on developmental psychology. This set the stage for the evolution of an image of children as competent and knowledgeable young people-an image far removed from the gullible innocents seduced by the wiles and guiles of advertisers. By the 1960s and 1970s, according to Cook, the pioneering work of McNeal and Wells established the child as a "little consumer" with preexisting consumer desires. Finally, in the last couple of decades of the 20th century, the precocious ("growing older younger") and knowledgeable vision of an autonomous child emerged in the marketing literature. This was and is one powerful kid, par excellence, who is capable of influencing household decisions, is actively knowledgeable about products, and is quite capable of making purchase decisions as an autonomous consumer. I am not supporting that the "child" or the "kid" is the right or correct vision of what younger people are like, and I
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would suggest that if we take the idea of childhood as a social construction seriously then there is no correct version of childhood, and society gets the childhood and children it defines, uses, and deserves. All that one is left with is, perhaps, a politically correct vision of childhood (perhaps with expressions like "younger people" or even "people of youth"?). And even this vision is cast in the image of the autonomous kid as it recognizes respect and an equal status with other groups. There is a way out, and that is to find out what psychologists know about child development and the strengths and limitations of the growing person. Because unlike ethnic and racial categories of people there is some biology and growth in child development, and the developmental psychologist might just be able to make claims about truth and not merely be a source of so-called "expert" or "quasi-expert" knowledge that has equal status with lay perceptions. ADVERTISING LITERACY
So where can we take this slippery idea of the child faced with the world of advertising? The main argument in this section is that there is a set of competencies and skills that, taken together, constitute being able to understand this peculiar medium of communication called advertising. There is no one skill that suddenly emerges and then the child understands and has effectively become an adult viewer. One can argue, however, that there are several occasions-from about 5 or 6 years of age until 12 years of age-when claims can be made that the child now understands major aspects of advertising and this understanding is cumulative. Although one's literacy with advertising and promotional material in general develops through adolescence and adulthood, there is a case, and I shall put it, that by about 8 years of age children have a good-enough understanding such that they cannot be considered as a special audience requiring special regulation. Let's start at the beginning, at the point when the marketers become interested in reaching subjects-the toddler years. According to the various norms children in the United
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States are able to walk well about 13 months, run by 16 months, and pedal a tricycle at 24 months. They also go into supermarkets, either walking or running with Morn or sitting in the cart. They certainly watch TV. Hence, they are quite capable of seeing brands in promotional contexts and requesting brands by gestures and early language forms such as "gimmedat" or "want dat. " Of course, they are not economic actors at this stage, and the market for toddlers is a market for families. However, they do recognize brands and commercial symbols such as logos. According to Derscheid, Kwon, and Fang this recognition generates preferences that can, for some 2-year-olds, become an obsession: "Parents may often wonder why their two-year-old insists on wearing the same outfit everyday. Often this outfit has a particular symbol that the child really enjoys." Derscheid's own research concluded that preschool children's recognition of symbols was related to the frequency of media exposure, especially TV and books, an argument that Ellen Seiter had put forward previously. More recently, Dammler and Middelmann-Motz reported that 81 % of 3- to 6-year-olds remember having seen the Coca-Cola logo and 69% remember the McDonald's "yellow M". But do they understand what advertiSing is all about? Although the research that surrounds the child's understanding of advertising intent often produces results that are contradictory and sensitive to methodology, there is a clear consensus here. Children younger than 5 years of age simply see advertising as entertainment, although they might put forward other reasons it is on TV, such as "so we can go to the bathroom" or "gives us a break. " In my 1990 review it was very clear that the occasional research article reporting that children could understand the selling intent of advertising could be criticized as having serious methodological flaws and that the overwhelming trend was that children thought advertising was there for fun. And this is in line with a wellestablished finding by Piaget, that children interpret reality at this age as being what is experienced through the senses. In other words, children are not yet capable of inferring beyond
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the realm of their senses. The advertising they see makes them laugh and smile and feel good-that's why it's there. This theory can also explain why children sometimes provide structural explanations of the difference between advertising and programming (" ads are short but programmes are long") because they are referring to spot advertising where there is a very obvious, perceptually based, concrete difference between advertising and programmes. However, as I argued earlier, spot advertising is dying with new technology and advertising is now with us in forms that are not obviously perceptually different from programming. In order to know the difference between advertising and programming, the child must be capable of diagnosing the intent behind advertising and establish some rules for "reading" advertising that are different from those employed with other televisual genres. There is some evidence that some 5- to 6-year-olds can understand one aspect of the genre called television spot advertising. Advertising is promotional. By this I mean that it only communicates the best about a brand. In this sense it is similar to other forms of promotion in everyday life, such as self-promotion or the promotion of one's family or team or immediate social group. There is an identifiable genre of communication that has the quality we can call"interested" that means the communicator has a particular goal to achieve and the communication will be designed with the interests of the communicator in mind. Many communications are interested in that sense, and it could be argued that in today's electronic world-with the constant ebb and flow of institutional communications and interpersonal e-mails, texts, and face-to-face communications-the dominant mode is an interested one. We're all pushing to promote, to advocate, to get our own way. May's small paper (which deserves a wider audience) has a resonance at the beginning of the 21st century. The last refuge of disinterested communication is the school or the academy-maybe that is why it is seen as sacred and why we want to maintain it as a commercial-free zone. Young wanted to measure the child's understanding of . promotional communication, by giving children examples of
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television commercials that broke the promotional rule and then asking them if these rule-breakers would make suitable TV commercials. Seven TV commercials were chosen from a pool of TV ads that had been made over a 20-year span. Each commercial had a structure that Berger called the "pain-pillpleasure" narrative. This narrative starts with a problem that gives the actor some pain or discomfort. Maybe it's washing that's not whiter than white, or a cough that keeps one awake, or a face that feels dry and chapped in cold weather. The brand is brought into the narrative, and the final part of the ad shows the pleasure and absence of pain that consuming the brand brings. We presented to each child a video of each of the seven commercials, but the last part (the pleasure bit) was missing. Afterward, we showed each child three alternative pictures simultaneously. One was a still from the actual ending showing the actor smiling broadly with the branded product in view; the second was a control with the actor's face changed to make it look neutral and no brand in sight; and the third was a shot from the missing ending that displaced the brand, but the images had been changed so that the ending was funny and amusing but the brand was shown in a negative way. For example, in an ad for face cream, the third type of picture showed the actor's face covered in spots, and in another ad for cough candies, the actor was shown being violently sick! We then asked each child to choose the picture that "would be the best one to use if the ad's shown on TV." We tested 133 children, aged from 4 and 5 years to 8 and 9 years. It was found that the majority of the 4- to 5-year-olds chose the funny ending that broke the promotional rule; this result confirms what we know about younger children's understanding of advertising. After that age, however, the majority of children demonstrated a growing awareness that it was not appropriate to choose an ending that provided a negative portrayal of the brand and, by the age of 7 or 8, many were capable of justifying their choice by claiming that "you wouldn't be able to sell any stuff if you said bad things about it." Thus, somewhere between 5 and 6 years, through the years of middle childhood, until adolescence, children
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experience a change and growth in advertising literacy that needs to be charted. There is some evidence that between 5 and 6 and 8 and 9 years of age the child begins to understand that advertising is not just promotional as described earlier, but is also assistive (provides information), commercial (relates to buying and selling), and persuasive (tries to get you to buy)-although there is some conceptual and methodological confusion in the literature. Some recent papers have informed the debate. Bulmer conducted focus groups with 5- to 8-year-old children in New Zealand. Although the classic focus group is based on a vision of talk and discussion as a spontaneous process within a group of participants, where themes emerge naturally without intervention, from the paper's description the groups used by Bulmer appeared to be more directive, with the facilitator asking questions. Results were presented in tables, by percentage of occurrence. Bulmer concluded that 5to 6-year-olds found television advertising to be informative and entertaining. They were aware of the fact that TV commercials "told you about things to buy" and what was "new in the shops, " but there was no reference to the persuasive function of advertising until about 7 years of age, when comments like" gets yOl;l to buy things" predominated. Bulmer certainly claimed a sophisticated level of understanding with her 8-year-old groups: "By eight years of age almost all children seemed to have some concept of the multi-stage process of supply chains and believe that profit is the desired result of most advertising. There were elaborate explanations of the commercial motivations of advertisers. These children also understood that advertising devices are used to enhance persuasion and motivates desires and buying behaviour." Hence, for example, she cited the following response as typical of 8-year-old explanations: "Getting people to come to your shop and get them to give you so much money to buy groceries and stuff, and get so rich that you can buy anything you want." Although the previous quote is slightly ambiguous about which one of the parties to the transaction will "get so rich,"
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the fact that children of this age can take into account the actual and anticipated consequences of economic transactions based on the results of promoc,:mal activity demonstrates a telling sophistication in New Zealand children. It is important, however, to take focus group data as indicative of the capabilities of some children, and not as providing normative data. Pine and Nash presented evidence that young children (ranging from 3.8 years to 6.5 years) who watched more commercial television requested a greater number of items from Father Christmas (Santa Claus) and also requested more branded items. Pine and Nash additionally took a sample from Sweden, where advertising to children is not permitted, and found that the Swedish children asked for significantly fewer items. As well, logs were kept of what was advertised on commercial television in the United Kingdom during the research period, but TV viewing data by the child was assessed by self-report or parent's report. However, it is difficult to draw conclusions from studies that attempt to correlate viewing patterns with subsequent behaviour and it would certainly be inappropriate to draw conclusions about the effects of Sweden's lack of TV advertising to children on the Swedish children's lower interest in the world of goods and services. There is no way of knowing, for example, the extent to which parental mediation or cultural mediation affects the process of requesting gifts from Father Christmas. For example, children who watch a lot of commercial TV might come from a different parental subculture, with different values and attitudes toward the branded, material world of consumption compared with children who claim, either themselves or through parents, not to watch much commercial TV. Swedish culture might have a completely different set of values surrounding what's" good for" children as contrasted with U. K. kids, and that factor could mediate. Chan looked at Chinese children's understanding and comprehension of television advertising in Hong Kong. A quota sample of 448 children-made up of 32 girls and 32 boys each from kindergarten and Grades 1 thru 6-were
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interviewed in May 1998. The results indicated that children in Grade 2 (aged 7 and 8 years) were beginning to understand what television advertising was and were aware of its persuasive intention. Over one third of older children from Grade 4 (aged 9 and 10 years) understood that television stations carry advertising in order to make money. Like children in the West, these children's main reason for liking and disliking commercials depended on their entertainment element. An understanding of television advertising, recall of brands from slogans, and comprehension of advertising content were consistently related to the cognitive development of children. Brand recognition from liked and disliked commercials was strong. Chan's study used interviews with a large sample of children without showing actual television commercials and yet, even under these conditions, 61 % of children by 7 or 8 years of age were able to identify the persuasive and commercial function of advertising. It is interesting to note that this methodology - by which results are simply obtained by interview with no televisual propsstill resulted in a majority of children understanding these crucial aspects of advertising by 8 years of age. Thirty years ago, the research of Ward and his associates, using a similar methodology, did not show such an understanding even by 11 or 12 years of age. In fact only a quarter of 11 - to 12-yearolds in Ward's original studies were able to provide an explanation of why commercials were shown on TV that demonstrated an understanding of selling and profit motives. There is a strong case that children's understanding in this area, although influenced by cognitive development, will vary depending on i:he cultural availability of advertising. As advertising becomes more common, children become more sophisticated in their levels of awareness and comprehension. Chan's research has been extended to mainland China, and preliminary results with focus groups show an emerging understanding by 9- to 12-year-olds in Beijing. The polemical nature of the study seriously undermines its claims to scrutinize from a scientific viewpoint the research being done. This defect can be detected in Jarlbro's
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presumption that it is the funders of any research who determine the results of any research on television advertising and children. For example, she argued that the fact that research results do not agree on the age at which children can distinguish between ads and programmes on TV could be explained by the use of different survey techniques, and that the choice of these techniques ultimately is "a consequence of who financed the survey." Although the use of different methods and techniques could-as one factor among othersexplain why research results do not entirely coincide, there is no overall correspondence between the choice of methods ana the funding of the research on TV advertising and children. The choice of methods and theoretical approaches varies among researchers funded by governmental authorities, consumer agencies, and consumer organizations as well as among those funded by the advertising industries or other groups with interests in TV ads to children. Supporters of advertising or opponents of advertising don't solely rely on research they have funded themselves, and can take into account any results in the public domain, with a preference for those that come through the peer review process. Jarlbro's unwarranted conclusion that the funding party, so to speak, "pays" for research results gave her report a flavour of antiintellectualism, because it more or less explicitly denied that there is any independent and free research regarding how children are affected or influenced by TV adveltising. Jarlbro's view was that the research on TV ads and children should be independent and free from nonscientific interests. However, for Jarlbro this view posed an intriguing paradox, because she so obviously spoke in the interest of the Swedish Consumer Agency, the group that funded her report. Moore and Lutz were interested in how children of different ages related advertising of a product or brand to the experience of consuming or using it. Robertson and Rossiter had argued that discriminating between products as advertising and products as experienced was one of the skills that made up the ability of being able to understand the purpose of a television commercial. In addition, there are
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several theories of how adults integrate the commercial communications surrounding a product and the anticipated and actual experience. For example, a person who is literate with advertising will assume that the brand will be presented in the best possible light and will partially discount claims made in promotional material, thus forming lower-order expectations of the actual consumption experience. Using a mi~ture of quantitative and qualitative techniques, they found that younger children, aged 7 and 8 years, had greater difficulty integrating the world within the ad with the product as experienced. This may be a result of the limitations of the information-processing capacities of the child at this age, or it could be that the younger children are less motivated to carefully reconcile the world of advertising (with its hyperbole and fantasy) with the world of trial purchase and consumption simply because they are less involved in the economic act of purchase and consumption, either as an individual or as a younger member of the family. Older children, aged 10 and 11 years, were more capable of integrating the information available in the brand as represented in the advertisement with the experience of consumption, in that exposure to the ad was able to "frame" the experience of the product. Thus, by the age of 10 or 11 years, children are capable of taking advertising into account by generating expectations of what the product might be like based on their knowledge of the promotional nature of advertising. Perhaps the most important paper to emerge in the last few years was by John. This review of the literature on consumer socialization of children over the last quarter of the 20th century constituted a landmark in the literature, and it must then that advertising to children under age 12 is unfair, and that this evidence should be used when regulating and controlling what, if any, advertising should be shown to children? Certainly the evidence should be considered, and it is not surprising that understanding such a complex genre like advertising has a developmental trajectory at least to adolescence. Bjurstrom was suggesting this when he concluded the relevant section of his report with the words "it is only
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around or after the age of 12 that we can be more certain that most children have developed a fuller understanding of the purpose or objective of advertising." This answer, in my opinion, is very different from the answer to the question "When do most children have an adequate or good-enough knowledge of the intent and purpose of advertising? Most of the evidence (in cultures with an experience of advertising) points to 8 years of age as the time when this emerges. It may be that children older than 8 years but younger than 12 apply this knowledge erratically, but that could apply to many people of different ages. The minimal requirements for understanding that advertising has an intent to persuade people to buy goods and services, that it informs and entertains but presents promotional material, are in place in most children by 8 years of age. Martin conducted a meta-analysis of the child's understanding of the intent of advertising. A meta-analysis mines the various databases and archives in which results are reported in academic papers, and computes an effect size. It is then possible to amalgamate the results from several studies in order to draw general conclusions. Although the author did not cite any single definitive age as the consensus when advertising is understood, two conclusions are worthy of note. One is that the data from 30 years of published work "suggests that younger children understand better the intent of advertising now than in previous years" which would suggest that kids are getting more sophisticated with advertising. The other, more sobreing finding was that the samples were limited to predominantly White children and that when AfricanAmerican children were sampled the lack of awarenpss of the purpose of advertising was considerably greater. CONCLUSION
In summary, by the time the child has reached about 5 or 6 years of age, he or she is beginning to acquire the rudiments of advertising literacy that are essential to the cognitive awareness that advertising is a genre of communications with its own rules. These range from a simple promotional principle
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such as "you can't say bad things about the brand in an ad" through an understanding of the fact that advertising gives information to an awareness of why this information is promotional and persuasive. This last understanding of the role of advertising in the commercial world and its relationship to the production and consumption of goods and services is, according to some recent work, demonstrable in 8-year-olds. As more cross-cultural evidence emerges, however-and this area also has a history with evidence accumulating back to the early 1970s in the United States-it becomes clearer that norms of understanding are dependent on the sophistication with advertising, marketing, and promotional activity within that culture, and in that sense will depend on place and time. contains information that may have unintended side effects, and exposure to advertising may have social and psychological effects that are not part of the selling intent. We have already seen that the effects of advertising can be divided into those that occur at behavioural, attitudinal, and other cognitive levels. The unintentional effects of advertising may also occur at these levels. Advertisements may influence children's perceptions of other people, their perceptions of themselves, or influence behaviours that may be potentially harmful to them. They may also contribute to a value system that emphasizes material wealth and conspicuous ownership of commodities. Parents and child-care professionals have found that advertising has the power to make a significant impression on children. Thi& influence does not simply take the form of mimicking the behaviours of on-screen characters or repeating jingles or taglines in advertisements, it can take on more subtle forms that may have longer-term effects. For example, parents have noted the influence of media role models connected with television advertising and other forms of brand promotion. Children may value such role models because they represent attractive values and lifestyles and provide aspirational models that children seek to emulate. Many incidental effects of advertising are related to health and social concerns, and these include the effects of advertising
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on nutrition, smoking, under-age drinking, social stereotyping, and self-image, and this chapter discusses these effects in turn. ADVERTISING AND NUTRITION
Children may be exposed to many thousands of advertising messages a year for food products, and many of these products may be of dubious nutritional value. In particular, advertisements embedded within programmes targeted at children frequently promote food products with high sugar and fat content. Indeed, early research indicated a period when the majority of food advertisements aimed at children on American network television were high in sugar content and calorific value. Children were encouraged to consume these products in advertisements with upbeat messages that emphasized the fun, taste, and social benefits of these products or associated the brand with other premium offers. There are additional concerns that advertising for food products aimed at children may make misleading claims about the nutritional value and health benefits of the foods being promoted. Evidence for the frequency of food advertisements is based on content analysis of advertisements and is therefore descriptive in nature and does not demonstrate the effects of advertising on children. Such content analyses, however, can identify patterns in advertising messages that might potentially exert influences over children, and these patterns can be investigated further using more appropriate audience research methodologies. There is additional evidence that heavily advertised foods can achieve high status among children, regardless of their nutritional value. Furthermore, such foods tend to be the ones that children most often pester their parents to buy for them. The concern about the potentially harmful effects of food advertising on television must be seen in a wider perspective. In the United States, for example, surveys of children's dietary habits have indicated that many youngsters consume a nutritionally poor diet. While consumption of dairy products
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may be appropriate, too· few children eat enough fresh fruit and green vegetables. There is, instead, a much stronger preference for foods high in sugar and fat content that can lead to obesity and dental health problems. As well as having potentially significant physical health consequences in the long term, these outcomes can also damage children psychologically by affecting their self-esteem and their relationships with peers. A number of contributory factors have been suggested for the growth of obesity-related problems among youngsters. A sedentary lifestyle, rein forced by cuts in physical education classes at school and linked to time spent watching television or using computers is one factor. Contemporary children bum fewer calories than did earlier generations. In addition, parents may not set good examples for children. Parents may consume poor diets themselves and pay little attention to portion sizes their children consume. Nutrition experts and parents' groups, however, have also blamed television advertising for encouraging children to develop preferences for foods that are not healthy options. Recent analyses have found that food advertisements represent a smaller proportion of advertisements in children's programmes than previously, but highly sugared foods predominate among the foods that are advertised. As children watch many hours of television on average each day, they are likely to be exposed to large numbers of these commercial messages. Children may, of course, also learn more positive and health-giving eating habits via public service announcements. Such health promotion campaigns may work especially well when celebrity spokespersons are used. But as Reece et al. found such promotions are rare compared with other food advertisements. Researchers have addressed several related questions about the effects of food advertising. Does exposure to repeated food advertising influence children's perceptions of what constitutes a healthy diet? What evidence is there that children's exposure to television advertisements can affect
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their food brand preferences, eating habits, and related health matters? If a child is regularly ~xposed to television advertising for junk foods, is consumption of these foods seen as the norm? Or are such effects weak or mediated by other factors such as the child's personality and family background, the child's social network, or the importance and credibility of television advertisements as sources of information? One survey of American children aged five to 12 years found that two thirds believed that presweetened cereals could cause tooth decay. Heavy television viewers, however, were less likely to hold this view. In addition, heavy viewers of food advertisements on television were twice as likely as light viewers to say that sugared cereals and confectionery were highly nutritious. These findings suggest that television advertising may strengthen more positive opinions and weaken negative views about sugared food products. Adler et al. however, found that children exhibited mixed knowledge about the nutritional value of different food products and their knowledge depended upon the age of the child, family income, and their mother's educational level. Older children from higher income and better educated families were more knowledgeable about foods that were good and those that were potentially poor. A further survey of eight- to 12-year-old American children also explored links between self-reported television viewing and nutrition-related knowledge. In this survey, the more children reported watching Saturday morning children's programmes, the lower were their scores on measures of nutritional awareness. Weekday evening viewing, in contrast, was positively related to nutritional knowledge. The findings supported the idea that exposure to child-oriented advertising can have a negative effect on nutritional awareness. Saturday morning television in the United States is full of advertisements for highly sugared foods, but weekday evening programmes contain relatively few advertisements of this type. Another investigation used nonverbal measures to assess five- to eight year-old children's nutritional awareness. The
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children were asked to select foods and drinks that would be "good for you" from a range of cut-out pictures. The results showed that these children did understand some of the basics about nutrition. For example, nearly all the five- and six-yearolds thought that sweet confectionery products were bad for teeth and resulted in cavities by pointing to a picture of child with bad teeth rather than choosing one of a child with good teeth. It is found that even when controlling for sex, reading level, ethnicity, parents' occupation, and parents' educational level, the amount of television viewing by fourth- and fifthgrade children (aged nine-lO years) was positively correlated with bad eating habits and faulty understanding of the principles of nutrition. It is found that children aged seven to 11 years made frequent requests to parents to buy them high sugar content foods, such as breakfast cereals, snack foods, ,mu fizzy soft drinks that had been advertised recently . .sudl purchase requests were especially likely to occur in lowerincome households in which children were heavier television viewers.
Bolton considered a variety of factors that could shape children's diets, including food advertisements, the role of parents, existing eating patterns, and other factors linked to the child and his or her environment. In a study that combined the use of diaries and questionnaires, data were collected about the characteristics and eating habits and food preferences of children aged two to 11 years. Bolton found that exposure to television advertising was linked to a greater amount of snack food consumption and that the child's viewing had an independent effect on diet and caloric intake. A number of researchers have investigated whether television advertising can affect nutritional awareness, perceptions, and behaviour under more controlled, experimental, conditions. In this type of research, children are presented with advertisements that systematically differ in the type of message they convey. For example, Barry and Gunst created two television ad vertisements for a snack bar that were
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identical in every way except that one version promoted the product as being "chpcolatey, rich, and sweet" and the other version promoted it as "healthful, vitaminey, and nutritious. " These advertisements were shown to children aged five to nine years who were then interviewed about the version they had seen. The children who watched the nutritional message version rated the product high on the attributes mentioned in the advertisements and also expressed an intention to purchase it. Children in the other condition were less likely to regard the product as nutritious in this way. Reviewed experimental studies of the impact of televised nutrition messages on children and concluded that different messages had different effects. But exposure to advertisements for sugared products led to greater consumption of such foods, including a greater preference for the sugared foods that had not been advertised. Exposure sto advertisements for healthy foods, including foods with low or no sugar content, reduced preferences for sugared foods. Promotional messages that combined a sugared food product advertisement with a disclaimer warning of the health hazards of excessive consumption of sugar also reduced preference for sugared foods while enhancing nutritional knowledge. But most of the experimental fesearch on this subject has measured short-term or medium-term influences of specific food advertisements on dietary habits, and we know less about the long-term effects of particular advertisements. Research to date has indicated that television advertising contained within children's programmes is predominately for food products. These products tend to have high sugar and fat content and dubious nutritional value. There is understandable concern about this characteristic of advertising on television because advertised foods are known to have high status and eating habits of children in western societies have been shown to exhibit low nutritional value. Advertising effects are not easy to isolate from other influences upon children's eating habits but there is consistent evidence that food advertisements affect children's short-term food choices.
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There is also evidence that following such advertisements, children will try to influence their mothers' food purchases. ADVERTISING AND ONSET OF SMOKING
Some advertisements are not aimed at children, but may nonetheless encourage them to take up behaviours that could be detrimental to their health. For instance, advertising has been blamed as an influence on young people's decision to start smoking. The use of animated characters in tobacco advertising was pinpointed as a critical example of this trend. Such accusations were leveled against cigarette advertisers even in the early years of the twentieth century. Early use of broadcast advertising by cigarette advertisers was seen as a deliberate attempt to reach young people. It is indisputable that the tobacco industry did use young actors and models in its advertising and that it was therefore not unreasonable to conclude that there was an intention to appeal directly to the young adult market. Some advertisers used popular music icons of the day, in the pre-World War Two era, to promote cigarette brands. These choices were guided to some extent by market research studies that revealed the kinds of cultural attributes that were popular with young people.
In 1950s America, as television overtook radio as the premier mass entertainment medium, the tobacco industry attempted to capitalize on this market shift by engaging in extensive sponsorship of programmes. Many of these programmes were targeted at young people. Sponsorship of sports-related events also extended television coverage. A number of leading tobacco manufacturers sponsored televised basketball and football. Some leading tobacco industry executives were even quoted saying that their promotional strategies, including design of packaging, were in part aimed at the younger end of the market. These developments were important in view of the wellpublicized health risks associated with smoking. Criticisms of cigarette advertising became more f'oignant with the
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emergence of statistical evidence that cigarette smoking was becoming more prevalent among teenagers. Marketing to the young, however, was seen as strategically important to the industry in maintaining a smokers market. By the early 1960s, the tobacco industry came under increased pressure to show restraint in its advertising where young people were concerned. Even the Tobacco Institute, sponsored by the industry, suggested that tobacco firms should no longer sponsor television programmes aimed at young audiences. This was regarded as a better solution than arbitrary restrictions on advertising to certain hours of the day. Despite this apparent move toward self-regulation, some commentators noted that tobacco firms continued to sponsor programmes aimed at young people. At this time, these programmes were frequently interspt!rsed with cigarette advertising too. Despite, the criticisms leveled against cigarette advertisers, other research has shown that smoking, historically, occurred fairly infrequently in television programmes and many contemporary programmes and films do not include smoking at all or only do so in a negative context. Restrictions on tobacco advertising vary from country to country. In countries such as Spain, tobacco manufacturers may advertise freely across all major mec.ia, but elsewhere, televised advertising or advertising in any medium is prohibited. Other forms of promotion of tobacco pre ducts are permitted on television even in those countries that ban specific tobacco advertising on television. For example, tobacco companies may sponsor sports events that, in turn, receive television coverage. Tobacco brands may therefore receive coverage on television via such broadcasts. Although this content is not classified as "advertising" by the television industry, researchers have suggested that this type of exposure can affect tobacco brand awareness and may playa part in encouraging young people to take up smoking. The prevalence of tobacco advertising in the past gave rise to concern. This concern was backed up by some early research
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evidence that showed a link between reported exposure to advertising for tobacco products and children taking up smoking. But the link between advertising and smoking is far from conclusive. Research on the effects of exposure to cigarette advertising on smoking behaviour has consisted mainly of two types of studies-ones in which teenage smokers have been asked if their behaviour was influenced by their exposure to advertising, and ones in which exposure to advertising has been linked to smoking behaviour. Some studies have made comparisons between young smokers and their nonsmoking peers in respect of their cigarette brand awareness, cigarette advertising awareness, and beliefs about whether cigarette advertising should be banned. Results have not been conclusive. One early study reported no link between selfreported l?xposure to televised tobacco advertising and children's 'smoking habits and another early investigation failed to find any significant link between attitudes toward televised cigarette advertisements and teenage smoking behaviour. Exposure to advertising can affect young consumers' abilities to name brands. Research among teenage smokers and nonsmokers in Australia found that smokers were better at identifying brands and advertisements for different brands than were nonsmokers, but no evidence emerged to demonstrate that such brand awareness influenced smoking behaviour. Other research in the United Kingdom indicated, however, that children as young as nine were attracted to certain cigarette advertisements and enjoyed looking at them. Charlton speculated that such initial attraction to cigarette advertising could cultivate positive impressions about smoking among children. Children who were better able to name their favourite cigarette advertisement were more likely to support positive statements about smoking (e.g., smoking helps you look tough, makes you look grown up, calms your nerves, gives you confidence, helps you to control your weight). But Charlton also found that among children who smoked, only a minority smoked the brand they named in their favourite cigarette advertisement.
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Further evidence emerged from surveys among children and teenagers that smokers exhibit better brand awareness. This awareness increases with the age of the child. Awareness is also greater for brands with prominent long-running campaigns. Teenage smokers exhibit clear-cut brand preferences, and preferred brands are often those that are most heavily advertised at the time of the research. Appreciation of cigarette advertising has also been linked to underage smoking, with young smokers liking cigarette advertisements more than nonsmokers did. But these studies also showed that other important factors in underage smoking included having parents who did not disapprove of smoking and having siblings who smoked. This research also indicated a link between liking cigarette advertisements and intention to smoke in the future, but again, this intention was also influenced by peer group pressures and the socioeconomic status of family. Going beyond measures of brand awareness, some studies on the influence of cigarette advertising have focused on young people's attitudes toward the advertisements themselves. Teenage smokers have been reported tC) hold generally more positive attitudes toward cigarette advertisements than did nonsmokers, which has been seen by some researchers as evidence of a reinforcing effect of advertising upon smoking. Another approach to establishing whether cigarette advertising has any influence on smoking among children and teenagers has been to examine the impact of controls over tobacco advertising in different countries. Researchers have investigated changes in smoking prevalence before and after cigarette advertising bans and have also investigated variations in smoking prevalence in countries with and without restrictions. Both these approaches have failed to find an impact of restrictive legislation. Two major international studies failed to produce evidence that bans on cigarette advertising on television (and other media) had any noticeable effects upon cigarette consumption levels among young people.
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An area of concern is tobacco manufacturers sponsorship of televised events. According to some critics, such sponsorship can function as advertising by enhancing brand awareness and by making smoking seem more attractive through its association with exciting events. A handful of studies have investigated this issue, and so far little supportive evidence has been produced. Researchers have found that sponsored sports events on television increased cigarette brand awareness among teenagers and created a firm association in teenagers' minds between the brand and the event being sponsored. But neither of these studies was able to demonstrate that such enhanced brand awareness encouraged children to take up smoking.
ADVERTISING AND UNDERAGE DRINKING
Controversy has surrounded the marketing of alcoholic products for rr.any years, and manufacturers' policy on alcohol advertising has changed over time. For example, in the United States, manufacturers of liquor products (or spirits) adopted a voluntary code not to advertise on radio or subsequently on television. The television ban, in particular, was designed to avoid exposing children to such advertising. But later, the manufacturers dropped their voluntary ban on television advertising-in 1996, the House of Seagram announced that it would air television advertisements for its liquor brandss. Regulators responded to this more aggressive marketing position, and even the White House joined in the debate with a public appeal to the industry to reinstate its self-imposed advertising ban. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was also asked to investigate possible restrictions on liquor advertiSing on television. Although no federal U. S. regulations have been introduced, some local governments have begun to take action against liquor advertising, though such actions have not yet touched television advertising. The anti-alcohol advertiSing lobby has had more infiuence in cases in which advertisers have been accused of deliberately targeting young (underage) consumers. In one such case about ad vertising on MTV, featuring Anheuser Busch, and later the
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Miller Brewing Company, both withdrew their advertising on that station. On another occasion, the U. S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) launched an investigation into the airing of an advertisement for Schlitz Malt Liquor on television programmes aimed at teenagers. That airing was judged to be in direct violation of the beer industry's own non-marketing code that stated that beer advertisements should not be placed in programmes whose audiences consist mostly of underage viewers. The content of beer advertisements on television has frequently been criticized because they regularly feature young drinkers enjoying a lifestyle clearly designed to appeal to young consumers. Evidence for possible effects of television advertising for alcoholic drinks on children's and teenagers' interest in alcohol consumption has derived mainly from surveys. Researchers have investigated the extent to which alcohol advertising effects young consumers' level of consumption and how their attitudes toward advertising shapes the influence of that advertising. The evidence, however, has not been conclusive. American research with teenagers aged 13 to 17 years found no relationship between reported exposure to television advertising for alc0holic drinks and level of consumption. This finding was not consistent for all the teenagers surveyed, however. Those teenagers who were motivated to pay careful attention to such advertisements because they thought they might learn something from them about how to behave in social situations were more susceptible to advertising influences. Advertising for alcoholic drinks was also found to be more influential among teenagers who turned to such advertising to fantasize about certain desired lifestyles. Even when motivated to watch advertising the influence of that advertising was still relatively trivial. Another U. S. study found that drinkers aged 12 to 16 years or those who intended to drink alcohol when older were more likely to have seen beer, wine, and spirits or liquor advertisements on television. The relationship between
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reported exposure to television advertising for alcoholic drinks' products and current or intended consumption of these products, however, was relatively strong in respect of liquor consumption, more modest in the case of beer, and weak in relation to wine consumption. One limitation of this study was that the direction of causality was never clearly established. Thus, the relationship found might indicate that exposure to advertising led to their drinking more, or it may indicate that teenagers who were heavier drinkers were more interested in watching alcohol advertisements. Other evidence suggests that the impact of advertising on children's or teenagers' propensities to drink may operate in more subtle ways. Greenberg et al. asked 10- to 16-year-olds in the United Kingdom which advertisements they liked or disliked. Advertisements for alcoholic drinks become increasingly salient and attractive as young consumers moved into their teenage years. Although 10-year-olds show little interest in advertisements for beer, for example, by mid-teens, these advertisements were among the most popular. By midteens, young consumers were demonstrating more complex reasons for liking particular advertisements that represented values and aspirationallifestyles that were important to them. These more subtle reactions to advertisements suggest ways in which advertisements on television may exert influences over young consumers in indirect ways. Alcoholic drinks may be associated with specific role models, social situations, and attractive attributes that teenagers hope to emulate, enjoy, or display themselves. Such advertising conveys messages about a world associated with drinking that is a world to which teenagers aspire and that may be relevant to their developing self-identity . The importance of the role model factor was underscored by other research that indicated that alcohol advertising combined with other television alcohol consumption portrayals in programmes projected drinking as a largely problem-free activity. In other words, it was enjoyable and rarely associated with harmful consequences even when indulged in to excess. It is found that the depiction of drinking
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by well-off, successful, and attractive pe nie created an ambience around drinking that rendered alcohol {'onsumption an appealing activity. Advertisements often assocllted alcohol consumption with people who had highly desirable personal attributes and lifestyles. Not surprising, given these associations, young impressionable consumers might develop a taste for alcohol themselves. The more aware young consumers become of advertisements for alcoholic drinks, the greater the likely influence of these messages. It is not simply a matter of mere exposure but more especially the appeal of such commercial messages. It is found that 10- to 13-year-olds who had the greatest awareness of television beer advertising had the most favourable opinions about beer, had the greatest knowledge of beer brands and slogans, and had the strongest intentions to drink beer as an adult. The potential influence of televised alcoholic drinks advertising on children can be affected by advertising-specific factors such as the attractiveness of the characters who drink on screen or promote advertised brands and by the rewards supposedly associat{'d "r;th IJrand consumption. But the degree to which aleoh,); i:; consumed in a child's home is another influential factor. Children make selective use of information from home and from television (advertisements and programmes) in formulating their own ideas about alcohol and its consumption. In one experimental study of the influence of alcohol advertising children (aged 10-11 years) were exposed to beer advertising, and this exposure resulted in positive expectancies about alcohol consumption. Hence, television advertising may cultivate a positive mind set toward alcohol by encouraging children to associate appealing attributes with its consumption. ADVERTISING AND SOCIAL STEREOTYPING
Another incidental effect of television advertising is related to social perception. Much of the research on this subject has focused on the role advertising plays in influencing
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gender stereotyping Cl mong young people. Advertisements depict men and women, boys and girls, in different scenarios in relation to different products and services. Quite apart from the product-related information the consumer acquires from these messages, are there other "social" lessons to be learned from them? Does seeing women or men depicted in particular situations with particular products lead children to associate each gender with those situations and products? Might this, in tum, lead to stereotyping such that some products are believed to be most appropriate for females, whereas others are most appropriate for males? Much research suggests that the mass media can exert powerful influences at the level of social conceptions and perceptions. In particular, such effects have been demonstrated in relation to gender-related social perceptions. Content analysis has been used to examine the way that the sexes are depicted in advertising, and surveys and experiments have been used to find out whether advertising representations influence audience perceptions. Content analyses have shown that, over many years, men tend to outnumber women in televised advertising, especially in relation to authority roles speaking on behalf of a product. In the 1970s, women were depicted disproportionately in domestic roles compared to men in advertisements. By the mid- to late-1980s, it was found that women were portrayed in a wider range of occupations and appeared in more settings outside the home. Although women were still most often portrayed in the role of wife or mother figure, men were increasingly seen in the role of husband or father. Gender roles vary with the time of day when advertisements are broadcast, with implicit assumptions about the varying gender profile of the audience throughout the day. Previous researchers have shown that products represented by females were far more prominent and numerous during daytime advertisements. During the day, when the audience comprised a larger proportion of women, women ",,rere more often portrayed in knowledgeable and controlling roles. But
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during peak-time, when the audience included an equal mix of men and women, men occupied the great majority of authoritative roles within television advertisements. A number of content analyses have focused on advertisements aimed at children and found frequent evidence of gender stereotyping. Early studies found that boys tended to outnumber girls, especially in lead roles. Nonetheless, tr,e profile of gender-role representations in advertisements changed during the 1970s and 1980s. ~he proportion of females, in both on-screen roles and voice-overs, increased in children's advertisements, and although boys still outnumbered girls at the end of the 1980s, the gap between the sexes had narrowed. Content analysis is an effective methodology for describing the contents of advertisements and for identifying patterns of objects, situations, and behaviours that are portrayed in advertisements, but such analyses Cdnnot measure the incidental effects of advertising on the audience. It does, nonetheless, serve a useful purpose of generating hypotheses about the potential side-effects of advertisements. If women are depicted more often than men in domestic roles and less often than men in professional and occupational roles, do such depictions teach children incidental lessons about the social roles for each gender? According to cultivation theory, the more time individuals spend watching television, the more likely they are to develop a view of the real world that reflects the world as displayed on the screen. For example, heavy viewers of a world of television that depicts women primarily in domestic roles may develop the idea that such roles are most appropriate for women. Although much research has accumulated about the cultivation effects of television on adults, little research has been conducted among children in relation to television advertising. Some researchers have claimed that television advertising can affect children's gender-role stereotypes, much as exposure to gender stereotyping in programmes can. For
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example, in a survey of 12- to 18-year-olds designed to assess various aspects of consumer socialization, Exposure to television advertising was associated with a traditional view of sex roles in those adolescents whose parents did not discuss consumer matters with their children. But this research is far from conclusive because it is difficult to assess the influence of stereotyped gender-role portrayals in advertisements as so many other media sources and real-life eXr>eriences also provide gender-role models. Another sign of stereotyping in children's television advertisements has been found in the way that the advertisements have been produced. Male-oriented advertisements contained more cuts, loud music, and boisterous activity. According to WeIch et al., symbolic messages about what is distinctively "masculine" were conveyed through the high rate of action, aggression, variation, and quick shifts from one scene to another. Female-oriented advertisements, in contrast, featured frequent fades and background music and conveyed images of softness, gentleness, and predictability. These images conveyed the message that females are quiet, soft, gentle, and less active than males. Even young children may believe that certain production treatments are better suited to products for males or to products for females.loud music, fast-pacing, and editing were perceived as "masculine," whereas soft music and slower pacing were judged to be "feminine" by children aged five to 12 years. ADVERTISING AND SELF-IMAGE
Physical attractiveness is an important issue for many people. The way we perceive ourselves and others is critically bound up with physical attractiveness, and judgements about attractiveness begin to emerge very early in life. Two-year-oIds exhibit preferences for physically attractive people and preschoolers exhibit stereotyping based on facial attractiveness. In storytelling, whether in fiction books or on film, evil is often frequently associated with ugliness and good is often associated with beauty.
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Physical attractiveness features prominently in advertising. Endorsements for products are often given by attractive actors or models and some authors have argued that advertisers have gone too far in promoting standards of attractiveness and beauty that are far beyond the reach of most consumers. But such criticisms have not discouraged advertisers from promoting idealized images of beauty to endorse their products because attractive endorsers are more effective at selling products. The use of attractiveness is especially pronounced in advertising aimed at young consumers. During adolescence, young people begin to establish their self-identity, and the conception of self at this time is closely linked to perceptions of attractiveness-and especially physical appearance. Young people are therefore inclined to identify with attractive media role models, including ones in advertisements. There is evidence that adolescents are more susceptible to persuasion and may be particularly by advertisements anyway susceptible to persuasion by reference groups to which they aspire (e.g., attractive models in advertisements). Much attention has been devoted to the susceptibility of teenage girls to the incidental influences of role models in advertising. In particular, there has been concern about the influence of advertisements containing physically attractive actors and models with very slender body shapes. Teenage girls t.:.nd to view their bodies critically and may hold negative self-perceptions about their physical appearance. Teenage girls are much more likely than teenage boys to question their attractiveness. This negative self-concept is especially likely to be manifest as dissatisfaction with body shape. Girls in their early teens, or even among those who are younger if they achieve puberty early, frequently express dissatisfaction with their body size and appearance. The emergence of body image concerns is important because it may be associated with the appearance of disordered eating patterns. This is especially worrying when it occurs in early teen years that are crucial period for physical
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growth. The more dissatisfied young girls are with their bodies, the more likely they are to under eat, with implications for their health and well-being. Males, in contrast, usually take a different view of their bodies. That is not to say that boys and young men are unconcerned about their body image, but rather than wanting to be thinner and more attractive, many males want to be more muscular with greater bulk. For males, this represents greater power. Whereas girls' self-concepts of attractiveness stem primarily from physical attractiveness, boys' self-concepts are linked to perceptions of physical effectiveness. Adolescent girls tend to be preoccupied with their weight, and adolescent boys are generally not. Analyses of advertising content in the media have shown a preoccupation with thin female body shapes. Women's magazines frequently contain feature articles that discuss dieting issues, thus reinforcing the subject and raising its place in female consciousness. Boys and men do not face the same types of attractiveness-related messages. Idealized images of men in advertising differ from those of women, and men's and women's reactions to these images are not the same. It is suggested that, given the differences in body orientation, there is a greater likelihood that females will be influenced by a mediated feminine ideal than men will be influenced by a mediated male ideal. In particular, females with low selfesteem and/or who have poor body images may be especially susceptible to depictions of physically attractive (and slendershaped) models in advertising. The tendency of female preadolescents and adolescents to compare themselves with models in advertisements is greater for those who hold less flattering self-perceptions of their physical attractiveness. It is also proposed that women who are more dissatisfied with their bodies are also less able to resist peer pressure. Thus, they are more likely to be persuaded by physically attractive endorsers and to evaluate advertisements containing such endorsers and associated products more positively than do those women who have more positive body images.
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One explanation for this effect is that consumers make positive inferences about physically attractive endorsers. They attribute socially desirable traits to such individuals-that may, in turn, become associated with the products they are endorsing. This notion is consistent with the "what is beautiful is good" stereotype. Some researchers have found support for this hypothesis and that a physically attractive endorser does enhance positive attitudes toward the advertised brand. But other researchers have found that the transference of-positive feelings does not always occur, nor does an attractive endorser guarantee acceptance of the advertising message by consumers. Magazine advertisements showed to 11- and 15year-old female and male adolescents. Some of the advertisements can also categorized as those with high body self-esteem and those with low body self-esteem. Boys generally did not react differently to the advertisements as a function of the presence of an attractive same-sex role model nor in relation to their own body self-perceptions. This was not true of girls. Girls with low body self-esteem liked the advertisements with attractive role models better than advertisements without such models, whereas for girls with high body self-esteem, this finding was reversed. The same result occurred for liking the advertised products, with low body-self-esteem girls being more susceptible to the presence of an attractive same-sex endorser. Such findings suggest that the nature of the endorser in an advertisement has an influential effect on certain sectors of the audience.
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To turn to evidence for the influence of advertising on body image perceptions and related behaviour patterns (e.g., disordered eating), some researchers have investigated associations between self-reported media exposure and selfperceptions. A number of surveys have found a correlation between self-reported media exposure and measures such as body dissatisfaction, disordered eating, and the desire for thinness among young adult females. Such studies have asked respondents in fairly broad terms to report on their recent
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history of magazine and television exposure. Further research with similar results has been conducted among adolescent girls and preadolescent girls. Although such research is indicative, it does not reveal anything exclusively about the effects of exposure to advertising given all the other factors that can influence body image perceptions. Experimental research has focused more directly on the influence of exposure to specified images, though many researchers have focused on magazine advertising rather than television advertising. Exposure to photographic images of thin models produces short-term changes in body shape perceptions and body shape ideal among adolescent and young adult females. Evidence has also emerged that television stimuli-much of it advertising related-can have similar effects. The latter research was mostly conducted among women in their late teens and twenties, and though it does not include young females, it is worth reviewing because some of the effects that have been found might also occur among younger populations than those studied so far. One study examined the effects of television advertisements on dietary restraint level. Participants were initialiy divided into those who exhibited high and low restraint in their eating patterns. They were then given a high calorie, nutritionally balanced banana drink. Next they viewed a film interrupted by advertisements that in different conditions promoted either diet-related or non-diet-related products. Both high and low restraint groups watched this material and were provided with nuts and confectionery to eat during the movie. A third group saw the movie without any advertisements. Strauss et al. found that it was the participants with a high restraint level who viewed the movie with diet-related advertisements who ate the most. Most of these studies focused on the impact of televised advertising images on self-perceptions. It is found that exposure to a sequence of advertisements that promoted the importance of thinness and attractiveness produced increased concerns about weight and body image among young women
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who already had low self-esteem. But the same effects did not occur among young women with high self-esteem. In another experiment that combined television programmes and advertisements with body-image-related messages, college-age women adjusted their self-perceptions in a less positive direction after exposure to advertisements that emphasized thinness. These young women perceived their waist and hips to be larger following exposure to television advertisements with thin role models. In another study, the presentation of television advertisements that portrayed women as sex objects caused increased body dissatisfaction among young women and young men. The sample used here ranged in age from 18 to 35 years. Participants saw either 15 sexist and five nonsexist advertisements or 20 nonsexist advertisements. Female participants exposed to the sexist advertisements judged their current body size as larger and had a larger discrepancy between their actual and ideal body sizes (preferring a thinner body) than did women exposed only to nonsexist advertisements or to no advertisements at all. It is also examined what effects exposure to advertisements with female sex object depictions would have on male viewers. Their reasoning was as follows: "If the female sex object subtype heightens men's beliefs that women are flirtatious and seductive, this may increase the salience of their perceived characteristics of men (e.g., a muscular physique) to which women are attracted. Thus, such ads may increase men's awareness of and concerns about their own bodies and thus increase body dissatisfaction among men." When such advertisements also depict muscular men, then there might be an even more direct effect on men who compare themselves to such models unfavourably. Levine et al. found that men exposed to the sexist advertisements judged their own body size as thinner and revealed a larger discrepancy between their actual and ideal body size (preferring a larger body). They also had a larger discrepancy between their own ideal body size and their perceptions of others' body size preferences
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(believing that other males preferred a larger ideal) than did men exposed only to nonsexist advertisements or to no advertisements at all. CONCLUSIONS
This chapter has reviewed evidence on the effects of television advertising that were not originally intended, that is, they were not directly linked to the purpose of the advertisement to promote a specific brand. Most research has focused on incidental and potentially harmful (rather than beneficial) effects of advertising. These effects may shape young consumers' perceptions of themselves or others and their attitudes about food consumption and drinks products that carry health implications. Much advertising targeted at young consumers is for food products, and many of these tend to include foods with high sugar and high salt content. Bec(!use advertised products are among the most attractive to youngsters, it follows that there is a likelihood that, through their regular exposure to televised advertising, children will be cultivated to adopt unhealthy eating habits. Research evidence has accumulated to indicate that such effects can and do occur. Children and teenagers may have their food preferences shaped by food-related advertisements with longer-term effects on their dietary behaviour. Although advertisements for tobacco products and alcoholic drinks products are not directly targeted at young people, they have been found to hold strong appeal for young consumers. Part of the reason for this is concerned with the skillful use of humour in advertisements, especially in those for beer. Other alcohol advertisements may associated drinking certain brands with affluent and successful lifestyles to enhance the brand's appeal to young people. Advertisements for smoking may also convey positive images of looking more grown up that have an appeal for adolescents. But one concern is that exposure to such advertising on television may encourage teenagers to take up smoking or drinking while still under age.
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The research on the impact of tobacco and alcoholic drinks advertising is not conclusive, but there are clear indications that, for example, beer advertisements feature among children's favourites and that the humour in them causes them to be thought about. It is also apparent that young smokers are knowledgeable about brands and establish clear-cut preferences. Furthermore, preferred tobacco brands tend to be those that are most heavily advertised. While underage drinkers and smokers tend to know more about brands than do youngsters with little or no interest in alcohol or smoking such data do not represent unambiguous evidence of an advertising effect. Young people may start smoking or drinking alcohol early for many other reasons such as their personal circumstances, parental behaviour, and peer pressure. They may therefore know more about brands because they are already active consumers and know about the market. Separating the relative mediating effects of these different social factors and the effects of advertising can be a difficult undertaking in any research project. On a social level, advertisements contain representations of different aspects of social reality. Repeated patterns of depictions of social groups and social behaviours could shape youngsters' social perceptions and social attitudes especially if they are exposed to these messages on a regular basis. These effects could operate on youngsters' perceptions of their own and others' social groups. There is a significant degree of gender-role stereotyping in television advertising, w'ith men and women being presented in distinct roles or associated primarily with particular types of products or services Such stereotyping occurs in advertisements aimed at children as well as in those aimed at adults. Furthermore, advertisements display stereotyped representations of physical beauty and attractiveness. The effects of these stereotypes may be especially profound among teenagers who are struggling to establish a coherent self-identity. Both boys and girls may be susceptible to the influences of gender-role stereotyping in advertisements
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and teenage girls have been identifieu as being most vulnerable to depictions of body shape and physical appearance norms in advertisements. Even boys may be influenced in their body self-perceptions by male advertising icons though they do not respond to the same attractiveness messages as girls. While many girls seek to be thinner, many boys want to become more muscular. Once again, though, the evidence about the specific effects of advertising is limited because of the other factors that influence children and young people. Teenagers are bombarded with information about how to behave or how to appear from a plethora of sources. Advertisements are only one part of this much bigger mix of social messages. Distinguishing the relative importance of different influences during this period of development is a challenging task and one that still requires much research.
-~Impact of Advertising This chapter considers the impact of advertising on children. The main concern of advertisers is that their commercial messages are effective. Advertisements can influence children in a number of ways. They can increase young consumers' awareness of brands and product attributes, influence attitudes toward brands and products, and influence intentions to purchase or actual purchase behaviour. Advertising on television represents a particularly important product information source. Research evidence indicates that exposure to advertisements can increase children's desire for products and may encourage them to ask their parents to make purchases on their behalf. Although advertisers are ultimately concerned about the effectiveness of advertisements in enhancing purchase levels and the overall market share attained by their products or services, the effects of advertising can be measured at other psychological and social levels. Some effects are intended and others occur incidentally. These different kinds of advertising influences will be examined in this chapter. The importance of examining the influence of advertising at a number of different levels is underpinned by the hierarchy of effects model that has been endorsed over many years-at least conceptually - by a number of researchers in the field. According to two early writers, awareness leads to knowledge that influences liking, which, in tum, affects preferences that produces conviction and eventual purchase. How detailed and
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elaborate this stage-by-stage decision-making process about brands turns out to be is mediated by the degree of involvement or psychological (and financial) investment in the product. Low-cost and therefore often low-psychological involvement products, such as soap powders, may be selected swiftly with minimal thought. The cost of making a mistake in this sort of case is not great and is easily recoverable. With a high-cost and high psychological involvement item such as obtaining a mortgage or buying a car, more careful thought is needed because a mistake at this level of expenditure is more serious. This chapter focuses on the effects of advertising on young viewers' perceptions and knowledge of brands and products and on their wider consumer-related values. Before turning to the ways in which advertising can exert direct effects upon young consumers, it is worth beginning with a review of the most significant models of advertising effects that have emerged over the years. These models do not apply nor were they developed exclusively to explain the effects of advertising on children and teenagers. Instead, they were developed to enhance our understanding of the key processes that underpin the way that advertising can influence consumers in general. Nonetheless, it is useful to describe hqw conceptual thinking about advertiSing has evolved because this description provides a background to the review of advertising influence that follows later in the chapter. THEORIES OF EFFECTS
This review of theories of advertising effects is not exhaustive, but it does cover the models that have dominated thinking about advertising impact. The models that follow were grounded primarily in psychology. They consider the way consumers process information from commercial messages, the ways that advertisements can invoke emotions and motivations in consumers, and the behavioural reinforcement mechanisms advertisers apply to invoke, shape and condition consumer behaviour.
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HIERARcmCAL MODELS Hierarchical models conceive of advertising influences as operating through a series of stages that involve a number of distinct psychological processes. One early version of a hierarchical model identified such stages as attention to the advertisement, awareness and knowledge of the product, liking for the product, preferring the advertised product over others, desire to possess the product, and finally the action of purchasing the product. Another stage model was put forward by McGuire (1969) who identified several decision-making processes between initial exposure to a commercial message and eventual product purchase. These stages included: exposure, attention, comprehension, yielding, retention, and decision to buy. Each stage must be successfully negotiated before progressing to the next one. Hence, in a classic hierarchical model, the consumer must first become aware of the product through exposure and attention to advertiSing. Second, the consumer evaluates the product and the brand and forms a set of beliefs and attitudes about it. Third, if convinced that the brand is superior to others in the competing product range and if the purchaser is also in the market to consume this type of product, then an intention to buy will become established, followed by eventual purchase, MULTI-ATTRIBUTE MODEL
The multi-attribute model is based on the premise that a consumer's attitude toward a brand is the aggregate of the opinions the consumer holds toward specific product attributes multiplied by a subjective estimate of the probability that the brand in question actually possesses each of those attributes. The more favourable the attitude toward the brand, the greater the likelihood that the consumer will purchase it. Advertising influences brand-related attitude either by causing the consumer to believe that a brand really does possess a specific attribute or by changing the consumer's evaluation of the attractiveness and importance of specific attributes that the brand is believed to pussess,
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INVOLVEMENT MODELS
Involvement models focus on the idea that behaviour is influenced by outside factors to the extent that there are situations in which specific kinds of behaviour are required, expected, or encouraged and have significance to individuals. The more important a situation is deemed to be by individuals, the more involved they become in performing the most appropriate or advantageous behaviours in that situation. In the context of advertising, involvement has been defined with reference to the types of verbal responses consumers make about products during exposure to advertisements as a motivational state and in terms of commitment to a brand or product type. One writer observed that television viewing was usually a relatively low involvement activity. Viewers seldom made powerful links between what they watched on screen and their own experiences. Such low involvement meant that advertising on television could not be expected to affect consumers' core values and may, therefore, have fairly superficial influences on consumer behaviour. Later involvement models emerged that challenged the lowinvolvement view of television advertising and recognized that advertising could involve varying degrees of consumer involvement. The level of involvement was significant, however, in relation to the way consumers processed information from an advertisement and responded to it in emotional terms. Ray proposed a Hierarchies of Effects Model that at first glance appears to be a hierarchical model but which also distinguishes between levels of consumer involvement. Ray distinguished between cognitive, attitudinal, and behavioura~ responses to advertising. Consumers who are highly involved are motivated to learn more about a product, develop attitudes toward it, and may eventually purchase it. Under conditions of low involvement, however, changed cognitive responses toward the brand precede behavioural action, with attitude changes following on.
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The best known involvement model of advertising impact is the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) that Petty and Cacioppo developed. Although this model has evolved over time, the basic idea is that attitudes towards products may be formed either via a central route or a peripheral route of persuasion. The central route is adopted by highly involved consumers and focuses on quality of arguments that support the product. l'fhese arguments affect the consumer's thinking about and evaluation of the product, and when highly involved, the consumer will expend considerable effort elaborating on the aq,..1ments for and against a particular brand. Under some conditions, though, involvement is low. When this occurs, the consumer adopts a more peripheral processing route in taking decisions about whether to purchase a brand. Low involvement consumers engage in a relatively superficial level of analysis of product attributes. Little attention is paid to arguments for or against a product. Instead, consumers may be more influenced by the attractiveness of models or celebrities associated with a brand or with incidental benefits that may derive from brand purchase than by whether the product is functionally superior. Although initially conceiving of information processing from advertising as being either central or peripheral, a later conceptualization acknowledged that degree of consumer involvement was continuous rather than dichotomous in nature. ATTITUDE TOWARD THE AD (AAD) MODELS
Aad models allow for the fact that consumers' attitudes toward advertisements can influence attitudes toward brands and intentions to purchase. Aad models have similarities to multi-attribute models. They do not simply consider a holistic or global attitude of like versus dislike that consumers develop about advertisements but examine specific features in advertisements (e.g., various aspects of visual production treatment, music and sound effects, types of endorsers) and the different feelings they generate in consumers. Any positive feelings generated by the advertisement may become
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associated with the brand and through repeated exposure rub off on the brand itself. Some writers have suggested that attitude toward the advertisement may affect brand attitude directly or indirectly via specific thoughts held about the brand ..It is further argued that attitude to the advertisement may exert a direct influence on brand purchase without being mediated by brand cognitions or attitudes. BEHAVIOURAL MODELS
A number of researchers have noted that advertising can influence consumer preferences and purchase intentions via behavioural conditioning processes. In classical conditioning, associative learning can take place between a particular stimuli and a behavioural response, such that the presence of a particular stimulus automatically gives rise to the conditioned response. For example, some stimuli and responses are biologically connected whereas others are not. When hungry and presented with a plate of our favourite food, we begin to salivate in preparation for food ingestion. If a passage of music (which biologically does not give rise to the salivation response) is played every time we are presented with food when we are hungry, then through a process of associative learning the music alone may result in the salivation response. This form of behavioural conditioning can be used in advertising to influence brand-related thoughts, attitudes, and eventual purchase. The depiction of an attractive, scantily clad model may give rise to various rositive arousal responses among consumers. The repeated association of that model with a hair shampoo may lead to those responses become conditioned to the advertised brand. Such positive feelings may enhance the image of the brand and its appeal to consumers. It is established that consumers were more likely to select the colour of a ball point pen they had seen advertised with pleasant rather than with unpleasant music. In line with traditional classical conditioning research, the strength of this type of influence becomes greater with increased exposure to such stimulus-response pairings in advertising.
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INFORMATION PROCESSING MODELS
Information processing models are also sometimes referred to as attentional models. They offer a variety of explanations for the importance of effective information processing from advertisements. The formation of brandrelated beliefs and attitudes and intentions to purchase depend on how much detail from advertisements consumers are able to process during exposure. Involvement models indicate that consumer invclvement with advertisements is a significant factor linked to style of information processing. Other factors, however, are linked to the way that information is presented within advertisements that also affect attention, information encoding and comprehension, and emotional responding. The greater the amount of information an advertisement presents within a specified period of time, the more likely it becomes that certain details will be lost to the consumer. Limited capacity attention theory has been used to explain why and how processing of information from a stimulus deteriorates if the individual's attention is divided between the stimulus in question and another task that also requires a certain amount of mental concentration. In addition, the more complex the stimulus, the greater attention it demands to enable effective processing and encoding to take place. This phenomenon has been repeatedly observed in connection with processing information from advertisements. The greater the narrative and visual production complexity of a commercial, the more information processing capacity it demands and presenting advertisements at faster speeds, which involves more rapid processing of information, also requires more attention. The processing of information from advertisements is also affected by the nature of the adjacent programming. Programme content can affect viewers' mood states or excite them in a way that interferes with effective processing of the informational content of advertisements. A programme can also involve viewers so powerfully that they are unable to redirect their attention to adjacent advertising sufficiently to facilitate the encoding of the commercial messages.
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Programme environment has been found to exert both positive and negative effects on viewers' memory for televised advertising. Some results have indicated that programmt! context can facilitate advertising recall but others have found a negative effect. Inconsistencies in the ways key variables such as attention, memory, and exposure to stimulus materials have been operationalized have been invoked to account for some of these differences in results addition, involvement may interact with the nature of surrounding programme content to affect advertising recall in different ways. Thus, whether a surrounding programme environment has facilitative or inhibitory effects upon cognitive processing of embedded advertising material can also depend on the nature of differences or similarities between programmes and advertisement, with "psychological involvement" in the programme magnifying these effects. It is reported that viewers' memory for advertisements was impaired by adjacent violent movie content as compared with a nonviolent programme environment. This effect has also been observed by other researchers. explained This interference is explained in the cognitive processing of the advertising message being the result of the hostility-related ideas invoked by the surrounding violent film content. Again it is suggested that cognitive effort becomes deflected from processing the advertising to calming the anger brought on by the adjacent programme violence. This effect was attributed to cognitive responses generated specifically by violent content, given that the violent and nonviolent film sequences used in this research had been pretested to produce nonsignificant differences in self-reported excitement and physiological arousal. Further research confirmed these results in respect of effects of violent programming on nonviolent advertisements but also indicated that memory for advertisements that contained violence could be enhanced by adjacent programme violence. The notion of construct accessibility has been invoked to explain how programmes and advertisements that contain
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semantically congruent material can enhance information processing from the advertisement A construct has been defined as a representation in memory consisting of coherent information about some entity". Thus, a construct is a mental representation involving a category that divides a domain into positive and negative instances. Researchers have suggested that the initial use of a construct increases the accessibility of that construct and the possibility of its use in later judgements and impression formation. This accessibility can also be increased indirectly through the activation of constructs that are associated with the representation. For example, the construct of dog can be primed by presenting the construct of poodle. /I
The construct accessibility model has developed from a belief that semantic memory can be represented as an abundance of networks consisting of nodes that represent constructs, which are connected by associative pathways. Each network represents elements of thoughts and feelings, and internet work connections are determined by factors such as similarity, congruity, and semantic relatedness. Upon activation of a node, other semantically related nodes are activated as the activation travels along the paths of the network. This view states that the presentation of a specific stimulus will prime. other, related thoughts by activating the connections between the memory networks. Research with teenagers has yielded little evidence of construct acceSSibility effects in the context of recall of television advertisements. In one study, advertisements for cars or foods were placed either within a programme about cars or a programme about food. Advertisement recall was better when commercial messages were placed in a programme of dissimilar than of similar content. There were gender-related differences because males had better brand recognition than did females for car advertisements, but females were superior in recognizing food brands. In another experiment, teenagers and young adults were tested for recall of advertisements for alcoholic beverages (beers) placed in a popular TV soap opera against scenes that either contained or
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did not contain drinking behaviour. Semantically congruent programme content enhanced recall of the beer advertisement when it occurred subsequent to the advertising break but impaired recall of the beer advertisement when it was shown before the advertising break. This effect, however, was confined to conditions when the beer advertisement was shown in first position in the advertising break and the interfering programme content occurred immediately before the advertisement. Similar effects have been found for advertisements aimed at children. For example, cartoon advertisements may be generally more memorable than noncartoon advertisements, but this effect depends on whether the advertisements are placed in a cartoon or non-cartoon programme. The placement of cartoon advertisements in a cartoon programme can impede children's memory for the commercial messages, while placement in a non-cartoon programme makes them stand out more.
LEVELS OF INFLUENCE Before considering behavioural level and incidental effects of advertising, the more direct reactions children display when exposed to commercial messages will be discussed. Before any consumer responds, if they do at all, in terms of product purchase, the advertising imparts to them certain information about the brand being promoted. Advertising is, therefore, a source of consumer learning. This type of impact occurs at cognitive and emotional levels rather than at a behavioural level. Such effects can be conveniently consider~d to occur at three distinct, though sometimes interacting or interdependent levels: 1. Brand level learning, 2. Product level learning, and 3.. Wider consumer socialization. Brand level responses refer to ones connected to specific modds or brands of a product or service. That is, is one bank, car, breakfast cereal, cosmetic, or soap powder preferred over another? To make such choices, consumers must consider the
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attributes of different brands as presented in advertisements. One assumption in relation to this level of effect is that the consumer who is making a preference judgement is in the market potentially to purchase a product or service. Understandably, where younger consumers are concerned, the range of products or services they might be interested in buying is much narrower than the range available to adult consumers. Major child or teenage consumer items include toys, confectionery, breakfast cereals, eatillg at fast-food outlets, cartoons, music, and computer or video games. Advertisements try to render their brand more appealing than competing brands by associating with it certain desirable attributes known to be valued by young consumers. Product-level responses refer to the information that young consumers learn about product categories rather than a specific brand. Nonetheless, brand-level learning may feed in t01Jroduct-levellearning. Hence, children may learn about products and services and their characteristics as a genre through watching advertisements. For example, children may learn about the range of brands of video games available in the marketplace and may be able to evaluate specific brands by comparison with other individual brands. But they may also be able to evaluate a particular brand by comparison with a broader genre-wide standard that children extrapolate from their experiences with many brands within the product category. Children may also learn about products not yet aimed at them, such as cars, which they may one day purchase for themselves. Wider consumer socialization refers to a more general form of learning through which children recognize and come to understand the role of consumerism in society. In marketdriven, democratic societies, this represents an important area of learning because consumerism permeates the lives of virtually everyone-r At this societal level, young consumers may become aware of the role that consumerism plays in the home and in relation to business. Consumerism enables people to maintain certain lifestyles for themselves. It also forms the basis of business activity that in turn creates employment. The
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ability to consume rests significantly on the disposable income an individual possesses. Income is generated primarily by work. Hence, the idea of obtaining paid employment in the service of consumerism can begin to surface in teenage yearsa time during which youngsters often embark on their first paid work. Children pass through various stages during which their understanding of the nature and purpose of advertising on television evolves. Initial understanding is manifest in recognizing distinctions between programmes and advertisements but understanding the purpose and intent of advertising emerges only gradually after about seven or eight years of age. During the teenage years, however, young consumers develop the ability to make more sophisticated judgements about specific appeals and subtle tactics advertisers use to grab the attention of consumers and enhance the image of advertised products. During adolescence, a significant degree of scepticism can emerge about advertising. This may take the form of critically appraising the aesthetic qualities of an advertisement, questioning the veracity of its central appeal or sales message, or perhaps rejecting the brand on the basis of personal experience. Peer groups may also influence the reactions of adolescent consumers to advertisements. As fashion sense becomes more important for young consumers struggling with their self-identity, advertisements become a source of conversation among teens who are monitoring their environment to keep up with the latest trends. As well as the three domains (brand-related, productrelated, wider consumer awareness) in which consumer learning takes place, there are other non-behavioural advertising "learning" effects. First, there is factual learning about brands and products. Second, there is the acquisition of attitudes about brands and products. Third, there is the conditioning of wider values about consumerism as a concept. The first two kinds of learning may be precursors of eventual product purchase. Consumers learn that certain attributes are associated with brands (facts) and decide whether these are
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attributes that they like or dislike (attitudes). If the attitudes formed are positive in nature, this sets up the conditions under which purchase may take place. It does not automatically follow that product purchase will occur once a positive attitudinal disposition has become established because relationships between attitudes and behaviour are complex and far from consistent. Any discussion of the research into the impact of television advertising on knowledge, attitudes, and values must consider the methodologies of that research. Many studies have been based on survey interviews with children who report not only on their brand awareness and attitudes but also on their perceived exposure to relevant advertiSing. Such studies use correlational analyses to examine links between advertising exposure and brand or product-related perceptions. There are limitations to using reports from children or from their parents about children's exposure to advertising because these reports may not always be accurate and subjective measures of advertising exposure also vary in how specific and detailed they are. Nonetheless, bearing these reservations in mind, some weak relationships have been found between reported exposure to advertising and consumer-related attitudes. Correlations between advertising exposure and attitudes toward products cannot prove cause-effect relationships. To establish such relationships other methodological approaches are required. For example, researchers have manipulated children's exposure to specific advertising under controlled conditions, both in laboratory settings and under more natural viewing circumstances. However, as discussed later, findings concerning the effects of advertising on children's brand- or product-related attitudes have been mixed.
BRAND-RELATED EFFECTS At the level of the brand, interest in children's reactions centres on the degree to which children learn to associate particular attributes with the specific product being advertised and how this learning, in tum, might influence their attitudes toward the brand. One technique is to show an advertisement
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to children who are then interviewed immediately afterward for their retention of information from the message and their judgements about the brand that was promoted. The first step in advertising influence is for a commercial message to raise consumer awareness of the advertised brand. Research has shown that brand name identification can be enhanced through advertising. As mentioned earlier even very young children recognize logos and brands but such recognition tends to be more pronounced among older children who begin to ask parents not just for products but for specific brands. Children viewed that the strength displayed by a character associated with the brand and established a belief among young viewers that they too would grow to be big and strong if they ate this cereal. The same study showed the children another cereal that was endorsed by a cartoon character. This cereal also proved to be popular but not because of any attractive attributes that were associated with it. Instead, the children liked it because the character-who was well liked by this group-apparently enjoyed it. Another feature that has been investigated in relation to the attractiveness of brands to children is whether brands are promoted on screen by other children. This feature, however, has been found to enhance liking for the ad vertisement, though not invariably for the brand being advertised. PRODUC~RELATEDEFFECTS
At the product level, children learn to make judgements assessing the claims made about the advantages and benefits of specific products. Much advertising aimed at children is for food products. Exposure' to these advertisements has been found to have specific and general effects on young consumers. Advertising can influence what children think and feel about food products and enhance their desire to consume advertised products. The most frequently advertised foods, for example, may emerge as the best liked among children. The more children are exposed to such advertising, the more they come to like the advertised brand, and several early studies found
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that increa::.ed exposure to advertising resulted in greater desire for the product. Researchers have shown that children and teenagers may sometimes condemn advertisements for making unrealistic claims about products. In one qualitative study, in-depth interviews with groups of children aged between seven and 14 years found, for example, that the cleanliness and softness claims made by various advertisers about their cleaning products (e.g., shampoo and soap powder) were found difficult to believe. It is also considered how children considered the truthfulness of specific advertisements that they were shown. Children appeared to adopt specific strategies to enable them to make an assessment. The strategy tended to depend initially on whether the advelusement was for a product or a service. Advertisements that promoted a service were frequently perceived as being unlikely to make exaggerated claims or to fabricate information. Reactions to product-based advertisements depended on whether specific claims were made. For example, a hamburger restaurant advertisement offered no information about its food items, so the children felt unable to comment on its truthfulness. Real-life experience was a salient factor for children assessing the truthfulness of toy advertising. In the case of a toy truck that was promoted as being "indestructible," many seven- to 10-yearolds maintained that this was a realistic claim and offered examples from their own experience with the product. It is found that nearly all the children who were interviewed could remember being motivated enough by a television advertisement to ask their parents to purchase products they had seen. Most purchase requests were for toy products. However, the children rarely relied solely on television for their information about new products. They also consulted friends and other sources of information (e.g., some mentioned looking through mail-order catalogs).
A number of product-related studies have investigated the impact of television advertisements for medicine products
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on children's wider beliefs and attitudes about medicines. This research has found little support for the suggestion that advertisements for over-the-counter (OTC) or nonprescription drugs can encourage excessive reliance on pills. In research with eight- and nine-year-olds, it is investigated the influence of advertisements for OTC medications on children's preferred brands. In one experiment, 100 children were shown televised advertisements for six different OTC medicines along with advertisements for other products. Afterward, they were asked to recommend either a medicine or non-medicine remedy for a child and an adult with various illnesses or health problems. The OTC medicine advertisements appeared to influence their recommendations only with respect to the use of sleeping pills but not for the other five products. In another experiment, 200 children were exposed either to fever and cold medicine advertisements intended for a child audience or to non-drug advertisements. Only the fever medicine advertisements appeared to influence the children. In both experiments, the effects of advertisements were specific to particular products. Experiments conducted with television drug advertisements to find out whether such messages could affect children's attitudes concerning medication. This research was carried out with children aged between eight and 12 years. Children's attitudes toward drug use were measured using questionnaires and no influence of advertisements was found. In this case, however, the children were tested only once immediately after exposure to advertising. The absence of any pronounced effect of advertising on children here does not mean that effects would necessarily be absent in the longer term following repeat exposure to relevant televised advertising. In experimental research, the most effective design is to compare participant knowledge or attitudes before and after exposure to a media stimulus. This approach has been taken in research investigating the impact of advertising on young children's toy preferences., Observing children's choices as they play freely with toys allows the researcher to establish naturally occurring preferences. The children were shown a
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television programme in which was embedded an advertisement for one of a set of toys that they had previously played with. After seeing the advertisement, the children were asked to rank their preferences for the original set of toys, including the one that had been advertised. The younger children's toy preferences were unaffected by exposure to the advertisement, but the older children liked a toy more if they had seen an advertisement for it. In a quasi-experimental study conducted in the field, Goldberg examined French-speaking and English-speaking children living in Montreal. At the time of this investigation, Quebec law had eliminated all advertising aimed at children on local television stations which meant that exposure to advertisements for toys and children's breakfast cereals could only occur through watching U. S. television stations. Englishspeaking children watched the American stations more than did French-speaking children, and Goldberg compared the two for their awareness of advertised products. Results indicated that the English-speaking children exhibited greater recognition of toys available in the marketplace and had more children's cereals in their homes compared with the Frenchspeaking children. The difference in product awareness study could not be confidently attributed to the effects of televised advertising alone. There were other differences between English- and French-speaking children in Quebec concerning their cultural environment, their typical eating habits, and other product purchasing habits that may have contributed to the differences between them in their product recognition, quite independently of their patterns of exposure to relevant television advertising. Notwithstanding these other factors, the children who had the greatest exposure to American television (and the advertising aimed at children that it carried) did exhibit the greatest relevant product recognition, and this was especially true for the English-speaking children.
WIDER CONSUMER SOCIALIZATION EFFECTS The learning that takes place following exposure to advertising can go far beyond the acquisition of factual
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information or attitudes about specific brands and the awareness of the range of brands available within a particular product category. Advertising represents part of a wider consumer-related experience for children that conditions a value system that underpins the nature of their consumer orientation. Through an ongoing· process of consumer socialization, children acquire consumer-related skills, knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and behavioural dispositions. One concern about the domination of a consumerorientation in society is that: carried to an extreme, consumerism generates a value system driven by selfcentreedness; individual ambition and achievement; and, ultimately, greed. In other words, it generates a society in which people are motivated primarily by the acquisition of wealth and possessions. During their teenage years, young people develop an understanding of concepts of working for money and business for profit. In a retail context, it is teenagers rather than preteens who understand why customers pay shopkeepers for goods and why the shopkeeper sells goods for a profit. Although children as young as eight years can be taught to appreciate the idea of shops selling goods for profit, they cannot transfer this knowledge when considering the role of manufacturers of goods in shops. By the mid-teens, however, understanding of relationships between shop and factory profit becomes better developed. In relation to advertising itself, youngsters can exhibit increased skepticism, with age, about the motives of advertisers. This skepticism generally accompanies a growing awareness of the tactics used in advertising to influence consumers' opinions. With this enhanced awareness, as well as direct experience of products, and through conversations with parents and peers, young consumers may become less willing to believe advertisers' claims. The process of becoming a consumer begins at an early age-even before children are able to purchase products for themselves or indeed before they begin to ask others (Le., parents) to purchase thmgs for them. Initial involvement in
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consumption itself has been observed as early as five years of age. By this age, their mothers may have already begun to instruct children about brand preferences. Children also observe their mothers while on shopping trips with them and acquire basic in-store behaviours through observation and imitation. During their school years, children's television viewing behaviour increases as does, in turn, its influence as a source of consumer information. During preteen years, use of newspapers, magazines, and books also increases, offering further information about products, services, and consumerism. Once into their teen years, these mediated information sources are accompanied by the growing influence of peer groups. Direct parental influence, in the meantime, changes during this period of development. The role of advertising and other mass media content on children's consumer socialization is linked to parental communication style and the socioeconomic class of the child's family household. Evidence has emerged, for instance, that young children from more affluent households exhibit more advanced und.erstanding of consumer issues than do children from poorer backgrounds. Children from wealthier households may also show stronger brand preferences and seek more information about brands before deciding which one to purchase. How parents interact and converse with their children is linked to the child's media consumption habits and other consumer-related attitudes and behaviours. More open, democratic forms of interaction among family members in relation to decision making yields a more consumer literate young consumer. This type of communication climate can foster a form of consumer socialization that encourages youngsters to focus on the pros and cons of different brands, particularly in relation to price and value for money. One family communication pattern distinction has been made between socio-oriented and concept-oriented climates. In a socio-oriented family setting, parents encourage their children to maintain a harmonious climate of personal
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relationships, to avoid argumf'nts, anger, and any form of controversial expression or behaviour. In a concept-oriented family, children are invited to express their ideas and feelings, even if they are controversial, and to challenge the beliefs of others. In early research, these patterns of communication were associated with socioeconomic class. The socio-oriented climate was more characteristic of working-class families, while concept orientation was more typical of middle-class families. But the effects of family communications patterns are not wholly explicable in terms of socioeconomic class alone and the orientations themselves have relationships with cognitive processes that are more than simply an outcome of socioeconomic class. It is that examined whether motivation for television viewing could be the result of family communication patterns at home. They speculated that a socio-oriented communication orientation might implicitly encourage the child to pay attention to the mass media as a means of learning how to behave in various social settings. This expectation was supported, and suggested that some families encourage their children to tum to the media to learn social or consumer tendencies appropriate to certain roles. This might then lead to the learning of materialistic orientations because people can learn the expressive aspects of consumption from mass media. Earlier research had also found that materialistic attitudes were related to the social motivations for watching television advertisements and programmes. Put another way, advertisements are watched to learn what products to buy to make a good impression on others, with such motivations being influenced by family communication patterns.It is showed that concept-oriented family communication structure was positively associated with exposure to the use of mass media for news and current affairs information that could, in tum, have a positive influence on consumer knowledge and other consumer competencies. Thus, a concept-oriented family communication environment may encourage greater curiosity among children who turn to the media selectively to obtain information about social and public affairs and about consumer-related matters.
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MEDIATING VARIABLES AND ADVERTISING EFFECTS
In assessing the nature of the impact of television advertising on children's knowledge, attitudes, and values, evidence has emerged that these effects do not occur uniformly. Their influence can vary in the presence of different mediating factors. The latter include how often exposure to an advertisement occurs, the age of the child, the child's social class, and the role of parents. Another important observation is that factors other than advertising can affect children's knowledge, attitudes, and values about brands and products. In consequence, researchers must often disentangle the role played by these different influential variables to derive the unique and specific effects of advertising. ADVERTISING EXPOSURE
In most real life contexts, children see television advertisements more than once, and usually many times. During the course of a controlled laboratory study, however, the influence of advertising may be assessed after just a single exposure. Does repeated exposure to an advertisement make any difference to brand or product-related knowledge or attitudes? Research evidence on this point is equivocal. Different writers on the subject have disagreed, some suggesting that repetition has no effect and others claiming that the effects of repeated exposure can be negative rather than positive-in terms of attitude toward a product. Yet other researchers have reported that repeated exposure to an advertisement can leave very young children more positively disposed toward the advertisement and brand. The reason is that the child's memory for the advertisement improves with repetition and leaves them feeling more pleased with themselves for being able to recognize a brand more effectively. Supportive evidence produced for repetition effects and found that repeat exposure to advertisements for the same brand not only enhances brand recognition but also affects brand-related attitudes and purchase dispOSition in positive ways. In their
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study, children remembered information about a brand of ice cream after just one exposure to an advertisement for the brand. Three exposures in quick succession enhanced brand preference and five exposures lead children to choose it over others to a greater extent. It is also worth noting, however, that repeat exposure to a brand during the course of an advertising campaign may not be the only factor at play in enhancing memory for the brand and improving consumer attitudes. The increased presence of the product in shops, and the greater likelihood that other consumers are talking about the product, may be other factors that become compounded with advertising exposure to enhance memory and shape attitudes. Advertising exposure may also interact with the social class of the child to shape knowledge and attitudes, with middle-class youngsters being more receptive to advertising messages than are working class children.
AGE OF CHILD It is generally recognized within the research literature that older children and younger children respond differently to advertising. We have already seen differences in levels of understanding of televised advertising associated with different age groups. Older children also display more cynical attitudes toward advertising than younger children that again reflects a different level of understanding of advertising and its purpose on their part. Increased distrust of and cynicism about advertising among older children might, therefore, be expected to reduce the influence of advertising messages on knowledge, attitudes, and values. ROLE OF PARENTS
Parents can have a significant role in moderating or modifying the influence of advertisements on children's knowledge, attitudes, and values. The degree to which this mediating phenomenon occurs, in turn, varies with the educational level and social class of the parents. Parental influence can operate directly and indirectly. Parents can
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control the level of television advertising exposure, especially if they actively limit how much television their children watch or the times they watch. Parents can also create an environment that imparts a certain type of consumer socialization to their children that creates a cognitive framework within which advertisements are interpreted. The higher the social class or education of the parent, the more likely it is that television exposure (including exposure to advertising) will be limited. Parents may comment on advertisements themselves. Such commentary may include remarks about attributes or qualities of the advertising or the product. Such parental intervention in relation to programmes has been found to be effective in managing television's influences upon children. It can serve to enhance the overall television literacy of the child, encouraging children to think more deeply about whatever they are viewing. The effect of this response may be to influence the messages that children take away from the medium. Parents can also offer moral judgements and other comments on advertising messages and this may have moderating effects on influences of advertising on children's longer-term values. This influence can occur whether parents make direct or indirect comments about advertisements. It does not always follow that frequent parent-child dialogue about advertising will necessarily reduce purchase requests, but the more a parent adopts a proactive role in engaging a child's thinking about advertising, the more the child will understand the nature and purpose of advertising .
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Parental interaction with children about television advertising and its effects can take place either when children are or are not watching advertisements. Some researchers have observed that the best results may occur when parents engage in conversations with their children about advertising while the are watching television together. In this inst~nce, parents know for certain what their children are watching and can relate their advisory comments directly to specific aspects of the advertisement being viewed. Despite the potential significance of this mediating role of parents, research evidence indicates that it is not a role many
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parents actively adopt. Parent-child co-viewing has been found to be more likely to occur between parents and older children (whose viewing tastes come to resemble those of their parents) than between parents and younger children. There are also clear social class differences as working-class parents are less likely than middle-class parents to mediate their children's viewing agree to which this mediating phenomenon occurs, in tum, varies with the educational level and social class of the parents. Parental influence can operate directly and indirectly. Parents can control the level of television advertising exposure, especially if they actively limit how much television their children watch or the times they watch. Parents can also create an environment that imparts a certain type of consumer socialization to their children that creates a cognitive framework within which advertisements are interpreted. The higher the social class or education of the parent, the more likely it is that television exposure (including exposure to advertising) will be limited. Parents may comment on advertisements themselves. Such commentary may include remarks about attributes or qualities of the advertising or the product. Such parental intervention in relation to programmes has been found to be effective in managing television's influences upon children. It can serve to enhance the overall television literacy of the child, encouraging children to think more deeply about whatever they are viewing. The effect of this response may be to influence the messages that children take away from the medium. Parents can also offer rr.oral judgements and other comments on advertising messages and this may have moderating effects on influences of advertising on children's longer-term values. This influence can occur whether parents make direct or indirect comments about advertisements. It does not always follow that frequent parent-child dialogue about advertising will necessarily reduce purchase requests, but the more a parent adopts a proactive role in engaging a child's thinking about advertising, the more the child will understand the nature and purpose of advertising.
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Parental interaction with children about television advertising and its effects can take place either when children are or are not watching advertisements. Some researchers have observed that the best results may occur when parents engage in conversations with their children about advertising while the are watching television together. In this instance, parents know for certain what their children are watching and can relate their advisory comments directly to specific aspects of the advertisement being viewed. Despite the potential significance of this mediating role of parents, research evidence indicates that it is not a role many parents actively adopt. Parent-child co-viewing has been found to be more likely to occur between parents and older children (whose viewing tastes come to resemble those of their parents) than between parents and younger children. There are also clear social class differences as working-class parents are less likely than middle-class parents to mediate their children's viewing. COGNITIVE DEFENCES
If children do not realise that advertising intends to persuade, then they likely accept advertising messages as truthful rather than question whether they have a hidden agenda. There is a debate about the age when children first start to appreciate the persuasive intent of television adveI :isements, or when they achieve a full understanding of advertising. But when children do understand the selling intent, they are said to have established" cognitive defences" against advertising. Knowledge of selling intent may not be not enough to impart resistance to persuasive appeals. Children must also be able to discount the advertiser's message in some way. Some researchers have studied children's judgements and preferences for advertised products as a function of their cognitive defences. Cognitive defences have been found to be associated with lower general trust and liking of advertising, a diminished desire for advertised products, and fewer product purchase requests among children.
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But if cognitive defences increase skepticism and moderate the influence of commercial messages, then older children should be less willing than young children to accept advertising messages. Laboratory studies have failed to support this position. In respect to advertisements for breakfast cereals, beverages, and toys, and even when a celebrity endorser was present, older children were as likely as younger children to respond the way advertisers intended. Though children gain experience and understanding all the time, they may not automatically and spontaneously call upon that prior knowledge about advertising when watching television. They can and will do so, however, when prompted. In the absence of prompting, even children who have a sophisticated understanding of what advertising is about, may fail to generate critical thoughts about advertising while watching television. CONCLUDING REMARKS
The main function of advertising is to convey a message about a brand effectively to influence consumers' perceptions of the brand, to render the brand more desirable, and to create an intention to buy leading to eventual purchase. A number of theories have been put forward by advertising researchers to explain how advertiSing influences consumers. These theories were not developed exclusively to explain the effects of advertising on young consumers, but they do provide a useful background when considering how children may be affected by commercial messages. Advertising influence depends on the effectiveness with which the information about brands reaches consumers during exposure to advertising. Consumers must pay attention to advertising, understand tne commercial message, and accept its arguments. Consumers' involvement with the advertising and the type of product being promoted mediates their processing of information and can determine which aspects of an advertising message are most closely attend to. Advertising effects can occur at a number of distinct ?sychological levels among consumers. Advertisements can
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affect knowledge about products, brand-related beliefs and attitudes, the desirability of the product, and motives to consume. Finally, actual purchase behaviour is influenced. Consumers are influenced in terms of knowledge, attitudes, and values, and these can be in relation to brands, products, or wider consumer socialization. Researchers have found that advertisements can enhance brand awareness and shape brand-related attitudes. Advertisements can also affect product-level knowledge and shape a broader orientation toward items in the case of some product categories. Advertising plays a part in the wider socialization of children in relation to consumerism-it raises their awareness of the availability of products and encourages thought about the significance of consumerism in the world today. Advertising does not operate in a social vacuum, and its influences can vary with the age and cognitive development of the individual. Other important social factors mediate the effects of advertising, such as parents and peer groups. Furthermore, as children grow older, their personal experience with products can lead them to reappraise commercial messages and what those message say. As children's intellectual abilities and consumer experiences develop, they may become more skeptical about brands and advertisements, establishing cognitive defences against commercial messages. Although advertising is undoubtedly effective in raising brand awareness and drawing attention to the presence of consumerism in society, it does not possess omnipotent influence over actual consumption. This chapter has focused on the ability of television advertising to raise awareness, create desire, and motivate intention to buy. The next chapter focuses on the behavioural effects of advertising.
Influence of Advertising This chapter considers the extent to which advertisements on television can affect product choice and consumption. This subject is most central to advertisers' concerns-namely to produce enhanced awareness, preference, and purchase of the commodities they have promoted. Television advertising is designed to influence consumer behaviour by entering the market for the type of product being advertised, or to switch to the advertised brand from a rival, or to remain loyal to-the advertised brand. With children, these aims are the same. However, unlike adults, children may lack the independent economic ability to make their own purchases and must rely, instead, on the goodwill of others, most usually their parents. In consequence, the influence of advertising on children can be assessed in terms of how it encourages children to persuade adults to buy products for them. Television advertising acts on consumers via a chain of psychological processes. The ultimate process is to influence the decision to purchase a brand. Last chapter excimined the role of advertising in enhancing children's knowledge and perceptions of products and broader consumer-related attitudes, beliefs, and values. This chapter considers the effects of advertising on the act of consumption itself. Will an advertisement cause children to choose an advertised brand over another competing brand in the same product range? Will ad vertisements encourage children - who do not yet have their own purchasing power-to pester others to buy on their behalf, in particular their parents?
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Advertisers are concerned that their promotional messages will enhance the choice of their brand over others. But parents' groups, educationalists, and others who lobby on behalf of children's best interests have expressed concerns that advertisements can cause children to purchase things they do not really need. Another worry, as will be noted later, is that some advertising is believed to encourage consumption of products that could represent health risks to youngsters. Establishing the link between exposure to advertising and product purchase behaviour, however, is not straightforward. Although it can be shown that advertisements can promote product and brand awareness and positive attitudes toward brands, neither of these achievements is a guarantee that eventual purchase or consumption will take place. A favourable attitude toward a brand does not mean that the consumer will purchase it or, in the case of young children, ask a parent to do so. Determining what we know about direct advertising influences children's product purchase behaviours is largely restricted to the available academic literature. This is not the full extent of research on this subject because many companies conduct their own research into the effectiveness of advertising, but, given its commercial nature, such research is rarely published. As it is observed: "many detailed advertising studies about the effectiveness of certain advertising campaigns directed at children are never made public, which keeps away some very interesting data from most scholars." Research into the effects of advertising on puq:hase behaviour has involved a number of methodological approaches including experiments, large-scale surveys, and interviews. Experiments usually involve direct manipulation of brand choice following controlled exposure of children to specific advertisements. With surveys, data are typically collected via questionnaires and comprise self-reports of past consumer-related behaviour and media exposure behaviour. Interviews with children or their parents individually or in focus groups have been used to elicit information from respondents about their experiences with advertising. We will discuss these methods in turn.
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EXPERUtlENTALRESEARCH Many academic studies on the effects of advertising on children have opted for experimental designs. These permit the investigation of cause-effect relations between variables and allow researchers to control precisely the nature and extent of children's exposure to advertising in a way that would not be possible in their everyday living environment. Most experiments entail showing children selected television advertisements, usually embedded in a children's television programme recorded on videotape. The advertisements are generally ones recorded off-air for children's products such as snack foods, confectionery, sugared breakfast cereals, or toys. After one or more exposures to pre-edited video material, the children are provided with ~n opportunity to choose a brand from a range of product ftems. The aim of such experiments is to establish whether prior exposure, albeit under controlled and rather unnatural viewing conditions, encourages youngsters to choose the advertised brand over others. As the following review of evidence indicates, such studies have found evidence for the effectiveness of advertising. One important series of experiments was conducted during the late 1970s and 1980s and focused on behavioural effects of advertising. A typical study entailed showing children a television programme with embedded advertisements. Afterward, the children were given an opportunity to choose from a range of brands (including the advertised one) the brand they would most like to consume. It is examined that effects of repeating the same advertisement to children. They prerecorded several videotapes that varied in how often they repeated an advertised brand (of ice cream) within a half-hour cartoon programme. The research was carried out with children aged eight to 10 years. After exposure, the children were invited to choose from a range of ice creams, including the advertised brand, and then allowed to eat the brand they chose. The amount, in weight, they ate was also measured. The results
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showed that the advertised brand was more likely to be chosen than others, but advertising had no effect on the amount that was eaten. Nor was there any strong indication that repeating the same advertisements more than once made any difference to brand choice. Again used a similar design with very young children, five- and six-year-olds, who were given a choice of snack and breakfast foods. Once again, brand choices reflected the brands the children had seen advertised. This finding applied to sugared food products that were preferred when they had been advertised, and it also applied to public service announcements promoting healthy eating, after which children were more likely to choose nutritious snack and breakfast foods. As with any experiment of this type, there are issues about the ecological validity of the conditions under which children saw the advertisements and the way that the brand choices were manipulated. Nevertheless, these studies demonstrated the impact that advertisements can have in experimental contexts. The key question is whether these effects are likely to occur under more naturalistic viewing and product consumption conditions. Another study from the same series was conducted outside artificial laboratory conditions with children aged five to eight years in an American summer camp. Exposure to television advertisements (for brands of food and drink) was manipulated during brief permitted spells of television viewing at the camp It is found that children were later more likely to choose the brands that they had seen advertised. One concern about advertising aimed at children is that it may encourage them to choose products that may not be good for them. For example, many food products aimed at children are high in sugar content, leading to concerns about the impact of consumption of children's health. Here, a few of the experimental studies that have tested the impact of advertising on children's choices of foodstuffs will be mentioned. Some researchers have also investigated the
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possibility that any negative effects of advertising can be counteracted by promotional messages for more nutritional foods. In an early study of this kind, three- to seven-year-old children were presented with videotaped cartoon programmes that included food advertisements and public service announcements (PSAs) with pro-nutritional messages. After viewing a version of this material, each child was invited to select a drink and a food from a range of options. Galst repeated this procedure with the same children every day over a period of four weeks. Another variable within the experiment was whether adding an adult's comment to reinforce the pronutritional PSA message would have any effect. In general, the children tended to select sugared snack foods, and this effect was reinforced by television advertisements for such products. However, this effect was partially offset by the pronutritional PSAs and by the adult advice, both of which led children to choose nutritionally healthier food options. In another attempt to encourage children to choose a healthier food option, Cantor showed three to nine years-old a children's programme containing advertisements for a sweet dessert and for oranges. A humorous advertisement and serious advertisement for oranges were used in different conditions. The key measure was whether the children would choose the sugared sweet or an orange during lunch at a childcare centre over a one-week period. It is found that presenting the advertisements for oranges immediately after the one for the sweet dessert was found to have some effect on lunchtime dessert choice. Oranges were more likely to be chosen when advertised in a serious rather than a humorous fashion. Peer groups can strongly influence children's behaviour. In the context of the influence of advertising, however, is there any evidence that peer group pressure can further enhance advertising effects? A condition was created in which children taking part in their experiment first heard other children of their age group indicate which one out of an array of foods they liked best. In this case, different foods were projected onto
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a screen to enable the children to indicate their preferences. The experimental participants did not know that the researchers had previously instructed the other children which foods to choose. The experimental participants subsequently viewed television advertising for selected food products and then made their own choices. The advertising exerted a shortterm influence on food choice dnd that this effect was strengthened by seeing other children making the same choices earlier on. Researchers have sometimes been quite ingenious in the simulations they ha ve devised to measure behavioural effects of television advertising. While many researchers have focused on whether advertisements affect immediate subsequent product selections and investigated whether they could influence the degree to which children were prepared to delay making a product choice. They presented television advertisements for sugared breakfast cereals to six-year old children to find out whether the children would be tempted to try that food immediately afterward. The children played a game in which they were required to wait before being allowed to eat the cereal. Dawson et al. found that children waited longer when they viewed an advertisement for the cereal than when they were shown no such advertisement. The explanation they gave for this effect was that the advertisement was entertaining and momentarily distracted children's attention from eating the cereal. Experiments have their limitations. First, the behaviour usually assessed is a measure of product choice but not product purchase. In all academic experiments, children are allowed to choose freely among a range of brands within a product range and may consume without purchase. In effect, children are invited to choose between free gifts rather than commercial products. Second, the effects measured in experiments are short-term effects only because children are invited to choose a product or brand very soon after seeing it advertised. Third, experiments implicitly assume that advertisements act directly upon children who respond by choosing the
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advertised brand almost automatically. In real life, there is usually some delay between advertising exposure and opportunity to purchase. During this time, other factors may come into play to influence a purchase decision. Products and advertisements might be commented upon by parents or discussed with peer groups. These experiences may also shape consumer preferences and mediate adverti~ing effects. There is also evidence, however, that advertisements can be more influential than the child's own mother. Fourth, experimental studies tend not to replicate the natural viewing environment. In real life contexts, children may be engaged in a variety of other activities at the same time as they are watching the television. For all these reasons, some researchers have suggested that experiments are an inappropriate way to assess the effects of advertising on children. Experimental studies have provided evidence that television advertisements can influence children's product choices under controlled conditions and when such product choices are made immediately after advertising exposure. Their lack of ecological validity, however, means that they cannot be taken as unambiguous evidence about the way children respond to advertbing when they are shopping in the real world. Notwithstanding these remarks, some academic research 1as demonstrated that it is possible to gain insights into "realworld" purchase preferences from experimental ~vidence.Again monitored nine-year-old children's choice of a "prize" they could take home and found that they based their choice on an evaluation of the advertised product itself rather than on a comparison of the various alternatives. Older children, aged 13 years, in contrast, were found to weigh all the alternatives before deciding which prize to choose. It is noticed, however, that when the range of alternatives was reduced, the younger aged group were less influenced by the advertising and relied instead on their pre-advertisingexposure item preferences. Thus, it is possible that when faced
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with a large range of alternatives, young children may firtd it difficult to make choices by considering all the many varied messages about them. Put another way, when the marketplace is cluttered with many brand choices, the brand that is chosen may be the one that simply had the most memorable advertising campaign. The point is that, under information overload conditions, young children probably make efforts to simplify their product-related judgements. SURVEY RESEARCH
Some researchers have adopted survey approaches to investigate the effects of television advertising on children. With surveys the evidence is based on respondents' personal reports about their behaviour or, sometimes in the case of children, reports provided by their parents. Surveys make no attempt to manipulate advertising exposure or product purchase circumstances in advance. Hence, they have no control over the advertising-related experiences of individual children that may have a bearing on that child's consumer behaviour. One of the strengths of surveys, however, is that they have greater ecological validity than experiments, and surveys can show how children's purchase behaviours are shaped by a range of factors, as well as by advertising. The weakness of surveys is that they are unable, technically, to attribute causality. Their evidence is grounded in data that indicate correlational relationships between variables. Hence, a survey that investigates the potential effects of television advertising on children's purchase behaviour can only establish that a correlation exists between how much relevant advertising children (or their parents) say they have seen and the extent to which they have purchased a particular product. Any relationship between advertising exposure and product purchase could be the joint effects of another variable (measured or unmeasured by the research) or could have occurred by coincidence. Most researchers do, of course, recognize that consumers' choices can be influenced by a variety of factors It is not just
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information presented in advertisements that influences consumers' choices. In any case, even if product choice was based directly on advertising information different consumers might vary in their abilities to process that information effectively. The circumstances under which consumers are exposed to advertising can vary too. In some instances, consumers may have their attention distracted at a crucial point in the advertisement. It is, therefore, important to appreciate and to measure the range of factors that can enhance, impede, or mediate an advertisement's impact. Some researchers have found through surveys that children's purchase behaviours are mediated by their family or by their peer group. These social factors are sources of information about products and sources of judgement and opinion about advertisements but these factors will be different for each individual child. For example, within the family, the way parents communicate with their children can differ from one household to another and children can also differ in the degree to which they are linked into peer and friendship networks.
ROLE OF PARENTS AS MEDIATORS
The role of parents is very important in relation to a child's consumer behaviour. For example, products that have been heavily promoted to the child market have failed to become established because they were unable to appeal to parents. The role played by parents can vary, however, from one family household to the next. As discussed in chapter six, parents can vary in styles of communicating with their children and hence -l so in their styles of consumer socialisation. This means that parents differ in the degree to which they intervene in their child's buying behaviours. Different patterns of parental intervention can also cultivate different attitudes toward advertising on the part of children. Parents may be negatively disposed toward television advertising directed at children or not bothered about it. Given that parents have a key role in the early consumer socialisation of their children, parents' attitudinal dispositions toward
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advertising may be passed on to their offspring. Parental socialization instills in children certain values and beliefs that in tum can establish norms of conduct. While some parents give their children a degree of latitude in how they are permitted to behave, other parents are more restrictive and controlling and possibly also more punitive of children who fail to do as they are told. Parenting styles are one of the powerful forces in shaping a child's perception of the economic world. Such consumer-related perceptions may in tum affect a child's consumer behaviour patterns, product declsionmaking processes, and attitudes to advertising. PEER-RELATED FACTORS
Apart from parents, peer groups represent the other key source of influence over a child's consumer··related values, opinions, and behaviour. The influence of peers becomes more pronounced as children grow older and gradually attain a degree of social and financial independence from their parents. Young children, aged five to 10 years, do display peer group sensitivities, but the role of peer groups becomes more pronounced during the teenage years when adolescent preferences for products and brands are known to be influenced by peer group tastes. The power of brands lies in what they stand for in a symbolic sense as much as in the attributes of that particular version of a product. The symbolic value of brands and the need to be seen to be actively consuming can both be triggered and shaped by peer pressure. As children enter their teens and come to explore their self-identity, the range of products they wish to purchase expands to include those that are not just related to entertainment but also to projection of a particular self-image. Clothing is prominent among these. Individual tastes in styles of dress are very sensitive to current peerrelated fashions. Teenagers are unlikely to choose clothes that they believe their peers would dislike. Peer groups may also playa part in determining young consumers' attitudes toward advertising itself, and both children and teenagers are known to talk frequently about
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advertising with their friends. Som~-advertisements may be singled out as the best or most entertaining. Peer groups may, therefore, encourage particular critical dispositions toward specific advertisements or advertising campaigns that could in tum affect the impact of those commercial messages. OTHER FACTORS
Children can also think for themselves, and as they develop and become socialized into consumerism, they begin to make their own judgements about advertised products and the ways they have been promoted. Although children depend on their parents initially to make purchases for them, as they grow older, this changes as they increasingly go out on their own or with their friends, and shopping takes place less often in the company of parents. Research in different countries has shown that this pattern occurs in most cultures. By the time children have reached their immediate pre-teenage years, many parents report that their children make independent purchases without parental help or influence. A child may have clear expectations regarding products that have been widely advertised. Under such circumstances, it is essential that the product lives up to the child's expectations, otherwise, it will quickly lose its initial appeal. Items that might be repeat purchased will be rejected and young consumer ioyalty will not be established. If the product fails to live up to its anticipated quality, even endorsements by celebrity figures may not be enough to guarantee its success in the child market. SELF-ATTRIBUTED ADVERTISING EFFECTS
Whereas surveys explore correlations between self-report measures of media exposure and knowledge, attitudes, or behaviour, qualitative approaches to the study of children and television advertising have asked respondents to indicate whether they feel they have been affected by advertising or have ever reacted to advertisements in a particular way. Such data do not represent actual evidence of advertising influence, merely a subjective impression on the part of children (or their
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parents) about influence. Nonetheless, these studies can reveal insights into the way children engage with advertisements. In the United Kingdom, several qualitative enquiries of this sort have been carried out with children and their parents. In-depth interviews with children and teenagers have revealed that young consumers are aware that advertisements can invoke certain types of reactions in themselves or their friends. References are made to copying behaviours seen in television ad vertisements, to remembering and repeating jingles or catchphrases, and to developing product-related likes and dislikes. Parents often express concerns about their children being misled by advertisements and also about their propensity to emulate risky behaviours depicted in advertisements. The British television advertising regulator deploys a code of practice that prohibits advertisers from depicting behaviours such as characters climbing out through windows or balancing on bridges or characters daring each other to engage in potentiall y dangerous actions such as walking along a precipice. Another concern is whether negative or antisocial attitudes displayed on screen can encourage children to endorse such attitudes. British parents and professional or voluntary childcare workers were found to hold a widespread belief that advertising on television affects children. This manifested itself through pester power; direct copying of behaviour; and a ~ore subtle, gradual effect on attitudes. This concern was felt most strongly for children without much family support. The children themselves held less serious overall concerns about advertising but were able to identify specific advertising examples of copycat behaviour. One prominent example was related to an advertisement for a fizzy soft drink- Tango Orange. In this advertisement, a young man is slapped on the face and children thought that other children were likely to copy this behaviour. In another case, children reported testing the attributes of a kitchen roll. In the advertisement, a salesman was depicted demonstrating the strength of the paper towels to a customer
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by supporting a pot of coffee on a sheet without tearing it. The children who were interviewed about this indicated a willingness to test this feature for themselves.
PARENTAL PESTERING One particular form of consumer-related behaviour among children that has been studied through survey research is children pestering their parents to buy on their behalf. As children become aware of products in the marketplace, they develop an awareness of the things they would like to possess for themselves. Initially lacking the economic independence to make their own purchases, they turn to their parents to buy things for them. Many parents may respond willingly to such demands. If parents know that other children have been bought particular games, toys, or clothes, they may not want their own child to be left out of whatever is the current fashion. Children learn that by asking you may get what you want. Furthermore, early peer group influences add to the pressures placed on parents to purchase the latest products for their children so that they will not feel disadvantaged compared with their friends. Children have become such a pervasive influence on their parents' spending, however, that marketers regularly run focus groups for consumers as young as five years. The study of parental pestering behaviour by children is important because it underlines the social context in which children's consumer behaviour takes place. Research findings from several countries have shown that children pestering their parents to buy them advertised products can lead to family conflicts. In the United States, it is found that the amount of television children watched correlated with the consumption of foods advertised on television and children's attempts to influence their mothers' purchase decisions. In Australia, it is reported that the most heavily advertised foods were most likely to be named as favourites by children and were the ones they most often pestered their parents to buy for them. Controlled experimental studies that attempt to demonstrate an immediate triggering effect of an
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advertisement on children's product choices adopt a naIve notion of how children's product purchases might be influenced. Children frequently reached product purchase decisions through discussion with other people. These other people" may be friends and more usually during early childhood years, parents. Research in the United Kingdom found that pre-teenage children acknowledged being most strongly motivated to ask their parents to buy products they had seen advertised on television. Television advertising, however, was not the only influential source for these children. They also reported consulting friends and even mail-order catalogs. 1/
Whether parents yield to a child's purchase requests varies from one family household to the next. Once again, parenting styles were important in this context. The age of the child was also a factor. Older children tended to make fewer requests of their parents to buy them things but were more likely to get what they wanted. Mothers were also more likely to grant a purchase request the more involved they perceived their child to be with the product. What role does advertising play in encouraging parental pestering by children? One of the initial indications that advertising may influence pestering behaviour derives from self-report evidence. One American survey of children aged four to 10 years asked them whether they ever asked their mothers to buy toys they had seen advertised on television. Many of the children interviewed did admit to pestering their parents, but differences were associated with how much television the children reported watching. Children who were classified as heavy television viewers were more likely to admit to parental pestering behaviour than those classified as light viewers. In a British survey with children aged four to 13 years, the great majority of children said that they had, at some time, asked their parents to buy them something they had seen advertised on television. But there were age-related differences, with older children making less requests (fourfive-year-oIds: 97% claimed to have made requests; six-seven-
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year-olds:94%; eight-nine-year-olds: 86%; 10-13-year-olds: 71 %). The decline in requests with age has also been found in other research. The products that children request also vary with age. Young children, aged five to seven years, are most likely to ask parents to buy them advertised breakfast cereals, sweets, and toys. By their pre-teen yeara (ages 11-12), requests for clothing and music recordings are more prominent. Requests for TV-advertised products that are relevant to children of all ages, such as snack foods and soft drinks, also tend to decline as children grow older. Some researchers have found that the likelihood of parental pestering on the part of children can be reduced when parents discuss advertisements with their children. As well as asking children, researchers have approached parents directly for their reports on how often their children pester them to purchase advertised products. In one early study, it is analysed mothers' questionnaire responses and found that mothers who watched more television were more likely to yield to children's requests to buy them things. Advertisements for food products had the greatest influence in this context and represented the types of products for which children's requests to purchase would most likely be granted. Other research by Ward and his colleagues during the 1970s involved interviews with both children and their mothers. While advertising emerged as an important source of information for children and would often trigger requests to their parents, parents did not invariably accede to these requests. The granting of purchase requests was related to the type of product. As well as asking children or their parents how often requests are made to parents, some research has been more creative in finding out whether television advertising may act as a trigger mechanism. In one study, children completed a projective test designed to find out if they distinguished between wanting something that had been advertised on television and then requesting a parent to purchase the item for them. Children were presented with a story about a child
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watching a television programme that was interrupted by advertisements for child-related products. At the end of the story, the children were questioned about the child in the story and whether he or she would be likely to make purchase requests of a parent and with what outcome. Nearly all the children said that the child in the story would want the advertised product, but two thirds of them thought that the child would ask a parent to buy it with a successful outcome. While most research in this area has found that children's purchase-related requests decline as they get older, one study found the opposite effect. Observations of shoppers in a grocery store revealed that older children attempted to influence more of their mother's purchases than did younger children. Another study indicated that the nature of the relationship between a child's age and parental pestering may be more complicated still. It is found that, for toys and other child-oriented products, the relationship may be curvilinear, with the youngest and older children making fewest requests of their parents, and the greatest amount of parental pestering occurring in middle childhood. Other r~search on parental pestering has derived from studies that have investigated children's requests for their parents to buy them specific food products. These are the types of requests to which parents apparently frequently acquiesce. These studies are of interest, too, because they departed from the more usual survey methodology and conducted observational investigations within retail locations. Atkin observed children with a parent shopping for breakfast cereals. The child was seen to initiate a purchase request in two thirds of cases, and parents were twice as likely to make the purchase as refuse to do so. In contrast to Atkin's findings, Galst and White found a lower rate of parental yielding in a supermarket-in their study, fewer than half the requests from children were granted. Field observations with an experimental paradigm. Mothers and their children were observed while supermarket
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shopping after they had been exposed to a specially designed television programme. Half the parent-child groups watched a television programme that included food advertisements, but the remaining groups saw the programme without advertisements. The children who had been exposed to the advertisements made more product purchase requests of their parents than did children who had not seen the advertisements. Mothers who had seen the advertisements were less likely to grant a child's request-they were more likely to refuse the request or suggest an alternative brand from the one chosen by the child. PESTERING AND CONFLICT
As noted earlier, children's requests for advertised products can lead to conflicts, and this has been observed in several countries, including Britain, Japan, and the United States. Atkin found that in around one in four cases where a parent refused to grant a child's purchase request in a supermarket, some form of conflict ensued, though it tended to be brief. Parents have often reported that they are aware that pestering by their children can result in arguments, whereas advertising agency personnel behind advertisements may believe that this outcome happens only rarely. There are cultural differences in the overall volume of parental pestering; for example, Japanese children are less likely to make such requests than children in the United States and the United Kingdom. One reason for this might be the different levels of exposure to television advertising in Japan and other countries. It has been found elsewhere that greater exposure to television advertising is associated with more parental pestering by children. Further conflict in decision making can occur on those occasions when the child is faced with discrepant information about a product from an advertisement and from a parent. This phenomenon has been studied in experimental research where some children watched a video of a television programme containing a toy advertisement, and others did not see the advertisement. Afterward, some of the children's mothers
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presented negative information about the product in a powerassertive way, others in a warm and reasonable fashion, whereas others said nothing at all. If the product was fairly well liked and the mother's advice was presented in a warm and reasonable fashion, the child would generally comply with the mother. If the mother was more authoritative in rejecting the product, however, a conflict of opinion with the child was more likely to occur.When the product was perceived as highly desirable, though, no amount of parental argument against it, no matter how reasonably put, affected the child's purchase intention. Children's integration with their peer group is another factor that links to parental pestering behaviour. Robertson found this to be especially true of requests made to purchase toys and games. Children who watched more television (and by implication were therefore exposed to greater amounts of televised advertising) and who were poorly integrated with their peers made the greatest number of purchase requests to their parents. However, children who watched a lot of television but were better linked into peer networks made fewer such requests.
-~Affect of Commercials on IGds' Behaviour Considering the depth and detail with which kids in this study know commercials, and given the time and energy that kids think about and talk about them, it is not surprising that commercials affect kids' actual behaviour-how they talk, how they act in and out of school, what they create, what they wear, what they eat, what they purchase, and even what they dream. This chapter describes replay behaviours: any type of actions initiated by kids that repeat or reconstruct a commercial-or parts of a commercial-in some way. Replays are repetitions or reconstructions of the original commercial. They function as prompts for the receivers, however fragmented or whole, that evoke all or parts of the original ad's message. KIDS REPLAY COMMERCIALS
To create replays, kids can verbally imitate ads, physically act them out, or re-experience them when they dream. Images, music, language, objects, and nonverbal communicationtogether or separately-are used to create replays of commercials. Kids engage in replays after an ad has penetrated their consciousness. By simply conjuring up an ad's images, music, or language, we replay all or parts of an original ad's message. For senders and receivers, each replay elicits different degrees of the original, or stimulus, ad. Replays require associational and visual thinking. Associational thinking involves the linking of symbols or signs
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in non-logical ways. For example, red apples may remind us of small children or fire trucks or the old Harold Arlen song "Get Happy" or the poet Robert Frost, and on and on. Such thinking has its roots in semiotics. Visual thinking has roots in semiotics, too, although its influence is obvious in most arts and sciences disciplines, including literature, general semantics, cognitive psychology, and Gestalt psychology. Someone has argued that we think "by means of the things to which language refers-referents that in themselves are not verbal, but perceptual." Conversely, images may arouse other images-or words. In this study, verbal and visual associations were triggered within individual students, as well as between and even within small groups of students. For example, immediately after one student described what she remembered from a mouthwash commercial-what she called "that song about George in the Jungle" -her classmate immediately responded, "Oh yeah, it shows that bottle of Listerine swinging through the jungle on a vine!" Here, the words and music elicited the images. When I cited a line or jingle to prompt kids' memories of a specific commercial, they could recall visual (and verbal) parts of the ad that had occurred just before and after the prompt. The replay behaviours described in this chapter are of three overlapping types: verbal, physical, and mental. First, verba] replays employ language, such as when kids sing a jingle from an ad ("Crave the wave!") or write a note to a friend about a commercial. Second, replays can be physical, such as when kids act out or imitate an action or scene from a commercial (e.g., the model in a shampoo commercial shaking her hair). Physical replays also include paintings, sculptures, or other objects that portray products and/or images from ads. Third, mental replays occur when kids think or even dream about commercials they've seen. All types of replay occur in a variety of contexts, from events and art classes, to phone conversations and backyard games. As the previous two chapters illustrate, most students do not judge and evaluate what they see. Instead, they tend to use their mental maps of TV commercials by simply replaying or rerunning them.
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Replays were the most widespread type of student response to commercials that I found throughout this study. This chapter describes the following types of replay behaviours: •
Singing Songs, Jingles, and Catch-Phrases
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Adopting Jargon and Brand Names
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Playing with Language
• • •
Mimicking Voices Interacting Matching Up Commercials with Other Ads
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Playing Backyard Games
• • • •
Eating Packaging Adopting an Ad Star's Name Choosing Clothes and Objects Completing School Assignments
•
Cheering at Sports Events
• •
Competing in Sports Imitating Actions
•
Dreaming These informal and random replays can be amusing. They are a safe topic for kids to talk about with their peers (especially while establishing friendships), their parents, and siblings. But such conversation carries a high price, because replaying commercials often flashes back the ad's original sights and sounds, again and again. The result is that popular commercials, such as the "Be Like Mike" ad, recur in varied ways thousands of times more often than they air on television.
SINGING SONGS, JINGLES, AND CATCH-PHRASES My friends and I used to sing the Double mint gum song everyday during first hour, but then the teacher moved us, because she didn't want us talking during Channel One. Like Ann, many students reprise songs, jingles, and catchphrases from commercials. During our small-group sessions,
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students often spontaneously sang songs and jingles-for my self and my assistant, even though we were complete strangers to the kids. Without being asked, Una and Joy simultaneously broke into a song from a commercial, never missing a word or a beat. The mere mention of the song elicited the message and images from Joy and Una before they quickly moved back to the tune. Again, the point is that music, words, phrases, and images evoke other music, words, phrases, and images-in effect creating a commercial echo chamber. Rita, a ninth-grader, fond of a jingle from an acne cream ad, frequently repeated the phrase that included the product's name. This helped Rita separate the product from its main competitor, Clearasil. Further, she knew exactly when the girl in the commercial said "Oxy-cute them!" -while she dances. When Jerry heard a few bars of an old Van Halen song used in a commercial, he told me that not just Pepsi appeared in his mind, but Crystal Pepsi. Some replays depended on the visual for their meaning and impact. One student replayed this line from a Nike commercial into a conversation: "There-that was refreshing!" But the line didn't make much sense, because it requires the visual for impact: a basketball player suspended in mid-air above the net. I can only speculate that this line so powerfully elicited the images for this boy's classmates that they may have thought everyone else was imagining the same scene that they were. Although some of the following songs, jingles, and catchphrases had ceased airing on Channel One the year before our study, students replayed them in many contexts: "Be like Mike," "I love Jukie," "Obey your thirst," "Right now," "Crave the wave," "Like a rock," "Been there, done that," "You never done do, 'til you do Mountain Dew," "Skied it, skated it, sphinxed it/i "Got-to-be, got-to-be, Dom-in-os," "Does this remind you of anyone's face?" "You've got the right one, baby-uh-huh," "On the road with Chuckie V." "Oxy-cute them!" "Is it on straight?" "Kiss a little longer," "Yabba-dabbadoo," "Just do it." A few groups of students listed all the places
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where they continue to hear their classmates sing the "Be like Mike" song from a popular Nike commercial that stopped airing the previous year: in the cafeteria; in the hallways before, during, and after school; on the bus; during after-school sports; and many more. Jingles, songs, and catch-phrases attract students so strongly that replays occur in unique situations. One boy told me that the very small children at his brother's day-care centre regularly sing the "Got-to-be Dominos" jingle. Another boy disrupted class time devoted to SSR (Sustained Silent Reading) by loudly repeating the cola jingles "Yee-hi!" and "Like a rock." During a conversation about Cinna burst gum, one girl volunteered the following comments: "Whenever you go to the store, I mean, and you don't buy a regular stick of gum, you buy Big Red, you know, because it lasts longer. It's not like you've ever tried it or anything, because everybody knows that Big Red lasts longer. It's like one of those common sense things." Twice, this girl mentions that this gum "lasts longer," which she believes is a "common sense thing." However, the actual commercial states several times that this gum "lasts a little longer." ADOPTING JARGON AND BRAND NAMES
Using jargon and brand names is an abbreviated or condensed form of replay, which is more selective than merely rerunning an ad's content. One boy used the term "flavour crystals" to describe Cinnaburst gum (indeed, it seems that every student I talked to over the two-year period knew what flavour crystals were). When I asked him what flavour crystals were made of, he replied, "bursts of flavour" -another empty phrase from the same commercial. Kids sometimes picked up pseudo-scientific jargon from commercials and integrated it into theIr own explanations. When a group of girls discussed shampoo commercials, they used terms such as "hair follicle," "hair shaft," "hair cuticle," and "pro-vitamins" -all of which occur in Pantene and Finesse shampoo commercials. Such hollow jargon sounds impressive and technical to the studenls, thereby legitimizing the product for them. Several
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girls had used a shampoo because its commercial promised that it "never over-conditions, never under-conditions," a line they had memorized. Although the girls had watched this ad many times, memorized its claims, and bought and used the product, they remained unclear about what the claim meant. Brand names also serve as an abbreviated way of replaying commercials. We had been talking in generic terms about products and commercials, until Sherry invoked a specific brand name: "I never buy anything that I see on commercials, except candy, because that's one thing that, if you see it on a commercial, you buy it, because it's like Nutrageous: it looks good!" Nobody prompted Sherry to be specific about her topic. Nor had any of her peers mentioned brand names before her. Hence, even under circumstances not requiring brand names, students often mentioned them readily and effortlessly. By referring to products (shampoo) by their brand name (Finesse), students seemed to equate the two. One boy told us, "If I'm sitting at home and I'm hungry, and like, a Taco Bell commercial comes on, I'll go out and get some Taco Bell." He doesn't say he'U"go out and get some Mexican food." He states that he'll eat some Taco Bell. When one girl was explaining how everyone in her family only buys Reebok, she enthused, "My whole family lives on the Reebok." She was referring to this shoe's ad phrase, "Planet Reebok." Melinda used a brand name of one commercial (and brandname product) to jog her memory of another ad for a different product. When I asked her to tell me what the people say at the end of a certain Pepsi commercial, she replied, "It happens really fast, like on the Sega commercials. Let's see, now ... Segal Segal Sega!" These examples of brand-name replay seem especially condensed and potent. In the first case, the actual product (Mexican food) is fused with its brand name (Taco Bell). They become the same thing. And the girl who told me that her entire family "lives on the Reebok" has simply abbreviated the catch-phrase through intense familiarity with the product and its advertising. In the last instance ("Segal Segal Segal") a brand name invokes a completely different product and commercial, illustrating its ability to cross-over
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and be used in very different situations-a kind of all-purpose chant that replayed the brand name three times. Such replays of brand names and other ad language help kids internalize commercial messages. One ninth-grade student internalized them so thoroughly that he insisted he knew that the shoes worn by Chuckie V. in a Gatorade commercial were Nikes. However, the commercial shows Chuckie's feet from a considerable distance as he furiously pedals a bicycle! Finally, brand names even appeared in kids' dreams. PLAYING WITH LANGUAGE
Meaningful, intelligent replays of commercial material that fit the context at hand include student-generated puns and coherent replies and answers to questions. When I asked some kids if they talked about commercials outside of class, Lindsey said, "The M&M commercial." Her friend answered, "That's all Lindsey ever talks about!" Evidently in character, Lindsey responded, "At least I'm friend-Ieh!" -imitating the exact line and voice from the M&M's commercial. Lindsey meaningfully integrated the ad's line into her own response, which fit her context and intent. When one girl reprimanded her classmate, John, for not being aware that today was their teacher's birthday, he innocently replied, "Bo didn't know!" Here, John appropriates the Bo Jackson ad line, "Bo knows ... " to fit his own circumstances. Of course, even when students creatively play with ad language, it still largely has the same e£fectrerunning, to varying degrees, the original ad's message. MIMICKING VOICES
Kids often imitated commercial voices for little or no reason. Of course, their immediate listeners often shared knowledge of the commercial being replayed with the replayer, but not always. Most of the mimicry occurred while kids were not watching TV. Imitating voices is fun, and commercials strive to provide as many irresistible morsels as possible. Such sound bites consist of a few words, mainly onesyllable with long vowel sounds (e.g., "Crave the wave").
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Highly memorable and easy to replay, these lines elicit the ad's visuals, music, and message. Kids replay the voice's content but also strive to capture its vocal intonation, emphasis, and subtleties of dialect. The more the kids hone their imitations and inject them into different situations, the more attention and acceptance they garner from peers. Cartoon voices (and what sound like cartoon voices to kids) are especially tempting to imitate. Some voices-such as that of a small child who enthused on one commercial, "It's shake and bake, and I helped!" -become exaggerated during students' replays. Irresistible voices have to be mimicked, just as pent-up energy has to be vented. One night while listening to the tapes of a small-group discussion, I heard one girl whisper something while all the other kids were talking: a barely audible, "pizza-pizza." Evidently the little cartoon man from the Little Caesar's boxes and commercials could not be silenced. INTERACTING
Very few students directly talked back or answered commercials as the ads were playing. Such talking back usually requires strong disagreement with what is being watched, and students seldom demonstrated this. Also, the school setting of Channel One inhibits speaking aloud during air time, because many teachers would consider it disruptive to other students' viewing. However, a few kids did interact directly with commercials by imitating ad voices simultaneously with the commercial. For such parallel or synchronized mimicry to succeed, kids must key the audio to the visual parts, which requires them to memorize the complete commercial. Kids seemed to derive pleasure from engaging in this parallel mimicry - it was a kind of game for them: if they "beat" the ad voices to the punch, they won at a more advanced level. This kind of interaction is certainly less "confrontational" than talking back to a commercial, which is a habit most of us associate with older, more experienced viewers. Finally, the less confrontational approach seems consistent with the students' warm regard for commercials.
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MATCHING UP COMMERCIALS WITH OTHER ADS
Several students simply matched up one ad with another-and then immediately abandoned this pairing, making no specific or critical comparisons of elements. I call this "matching up" -and not comparing-because comparing suggests some degree of critical thinking by inspecting one element against another, and then verbalizing similarities and differences. These actions, however, never occurred in this type of replay. Instead, match-ups provided a brief replay of two commercials. For instance, one senior girl said that the series of Gatorade ads featuring Chuckie V. reminded her of the old Dave and Dan commercials in which two athletes trained for the Olympics. Then,like the other students who made matchups, she stopped cold. When I followed up her observation with questions, she merely replied, "Both commercials are about athletes." However, when students made match-ups that were not pursued with questions from someone else, they immediately abandoned the paired ads regardless of the context of their group's conversation - which, by the way, was usually an appropriate and safe one for offering any such comparisons. These match ups, then, mainly provided a brief replay of two commercials. PLAYING BACKYARD GAMES
Kids were so involved in the commercials that acting one out during a backyard football game seemed entirely natural to them. However, the fact remains that the ad's basic message was felt again by each kid playing in the game, by those watching, and by those who heard about what happened at the game later-creating, in effect, echoes of replays. EATING PACKAGING
Eating gum wrappers was the most curious type of replay I found during this study. Several students reported regularly eating the inner, tissue-paper wrapping on sticks of Cinnaburst and Mintaburst gum. Sometimes they ate it with the gum itself, swallowing both, and sometimes they consumed only the wrapper. Out of 13 students I asked about this, 9 had eaten
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wrappers. One student estimated that she had eaten about 40 gum wrappers. Although I don't understand this action, I at least recognize it as physical engagement with a popular, heavily advertised product. It is an action that replays the original commercials for students,in a visceral, unique way. Knowing a little more about these gum commercials may help you understand this action. When the students mimicked the commercial by saying, "The Gum!" they were replaying part of the actual Channel One ad, in which parents meet in a therapist's support group for adults who have children "addicted" to this brand of gum. The ad treats this gum like a dangerous drug-complete with over-anxious, hovering parents who exclaim in distress, "I didn't think my son would ever do this! Not my son!" In short, the commercial satirizes nervous parents who equate this gum with hard drugs. For kids, the commercial was a delicious romp on what they see as overprotective, paranoid parents. I believe that kids ate the gum wrappers for two reasons. First, eating wrappers became a fad-the "in" thing to do in a small town. As one student said, it became "the great thing to do." However, students told me about friends in adjacent towns, about fifty miles away, who had also eaten wrappers. Second, by consuming the gum wrappers, kids pushed the TV commercial parody one step further: it became, for them, another humorous move, one step beyond what the commercial satirized. Eating wrappers continued the same theme of shocking parents with nonconformist behaviours. Like the original ad, eating wrappers became an outlandish way of ingesting the "dangerous drug" -of main-lining the product. When I asked one girl if she had ever talked to a parent or teacher about eating gum wrappers, she said, "They'd just look at us like we were stupid." Although students creatively "appropriated" these commercials and even extended the ads' tone and intent, doing so still qualifies as a replay of the original ads-a very physical, involving replay, which generated more talk about the product and commercial than many other replays accomplish.
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ADOPTING AN AD STAR'S NAME
I talked to (and heard about) kids who assumed the names of people featured in Channel One commercials. One girl observed, "They did that all last year. They like signed their name with somebody else's name. It's fairly common. It's mostly the guys that do it." One boy was called "Chuckie" for two reasons: (1) some kids felt he resembled "Chu(kie," the main character in a popular horror fUm (Child's Play), and (2) because of "Chuckie V.," who was featured in current Gatorade commercials. This same student vowed to fix his hair into several stiff spikes, as the Gatorade star did. Other boys signed their first names in yearbooks as "Shaq," after Shaquille O'Neal, the basketball star currently endorsing products in Channel One ads. CHOOSING CLOTHES AND OBJECTS
Shirts, sweatshirts, beach towels, and hats with ad messages on them are nothing new. I do not know if the students proposed the Mountain Dew replay to the company, or if the company offered it to them. The point is that Mountain Dew commercials were currently very popular in that school and had been for the past two years. Also, students could purchase Mountain Dew from machines inside their school. Every time those shirts are worn, Mountain Dew commercials will echo. In the short und the long run, students' memories of graduation will be entwined with memories of beverage ads. Karla and Alan (who seems impressed with copyrighted ad phrases) place a high premium on what they view as Mountain Dew's creative language-a creativity that they suggest is far from the abilities of mere mortals like themselves. COMPLETING SCHOOL ASSIGNMENTS
Last year we acted out commercials in Spanish class. We could either make up our own product and commercial, or just do one that's already on TV .... I think that all of us used
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commercials that we already knew about-things like dog food and Cheerios, and then we videotaped them, so they'd look even more like real commercials. I even brought in my own dog to use in my Kibbles N' Bits dog food commercial. However, when advertising is not the course topic, teachers and students focus on what is-in this case, Spanish. In these situations, neither teachers nor students ha ve the time or motivation to analyse an ad for its persuasive techniques. Hence, in addition to what Emily learned about Spanish, and in addition to what she may have learned about advertising along the way, the assignment remains a replay of a Kibbles N' Bits commercial-in this case, a literal and physical reenactment of the entire commercial for herself, her teacher, and the other students. Emily's videotaping of her commercial deepened her memory and knowledge of this dog food brand. (She valued the look of real commercials enough to video-tape her ad in the first place.) Again, students chose to replay existing, professional commercials over creating a new message of their own. School assignments occur more commonly as replays in the following manner: "Last year we made a commercial for Social Studies class, when we finished the book at the end of the year. We also watched old commercials and talked about the economic stuff." Here again, this could have been an excellent lesson; but it's clear that the study of commercials was treated by the teacher as a kind of treat or dessert that students were allowed to consume only after they had finished the book. Given the extent, complexity, and seriousness of the issues involved in media manipulation, schools that trivialize this study as curricular add-ons provide new meaning to the old saying about straightening deck chairs on the Titanic. Although production of media is usually included in definitions of media literacy, professionals must always ask themselves, "How much of this school experience teaches critical detachment and analysis of media-and how much merely reinforces students' current attitudes and values toward media?" The issue is neither simple nor easy.
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CHEERING AT SPORTS EVENTS Replays can even involve hundreds of people engaging in spontaneous, unofficial group cheers at school sports events. During a couple of high school football garnes with neighbouring srnall towns, bleachers full of people chanted in unison, "Got-to-be, got-to-be-Dorninos!" This huge group inserted, at just the right tirne, the actual cornrnercial's punch line, "Crunchy thin crust!" The fans were accornpanied by the school band, playing the cornrnercial's rnusic. The fans did not even insert their own tearn's narne into the jingle; they rnerely repeated the identical line frorn the cornrnercial. The very sarne scenario occurs on a Dornino's Pizza cornrnercial that aired heavily at this tirne, on both Channel One and network television. In the ad, football fans chant the sarne line to an old rock song by the group "Queen," which goes, "We will, we will-rock you." With people chanting, clapping, and stomping to the beat (accornpanied by the school band), this spontaneous replay rnirrored the actual ad's setting, rnusic, and language. The large nurnber of participants in the rerun were viscerally and intensely engaged with all elernents of the original ad's rnessage. Participants faithfully copied the original comrnercial. This tearn's pep squad and band does indeed have an official cheer rnodeled after the sarne Dornino's cornrnercial. The rnessage frorn the bleachers that afternoon was also replayed to everyone within earshot, including those people who chose not to participate. The rnain beneficiary of the spontaneous re-enactment was, of course, Dornino's Pizza Corporation (which, in fact, sold pizza at these garnes). COMPETING IN SPORTS
Students reported using cornrnercial lines to psych thernselves up" while cornpeting in school sports events. Part of Paul's rnotivation for replaying this line rnay have been to entertain (as well as psych up) his fellow runners. Fusing ad rnessages with the rnental focus and physical dernands of sports corn petition creates an unusual forrn of replay, which here seerns related to the growing nurnber of coaches using mental imagery techniques to teach athletic skills (e.g., 1/
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shooting free-throws in basketball). Again, the main difference is that Foot Locker has a commercial motive. Replays of essential ad messages occur when students watch and talk about media texts that satirize other commercials. These occur not just in Channel One ads, as in the prior example, but in other media as well, especially movies (Wayne's World) and regular television programmes (Saturday Night Live). When the network TV programme Saturday Night Live broadcast a comedy skit about "clear gravy," for Sam it simply elicited memories of real commercials (Le., replays) he had seen on Channel One for "Crystal Clear Pepsi" (which he purchased from the machine in his school). The fact that kids remembers the satirized products in this film, and that they recites relevant dialogue from Wayne's World, tell me that these kids considered the ad satires to be import~nt parts of the films. In essence, these are "replays of a replay." Kids never lost sight of the original ad message being parodied. When one girl was trying to describe an ad and she kept referring to the product as "Jukie," her classmate corrected her three times, insisting that she use the precise brand name. Similarly, the conversation quoted at the beginning
f this section begins and ends with "Obey your thirst," the ad's slogan that evokes other elements of the message (e.g., music and visuals) that merely reinforce the point. Again, what students are "obeying" most is not their thirst, but the soft drink ad.
IMITATING ACTIONS When I asked Lavanna to describe her favourite shampoo commercial, she said nothing. But then she and her friend swung their hair from side to side. "They've been doing that all morning," observed Resa, seated next to them. When I noted Lavanna tossing her head forward and then to the left, I asked her if that was exactly the way the model did it on the commercial. The AT&T commercial I watched neither belittled nor mentioned MCI or any other competitors. Even though Jason
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Kids' Behaviour
saw no differences between the companies-and even though he thought they "belittle" each other-he nonetheless preferred AT&T. Why? We can speculate that the reasons are 1.
Because that's the brand he's heard about at horne, and 2. Because that's the brand he's heard about at school. His statements suggest at least a more positive feeling toward AT&T. Jason is a knowledgeable, articulate student who can describe the contours of his own thinking. Commercial messages seem to surface in his artwork and thinking in complex, indirect, even obscure ways. The point is that replays occur in many colours and shades, for all types of kids, for an infinite number of reasons. DREAMING
Replays of commercials occur in subtle, private ways when kids dream about them. Several students described dreams they had about Channel One's commercials. Because I never dreamed that anyone would dream about commercials, for the first half of this study I did not even ask the question. Out of approximately 100 students, about 8 kids reported having dreamed about commercials. In these dreams, kids made commercials and starred in them. Each dream we investigated featured the products in some important way. Commercial penetrated kid's consciousness deeply enough for them to replay it in a dream. ECHO CHAMBERS OF PROFIT
First, student replays directly imitated the original commercials. Students did little or nothing to reshape the messages or to appropriate them in any way. Whenever kids engaged in the replays described throughout this chapter, they somehow decided that certain information, attitudes, and values were important enough to be retrieved from memory. Almost spontaneously they decided how to modify, if at all, the original information. All these replay decisions require that
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students possess at least some mental groundwork or previous processing of commercials. Second, replays never "slowed students down" so that they had a chance to reflect on the message, debate it, or think about it critically. It's useful (and ironic) to consider the differences between the replay behaviours enacted by kids and the actual video replays employed- by television sports directors (when, for example, a baseball player slides into second base and the umpire makes a close call). A video replay can engage viewers in critical thinking by encouraging them to look closely, sometimes again and again, while talking out their observations with fellow viewers in an informal debatemuch like two game announcers might do (by also supplying more information about player statistics, etc.). Even if no other people are around, viewers can mentally debate the situation observed on the video replay. Actual television replays slow down the action and allow time for viewers to observe closely, and then to analyse the play and call. On the other hand, whenever kids enacted a replay, this did not happen. Never once did any of the replay behaviours described here motivate kids to slow down, reflect on, or debate the message being rerun. On the contrary, the time and energy devoted to the replays by students merely displaced time and energy needed for academic, cultural, or personal learning. The frequency and variety of replays also validates the presence of commercial messages in schools. This validation is reinforced-again and again-with each replay, turning schools into echo chambers of commercial messages, echo chambers of profit. Third, replays occurred frequently inside and outside school-in the cafeteria, hallways, gym, and parking lot; on the bus and in the classroom and at the football game. The replay behaviours described throughout this chapter illustrate just how easily and frequently the basic messages of television commercials are transformed into different media, while still retaining most of their original plot and meaning.
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Replays reinforce commercials and their products. They create an environment in which ad messages-in all their varied forms, shades, sounds, shapes, and echoes-become as common as the air we breathe. Replays constantly replenish and stir the flood of advertising symbols in which students are immersed. It's difficult for kids to resist these glitzy, highvoltage ads. But when the sophisticated messages are replayed -by all kinds of people, in different ways, over and over-then it's nearly impossible for kids to resist buying the things they see. The activities, information, attitudes, and values that make up replay behaviour are linked to products or services being sold for profit-not to kids' own personal thoughts, not to family stories, not to academic principles, not to cultural concepts, not to spiritual needs, not even to practical information. In other words, in replays the kids' independent thinking--as well as their personal, familial, and community cultures-dissolve into a life based on appearances.
Affect of Commercials on Kids' Consumer Behaviour Commercials affect students' thinking, evaluating, and other behaviours (from choosing clothes to creating art projects to dreaming), then it seems inevitable that they also influence students' consumer behaviour. Throughout this study I was amazed at the number of kids who reported purchasing an item because they had seen it on a specific commercial. The number averaged from one-third to one-half of the kids in each small group. They could describe the exact commercial they saw, why or how they were attracted by the ad and/or product, how much time passed before purchasing the item, and how they bought it. By the same token, kids who engaged in the replay behaviours described earlier did not necessarily run right out and buy the product (though many did). Kids who actually· bought items they saw advertised on commercials did not necessarily engage in replays beforehand (though many did). It's not that simple. The cumulative effects of different commercials, recommendations from friends, personal needs and tastes, and combinations of these reasons all affect our decision to make a purchase. However, such other reasons were not investigated here. This chapter explores only those kids who connected specific ads to specific purchases. Each of the following vignettes, however, represents an approach to
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consumer behaviour observed in other students. Also, the written survey reflected my findings from the focus groups: 62 percent of students were neutral, agreed with, or strongly agreed with the statement, "My family or I have purchased products advertised on Channel One's commercials."
IMITATING ACTION Pramila purchased cereal because she was amused when she saw two cartoon characters "merge together." She was not alone in her attraction to camera techniques. Other students reported that they bought an item because of some fancy footwork from behind the commercial's cameras. Long after seeing the ad and purchasing the product, a senior, was still amused by it. Most students attracted to glittering colour, loud music, quick cuts, and action in commercials do not seem quite sure why or how the ads attract them. When I asked Dana if she had ever seen a commercial that motivated her to buy a product, she said, "Yeah-that Levi's commercial shows people doing flips and flying through the air, which kind of made me want to buy Levi's, but I don't know why."
RAMPAGE ON THE SCREI:N ATTRACT KIDS Shannon and her flying shoes embody the gentler side of TVI s commercial sensationalism: camera tricks, music, colours, and action. On the other hand, Ryan represents the harsher side of this coin: he likes the same bells, whistles, and flashes that Shannon does, only he prefers it a little louder, a little faster, and, mainly, more violent. Ryan appeared to be less interested in school and less articulate than the average kid in the schools I visited. He stated he is bored by Channel One, which places him in the minority. (Numerous kids voiced this opinion about Channel One's news offerings, but not with much conviction.) In short, Ryan seemed like one of the hardto-reach students. Even television didn't seem to be reaching him. However, three things might" steel" Ryan against the TV's commercial influence
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He was not interested in school and seemed disconnected from it; He denied watching Channel One and its commercials; and He denied buying the video game for himself. But Ryan planned to purchase this game after seeing the commercial only once. Therefore, only one exposure to a commercial can influence a decision to buy. REGULAR VIEWING
The world of the commercial, holds a can of Mountain Dew as the reward awaiting you after performing a series of daredevil stunts. But that's not all. Because of Mountain Dew's caffeine, you are then primed to do it all over again. Now that's macho-albeit in a never-ending stream of Mountain Dew. Brad also said that he watched Mountain Dew commercials more than any other, because he drank it every day. He never explained why he had to have at least one Mountain Dew a day." Like other kids I talked with, purchasing a product seen on a commercial focuses Brad's attention back to the same commercials. This creates a "loop effect" that takes kids from commercial to product, from product to commercial, and so on. When I talked with one girl who seemed to be revolving in such a loop, it became a "chicken and egg" question. /I
We can conclude that just as ads lead kids to products, products lead them back into commercials, where the cycle begins again. BLIND FOLLOWING
Rock music is so effective that kids purchased not only the product advertised, but also the ad's musical soundtrack. I talked to only a few students who had sought out the music heard on commercials (but I didn't ask this question, either). Rock music with commercials is now marketed for schools to play in the hallways between classes. Star Broadcasting, which broadcasts rock music and commercials into 400 schools across
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the country, advertises its services in this way: "By filling a school's hallways, lobby and lunchroom with rock music and commercials, some administrators bring in up to $20,000 a year in extra cash" (Consumer's Union 1995, 25). MONEY CONCERN
Throughout this study, most kids were eager to talk about commercials because: 1. 2. 3.
They regarded them as entertainment; They enjoyed them; They had extensive experience with commercials and many of the products advertised; and 4. They were in small groups with their friends, away from their teachers and the usual classroom routine. However, a few kids were simply not talkative by nature and had to be drawn out. I'm glad that I did, because they revealed several attitudes and behaviours common to many other kids. They expressed two opposing views: on the one hand, they called the price of such shoes a "rip_off." But on the other hand, they said he would buy them again if he had the money. Their uncertainty about this purchase was not unusual. I observed this sort of contradiction - you could even call it tension-in many other students. This strain also surfaced when they justified their purchase by repeating that the shoes were on sale. t
PROFIT AND NURTURE
Corporations and advertisers have long known that young adults are a highly desirable group at which to aim commercials. They have several reasons for "targeting" kids, some of which are supported by this study's findings, and some of which are not. These issues will be examined first. The final part of this section explores the human implications of this study, not the business ones.
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FINDINGS RELATE TO ADVERTISERS
First, advertisers' most frequently cited reason for targeting kids is that kids spend lots of money-what market researchers refer to as "disposable income" (an interesting phrase, which treats money as trash to get rid of quickly). In 1992, "children ages 4-12 spent about $9 billion, and adolescents ages 12-J 9 spent $57 billion of their own money and $36 billion of their family's money." Second, in the advertising business it's common knowledge, that young adults have long been a difficult "target" for advertisers. The findings of this study agree that students in grades 6-12 are indeed hard to reach-outside of school- because they are pursuing the things that most typically interest adolescents: each other, sports, jobs, cars, family, church, clubs, scouts, band, homework. The list is endless. During my interviews most kids said they watched very little television outside of school. Therefore, in-school commercials have very little competition. Also, at horne, kids need only press the remote control's mute button to block commercials-something they cannot do in school. Ironically, the school-traditionally the protected bastion of democracyhas become the most pure or controlled environment for studying the effects of propaganda. Third, considerable research reveals that brand loyalty is established at an early age. For instance, a University of California study reported that right when cigarette advertisers began targeting women the number of twelve-year-old girls who smoked increased by 112 per cent. Fourth, conventional wisdom holds that young adults have short attention spans and therefore cannot hold still during commercials. "Short attention spans" afflict all of us at one time or another, and it's highly debatable whether this represents a "constant" condition in most kids. Actually, Chal1nel One commercials help create and feed sho:r;t attention spans, providing abundant jolts-per-minute (JPMs). This
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approach, borrowed from Music Television (MTV), seems to have contributed to students' shrinking and embedding of TV texts. The approach works. Fifth, conventional wisdom states that young adults buy products on impulse-that they randomly erupt into a purchasing frenzy and fork over cash for no reasons whatsoever. I found little of this behaviour. But I did find many students buying items because they had first seen them on commercials-hundreds of times, which they and others had replayed and replayed. This constitutes anything but impulsive behaviour. FINDINGS RELATE TO PARENTS AND TEACHERS
Using persuasive techniques and audience demographics, advertisers target teens because of their vast" disposable incomes," their brand loyalty, their short attention spans, their habits of impulse-buying. Advertisers want to get people to buy things and increase their profits. This book explores the human costs that a captive audience of kids must pay when they are systematically conditioned to be consumers. The conditiOning is intense, and it occurs over a long period of time. When kids buy things they see on commercials, they pay with more than just dollars and cents. They pay with their minds, hearts, bodies, and spirits. They pay in time, learning, language, thinking, creating, and maturing. These are the processes and values that shrivel in ad-saturated environments. We see this psychic waste in boys like Evan, who, when stimulated by commercials and lack of peer acceptance, try to achieve popularity, athletics ability, and even sheer, physical height by spending $114 on basketball shoes. In girls like Hailey, who blame themselves and not the product when it doesn't deliver bouncy, shiny hair. In girls like Suzie, whose art project imitates both the form and content of an Energizer Bunny commercial. In girls like DeAnn, who dreams she stars in a McDonald's commercial in which the product still takes top billing. And in kids like Mindy and many others, who cannot tell the difference between public service announcements and Pepsi commercials.
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The diminishing of such values and processes are not always easy to see, but that doesn't mean they are unimportant or, worse, nonexistent. In this book I try to make them visible, through the words of kids, with the hope of reclaiming them. KIDS AND COMMERCIALS COMMERCIALS PLAY SIGNIFICANT ROLES IN KIDS' LIVES
Although it is seldom acknowledged, commercials arp a vital part of kids' lives. They provide a means for kids to socially interact with others. Indeed, kids talk about commercials with friends and peers, at home and at school-in the hallways, during sports and band practice, on the bus, and in the cafeteria. To a lesser extent kids talk with teachers, siblings, and parents about commercials. Throughout my conversations, the way that kids talked about commercials surprised me: they talked-often all at once-with animation, energy, and interest. Consequently, early on, I had to switch from using one microphone to using five separate ones. Kids enjoyed commercials as entertainment and as a way to relieve stress. When we talked about or viewed commercials, they smiled and spontaneously talked about who and what they knew about the ads, as if they were seeing old friends. Jenny "watched and waited for months" for a commercial that she had seen at school to appear on TV at home, so she could update her younger brother and parents. This made her feel proud and cutting-edge. Many kids approached commercials as if they were "regular" programmes. "Good commercials" were seen as including elements of regular programming such as humour, action, and interesting plots. Overall, kids talked more frequently and intensely about commercials than about news or feature programmes. Among a few sets of "best friends," interactions about commercials seemed to be a basic part of the relationship, almost a means of bonding. Together the kids repeated memorized lines, acted them out, and shared laughter. After school, when one kid was watching a
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commercial that she thought her friend "had to see," she called her on the phone so they could talk while the commercial aired. Using commercials as a means to bond with others was the most positive effect observed in this study. On the down side, such interaction usually involves many "replays" of ads, which further reinforce ad messages and corporate ideologies. KIDS ACCEPT, VALUE, AND EMBRACE TV COMMERCIALS In spite of how often and how long some ads aired (a year or longer), kids remained amazingly tolerant of commercials. They rarely questioned the dominant presence of ads in their lives. Today's kids have grown up with commercials-and many are further bombarded with them when Channel One broadcasts become part of the school day. Heavy exposure to anything, over time, can lead to greater tolerance. But what surprised me was the kids' positive, often warm regard for ads. Many kids embraced commercials. They stated this warm regard directly (e.g., "Pepsi is trying to help us") as well as indirectly. Anna, a senior, said she could "relate to" and "communicate with" characters in one commercial. Kids didn't look for ulterior motives in commercials; they assumed that commercials were altruistic. For instance, Debbie, a ninth-grader, thought that professional athletes such as Michael Jordan paid the Nike Corporation for the opportunity to make commercials.
To some extent, these warm feelings are generated by simple familiarity with ads-their sheer volume and high repetition. But there are other reasons, One is that kids often did not recognize a "creator" or "maker" of commercials. I found very little evidence that kids were conscious of someone "outside" the commercial's internal story constructing the message. Instead, they often identified the person or persons who appeared on screen the most often (and for the longest period) as constructing the message. Moreover, in commercials, the people on-screen the rp.ost are likable folks. Hence, kids' limited awareness that someone else constructs ad messages helps them to accept commercials as direct, unmediated representations of reality.
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Another reason that kids felt so warmly about commercials was due to "blurring." Kids sometimes confused a commercial with a news programme or with a feature programme. However, they frequently blurred regular commercials (e.g., those for Pepsi) with public service announcements (PSAs) that warned against drunken driving and taking illegal drugs. This blurring occurs primarily when ads are constructed to resemble the documentary style of PSAs. Even one of my student teachers (a mature, bright, knowledgeable former editor) could not tell the difference between the two types of messages. It's little wonder that kids, too, were confused. As a result, the kids thought both messages were concerned with "doing good," and not with selling. Overall, most kids did not regard TV commercials as fundamentally different from other forms of television, such as news and features. Rather, the most common distinction kids made between the types was each segment's length of time. KIDS KNOW TV COMMERCIALS, PRODUCTS, AND PACKAGING
Kids know commercial texts extraordinarily well: they quickly identify and recall commercials, products, and packaging. They often know the relationships between and among manufacturers, commercials, products, and packaging. Most kids consistently linked actors and actions to products and commercials. During every small-group session, if one kid said, for example, "Gatorade," then others would jump in with, "Chuckie V.!" (who currently starred in Gatorade commercials). If someone said that a commercial was about "cinnamon gum and people kissing," then others would immediately counter with, "Big Red!" (the product's name). One magically elicited the other. Kids also know the structure of commercials. Even after seeing an ad for the first time, they could label and describe its main parts and correctly sequence its events. They could do the same for a series of ads featuring the same character, such as those for the Energizer Bunny. A few kids could
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reasons. One is that kids often did not recognize a "creator" . or "maker" of commercials. I found very little evidence that kids Were conscious of someone "outside" the commercial's internal story constructing the message. Instead, they often identified the person or persons who appeared on screen the most often (and for the longest period) as constructing the message. Moreover, in commercials, the people on-screen the most are likable folks. Hence, kids' limited awareness that someone else constructs ad messages helps them to accept commercials as direct, unmediated representations of reality. Another reason that kids felt so warmly about commercials was due to "blurring." Kids sometimes confused a commercial with a news programme or with a feature programme. However, they frequently blurred regular commercials (e.g., those for Pepsi) with public service announcements (PSAs) that warned against drunken driving and taking illegal drugs. This blurring occurs primarily when ads are constructed to resemble the documentary style of PSAs. Even one of my student teachers (a mature, bright, knowledgeable former editor) could not tell the difference between the two types of messages. It's little wonder that kids, too, were confused. As a result, the kids thought both messages were concerned with "doing good," and not with selling. Overall, most kids did not regard TV commercials as fundamentally different from other forms of television, such as news and features. Rather, the most common distinction kids made between the types was each segment's length of time. During every small-group session, if one kid said, for example, "Gatorade," then others would jump in with, "Chuckie V.!" (who currently starred in Gatorade commercials). If someone said that a commercial was about "cinnamon gum and people kissing," then others would immediately counter with, "Big Red!" (the product's name). One magically elicited the other. Kids also know the structure of commercials. Even after seeing an ad for the first time, they could label and describe its main parts and correctly sequence its events. They could
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do the same for a series of ads featuring the same character, such as those for the Energizer Bunny. A few kids could even explain the intricate web of relationships among commercials and products: which company owned which items, and which products spawned which competitors. Further, kids could recall a commercial's most minute details. This impressive recall proved true for ads that kids had seen only once, as well as for those that had stopped airing over a year ago. Kids recalled many dialogue lines (sometimes the entire script) as well as visual details about setting, such as the colour and pattern of the seats on the inside of an airplane. They remembered phone numbers presented within commercials, as well as how the product was packaged. For instance, Paul explains some differences in Gatorade products and packaging: They've also got two-gallon jugs and those are different from the bottles. Because on the two-gallon jugs, some of the print is a different colour. On the bottles, it can be fruit punch flavour, but the label will be red and the print white. But on the two-gallon jug, sometimes the letters might correspond to the flavour, and the background will be a different colour. Clearly, kids viewed a product's packaging as an integral part of the product itself. KIDS SIMULTANEOUSLY BELIEVE AND DISBELIEVE IN COMMERCIALS
Kids insisted that they "don't pay any attention to commercials." However, even those who said, "I hate commercials!" could reel off extensive details about ads and could describe how certain commercials influenced their purchaSing decisions. Such schizophrenic behaviour, demonstrated in a variety of situations throughout this study, has long been observed by teachers and researchers. On the one hand, kids emphatically denied watching commercials and claimed to shut them out altogether. bn the other hand, these same students were very willing to believe whole-hog in other commercials.
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To some extent this is a natural response, because the postmodem literature and media that these kids and their parents grew up with contain contradictions and oppositions. However, throughout this study I often got the impression that taking one position allowed or enabled the other to exist-as if the kids needed some kind of equilibrium. KIDS USE RESTRICTIVE, NON-REFLECTIVE STRATEGIES TO THINK ABOUT COMMERCIALS
In addition to thinking strategies (e.g., seeing no authorship, blurring), kids used numerous other strategies to think about and respond to TV commercials: shrinking and embedding, generalizing, confusing, substituting, contradicting, and fluctuating. Most of these approaches inhibited kids from further reflecting about commercials, For example, numerous students considered flashes of Pepsi cans (each lasting for one or two seconds) as "commercials," because they were surrounded by what appeared to be noncommercial text (the ad was crafted to resemble a PSA). When advertisers "embed" one ad within another, kids often regard the text surrounding the flashed ad as noncommercial in purpose. And if kids don't define the ad as a commercial in the first place, they cannot possibly analyse it as persuasion. Other strategies included substituting, without realizing it, a desirable value or action for an advertised product's name. One student used the phrase "washing your face" synonymously with the product name, "Clearasil," an acne medication he'd just viewed on a commercial. Probably the most common and restrictive thinking strategies observed in kids were associating and mirroring. Both approaches inhibit kids from further thinking about commercials, albeit in different ways. Associating occurs when one symbol quickly and easily triggers memories of other symbols or products. When viewers associate (when they relate one ad to others; one ad to other TV programmes or print texts; one ad to life experiences), they make linkages on the basis of simple and random similarities. For example, a student might say, "That shampoo commercial reminds me of the new girl
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at our school." In this study, students engaged in associational thinking more often than any other type. But once associations were made, kids instantly abandoned them, cutting off any opportunity for further reflection or critical evaluation. Although making comparisons is crucial to most types of thinking, unless they are pursued they become relatively deadend observations. In this study, kids assumed that making the link was sufficient in and of itself. They saw no reason to take the comparison further or in a different direction-that is, to elaborate on it or to critically test or examine it. There are lots of reasons for students stopping dead in their tracks after observing a connection. First, they don't regard media as a legitimate subject of study. It's seldom modeled to them, and they seldom read or write about it. Second, students are merely behaving like the medium itself, whichnever explains why, for example, a news story about a liquor store robbery occurs right after a story about this year's cucumber crop. Mirroring, one of the most common behaviours observed, occurs when the main (and often only), way of interacting with commercials involves stating the message again, usually wordfor-word. Kids commonly parroted the exact lines from ads, complete with vocal intonations; sang jingles from ads (e.g., the "Be Like Mike" song); and physically demonstrated how a commercial's character behaved. This mirroring was evidenced not only in kids' language but in other ways as well, such as replays. KIDS EVALUATE COMMERCIALS
About six of the two hundred kids in this study clearly demonstrated reflective, analytical thinking about commercials by 1. 2.
Mentally" distancing" themselves from commercials; Selecting appropriate elements to respond to in the first place, before closely inspecting and comparing them;
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3.
Connecting observations, ideas, and concepts from commercials to other texts, events, and experiences; 4. Hypothesizing why the makers of ads made certain decisions; and 5. Describing an ad's overall tone and pointing to specific evidence from the text to support their assertion. However, by far the majority of kids did not evaluate commercials effectively. These kids were thinking, of course, but in ways that quickly dead-ended. For example, if kids believed that their only options for buying athletic shoes were Nike and Reebok (which was usually the case), then they shut themselves off from considering other options. Such polarized thinking forced kids to arrive at conclusions qu~ckly, which restricted further and deeper analysis. Following are a few ways in which the large majority of students did not effectively analyse commercials: 1.
2.
3.
They overvalued the audio or visual portions of a message, thereby ignoring one or the other; They seemed to place most value on whatever ads were "newest" and forgot about earlier ones, which prevented them from making connections to previous ads and experiences; They drew "boxed-in" conclusions about commercials and products, which usually led them down a oneway street where they had no choices except to buy and use the product advertised. As noted earlier, kids could not gain critical distance from ads because they seldom considered commercials to be 'constructions of reality, that is, texts crafted by someone" outside" the ad. Of course kids knew on one level that commercials were not "reality." But when I asked them who was "telling this story," they almost never identified a director, manufacturer, marketing agency, or other type of author or "maker." Instead, they identified an ad's point of view as being expressed by whomever appeared on camera for the longest period of timeusually a likable character. And, of course, when kids
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liked the person they liked the commercial, and hence felt warmly toward the ad and product. The most powerful element in commercials that prohibited kids from gaining critical distance was the presence of a specific value-a value that certain kids were evidently ready and eager to embrace. One group of ninth-graders seemed mesmerized by the "New Age" nature, unity, and "whole earth" values expressed in ads for Fruitopia fruit drink. This product's commercials and packaging featured exotic drum beats and "kaleidoscoping colours." Another group (mostly males) identified with the macho, daredevil action values expressed in Mountain Dew soft drink ads. Such kids deeply identified with commercials, products, and packaging that expressed particular values-so much that they seemed blind to everything else. KIDS REPLAY COMMERCIALS IN MANY WAYS
Although kids in Channel One schools are exposed to about seven hundred commercials per year they receive additional sales messages through "replay behaviours." Replays occur whenever kids mimic, act out, sing, dream about, or otherwise repeat and reconstruct the original commercials. The content and delivery of the original ads are repeated with little change from the original messages broadcast on television. Research into how we respond to literature and film indicates that readers bring experience to the reading of any text, what Gombrich calls "the beholder's share." In short, the act of reading involves: 1. 2. 3.
The text itself, The situation and environment in which the reading occurs, and The reader herself-her experiences, background knowledge, mental schema, attitudes, and values. These three elements interact, or "transact," with each other in order for readers to construct meaning.
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However, the majority of kid" In this study showed little or no evidence of constructing their own meaning from commercial texts. Instead, they mirrored and replayed commercials in a variety of ways. Replays involve language, music, images, objects, and nonverbal communication to elicit the original ad's images, music, and language. Each replay elicits different degrees of the original, or "stimulus," ad. The replays observed in this study consisted of three related types-verbal, physical, and mental-that involved single kids, small groups, and even almost never identified a director, manufacturer, marketing agency, or other type of author or "maker." Instead, they identified an ad's point of view as being expressed by whomever appeared on camera for the longest period of time-usually a likable character. And, of course, when kids liked the person they liked the commercial, and hence felt warmly toward the ad and product. The most powerful element in commercials that prohibited kids from gaining critical distance was the presence of a specific value-a value that certain kids were evidently ready and eager to embrace. One group of ninth-graders seemed mesmerized by the "New Age" nature, unity, and ."whole earth" values expressed in ads for Fruitopia fruit drink. This product's commercials and packaging featured exotic drum beats and "kaleidoscoping colours." Another group (mostly males) identified with the macho, daredevil action. values expressed in Mountain Dew soft drink ads. Such kids deeply identified with commercials, products, and packaging that expressed particular values-so much that they seemed blind to everything else. large crowds. Verbal replays employ language (e.g., when kids sing or say the ad line, "Crave the wave!"). Physical replays occur when kids act out or imitate actions or scenes from a commercial (e.g., when a student shakes her hair like the model in the Finesse Shampoo commercial, or when kids act out a "Deranged Referee" commercial while playing football at home). Physical replays also include actual objects created by kids-paintings, sculpture, or other objects that re-present products or images from commercials. Finally, mental replays occur when kids
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think or dream about an ad they have seen, or dream about making a commercial for a product with which they are familiar. One girl, for example, dreamed about a McDonald's commercial that was similar in all respects to the original ad, except that she and her family appeared in it. KIDS BUY THE PRODUCTS THEY SEE IN COMMERCIALS AND REPLAYS
Kids in this study purchased the items they saw advertised on Channel One commercials (and often replayed by kids themselves). My questions focused only on one type of consumer behaviour: kids who connected specific, recent purchases to having seen the products advertised on a specific commercial. Approximately 40-50 percent of the kids in each small group reported having bought a specific product because of a specific commercial. The time lapse between seeing the commercial and buying the item ranged from one hour to several days. Typically, these kids could: Describe the ad in question; 2. Explain why or how they were attracted by the ad and or the product; 3. Specify how much time elapsed before purchasing the item; and 4. Describe details about how they purchased it (e.g., one student said, "I put the package into my dad's shopping cart, without telling him"). I began this project assuming that kids spend money for as many reasons as adults do (e.g., the cumulative effects of advertising, recommendations, needs, timing, personal taste). However, I soon found so many kids who could "trace" single purchases to individual ads that I focused on this behaviour only. Realizing the limitations of self-reporting, I closely questioned students and examined their responses for believability: Did their stories about seeing a commercial and then buying the product sound convincing in their details and presentation? In most cases, they did indeed. Also, what I 1.
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found in the focus groups was reiterated in kids' responses to the written survey, completed weeks before the group sessions took place. In addition, the kids who reported buying specific products as a result of their attraction to certain commercials did not differ from the kids who did not report this link: both types of kids evaluated commercial in restrictive and nonreflective ways (e.g., becoming enchanted with camera techniques). Shanon, a senior, reportedly bought a pair of athletic shoes after seeing them fly in a commercial: "They flew off of the building, so I had to have them shoes!" After buying an advertised product, students reported watching the product's commercials with much more interest. The commercials and the products generated a circular process: Kids would buy the product as a result of the ad's influence, aild then 2. Watch the ads for that product (and others) more frequently and intensely, and then 3. Buy again and repeat the process. Kids purchased products for many of the same reasons that the rest of us do, but for them it's especially important to be like their peers. Over and over, kids reported that they bought something because "you see it a lot" or because "everybody else does it." They also said it was "cool." But when pressed, they usually defined "cool" as "everybody does it." The commercial may also have convinced students that the product could relieve some "deficit" or fear. For example, Evan, a ninth-grader, explained how the Nike commercial for Air Max Two's had convinced him to purchase them. Evan had other, more personal reason for buying these shoes; but the effective Nike ad served as a concrete motivator. During one small-group session, Evan was teased by the girls for being short. Although Evan was not on the basketball team and didn't play outside of school, he nonetheless saved up a large amount of money (with the help of his grandmother) to purchase the expensive basketball shoes and a warm-up jacket. Stimulated by a lack of peer acceptance-and by commer1.
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cials-Evan tried to gain popularity and stature through his purchase. In this chapter, we examine the nature and extent of advertising messages directed to children, focusing primarily on television content due to its primacy as a vehicle for marketing to youth. We first consider the overall amount of children's advertising exposure, then survey the key elements of the content of advertisements targeting children. We also review the limits and controls that directly impact the content of advertising to children, and finally consider the implications of recent innovations in marketing to children, which include expanding commercialization in the schools and advertising on Web sites.
--~-Effects of Education on Televisual Media For many years, television has dominated the children's media landscape. In the last decade, however, computer-based technologies have been vying for, and winning, considerable portions of children's leisure time. Although television remains ubiqui-tous in American homes, children of all ages have readily adopted computers both at home and in school. Ninety-eight percent of American households with children own at least one television; 70% own at least one computer; 68% own video games; and 52% have online access. Children between the ages of 2 and 17 spend an average of 4% hours a day in front of screens, watching television, playing video games, and using the computer. With so much of leisure occupied by screen time, much theoretical and popular speculation abounds as to how these electronic media affect children's development. Researchers have documented that children learn a variety of educational and social lessons, both intended and unintended, from television. Less is known about how and what children learn from interactive technologies, including computer software, video games, and the Internet. In addition to reviewing research on the effectiveness of television and computer technologies in conveying cognitive and pro-social content, this chapter draws parallels between research on television and computer technologies. It offers a framework on how programme, child, and contextual factors
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influence learning from these media and how subsequent transfer of learning might occur. It also examines the enduring effects of educational media use, and the processes that may underlie them. TELEVISION AND COMPUTER TECHNOLOGIES: PARALLELS AND DIVERGENCES
Television and computers utilize the same symbol systems. That is, they use the same audio-visual modes of presenting information. Where they differ is in their processing attributes. Computer technology is most usefully distinguished from other media by what it allows users to do with information. By enabling children to search, manipulate, and otherwise interact with material presented, computers afford children the opportunity to engage in activities seldom possible with other media. Researchers have suggested that various facets of interactivity may accelerate children's cognitive development. By allowing children to organize information, provide structure to the activity, adjust aspects of the material to suit their needs and abilities, and receive feedback, computer activities may encourage processing that will enhance children's learning and increase their metacognitive abilities by prompting them to think about their cognitive strategies. Computer software (especially games) is also intrinsicaJly motivating to the user because it presents challenges, offers specific goals with uncertain outcomes, and appeals to the user's fantasy. Research on television and computer technologies share many issues in common, including a focus on their potential educational and pro-social impact. Compared with television, opinions about computer technologies as an educational tool have been more optimistic. Perceptions of computer technologies have taken on a different hue compared with those of television: Television has been largely portrayed as a passive medium, whereas computer technologies have been portrayed as being interactive and engaging. With television,
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the child is often described as a passive viewer whereas with computer technologiEOs, the child is depicted as an active user. The negative influences of television are a source of concern among parents, but they are often less concerned about video and computer games. Certainly, many criticisms that have been levied against television-such as the absence of viewer control, the lack of interactivity, and the difficulty in conveying cumulative content are largely irrelevant with computer technologies. Because of its interactive capabilities, computer use is typically regarded as educational and scholarly. The underlying assumption is that interactivity necessarily entails active involvement and requires cognitive engagement on the child's part, and is therefore inherently beneficial to learning. Interactivity, however, is often discussed as if it were unidimensional, with little consideration for its degree or quality. Analyses of interactivity have yielded different conceptions stemming from the fields of communication, sociology, and computer science, resulting in some confusion in arriving at a comprehensive definition. Discussions of interactivity have underscored new technologies' capacity to respond to users, but current theoretical models in the media literature do not yet accommodate the potential of users interacting with content. The notion of interactivity, seen as so central to computer technologies, remains ill defined, and its effects are ill understood. The educational possibilities of computers are often portrayed in broad strokes, and this oversimplifies how children learn from media. Much of what research has uncovered on how children learn from television can potentially inform our understanding of how children learn from computers. Researchers have shown that what appears to be a passive activity actually involves active processing. Rather than a child whose attention is captured indiscriminately by salient production features (e.g., fast pacing, sound and visual effects), a more accurate view is one of the child as an active processor who selectively attends to programme features that may aid his or her comprehension, and who works to decode and understand television content.
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Children's engagement, effort, and means of processing can differ across moments and across programmes. In investigating the educational impact of media, then, the important question is not whether the medium results in active or passive processing, but rather when and how it results in more or less active processing. Learning from media occurs as a result of a confluence of factors. A framework for understanding this process must address factors that influence initial learning, as well as those that facilitate the transfer of knowledge to new situations. To be a passive activity actually involves active processing. Rather than a child whose attention is captured indiscriminately by salient production features (e.g., fast pacing, sound and visual effects), a more accurate view is one of the child as an active processor who selectively attends to programme features that may aid his or her comprehension, and who works to decode and understand television content. Children's engagement, effort, and means of processing can differ across moments and across programmes. In investigating the educational impact of media, then, the important question is not whether the medium results in active or passive processing, but rather when and how it results in more or less active processing. Learning from media occurs as a result of a confluence of factors. A framework for understanding this process must address factors that influence initial learning, as well as those that facilitate the transfer of knowledge to new situations. FACTORS INFLUENCING LEARNING
Children cannot apply material presented in a programme if they have not understood it. Comprehension of content in both television and computer technologies is influenced by the interplay among programme characteristics, the child's processing, and the context of learning. PROGRAMME CHARACTERISTICS FORMAL FEATURES
Formal features are the "package" of auditory and visual representations that characterize media presentaHons. They
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consist of macro-level features like action and pace; and microlevel features such as cuts, zooms, dialogue, and music. Formal features act as a syntax through which certain aspects of content are conveyed, and they affect the intake of information. Television. Although, in theory, formal features may be considered separate from content, the two are often closely associated. Saturday morning cartoons, for instance, contain features that are perceptually salient, such as rapid action and pace, sound and visual effects, and rapid cuts. Educational programming uses these effects to a lesser extent, and tends to contain long zooms, singing, children's voices, and moderate levels of physical activity. Demands on processing are reduced by other programme characteristics, such as the presence of advance organizers or previews. Previews can generate interest in a story,. offer information important for understanding its progression, and provide a structural overview that can help children integrate its content. By activating prior knowledge and encouraging prediction and inference, previews can potentially elicit higher levels of cognitive processing in children. Computer Technologies. Unlike television, content in computer programmes is not necessarily embedded in a narrative. Some popular games such as Tetris have no narrative, whereas others such as Mario Brothers are embedded in what might be called a weak narrative. We suggest that the key programme characteristic relevant to processing is the interactivity afforded by the programme. For our purposes, interactivity may be thought of as the extent to which content may be selected and modified by the user. The essence of interactivity is responsiveness; that is, the extent to which responses presented by the user can be responded to. The type and level of interactivity afforded by the programme can affect the extent to which children can learn from it, and they differ across and within computing activities. Studies of adults' learning from computer-based instruction suggested that learning increased with increased levels of interactivity but an activity or programme that offers
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superficial interactivity (e.g., the ability to start or stop a programme) may not have much bearing on a child's learning. With computer programmes (including games), form may partly determine the kinds of processing involved. For example, sensorimotor games that elicit little more than quick motor responses will likely involve shallow and fragmented processing, whereas strategy games that require deliberate planning and considered responses will likely entail more deep processing.
CHILD CHARACTERISTICS Clearly, learning is not a function of the medium alone. Rather than effects of technology, the key issue in discussing educational media is effects with technology. The child affects the encounter with the medium and vice versa. A child watching television, for instance, can be active or passive along several dimensions; there is nothing inherent in television as a medium that fosters intellectual passivity. We propose that the same can be said of a child using a computer. How children process a programme depends on their developmental stage as well as their attitudes in approaching information.
DEVELOPMENTAL STAGE Research with television has revealed the depth of processing to be dependent in part on television form and in part on the child's developmental stage. Children learn the relations between television form and content over time. At different points in the child's development, features of television programmes may play different rolE;s. f'>. young, inexperienced viewer may initially engage in anI, exploration of the stimulus and react primarily to sensory and perceptual cues in the programme. Exploration turns into systematic search as the child makes the connections between form and content, focuses on informative aspects of content, and seeks out specific information relevant to his or her goals and needs. This premise has received modest support. Small age differences were found in attention to salient television features. Younger children attended more to magazine-format
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programmes containing high pace rather than low pace, whereas older children responded to continuity in the plot rather than pace and younger children attended more to perceptually salient features than did older children. This shift in focus from programme features to content marks the progress from stimulus-driven processing to schema-driven processing. Schemas are cognitive structures that are used to anticipate and organize events, and they make it possible for children to process information more thoughtfully by helping them select relevant or important aspects of content. Schema-driven processing denotes goaldirected, internally driven attention that is top-down and guided by anticipatory plans or representations. It is active in the sense that it is directed by the child. Stimulus-driven processing, on the other hand, is a bottom-up process characterized by responses to salient stimuli and events as they occur, and tends to be fragmented and steered by external influences. Some evidence suggests that young children depend on programme features during computer use much as they might during television viewing. In a computer presentation, younger children relied more on action (an index for perceptual salience) to remember objects and produce their names, whereas older children produced object names and recalled objects well regardless of action. Consistent with the exploration-search model, children's use of perceptually salient features as a guide to information processing undergoes a decline with development. In both television and computer presentations, perceptually salient features appear to direct younger children's information processing, whereas older children process the informative aspects of the presentation rather than the action.
--~-Effects of Entertainment A detached observer would undoubtedly determine that the dominant function of modern televisual media is entertainment. "In fact, entertainment offerings obtrusively dominate media content and are bound to do so in the near future." Such content seems designed to exact chills and thrills, to elicit laughter and tears, and, in general, to provide a panoply of emotional experiences that serve as immediate gratification of the seemingly insatiable hedonic needs and wants of modem media consumers. If entertainment is the goal of modem televisual fare, why are so many parents, teachers, and other critics concerned that children who consume such programming will suffer detrimental social and psychological effects? Indeed, if the real purpose of modern commercial fare were to create high levels of audience enjoyment, negative effects might not be such a major issue. However, in reality, if we focus on the dominant televisual medium-television-then creating a satisfying entertainment experience for audiences is barely a secondary goal of the executives in charge of this vast institution. The clearly dominant primary goal is to garner the attention of as many viewers as possible for television content that really matters-those increasingly omnipresent commercials. In other words, the primary objective of the commercial television system is profitability. Entertainment reactions are a functionally necessary by-product if one is to keep the eyes and ears of children on the TV set and guarantee ample
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advertising exposure for significant profitability. Entertainment really is the means to an end, not the goal. Although the distinction between entertainment as a means rather than an end maybe subtle, it is important nevertheless. If your primary goal is audience attention to commercial messages, entertainment programmes become vehicles for advertising. Moreover, commercial potential is best served through audience maximization; that is, by attracting the largest possible audience of desirable young viewers. How much those droves of viewers really like what they are watching is of little importance, unless enjoyment affects processing of or responses to advertising messages. The heavy reliance on Nielsen ratings and shares as the primary performance indicators of television is tangible evidence of the preeminence of this drive for potential exposure to advertising in commercial television. Nielsen ratings are measures of exposure that are designed to serve the advertising industry; they are not in any real sense ratings of the entertainment value of programmes. Over the years, calls have been issued for major overhauls to the existing system of audience assessment, and various consumer groups have asked the major audience assessment firms and television's primary federal regulators (e.g., Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission) to incorporate some measures of the quality of the entertainment experience; but no matter how enthusiastic or well reasoned such calls have been, they have gone unheeded. This disregard for the quality of the entertainment experience provides yet another clear indication that the commercial media industries really care about potential exposure to advertising messages, not audience gratifications from entertainment. The end result of this drive toward numbers is that media producers, distributors, and exhibitors consistently favour content that they believe will attract the largest possible audience. This is the primary reason for media's over reliance on violence, sexual titillation and voyeurism, and other sensationalistic fare. Because such programming content is
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d.e.emed necessary to attract a sufficiently large number of consumers to underwrite the costs of producing the programming-much less the costs of producing and placing the commercials, as well as making a profit-such controversial content saturates the contemporary television landscape. As Dorr commented about the nature of television programming children watch, "Some of it is decidedly aggressive, sexist, ageist, racist, consumption-oriented, sexy, inane, or moronic. Little of what children watch is truly uplifting, visionary, educational, or informative." Of course, not all televisual content that children watch is so negative or potentially detrimental. The Children's Television Act of 1990 and the Telecommunications Act of 1996 have ushered in some excellent curriculum-based children's programming, and some adult fare is also meritorious. The point is that the economic motive of the televisual industries, in combination with a hidebound management tradition, yields a particular bias to programming traditions. This hypercapitalistic programming context, which provides the intellectual infrastructure of most modern televisual media, is a primary reason why critics are perennially concerned about harmful side effects of watching television, playing video games, surfing the Internet, and the like. Other subsidiary reasons are introduced and discussed in this chapter in the discussion of vadous categories of media effects. INTENTIONAL VERSUS UNINTENTIONAL EFFECTS
A slightly different perspective on the notion that undesirable media effects are by-products of reckless campaigns for large audiences is the classic notion of intentional versus unintentional media effects; that is, whether the effects were planned for or accidental. Although it is hard to say this without dripping irony, from the perspective of administrative research, "which yield data to marketing or policy decision makers so that they can predict the impact of media campaigns" only beneficial media effects are intentional. For example, actions such as presenting a highly successful
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flexible-thinking curriculum via Blue's Clues, facilitating 30 years of children's cognitive growth via Sesame Street, or sensitizing the audience to the need for regular breast examinations via All in the Family are intentional. All other sorts of effects tend to fall into the category of detrimental effects and are unintentional in the sense that they are the "innocent" by-products of creating programming that is alluring to those fickle audiences who so cherish heavy doses of gratuitous sex and violence. DEVELOPMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS
Up to this point, everything we have said applies to adult audiences as well as it does to child consumers of electronic media. However, because of their developmental immaturity and resultant vulnerabilities, children are a special audience for television as well as special users of video games and the Internet. As Clifford, Gunter, and McAleer indicated: "Although children are known to be eager learners from any and all media, it is held that they lack the skills and abilities to 'read' the adult television messages being given out because of their limited knowledge of the physical and social world, and because of the presence of only embryonic learning and processing mechanisms." In order to fully understand the issues of media effects on children, developmental characteristics must be considered. Fortunately, such differences have been delineated and examined in a number of places therefore, we briefly focus on only one developmental issue that typically has been underrepresented in discussions of media effects on children: emotional development. We include this discussion not only because the area typically is given short shrift, but also because emotional reactions are an essential portion of media entertainment as well as of media effects. As Zillmann argued: "One of the foremost objectives of entertainment is to provide 'emotional roller-coaster rides, , and there can be little doubt that the entertainment media manage to manipulate and toy with our emotions, often creating affective intensities that rival and often equal those of distress during actual personal challenges or elation from meeting them successfully."
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According to Greenfield "Emotions are the building blocks of consciousness." Children are more "passive victims of their senses" than adults, and therefore they more readily tap into their emotions when watching televisual material. Because of a lack Qf previous experiences and limited cognitive schemata, children are not able to interpret present circumstances in a sophisticated manner, but instead rely on their senses in the here and now. They "feel" both positive and negative emotions more intensely than do adults, because they have fewer filter:~ with which to dull them. Greenfield offered twO examples of this type of unfiltered emotion. First, children laugh an average of 300 times a day, compared to an average adult's 50 times. Serond, children are much more likely to "be intensely fearful of a person under a white sheet, whom they perceive to be a "ghost," than are adults, who recognize this as an amusing child's interpretation of what a ghost would look like and "laugh it off." The point is, both positive and negative emotions are amplified in the mind of a child. Because children, especially young children, do not have the cognitive maturity necessary for evaluating television programming, video games, or Internet content 0n the basis of their social or intellectual merits, the children's enjoyment is based largely on their immediate, affective responses to what they are watching or playing. Adults interpret what they watch on television or on other screens in complex ways due to their individualized reference frameworks, which are based on personal experiences, formal education, and, presumably, on a wide variety of socialization experiences. If they watch a violent police drama on television, they are able to derive the moral manifestation of the storyline of good versus evil, due to their experiences over many years in a society that is constantly playing out this narrative in homes, schools, churches, and workplaces. Younger children, on the other hand, do not have these complex frameworks on which to rely; instead, they comprehend the programme by relying on more primitive, purely emotional and sensory mechanisms. This combination of enhanced emotional reactivity and limited experiential response repertoires creates a situation that virtually begs for detrimental media effects to occur.
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To further complicate matters, it is what we see; experience, understand, and ultimately learn in early childhood that most deeply affects the worldview from which we begin to develop our more mature, adult reference framework. To dramatize the potential of different world views that have been developed to a large extent based on the emotion-biased reception processes of early childhood, imagine two children entering late childhood. Because of their different family lives and the different media content they have consumed, among other factors, one child has a world view ~at other people are essentially good and can be trusted; the other has acquired a worldview that others are out to get you .tnd are not to be trusted-a Weltanschauung derived in part from an accumulation of life experience with people who have mistreated him or her, as well as from exposure to media content laden with sex, violence, injustice, insurrection, hostility, and the like. Asssuming highly similar experiences throughout their late childhood years, the two children's interpretations of and responses to these later experiences undoubtedly will be vastly different because of the divergent emotionai development of their formative years-unless, of course, some c1j.tical intervention or mediation processes occur. If we assume a cultivation perspective on entertainment effects, and if we utilize cultivation terminology, we might hypothesize that one of our children would experience a "mean world, whereas the other would experience a kind one. ?uch are the potential long-term ramifications of these emotional experiences of early childhood. II
--~-Intended and Unintended Effects Children are bombarded with advertising messages. It is calculated that the typical American child sees well over 40,000 commercials per year on TV, not to mention the vast number of ads they may be exposed to on the Internet, in magazines, or on their own school campuses. These persuasive messages seem to be having a positive impact on youngsters' annual spending. A total of $23.4 billion was spent in 1997 by 4- to 12-year-olds which is up substantially from $17.1 billion in 1994 and $4.2 billion in 1984. Such expenditures are independent of their direct influence in $188 billion of annual household purchases. Psychologists, policymakers, and medical practitioners have challenged recently the ethics involved in advertising to children. They argue that advertising contributes to such ill effects as childhood obesity and materialism. It has also been asserted that advertising can negatively influence the parentchild relationship. As Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint of the Harvard Medical School stated, Advertisers ... also push this 'nag factor' - for children to nag their parents to buy them certain things. This sets up a tension and strife between parents and children." II
Given these concerns, it becomes important to examine empirical research on the impact of exposure to television advertising on youth-the goal of this chapter. To this end, the chapter is divided up into four major sections. First, we examine children's understanding of advertising. In particular,
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the research on children's ability to <.lecipher programmes from commercials as well as their comprehension of selling intent is reviewed. In the second section, the intended influences of advertising are examined. The research on the effect of exposure to television commercials on children's brand recall, product desires, purchase influence attempts, and consumption rates is explicated. Third, we assess some of the unintended consequences of advertising exposure, such as child unhappiness, poor eating habits, and negative selfperceptions. Fourth, we devote our attention to the impact surrounding one specific type of potentially negative commercial content: alcohol advertising. Before we begin, a few caveats about this review must be noted. We are only going to review research on television. Although advertising may appear in many other televisual media (e.g., Internet, videos), children still unequivocally spend the most time with broadcast and cable TV programming. Also, we are only going to review studies involving children. By child, we mean any youngster who is 16 years of age or younger. Such a definition is consistent with public policy surrounding children and television advertising, such as the Children's Television Act of 1990. Finally, the aim of this review is to update Atkin's chapter from the first edition of Children and the Faces of Television. Although some changes have been made to the structure of the original chapter, we use many of the same sections and subsections to guide our review. COMPREHENSION
Since the early 1970s, a great deal of public concern has surrounded children's understanding of television advertising. Because of their limited information-processing capabilities and experience, it has been argued that young children may not be able to recognize commercial television messages nor comprehend their persuasive intent. As a result, many people have argued that commercials targeting young children are simply "unfair" and may take undue advantage of the young consumer. In this section, we examine the validity of this
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argument by assessing research on two key aspects of advertising comprehension: the ability to differentiate programmes from commercials, and understanding selling intent. Theoretically, most of this research has embraced a Piagetian or an information-processing perspective by examining developmental differences in children's ad comprehension. At the end of the section, the impact of disclaimers on enhancing children's comprehension of misleading commercials is considered. DISTINGUISHING PROGRAMMES FROM COMMERCIALS
When do children begin to recognize that commercial messages are independent from programme content? The answer to that question is dependent on the type of measure used. Some research has relied on children's attention to commercials and programmes to answer this query. Ward, Levinson, and Wackman had mothers of 5- to 12-year-olds record their child's visual attentiveness to (roughly) a week of television programming. For Saturday morning television, the results showed age-related differences in children's attention to commercial content. Older children (9- to 12-year-olds) paid less "full" attention during commercials than did their younger counterparts (5- to 8-year-olds). These results show that older viewers may be more likely to detect commercials and thus "tune out" such content when it appears on screen. Scholars have also relied on verbal questions in surveys or interviews of children. Much of this research reveals a positive relationship between programme/commercial differentiation and age. These studies show that children master the programme/commercial distinction somewhere between 6 and 9 years of age. However, a potential criticism of these studies is that many young children have difficulty expressing their answers verbally, and thus such measures may grossly underestimate their abilities to distinguish programmes from commercials. Still other studies have relied on showing children actual television content and having them identify message types.
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Blosser and Roberts showed videotapes of different types of television content to children, and asked them to label the portrayal. Although accuracy increased with age, the findings revealed that a majority of 5- to 6-year-olds in their sample could correctly identify televised depictions of both child- and adult-oriented commercials. Similar findings have been observed with other samples of children in preschool, kindergarten, and 1st grade. Given this evidence, it is probable that most 4- to 5-year-olds are quite capable of distinguishing commercials from the immediately adjacent programming content. Although many children can make this distinction, the cues that younger and older viewers rely on to make such judgments vary dramatically by age. Younger children are more likely to recognize commercials based on perceptual qualities of the ad, such as its length (e.g., commercials are short). Older children, on the other hand, are more likely to rely on conceptual attributes of programming (e.g., commercials are intended to make money, programmes have a theme/moral). These findings are consistent with developmental theory and research documenting age-related shifts in children's perceptual dependence. Indeed, studies show that as they develop, elementary schoolers are less likely to group items based on their perceptual features (e.g., form, colour), and are more likely to do so based on conceptual features. Given concern about children's ability to differentiate between television shows and commercials, the Federal Communications Commission in the 1970s began requiring licensees to ~'clearly separate" advertising from entertainment messages in children's programming. To this end, broadcasters have utilized "bumpers" or audio/visual material featured before and/or after commercial messages (e.g., "We'll return after these messages"). These audio/visual bumpers are still being used today in children's shows aired on the broadcast networks. Studies show that these separation devices have not been very effective, however. For example, Palmer and McDowell
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assessed the effectiveness of three different separation techniques employed by the broadcast networks (ABC, NBC, CBS) in increasing children's programme/commercial discrimination. The results showed that those kindergarten and first-grade children exposed to the control condition (Le., where no separator was used) distinguished programmes from commercials as well as-and sometimes better than-those children in the separators conditions. The authors explained these findings by arguing that "buffers appear to create 'bridges' between programmes and commercials-retaining attention without prompting discrimination." The research reviewed here suggests that a majority of young children (4- to 5year-olds) are capable of making distinctions between programmes and c0mmercials. However, level of development or age of the viewer seems to be positively correlated with this ability. If many children can accurately identify commercial versus programme content, the next critical issue becomes whether they can comprehend an advertisement's selling intent. PERSUASIVE INTENT
What skills are needed to comprehend the persuasive intent of advertising? Roberts and Maccoby argued that "adult" understanding of television advertising requires the recognition of four key elements: the sender has other interests than the receiver, the sender intends to persuade, persuasive messages are biased, and biased messages require different interpretation than do informational messages. Many of these skills are based on the ability to "role take" or consider the advertiser's intent/perspective when creating and disseminating commercial messages. Much theorizing and research has been conducted on children's ability to role take. Although hotly debated, empirical evidence seems to reveal developmental differences in children's cognitive role-taking capabilities. For example, Kurdekand Rodgon found developmental increases across elementary-school-aged children in the ability to recognize and understand messages from another child's point of view. Given
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their increased role-taking abilities, older children should be more likely than younger children to comprehend the persuasive intent of advertising and to realise that the strategies used in such messages may be biased or misleading. Research reveals that age does influence comprehension of selling intent. In one survey, Ward, Reale, et aL asked 5- to 12-year-olds, "Why are commercials shown on TV?" The responses were coded as showing low (confused, unaware of selling intent), medium (recognition of selling motive), or high (clear recognition of selling and profit-seeking motives) levels of understanding selling intent. Although few children demonstrated high levels of understanding, a clear trend emerged that comprehension of selling intent increases with age. In a study, a majority of .the children could not articulate selling intent until 8 to 10 years of age. After exposing first and second graders to programmes with child-oriented commercials, Christenson found that youngsters could identify selling intent in 3 out of 15 ads. Among fifth and sixth graders, selling intent was recognized in 14 out of 15 ads. Together, the research seems to suggest that children typically do not understand selling intent until mid elementary school. Despite their inability to grasp selling intent, younger children do perceive that commercials function "informationally" for consumers. For example, it is showed kindergarten, third-grade, and sixth-grade children a series of commercials and immediately after asked, "Why did they put this commercial on TV?" Preschoolers were more likely to state that the commercials were assistive or provided information about products and services, whereas older children (third graders) were more likely to say that commercials were intended to persuade. Similar findings have been observed with other samples of elementary-school-aged children. There seem to be two direct consequences associated with children's understanding of persuasive intent. The first is that children's trust in advertising should be altered. As children realise that advertising is misleading, their faith in such messages should decline. Indeed, research reveals that older
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children are less trusting of advertising than are their younger counterparts. The second is that children's affect toward advertising may change. Increased skepticism of advertising should decrease youngsters' liking of ads. Studies show that age is negatively related to positive attitudes or liking of advertising.
DISCLAIMERS To facilitate children's comprehension of the potentially misleading nature of advertising, disclaimers are often used. A recent content analysis revealed that a majority of all ads in children's shows feature at least one disclaimer with most concentrated in commercials for cereal/breakfast foods (86%) and toys (75%). This study also found that the two most prevalent disclaimers were "parts sold separately," and "part of a balanced breakfast" However, studies reveal that not all disclaimers are equally effective in helping youngsters comprehend the diSingenuous nature of advertising.One of the reasons for this is that many standard disclaimers feature language that many children have difficulty comprehending. For example, Liebert, Sprafkin, Liebert, and Rubinstein (1977) showed kindergartners and second graders a commercial for a toy with (a) a standard audio disclaimer (e.g., "some assembly required"), (b) a modified audio disclaimer (e.g., "you have to put it together"), or (c) to the same ad with no disclaimer. The results showed that children exposed to the commercial with the modified disclaimer understood the idea that the toy advertised had to be put together significantly more than did those children exposed to commercial with the "standard" disclaimer or those in the control condition. However, the results from a more recent experiment reveal that comprehension of disclaimers may not only be a function of verbal simplicity. A chilo's level of development, familiarity with disclaimers, and prior experience with different toys/games may independently and interactively facilitate his Or her understanding of such disclosure messages.
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Clearly, more research is needed on all those audio and visual strategies that may foster younger and older children's recognition and understanding of the misleading nature of commercial messages. In total, the purpose of this section was to review what is known about children's comprehension of advertising. Three major conclusions can be drawn from this research. First, a majority of young children can understand the difference between commercials and programmes by 4 to 5 years of age. Second, a developmental progression exists in children's comprehension of the intent of advertising. Preschool- and early elementary-school-aged children perceive that advertising is intended to inform, whereas older children are more likely to perceive that it is intended to sell products. As a result of such knowledge, older children have more negative attitudes and skepticism toward ads than do their younger counterparts. Third, some disclaimers may be effective with children. Simple verbal disclaimers-especially if they are familiar to the child-may facilitate comprehension of the product or service advertised. INTENDED EFFECTS
There are several intended cognitive, affective, and behavioural effects associated with exposure to advertising. In general, scholars have evoked a variety of different mechanisms to explain and predict the impact of advertising on children's socialization processes, such as classical conditioning, reinforcement theory, social learning and later social cognitive theory a cultivation perspective and other persuasion approaches. Next, we address four intended effects of advertising on youth, as well as empirical studies on the effectiveness of two different types of appeals used in ads targeting children. BRAND RECOGNITION AND RECALL
One of the cognitive goals of advertisers is to get consumers to remember their brand name. Ads directed at children are no different. But does exposure to such
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advertising-whether intended for younger audiences or notinfluence children's brand recognition and recall? Research suggests that it does, despite the fact that some youngsters reduce their attentiveness to television when commercials are featured onscreen. Fischer assessed 3- to 6-year-olds' ability to recognize products associated with children's and adults' brands. The youngsters were asked to match 22 cards featuring logos to I of 12 products presented on a game board. Results showed that children had very high recognition memory for products associated with child brand logos, ranging from 92% for the Disney Channel to 25% for Cheerios. All of these recognitions were well above chance. A majority of the children also recognized products (e.g., cars, cigarettes) associated with adult brands such as Chevrolet, Ford, and even Old Joe Camel.
In addition to simple recognition, studies reveal that exposure to ads can influence recall among elementary schoolers. For example, Gom and Goldberg found that almost half of the 8- to 10-year-old children in their sample could accurately identify the brand name in a commercial after a single exposure to an ad that was embedded in a kids' show. Assessing children who viewed at least 3 hours of Saturday morning television programming 2 weeks before being interviewed, Hendon, McGann, and Hendon found that 7- to 13-year-olds could recall details from over half of the cereal brands about which they asked the children. Clearly, these findings suggest that advertising can have a positive influence on memory. The influence of ads on children's recognition and recall may be affected by a variety of variables. Perhaps the most important viewer variable is age. Research reveals a positive relationship between age and awareness/recognition of brand names. Differences have also been observed in the complexity of children's recall of commercials by age. Younger children are more likely to remember single aspects of commercials, such as a particular image or picture. Older children, on the other hand, are more likely to recall concrete and coherent
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sequences and messages in ads. Such findings are consistent with theory and research demonstrating that children shift from perceptual to conceptual processing of television content with age. It is also possible that older children are more efficient processors of information, and possess encoding and retrieval strategies superior to those of their younger counterparts thereby facilitating their richer and more complete memory of ads. There are three content factors of commercials that may also influence children's memory of ads. In a series of experiments, Macklin found that presenting brand names with prior associated visual cues (e.g., pictures or colours linked with product name) increases preschoolers' memory. Using an associative memory perspective, Macklin argued that related perceptual cues assist children in remembering target information. Another content factor that may influence recall is repetition of the ad. At least one study shows that repetition of exposure to multiple ads for a brand can improve children's recall presumably due to the fact that repeated examples serve as a form of cognitive rehearsal. However, it is also possible that too much repetition can become irritating and thus have little or even negative effects on recall. The immediately adjacent programme content surrounding the ad can also influence recall. Prasad and Smith found that boys exposed to an ad after a highly violent programme recalled significantly less of the ad copy than did those exposed to an ad after a mildly violent programme. These findings are presumably due to the fact that the highly violent programme evoked a negative mood state in young viewers, thereby impairing memory performance. PRODUCT DESIRES
Beside cognitive effects, the impact of advertising on attitudinal outcomes also has been examined. Many studies have assessed whetheF-exposure to advertising contributes to children's preference, liking, or desire for different toys and/ or food products. In fact, experiments reveal that exposure to ads can have an immediate impact on children's desires for
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food, toys, or other products. For example, it is found that children exposed to commercials for breakfast cereals (either Fruity Pebbles or Smurf Berry Crunch) chose the seen brand as their first cereal preference more often than two other very popular choices combined. It is found that 2- to 6-year-olds exposed to popular children's programmes embedded with commercials were more likely to immediately after choose the advertised food items than were those children exposed to the same programmes without commercials. Several surveys and interviews have also examined the relationship between exposure to ads and product desires. One approach has been to ask children to list their favourite foods or toys and then indicate where the children first heard about them. Studies interviewing children and/or their mothers generally show that television is youngsters' most frequently mentioned informational source for toys or foods followed by friends, stores, and catalogues. A slight variation of this approach has been to assess the impact of advertising on children's product wants and desires during the Christmas season. To illustrate, Buijzen and Valkenburg (2000) not only asked 7- to 12-year-olds to write down their top two Christmas wishes in early December, but also asked children about their patterns of exposure to kids' programmes on two different children's networks in the Netherlands (Le., Kindernet, RTL-4) that routinely feature ads targeting youth. Their results revealed that the most frequently advertised brands during the holiday season were the most frequently mentioned toys on children's wish lists, especially among those heavy viewers of RTL-4-the network airing the most children's commercials. Yet another derivation of this method has been to ask children more directly about the effect of television advertising on their product desires. Atkin, Reeves, & Gibson assessed 5to 12-year-olds'preferences for various food brands. The researchers found a strong positive relationship between exposure to TV commercials and liking of the 12 advertised foods r.59). On average, 66% of heavy viewers said they liked
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each advertised plOduct, compared with 46% of light viewers. More generally, research reveals a positive relationship between exposure to television and attitudes toward ads. In total, the research reveals that television advertising impacts children's product desires. Furthermore, heavy viewers' product desires seem to be more affected by television commercials than are those of light viewers. PRODUCT PURCHASE REQUESTS If exposure to advertising creates a desire for particular
toys or foods, then do children make more purchase requests for such items from their parents? Four different methods have been used to answer this question. The first is self-report surveys. In the mid-1970s, Atkin asked 3- to 12-year-olds: "Many of the TV commercials are for toys-things like games and dolls and racing cars. After you see these toys on TV, how much do you ask your mother to buy them for you?" A full 83% responded that they asked "a lot" or "sometimes." Atkin repeated the question for breakfast cereals. A third of the children said they asked "a lot" and almost half (45%) indicated they asked "sometimes." Requests reported by the mothers of the children in this study were almost identical. A handful of surveys have also documented differences between heavy and light viewers in the number of product purchase requests. Querying mothers of 8- to 13-year-olds, Clancy-Hepburn et al. found a positive correlation between children's purchase influence attempts for food and their exposure to Saturday morning television programming. It is noted that children who watched the most Saturday morning commercials asked much more often for toys and cereals, with about twice as many heavy viewers as light viewers faIling into the "a lot" category. In another study, Atkin discovered that heavy viewers of cereal ads made more requests, by a 2:1 margin over light viewers. Almost half of those who watched TV heavily often asked to go to highly advertised fast-food restaurants, compared to one fourth of light viewers. Finally it is found a very small but positive correlation between 7- to
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11 -year-olds' exposure to television and number of food requests as reported by parents. Another method used is the diary study. Isler, Popper, and Ward had mothers of children from three age groups (3 to 4 years, 5 to 7 years, 9 to 11 years) fill out product request diaries and television viewing logs for 4 weeks. The results revealed that children made an average of 13.5 purchase influence attempts across the time period. A small but positive correlation (p.18, p <.01) between TV viewing and purchase requests was observed. Slightly larger correlations were observed between exposure to television and requests for heavily advertised products such as cereals. Asking mothers of 3- to 10-year-olds in three countries to fill out 2-week diaries, it is also found a positive relationship between exposure to television and product purchase requests. The third type of method is the protective technique or story completion. Sheikh and Moleski had first, third, and fifth graders listen to a story featuring a child exposed to a TV show with commercials advertising an appealing food, toy, or article of clothing. When asked if the child in the story felt like asking his or her parents for the product, a full 90% of the children responded affirmatively. However, the children were also asked if the child in the story actually asked his/her parents for the advertised product. Just over half of the children in the sample (57%) said yes. These findings suggest that many elementary-school-aged children may show discretion in the types of requests they make of their parents for different advertised products. The last type of method is behavioural observation. Galst and White exposed 3- to 5-year-olds to television content with commercials embedded throughout. After exposure, children were escorted individually by their mothers to a grocery store, where trained observers recorded the preschoolers' purchase influence attempts (PIAs). On average, a total of 15 purchase influence attempts were made, roughly one every 2 minutes. In addition, a positive relationship emerged between attention to the ads in the laboratory context and subsequent purchase influence attempts. That is, the more children attended to ads,
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the more they requested products while shopping with their mothers. Using a similar observational procedure, Stoneman and Brody exposed 3- to 5- year-olds to either a children's television programme with food commercials aimed at young consumers or to the same show with the ads removed. After exposure, the children and their mothers went shopping for a week's worth of groceries. The results revealed that those children exposed to the programme with commercials engaged in more total purchase attempts than did those exposed to the programme without commercials. Overall, the results reviewed here are quite consistent. Across different types of methods, studies revealed that exposure to television advertising increases children's purchase influence attempts, with heavy viewers of television more likely to make such product requests than light viewers. Besides repeated exposure, there are two other variables that may moderate the advertising-product request relationship. The first is age. Older children may be more discriminating in their requests, only asking for those products that they know their parents are likely to purchase. In general, studies show that older children make fewer purchase requests than do younger children. The second is gender. When compared to girls, boys are not only more resistant to their parents' requests but also use more forceful compliance-gaining strategies. Consistent with this rationale, research reveals that boys have a tendency to be more determined in their requests for products advertised on television than are girls, especially if they are. CONSUMPTION PATTERNS
To date, only a handful of studies have examined children's consumption patterns as a function of exposure to television advertising. At least two experimental studies have found that viewing ads for non-healthy foods can have an immediate effect on children. For example, Jeffrey et al. discovered that when compared to seeing pro-nutritional or nonfood ads, seeing ads for low-nutrient foods can increase boys' total caloric consumption and intake of low-nutrition
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foods and drinks. Yet contradictory findings are found in Gorn and Goldberg's study. The results from these researchers' experiment reveal that neither single nor multiple exposures to an ice cream commercial embedded within a Flintstones programme increased boys' consumption. Together, the results from these studies suggest that more research on the shortterm impact of ads on consumption patterns is warranted. However, several correlational studies have found a relationship between exposure to television and consumption observed that among fourth through seventh graders, those exposed to the most ads for cereals reported eating cereals more regularly. To illustrate, 25% of the heavy viewers of cereal ads reported consuming Sugar Smacks" a lot" in comparison to 13% of light viewers. A moderately strong relatitmship also was found between exposure to candy advertising and selfreported candy consumption. More recently, Coon, Goldberg, Rogers, and Tucker noted that watching television during meals among fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade children is a significant and positive predictor of pizza, salty snacks, and soda consumption and a negative predictor of fruit and vegetable consumption, even after controlling for parents' level of socioeconomic status (SES) as well as the caregivers' nutritional knowledge, attitudes, and norms. PERSUASIVE APPEALS
Advertisers rely on a variety of appeals to persuade consumers to purchase their products. Two types of appeals are premiums and celebrity endorsers. Premium appeals are present in roughly 10% of ads that appear when children are likely to be in the viewing audience especially in commercials for fast foods. Self-report and observational studies reveal that such strategies may be persuasive. For example, it is found that mothers of 2- to 10-year-olds were most likely to report purchasing the product for their child when he or she requested the prize premium or said the product appeared on TV. The results from Atkin's study also revealed that mothers were most likely to state that the premium was the most frequently mentioned reason for their child's request for a
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specific cereal. The findings additionally showed that exposure to Saturday morning TV programming increases the likelihood of children's requests for cereal because of the premium, with 70% of those viewing an hour or less making such an appeal, 86% viewing 2 hours, and 90% watching for 3 or more hours. Children also have been surveyed directly about the reasons for their product choices and desires. Donohue asked African American first, second, and third graders which was more important when selecting a cereal, the nature of the cereal or the prize inside. Roughly half of the children in the sample indicated the premium, with a majority of the girls stating the premium is more important than the cereal itself. Surveying 5- to 12-year-olds, Atkin et al. found that heavy viewers were more than twice as likely as light viewers to cite premiums as an important reason for cereal preferences. When unobtrusively observing both children and their mothers in the cereal aisle at the grocery store, Atkin discovered that only 9% of the 3- to 12-year-old children identified the premium as the primary reason for desiring a particular cereal brand. A series of experiments examined the impact of exposure to commercials with or without premiums on children's attitudes and behavioural responses to the ads. This set of studies yielded a contradictory set of findings. Two studies showed that exposure to ads with premiums have little or no short-term impact on children's desires or product requests. Yet close examination of these studies reveals that the type of premium (hypothetical vs. actual, targeting boys vs. girls, new premium offer vs. existing premium offer) and product advertised may matter. Using a popular breakfast food, Atkin exposed children to a commercial for Kellogg's Pop-Tarts either with or without a premium appeal. Children exposed to the commercial with the appeal showed a greater desire for the product than did those exposed to the non-premium commercial (83% vs. 72%, respectively). Consistent with the other experiments on premiums, Atkin found that the inclusion of a premium in a commercial had no impact on children's intent to ask for the product. Over three fourths of the children in the sample (77%) already intended to request the product.
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In addition to premiums, another type of appeal that may be used in ads for children's toys and games is celebrity endorsers. Celebrities may be real-life actors, sports figures, or animated characters that convey expertise about the advertised brand or product. Such endorsers are likely to be attractive because of their physical appearance, humorous personality, or familiarity to young viewers. According to social cognitive theory, attractive characters are more likely to be attended to and emulated than unattractive ones. Thus, attractive celebrity endorsers may have a particularly potent effect on children's product knowledge and desires. Studies show that celebrity endorsers are perceived as credible sources of information about products (Ross et al., 1984). For instance, Atkin and Gibson found that 33% of 4- to 7-year-olds thought Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble knew "very much" about which cereals children should eat. Celebrity endorsers also influence children's product desires. Ross et al. (1984) observed that including a celebrity endorser in a race car commercial increased boys' generic product preference relative to an ad without a celebrity endorser. Furthermore, boys who saw the celebrity endorser more often thought that the presenter had expertise in model race cars than did those who saw the ads without the celebrity endorser.
UNINTENDED EFFECTS A great deal of concern surrounds the ill effects that exposure to advertising may have on children. In the section that follows, we review research documenting five unintended effects of advertising: parent-child conflict, unhappiness, unhealthy eating habits, materialism, and negative selfperception.
PARENT-CHILD CONFLICT Policymakers have long been concerned with the impact of advertising on parent-child relationships (Federal Trade Commission, 1978; 1979). One specific concern voiced is that exposure to television advertising increases children's purchase requests and thus puts parents in a position of
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approval or denial. When such requests are not granted, it may trIgger arguments and verbal aggression between caregiver and child. Generally, research supports this concern. Surveys of both children and/or their parents reveal that denying youngsters' purchase requests sometimes results in conflict. For example, Atkin discovered that among mothers of preschool- and elementary-school-aged children, roughly half said arguments developed occasionally after denying cereal or toy requests (44% and 53%, respectively). Ward and Wackman found a small but positive relationship between children's purchase requests and family conflict. Diary studies reveal a similar set of findings. Isler et a1. asked mothers of 3- to 11-year-oIds to report their child's reaction to "refusal-to-buy responses." Roughly a fifth (22%) of the mothers indicated that their child either argued (a little or a lot) or got really angry. Robertson et a1.also found that purchase requests and parent-child conflict were highly associated. Using a protective technique, Sheikh and Moleski asked first, second, and fifth graders what a child in a story would do when his or her parent did not yield to the child's purchase requests. Open-ended responses revealed that 23% of the children spontaneously reported that the story child would engage in an aggressive response. Finally, observational studies in grocery stores also reveal that conflict may ensue when children's requests are not granted. Atkin observed that roughly a fourth (24%) of the parent-child interactions in the supermarket cereal aisle resulted in conflict. Stoneman and Brody found that those preschoolers viewing a kids' show with food ads made more subsequent purchase influence attempts, and their parent had to engage in more power assertion techniques (e.g., saying no, physical or verbal "put back"), than did those preschoolers viewing a kids' show without ads. UNHAPPINESS
Although exposure to television advertising may evoke child unhappiness in several different ways we focus on only two here. First, children may experience unhappiness when
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they perceive their life as less satisfying than the lives of young actors depicted in commercials. To illustrate, Donohue, Meyer, and Henke exposed 6- to 8-year-old children to two commercials for McDonald's: one featuring a happy family eating lunch at the fast-food chain, and one featuring the McDonald's fantasy cast. Immediately after exposure to the family-oriented commercial, 75% of the African American children perceived the fictitious family as being significantly happier than their own. Second, children may experience unhappiness when parents refuse their requests for advertised products. Atkin's observational study of 3- to 12-year-old children and their parents found that approximately 16% of the interactions in the cereal aisle of supermarkets resulted in youngster unhappiness. Sheikh and Moleski observed that 33% of children in their sample spontaneously reported that having a purchase request refused by a parent should result in unpleasant feelings, with girls mentioning this more than boys. Similar results were obtained by Goldberg and Gom. Based on diary reports, Isler et aLfound that over a fourth of children reportedly experience disappointment when their mother refuses their product requests. Consistently, this research revealed that a significant proportion of children seem to be experiencing negative affect or feelings of disappointment when their parent refuses to purchase a product advertised on TV. EATING HABITS
One of the major concerns surrounding children's exposure to television is the development of unhealthy eating habits. Research shows that exposure to television advertising for food products can negatively influence children's perceptions and beliefs about nutrition. For instance, Donohue found that a significant number of African American children in his study perceived that drinking Coke and consuming fast food were nutritional strategies to maintain good health. In another study, Donohue et al. also found that race affects
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children's perceptions of nutrition. Over two thirds (68%) of the African American children surveyed perceived McDonalds to be more nutritious than the food at their homes. Only 15% of White children felt the same way. Many of these perceptions and beliefs maybe fostered by repeated exposure to television advertising. Indeed, rese3.rch shows that heavy viewing can substantially alter children's nutritional knowledge. Atkin et a1.observed that heavy viewers of food ads were twice as likely as light viewers to indicate that sugared cereals and candies are highly nutritious. Using multiple controls, Signorielli and Lears' results showed that exposure to TV is positively associated with inaccurate beliefs about both the components of a nutritious breakfast and that fast-food meals are as nutritious as those prepared at home. Signorielli and Staples found that older elementary schoolers' viewing of television was related positively to indicating that unhealthy foods were healthy, especially among those of minority status. The results from these studies suggest that exposure to television in general and advertising in specific may be teaching and/or reinforcing poor nutritional beliefs in young consumers, especially among minorities and heavy viewers. In addition to altering perceptions and beliefs, there is also concern that repeated viewing of television advertising may contribute to obesity in childhood and adolescence. To examine this relationship, Dietz and Gortmaker conducted both crosssectional and longitudinal studies with 6- to ll-year-olds. Obesity was assessed by' way of a triceps skinfold procedure. After taking a variety of variables into account-such as SES, season, region, population density, family size, birth order, and race-the results from their cross-sectional data revealed that television viewing is positively and significantly associated with obesity in children and adolescents. Furthermore, the regression analysis revealed that the frequency of obesity in adolescents increased roughly 2% with each additional hour spent with TV per day. Because the findings were based on correlational data, the direction of the relationship between the two variables is
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impossible to ascertain. It may be the case that obese children are seeking out more TV viewing. To assess the issue of directionality, Dietz and Gortmaker longitudinally examined whether early exposure to TV in childhood predicted obesity in adolescence. Controlling for several variables, the results revealed lithe amount of TV viewed by non-obese children was the most powerful predictor [of] risk for the development of obesity in adolescence." TV exposure may contribute to obesity in children in two ways. First, exposure to television may reduce children's energy expenditure. If children are watching television, they are less likely to be engaging in some other physical activity. In fact, at least one study found that heavy viewing among adolescent males is associated with lower levels of physical fitness. Second, viewing television may increase food consumption. Given that children's shows are saturated with ads for food high in calories and sugar youngsters may be bombarded with messages encouraging or reminding them to consume such unhealthy options. Consistent with this reasoning, research re-.reals that exposure to food advertising is positively associated with snacking and caloric intake in 2to ll-year-olds (Bolton, 1983). More generally, studies have found a positive association between exposure to TV and children's caloric intake, choosing unhealthy food, and having poor eating habits. MATERIALISM
Another potential problem with exposure to TV advertising is that it may contribute to children developing materialistic attitudes and values. In fact, a recent poll conducted by the Centre for a New American Dream revealed that 87% of parents of 2- to 17-year-olds said that advertising targeting children makes them materialistic. Furthermore, almost half ~f the parents surveyed indicated that their child would rather go shopping at the mall than hiking with the family. Summarizing previous research and theorizing, Buijzen and Valkenburg argued that television advertising may
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contribute to materialism among children "because it is designed to arouse desires for products that would not otherwise be salient. Advertising emphasizes that possessions are important, and that obtaining these possessions will result in many desirable qualities, such as beauty, success, status, and happiness. Advertising communicates the ideology that desirable qualities can be obtained only by material possessions. To date, only a few studies have been conducted on the impact of television advertising on children's materialistic ideals. II
In one quasi-experimental study, Greenberg and Brand examined the impact on high school students' materialist attitudes of commercials embedded in a Channel One (a privately produced, in-school news programme that prominently features commercials) show. Their materialism scale was composed of items such as "When I watch commercials, I usually want what is shown" and "Most people who have a lot of money are happier than most people who have only a little money." The results from this research revealed that high schoolers exposed to Channel One were more likely to have materialistic attitudes than were those who did not have access to such programming. A few correlational studies have also examined the TV advertising-materialism link. Atkin examined the impact of exposure to television on fourth through seventh graders' materialistic attitudes. He found that repeated viewing of television had a significant effect on materialism. Almost 20% of the heavy viewers and 10% of light viewers were likely to state that "the most important thing is to have lots of money." Among middle and high school students, Churchill and Moschis also observed a positive relationship between TV exposure and materialistic values, even after controlling for multiple variables. Examining the impact of viewing TV advertising more directly, Moschis and Churchill found that motivations for commercial viewing were a significant predictor of materialism. After applying multiple controls, watching TV
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ads for information about lifestyles associated with certain products was positively related to materialistic attitudes. Although these correlational studies are informative, they fail to reveal the directionality between exposure to advertising and materialism. Addressing this issue, Moschis and Moore surveyed sixth through twelfth -graders twice across 14 months about their materialistic values and attitudes as well as exposure to television commercials. The cross-sectional data at Time 1 revealed a positive relationship between exposure to advertising and materialism. To assess directionality, Moschis and Moore correlated early exposure to television advertising at Time 1 with materialism score at Time 2, controlling for initial levels of materialism as well as age, gender, race, social class, and peer communication. The overtime analysis was statistically insignificant, except for those children who came from families that rarely discussed consumption issues. As Moschis and Moore stated, "These data suggest that parents mediate television advertising effects by discussing consumption matters with the child."
SELF-PERCEPTION Exposure to advertising may also contribute to negative self-perceptions, especially among young adolescent females. That is, many television and magazine ads feature physically attractive and thin models and/or actors. According to social comparison theory viewing these ads may cause adolescents to compare their physical appearance and weight to the models shown. Such comparison processes may negatively influence youngsters' self-esteem, self-perception, and body image. Only a couple of experiments have examined the impact of physically attractive models in ads on adolescent females' perceptions. Martin and Kennedy exposed fourth, eighth, and twelfth graders to magazine ads featuring highly attractive models, moderately attractive models, or no models, and then had the students respond to measures assessing their selfperception and esteem. The results revealed that comparing oneself to models in ads is negatively related to self-esteem
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and perceptions of physical attractiveness. In general, the girls who were more likely to compare themselves to models already had the lowest self- esteem and self-perception of their own physical attractiveness. Unexpectedly, the exposure to physically attractive models had no influence on girls' perceptions of their own physical attractiveness. In a follow-up study, Martin and Gentry argued that the type of motive consumers have when evaluating models in ads makes a difference. In particular, a self-evaluative (e.g., "the model is prettier than I am") motive may result in lowering females' self-esteem, self-perception, and even body image, whereas a self-improvement (e.g., "the model can illustrate ways to improve my appearance") or selfenhancement (e.g., "I am prettier than the model on a specific dimension" or "I discount the model's beauty") motive may actually heighten such judgments. To test this idea, fourth-, sixth-, and eighth-grade girls were shown ads that primed these different types of motives. Congruent with predictions, girls' perceptions of their own physical attractiveness were significantly lower after exposure to an ad that induced selfevaluation and were significantly higher after exposure to ads inducing self-improvement or enhancement. Among sixth graders, those who were exposed to ads that induced selfevaluation perceived their bodies more negatively (e.g., body image seen as heavier).
ALCOHOL ADVERTISING
Young people start forming drinking attitudes and experimenting with alcohol during the age range of 10 to 14 years, a stage when they are exposed increasingly to TV commercials for beer and other alcohol products. Adolescent curiosity and uncertainty about drinking-related phenomena, combined with limited opportunity to directly observe drinking in bars and party situations, motivates vicarious observational learning and heightens susceptibility to media-based cultivation. These children's emerging tastes and values increase receptivity to conventional alcohol advertising appeals (e.g., fun, sociability, adventure, masculinity/femininity).
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Promotion of alcoholic beverages on television has generated controversy for several decades, based primarily on concerns about the impact of these commercials on children and teenagers. The issue became particularly salient when adolescent drinking rose sharply in the 1970s and teenage drunk driving attracted attention in the 1980s. Advertising practices have been the focal point of several congressional hearings and a Surgeon General's workshop, and have generated widespread debate involving health organizations, public interest groups, advertising agencies, and alcohol producers. Although beer companies have advertised since the earliest days of TV, liquor commercials were traditionally' considered to be too sensitive for television. Due to declining sales, distillers began airing commercials on certain cable channels and local stations in the late 1990s and, when the NBC network finally decided to accept liquor ads in 2001, harsh criticism forced a reversal several months later. Nevertheless, distillers have recently partnered with brewers to aggressively promote a new form of malt liquor aimed at the youthful segment of the market. These" alcopops" are lightly carbonated, slightly sweetened, fruit-flavoured clear malts that are appealing to the tastes of entry-level drinkers. Brand names such as Mike's Hard Lemonade, Smirnoff Ice, and Bacardi Silver quickly gained popularity with teenagers following advertising campaigns that included prominent placements in late-night TV shows frequently viewed by underage audiences. In a national poll conducted by Atkin and Thorson almost three fourths of all adult respondents believed that teenagers are susceptible to influence by televised liquor ads, and most perceived that underage audiences are encouraged to experiment with liquor 'or to drink a greater amount of this product. Half of the adults felt that liquor companies are trying to influence teenagers to drink liquor. By a 2:1 margin, adults disapproved of teenagers seeing liquor ads on TV; by a 5:1 margin, they disapproved of children seeing liquor commercials.
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The poll also showed that more than two thirds of adults favour a strict prohibition of these ads in order to protect youthful viewers. Indeed, there is broader public support for prohibiting TV liquor ads than prohibiting sex and violence in youth-oriented programming. If liquor advertising is to be permitted on TV, a large majority of adults support requiring warnings in ads, delaying ads until late evening, restricting content that might appeal to young people, and balancing ads with more public service spots. Alcohol advertisers have asserted consistently that the main purpose of ads is to retain product loyalty or induce brand switching, rather than to lure new customers (particularly those who are under the legal drinking age). The alcohol industry claims that parents and peers are the primary determinants of adolescent drinking, whereas advertising has no impact on consumption. On the other hand, social science theory suggests that advertising can positively influence drinking behaviour via development and reinforcement of favourable attitudes toward alcohol and drinking practices, mainly as a result of advertising-induced creation of images and beliefs that operate through persuasion processes of conditioning, social cognitive learning, and reasoned action. In addition, ads can disinhibit drinkers through legitimization and rationalization, because viewers form conceptions that drinking is a widespread norm, that alcohol is a harmless substance, and that escape and relief are acceptable reasons for drinking. Simple gains in knowledge from informational content of ads can contribute to consumption during formative years, as viewers learn about new types of alcohol and gain familiarity with conventional drinking practices and appropriate situations for consuming alcohol. Survey research indicates that young people respond positively to TV alcohol commercials that are ostensibly targeted to adults, and that these ads contribute to drinking intentions and behaviours during adolescence. Pioneering research with teenagers by Atkin, Hocking, and Block and
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Strickland demonstrated that televised beer advertising mildly increases consumption of beer; for example, 52% of teens highly exposed to these commercials had tried each of six brands of beer, compared to 37% of the lightly exposed respondents. For predrinkers, beer commercials have sizable cognitive effects. Atkin and Block reported that heavily exposed junior high school students display much greater brand awareness (brand names, slogans, logos, endorsers, and themes), and are more likely to hold favourable stereotypes of the typical beer drinker as fun lfving, friendly, happy, and manly. Moreover, frequent viewers of beer ads are more likely to anticipate future consumption. Similarly, Grube and Wallack found that fifth and sixth graders with high recognition of TV beer commercials are more likely to know beer brands and slogans, to hold positive beliefs about drinking, and to express intentions to drink as an adult. A focus group study showed that most 10- to 13-year-olds believe that alcohol advertisers are targeting teenage audiences, particularly with ads featuring sexy and younglooking characters, cute animals, extreme sports, upbeat music, fast-paced action, and fun party scenes. Grube and Wallack found that as children move through early adolescence, they become more engaged in alcohol advertisements, particularly ads that portray fun lifestyles, celebrity endorsements, humour, animation, and rock music. According to Austin and Knaus children's liking of alcohol ads increases steadily from third to ninth grade. Identification with commercial characters leads to expectancies of positive social benefits of drinking and predisposition to consume alcohol. The researchers concluded that beliefs and desires developing by third grade serve to prime children for future decisions regarding substance use. A survey of 10- to 17-year-olds showed that liking for beer commercials contributes to current drinking and expected future drinking. Those in the age range of 10 to 13 are most likely to accept the portrayals in beer ads as realistic. Kelly
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and Edwards argued that theories underlying self-monitoring and imaginary audience ideation suggest that adolescents are more likely than adults to prefer image-oriented alcohol ads. They found a positive relationship between the preference for image advertising and intention to consume alcohol. Image ads featuring female models are especially appealing to younger boys. A potentially vulnerable audience segment is young people growing up in families with alcohol problems. A sample of children of alcoholics (aged 11 through 16) were more likely than other respondents to report that the beer ads trigger negative feelings about drinkers they know personally. Slater et al.presented a series of beer commercials to adolescents, who wrote down their thoughts and feelings after watching each ad. Positive responses to beer ads were associated with current and planned alcohol use. Male adolescents responded more positively than did females, especially when the ads depicted sports content or were embedded in a sports programming context. In another study examining reactions to specimen ads, sixth to ninth graders were presented with three beer commercials portraying bar, beach, and party scenes. When asked to estimate how many drinks the various characters in the ads were consuming, almost half of the adolescents said five or more drinks (the definition of "binge" drinking). Smith et al. reported even higher proportions of adolescents perceiving heavy drinking in two liquor ads.
On the other hand, research indicates that critical viewing skills and parental mediation may limit the influence of alcohol ads by the early teenage years. Slater et al. presented beer ads to middle school students, and asked the viewers tc- generate counterarguments. Students most often cited the lack of realistic portrayals of outcomes of alcohol use; the irrelevance of depicted associations between the alcohol product and various recreational and social activities; and the misleading suggestions of social, romantic, or athletic success implied in many ads .. The relationship between alcohol ad viewing and consumption among ninth graders is partially moderated by parents.
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CONCLUSION
The goal of this chapter was to review research on the impact of advertising on children. The research reveals that younger children are uniquely susceptible to advertising content given their inability to differentiate programmes from commercials as well as to comprehend selling intent. In addition to comprehension, the cognitive, affective,and behavioural intended" effects of advertising were explored. Studies show that advertising can influence children's product recall, desires, and patterns of consumption. Some important moderators of these effects may be the child's age, extensiveness of exposure to advertising, ethnicity, and gender. We then turned our attention to the unintended effects of advertising on children and adolescents. The review reveals that more research is needed, especially on the impact of advertising on outcomes such as materialism, self-perception, and unhappiness. Furthermore, scholars should continue to examine those individual, family, and peer-related variables that may reduce the ill effects of exposure to television commercials. The last section dealt with the role of alcohol advertising on older children's and adolescents' thoughts, attitudes, and drinking-related behaviours. Clearly, this body of work reveals that not only can exposure to alcohol ads contribute to teen drinking in society, but also that parental mediation and teaching critical viewing may help to ameliorate negative effects knowledgeable about products, and is quite capable of making purchase decisions as an autonomous consumer. II
I am not supporting that the "child" or the "kid" is the right or correct vision of what younger people are like, and I would suggest that if we take the idea of childhood as a social construction seriously then there is no correct version of childhood, and society gets the childhood and children it defines, uses, and deserves. All that one is left with is, perhaps, a politically correct vision of childhood (perhaps with expressions like "younger people" or even "people of youth"?). And even this vision is cast in the image of the autonomous kid as it recognizes respect and an equal status with other
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groups. There is a way out, and that is to find out what psychologists know about child development and the strengths and limitations of the growing person. Because unlike ethnic and racial categories of people there is some biology and growth in child development, and the developmental psychologist might just be able to make claims about truth and not merely be a source of so-called "expert" or "quasi-expert" knowledge that has equal status with lay perceptions.
--~------Advertising Regulation and Research This chapter examines the regulation of television advertising with special reference to children. We consider the extent to which advertising regulations are consistent with and supported by research evidence concerning children and advertising, the degree to which regulations have kept pace with research evidence, and whether there are issues raised by the regulations on which further research is needed. We also review the contribution that research might play in further informing current guidelines and codes of practice for television advertisers. In doing this, we consider whether the research evidence presented to regulators has been effectively utilized. In addition, we examine the pressures upon British advertising regulators to conform to European regulations and the feasibility of achieving Europe-wide standardization or harmonization of advertising regulations. ORIGINS OF CONCERN ABOUT ADVERTISING AND CHILDREN
The most significant sources of criticism and concern about advertising aimed at children have been national and international consumer organizations. According to these bodies, children require special consideration because they are less able than adults to understand fully the intent of advertising or its persuasion techniques and are therefore less able to judge advertising critically.
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The extent to which such considerations are contained within regulations or codes of practice, whether internationally or nationally, varies greatly. Some countries, such as Norway and Sweden, do not permit any television advertising to be directed toward children under 12 years of age, and no advertisements at all are allowed during children's programmes. In Australia, advertisements are not allowed during programmes for preschool children. In the Flemish region of Belgium, no advertising is permitted within five minutes of the beginning or end of any children's programme. In contrast, Spain allows advertising of children's products around children's programmes. In the United Kingdom, advertising can be aimed at children, but within parameters defined by a detailed code of practice. Although some countries do not have an all-out ban on advertising directed toward children, they may have selective bans on advertising for particular types of product. For example, in Greece, toy ad vertising is banned. Consumer organizations' concerns centre on several distinct aspects of televised advertising, most especially: 'The amount of advertising to children, 2. 'The types of advertising that predominate in children's programming, 3. The marketing techniques used to entice children within advertisements, 4. The lack of adequate enforcement of advertising regulations, and 5. The impact of cross-border advertising where advertisers transmit their content from another country to circumvent compliance with the regulations of the receiving country. Quite apart from the nonspecific concern that children may be exposed to too much advertising anyway, there are special concerns about the predominance of certain types of advertising. Research into advertising output on television has found that food advertising predominates in children's 1.
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programmes. However, the foods most frequently advertised are for products high in fat, sugar, and salt. This may have important implications for children's dietary habits and the status of their nutrition and health. This is true of most major television nations. In consequence, consumer organizations have made a number of recommendations concerning advertising and children. The Consumers International Survey in 1996 called for high international standards of protection for children and that advertising regulations should protect children from misleading, unfair, or excessive amounts of advertising. This would mean the need for greater cooperation among national regulatory bodies particularly in relation to the issue of crossborder advertising. It would also mean that advertisers should take responsibility for ensuring that their marketing activities take account of the concerns of consumer organizations and parents. The Consumers International Survey drew particular attention to the advertising of certain types of foods that may encourage unhealthy eating habits. Regulators were warned to take account of the age of the children, with younger children requiring greater protection. It suggested there should be a clear break between programmes and advertisements through the use of visual and auditory signals and that presentation techniques that might cause confusion between programmes and advertisements should be avoided. It also called for more research into the ways that children respond to advertising, especially into the long term and cumulative effects of exposure to food advertisements. These are important issues and the concerns of consumer organizations are well meant. Whether such objectives are all necessary or achievable is another matter. Frameworks of regulation already exist at regional, national, and international levels. Some of these regulatory frameworks are underpinned by statute whereas others are voluntary codes of practice adopted by media industries or advertisers, but reaching international agreements about the regulation of television advertising has proven problematic. While common frames of reference have been accepted at the supranational level, they
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are usually accompanied by opt-out clauses that allow individual nations to adopt unilateral codes of practice. This has been amply illustrated within Europe. THE POSITION IN EUROPE
Television advertising to children has been the focus of increasing debate across Europe during the past decade. To safeguard children from the effects of television advertising, many countries in the European Union (EU) have taken measures, though these vary in their extent. But within the framework of the Single European Market, there have been attempts to establish standard regulations or, at least, to harmonize regulations concerning advertising that traverses national boundaries. In spite of a shared concern about advertising when it is directed toward children, the restrictions that have been placed on advertising have varied from one country to the next. One reason for this is that value systems vary among European nations. With regard to television, in particular, advertising practices that are considered false, deceptive, or misleading in one country may be regarded as appropriate in another. Advertising treatments that are accepted in one part of the EU may be regarded as offensive elsewhere. Consumers in Germany and Norway may place more literal interpretations on certain promotional statements that do those in Italy or Spain. Although nudity in television advertising may be commonplace and no cause for alarm in France, in the United Kingdom, even a glimpse of a female nipple can cause a widespread public debate.
The scope for regulation also varies from one European country to the next because media and advertising systems vary across the ED. In most EU countries, media institutions retain a firm national orientation and are strongly influenced by internal regulatory regimes that reflect their country's dominant political philosophies. Such differences playa crucial part in determining how the media operate economically as well as culturally.
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European recognition of children as potentially vulnerable viewers presumes the validity of three related values: Respect for children's developing educational needs; Fairness, or not exposing children to sophisticated advertising messages before they develop awareness of persuasion; and 3. Avoidance of exposure to adult content. Although there may be broad agreement on these points, the steps taken by individual nations to protect children from television advertising vary substantially. For instance, restrictions on advertising aimed at children include all-out bans (e.g., Sweden), partial bans on advertising in or around children's programmes (Netherlands), or limits placed on what may be advertised before certain times, when children might be watching (U.K.). Broadly, two types of regulations are found in Europe: rules and guidelines about: 1. The scheduling of advertising anq. 2. The content of advertising. Scheduling restrictions relate to the timing, frequency, and the amount of advertising aimed at children. These restrictions may also apply to specific types of advertising presented at certain times when children are known to be viewing in large numbers. Restrictions on the content of advertising aimed at children place prohibitic;ms on advertising specified products or prohibit the inclusion of certain behaviours within commercial messages. There are differences across European countries in both the detail of provisions and the way they are implemented. At the national level, the regulation of television advertising aimed at children is a combination of provisions emanating from both regulatory and self-regulatory bodies that are responsible for statutory rules and self-regulatory guidelines. The weight of enforcement of regulations depends upon the degree of authority those bodies 1. 2.
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have within their respective industries. In addition, consumer lobby groups and organizations have varying degrees of influence, often through the research they produce about advertising and children. Difficulties in reaching agreement on the implementation of codes of practice about the scheduling, content, and treatments of advertisements often emerge because of different national definitions for key concepts like "the child" or "children's advertising." WHAT IS A CHILD
One complicating factor in relation to defining regulations for advertising aimed at children is the definition of a child. This is an area where there is a lack of consistency across European states and regulatory bodies. In countries such as the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden, the upper age limit for a child is 12 years. In the United Kingdom, children are classed as individuals aged 15 and under. The International Chamber of Commerce Code of Advertising Practice considers children as persons under 14 years of age or under whatever age is considered appropriate at the national level. WHAT IS CHILDREN'S ADVERTISING
Another issue is how to define children's advertising. Is this type of advertising to be defined, for example, by product category or by the kind of treatment used within the advertising message? At national and pan-European levels, there has been a tendency to define children's television advertising in terms of product category, with food and toys being the types of products most closely associated with advertising aimed at children. But in recent years, other prominent child-oriented product categories have emerged such as computer games, music, films, and clothing. Detailed codes have been produced, within wider advertising regulations, concerned specifically with television advertising for food and toys. With food advertising, there is
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special concern about advertising for sugared foods such as breakfast cereals and confectionery because of their health implications for teeth and weight. With toy advertising, the focus of codes of practice is placed more squarely on the use of misleading messages about the product (such as its size and versatility) and the possibility that antisocial conduct may be encouraged through the way that toys are presented (e.g., war toys and violent behaviour). More recently, mobile telephones have emerged as another product of great interest to children, with both health and financial implications as well as providing new opportunities for marketing to children that, in tum, may need regulation. Television advertising aimed at children is not restricted to spot advertising between or within programmes. Children are targeted through sponsorship, children's clubs (tagged to certain child or family-oriented programmes), teleshopping, and telepromotions or special competitions. In many countries, and in particular in the United States there have been concerns about programme-length advertising, as well as concerns about the tie-in of spot advertising for products when those products are principal features in children's programmes. REGULATORY FRAMEWORKS
Consumer organizations have voiced doubts about the comprehensiveness of regulatory frameworks and the effectiveness of their implementation. But are these criticisms justified? To answer this question, it is necessary to examine the regulatory systems that are already in place. A convenient way to do this is to divide those systems into national, European, and international regulatory systems. This analysis of regulation of television advertising will focus primarily on the arrangements in the United Kingdom. It will, nevertheless, examine the wider picture across Europe because this also provides an important context for U. K. regulation. We will also take into account even wider international regulatory codes for advertising, as they provide a backdrop for U. K. regulation.
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NATIONAL REGULATION-UNITED KINGDOM
Between 1991 and 2003, the Independent Television Commission (ITC) was the regulatory body responsible for licensing and regulating commercial television channels in the United Kingdom, whether transmitted terrestrially or via cable or satellite systems. The ITC also licensed and regulated new digital terrestrial television services. The BBC is governed by a Royal Charter and applies a set of internal rules for its public service television services, none of which carry any commercial product advertising or sponsorship. In July 2003, a new Communication Act legally underpinned the introduction of a new regulator, the Office of Communication which would be responsible for all broadcasting and Internet-related regulation. Under the terms of the 2003 Act, Ofcom was required to draw up its own codes of practice for televised advertising and for programme sponsorship. The lynchpin of U. K. advertising regulation had been the 1988 Consumer Protection Act that is concerned with misleading advertising. The Broadcasting Act 1990 was the key statutory instrument for the regulation of commercial television that followed on from the earlier act. It required the ITC to draw up and enforce, after appropriate consultation, a code setting out standards for television advertising and sponsorship. In response to this statutory duty, the ITC produced a Code of Advertising Standards and Practice (CASP) and a Code of Programme Sponsorship. Section 9(7) and (8) of the 1990 Broadcasting Act empowered the ITC to give directions on the amount, distribution and presentation of advertising, and the lTC's Rules on Advertising Breaks (RAB) set the basic rules for the duration of advertising breaks. These codes evolved through a number of iterations and revisions during the 1990s and into the new millennium. The ITC required all of the television companies it licenses to comply with the Codes. Broadcasters had to demonstrate to the ITC that they had satisfactory arrangements in place to ensure that any television advertising they transmitted was pre-vetted and compli~d with the ITC Codes, though there was
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some variation in the rules for terrestrial, cable, and satellite transmission systems. The ITC worked within a statutory framework and the rules reflected the conclusions of formal consultations rather than empirical research. Nevertheless, certain parts of these Codes made assumptions about audiences' responses to advertising and the potential effects of certain forms of advertising that were supported by research evidence. Although the BBC's public service channels do not carry advertising, BBC World-Wide Television, which is commercially funded, is permitted to take advertising and sponsorship for some programmes. In this case, the service, up to 2003, had to comply with ITC codes of practice for advertising (and then subsequently with those of the new regulator, Ofcom). The BBC also has its own internal code covering programme sponsorship. In the commercial sphere, broadcasters are responsible for
the advertiSing they transmit and the ITC had control over the broadcaster, not the advertiser. If any licensed broadcaster failed to 'comply with the conditions set out in the 1990 Broadcasting Act or the ITC codes, the latter could impose penalties, which ranged from warnings, through fines, to the shortening or revocation of the broadcast licence. From January 1993, the legal responsibility for controlling television output was shifted from the regulator to the broadcasters. Broadcasters elected to use the organization that already existed, the lTVA Copy Clearance department. It was then transformed into the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC). It was this industry body that was responsible for the pre-transmission examination and clearance of television advertisements. At the time of writing, new codes and practices were not in place, but it seemed likely that this same system would continue under Gfcom. The BACC is a self-regulatory body that applies a statutory code, not their own self-regulatory code. However, the BACC Notes of Guidance further interpret the codes. Th'~ BACC rules have their origin in cases submitted to the Copy
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Committee, the ITC Code, and agreements reached with the ITC. The Copy Committee consists of six television broadcasters and meets once a month and is responsible for decisions taken on the acceptability of television advertisements. It also acts as a policymaker and court of appeaL Broadcasters can choose not to join the BACC and must then make their own arrangements for copy control, either individually or collectively, but they were under the same obligations to comply with the ITC rules. Some broadcasters, for example, MTV, or certain local services in Northern Ireland, do not use the BACC services. They clear advertising in-house. In these cases, they might transmit an advertisement that the BACC would not have approved. The ITC could have required amendment or withdrawal of those advertisements that did not comply with the rules. Any decision to withdraw the advertisement had a mandatory and immediate effect. The ITC handled complaints from the public. If addressed to the lTC, ITC staff analysed them and, where appropriate, requested a response from the advertiser and from the BACC. Complaints could be upheld or not upheld. If upheld, the advertisement in question was normally required to be withdrawn or amended though it had been given clearance by the BACC. If the advertising was found misleading, it would be immediately removed. If it was considered harmful to children, it could be restricted to showings only after certain times. Although the BACC were involved in the complaint resolution process, the final decision rested with the ITC. PROVISIONS FOR CHILDREN
The rules and regulations governing advertising to children were covered by the lTC's codes. Children were defined as individuals aged 15 years or under, and children's programmes were defined as those designed primarily for that audience. The Code of Advertising Standards and Practice (CASP) stated that advertisers should take particular care over advertisements that were likely to be seen by large numbers of children or in which children were employed.
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Misleadingness
These rules drew attention to the vulnerability of children, their lack of maturity, and their inability to make adult-like judgements about advertisements. Many of the clauses in this section referred to toy advertising. Advertisers were warned not to give any unreasonable expectation of performance of a toy through the use of special effects or imaginary backgrounds. Advertisements should include scale reference points so that the true size of the product can be readily determined. In any demonstration, it must be made clear whether the toy can move independently or only through manual operation. Toys that result from construction from a kit must be readily attainable by the average child. Advertisements for expensive products must carry a clear indication of the price, though when a range of products from the same range was shown, only the most expensive item in the series needs to be priced. Advertisers were also required to take care in advertising premium offers in which the premium items were not supplied with the product. For any competitions, the rules had to be supplied in advance to the regulator for inspection. Advertising Treatments and Potential Harm
The ITC regulations stipulated that advertisements should not contain anything that might be copied and cause harm to children. The GASP emphasized the importance of safety in advertisements in which children are shown. Children must not be shown in dangerous situations, for example, leaning out of windows, climbing, or tunneling dangerously. Children must not be shown playing unsupervised near water, in a bath, or on a staircase. Children must not be shown using matches or any gas, petrol, mechanical- or mains-powered appliance, nor can they be shown driving or riding agricultural machines. Open fires must always have a fireguard clearly visible. There were road safety provisions guided by the UK's Highway Code that must be followed in advertisements featuring children. Advertisements must not portray children in a sexually provocative manner. Children must not be shown in
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dIstress. They were not allowed to present products or services they could not buy themselves or endorse products they could not be expected to know anything about. The appearance of children in advertisements for alcoholic drinks was also outlawed. Children must not be shown entering strange places or conversing with strangers. Advertisements should not imply that children who fail to use a product are in any way inferior to others. Finally, children must not be shown asking their parents, friends, or relatives to buy them things. Product Category Restrictions
These restrictions applied especially to toys, food, and medicines. Advertisements for toy replicas of tools or household appliances must avoid scenes that might encourage children to play with the real thing in the home. Potentially dangerous toys such as air guns, sharp knives, or other guns firing projectiles capable of causing injury could not be advertised. Appendix 3 of the Code of Advertising Standards and Practice laid down rules regarding advertising food and medicine. The food-related regulations were especially influenced by the 1991 White paper The Health of the Nation and are mindful of some of the issues raised by consumer organizations about the need for advertising to promote healthy rather than unhealthy dietary behaviour. There were a number of specific food-related advertising regulations. Advertisements must not condone excessive consumption of food. Thus, advertisements should not show someone taking second and third helpings of chocolate or consuming a whole box of chocolates. Advertisements must not damage good dietary habits or discourage the consumption of food that is generally accepted as a good dietary option, such as fruit and vegetables. Confectionery and snacks products should only be presented as an occasional pleasure. Particular attention must be paid to advertisements of snacks and confectionery addressed to children in respect to oral health. They must not include frequent consumption of sugar throughout the day or after
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meals, for example, or depict situations where teeth were unlikely to be cleaned, such as consuming food in bed. Specific nutrition claims or health claims such as "full of the goodness of vitamin C" or "aids a healthy digestion" had to be supported by sound scientific evidence and must not give a misleading impression of the nutritional or health benefits of the food as a whole. Claims such as "wholesome" were acceptable without stating the basis for them explicitly in the commercial but only if that basis could be supported by sound scientific evidence. Advertisements for medicines had to comply with other relevant regulations, such as the Medicines Act 1968 or the Medicines (Advertising) Regulations 1994, which implemented the provisions of EC Council Directive 92/28/EEC concerning the advertising of medicinal products for human use. Medicines were defined as products that carry a product licence. Dietary supplements were defined as isolated, highly purified or concentrated products sold in forms similar to medicines, for example, vitamins or minerals. Advertising for a medicinal product could not be directed at people under the age of 16 and should not show medicines being administered to children unless the product is suitable for them. The correct children's dose must be stated. In addition, BACC Notes of Guidance advise advertisers to take special care that medicines or vitamins are not confused with sweets. Medicines, disinfectants, antiseptics, and caustic or poisonous substances must not be shown within reach of children without parental supervision. References to pain or symptoms that could indicate a serious condition should be avoided, such as abdominal pain. No claims that medicinal preparations enhance physical or mental performance in children are permitted. In the case of growing children, advertisements for dietary supplements could not suggest that it was necessary or therapeutic for children to augment their intake or that such supplements could enhance normal, good physical or mental function. Advertisements for slimming products could not be addressed to people under 18.
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This category of restrictions concerned material that was potentially distressing or frightening to children or sexually explicit This category also included rules about the placement of certain types of advertisement adjacent to children's programmes. Advertising was not permitted in a programme for children of less than half an hour of scheduled transmission, and this rule accorded with European legislation. There were a number of products that may not be advertised adjacent to children's programmes. These products included medicines, matches, liqueur chocolates, trailers of films with 15 and 18 certificates, premium rate telephone services, lotteries or other forms of gambling, religious advertising, advertising of merchandise based on children's programmes, advertising that is potentially frightening or distressing to very young children or which contains references to sexual behaviour or to alcoholic drinks. A number of types of advertisements could not be transmitted before the 9:00 pm watershed. These included advertisements that contained images that were unsuitable for children to see, ones for medicines specially formulated for children, ones containing personalities or characters who regularly appeared in children's programmes endorsing products aimed at children, ones for branded contraceptives, and advertisements for sanitary protection products. EUROPEAN REGULATIONS
Formal European regulations concerning advertiSing have been founded in three principal EC Directives, 1. 2. 3.
The Misleading Advertising Directive, The Television Without Frontiers Directive, and The Directive on Advertising of Medicinal Products for Human use. A number of further EC Green Papers and Resolutions have recomm~ndations for consumer safeguards linked to advertising, though these do not have the same force as the Directives.
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MISLEADING ADVERTISING DIRECTIVE The general framework for advertising in the EU was set in 1984 by the Directive 84/450/EEC about misleading and comparative advertising. The purpose of this Directive is to protect consumers and the interests of the public against misleading advertising and its unfair consequences. As a result of an amendment in 1996, it also lays down the criteria for comparative advertising. Misleading advertising is defined in Article 3 as: Any advertiSing, which in any way, including its presentation, deceives or is likely to deceive the persons to whom it is addressed or whom it reaches and which, by reason of its deceptive nature, is likely to affect their economic behaviour or which injures or is likely to injure a competitor. To determine whether advertising is misleading in nature, Article 3 also lays down some of the factors to be taken into account: The characteristics of goods or services; 2. The price; 3. The conditions governing the supply of the goods or the provision of services; 4. The nature, qualities, and rights of the advertiser. Article 4 requires that Member States provide effective means to combat misleading advertising and ensure compliance with the provisions on comparative advertising. To control misleading advertising, the Member States have to ensure that those persons or organizations can bring a court action against misleading advertising and unfair comparative advertising and/or bring the advertising before a competent administrative body to rule on the complaints or institute the appropriate legal proceedings. The courts or administrative bodies should have the powers to order the withdrawal of misleading advertising or unfair comparative advertising. The courts should also have the powers to forbid misleading or unfair comparative advertising. 1.
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Article 5 recognizes the voluntary control of misleading advertising by self-regulatory bodies. Article 6 states that advertisers may be required, in civil or administrative proceedings, to provide evidence, establishing the accuracy of factual claims in advertising. Factual claims can be considered inaccurate if the evidence is not furnished or is insufficient. Article 7 allows member States to adopt more restrictive provisions to protect consumers from misleading advertising. Finally, the Directive does not exclude voluntary control of misleading advertising by self-regulatory bodies if these are in addition to existing administrative bodies. In 1984, when the Directive was agreed, harmonized rules for regulating misleading advertising were considered necessary to improve consumer protection and to end distortions of competition arising from divergences among the Member States' laws against misleading advertising. The Directive was adopted before the Single European Act of 1986: it recognized the power of member States to provide for the necessary means to ensure that misleading advertising does not occur.
TELEVISION WITHOUT FRONTIERS DIRECTIVE
The Directive 97/36/EC of 30 July 1997 that amended the previous Directive 89/552/EEC of 3 December 1989 (TWF Directive) is perhaps the most significant legislation concerning children's advertising on television. However, the enforcement of the TWF Directive and the systems of control and legal proceedings differ according to the implementation taken by the Member States, whether by law, regulation or administrative action. Chapter IV of the TWF Directive lays down the provisions for advertising and teleshopping. On the content of advertisements, Article 12(d) establishes that advertising and teleshopping shall not "encourage behaviour prejudicial to health or safety. " Overall bans in Articles 13 and 14 also affect children. All forms of television and teleshopping for cigarettes and other tobacco products are prohipited. AdvertiSing for medicines available under prescription, teleshopping for
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medicines that are subject to market authorization, and teleshopping for medical treatments 'are prohibited. Article 15 requires that television advertising and teleshopping for alcoholic beverages comply with set criteria; for example, that they may not be aimed at minors or depict minors consuming such beverages. Finally, Article 16 establishes the rule that advertising must protect minors, thus Television advertising shall not cause moral or physical detriment to minors, and shall therefore comply with the following criteria for their protection: It shall not directly exhort minors to buy a product or service by exploiting their inexperience or credulity; 2. It shall not directly encourage minors to persuade their parents or others to purchase the goods or services being advertised; 3. It shall not exploit the special trust minors place in parents, teachers or other persons; 4. It shall not unreasonably show minors in dangerous situations. Teleshopping shall comply with the requirements referred to in paragraph 1 and, in addition, shall not exhort minors to contract for the sale or rental of goods and services. 1.
The TWF Directive also lays down some rules for the frequency and amount of advertising and teleshopping allowed in children's programmes. Article 11 (5) states that advertising or teleshopping shall not interrupt children's programmes, when their scheduled duration is less than 30 minutes. If their scheduled duration is 30 minutes or longer, they can include advertising breaks. If the programmes consist of autonomous parts, centre breaks are allowed between the autonomous parts or at intervals. A 20-minute period should elapse in between centre breaks. Article 3 lays down the possibility for member states to apply stricter rules to broadcasters under their jurisdiction. Article 20 complements these provisions by allowing Member
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States to lay down different conditions on the frequency and scheduling of commercial breaks, as well as for time limits for spot advertising and teleshopping. Article 2 (a) stipulates that if a broadcaster established in Member State is subject to the laws of that State, other a Member States cannot restrict the reception of its broadcasts within their territory, except in respect of the protection of minors. Other parts of the TWF legislation cover broadcasting in general, but in doing so, have implications for advertising. Article 22 requires Member States to take steps to ensure that programmes broadcast within L.leir areas of jurisdiction do not impair the physical, mental, or moral development of minors and makes special reference to pornography and violence. But although the TWF Directive requires special care in the treatment of "sensitive" products from a health and consumer protection viewpoint, it does not identify "children's advertising" as a separate category nor does it define the agegroup covered by "minors" in relation to harmful content. DIRECTIVE ON ADVERTISING OF MEDICINAL PRODUCTS FOR HUMAN USE This Directive (92/2B/EEC) states that advertiSing of a medicinal product shall not be misleading. The Directive bans advertising for prescription medicines. In relation to children, it bans all advertising of a medicinal product directed exclusively or principally at children. INTERNATIONAL CODES In addition to the statutes laid down with the United Kingdom and Europe, a number of other codes of practice have been produced at an international level that have also influenced national-level regulation of advertising aimed at children. Such codes have tended to emanate from international trade associations, some of which have been attached to specific industries such as advertising or manufacturing.
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THE ICC CODE At the international level, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) International Code of Advertising Practice (the ICC Code) prcvides a widely accepted framework for selfregulation and also regulatory procedures in many countries. The aim of the ICC Code is to promote high standards of ethics in marketing against a background of international and national law. The ICC Code applies to all advertisements for the promotion of any form of goods and services. It sets standards of ethical conduct to be followed by marketers, advertisers, advertising practitioners or agencies, and media. The Code includes Guidelines for Advertising Addressed to Children that applies to children or young people who are minors under the laws of their own countries. A number of specific guidelines are laid down that require advertisers to avoid harm to young viewers and any exploitation of their inexperience and credulity and to promote social values. The guidelines state: •
Because of the particular vulnerability of children, if there is any likelihood of advertisements being confused with editorial or programme material, they should be clearly labeled" advertisement" or identified in an equally effective manner. • Advertisements should not exploit the inexperience or credulity of children or young people. • Advertisements should not understate the degree of skill or age level required to enjoy the product. • Special care should be taken to ensure that advertisements do not mislead children as to the true size, value, nature, durability and performance of the product. • If extra items are needed to use a product or to create the result shown (e.g., batteries or paint) this should be made clear. Product that is part of a series should be clearly indicated, as should the method of acquiring the series.
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•
The advertisement should represent the result that is reasonably attainable by the average child in the age range for which the product is intended. Price indication should not lead children to an unreal perception of the true value of the product, for instance, by using the word only. No advertisement should imply that the advertised product is within reach of the family budget. Advertisements should not contain any statement or visual representation that could have the effect of harming children mentally, morally or physically or of bringing them into unsafe situations or activities seriously threatening their health or security, or encouraging them to go with strangers or enter strange places. Advertisements should not suggest that possession or use of a product alone will give the child social or physical advantages over other children, or that the nonpossession of the product would have the opposite effect. Advertisements should not undermine the authority, responsibility, judgement or tastes of parents, taking into account the current social values. Advertisements should not include any direct appeal to children to persuade their parents or other adults to buy advertised products for them.
•
II
•
•
•
II
CODE OF TOY ADVERTISING
The Toy Industries of Europe (TIE) have developed a code for advertising toys to children that applies to all their members. This Code has modeled national self-regulation codes on toy advertising which are followed by the toy industry. The Code recognizes the impressionable nature and vulnerability of children. The principles on which its Code is founded are consistent with European Community and national law. There are six key principles: 1.
Advertisers have a special responsibility to protect children from their own susceptibilities, because younger children have a limited capacity for the evaluation of the information they receive.
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2.
Because of the imitative nature of young children, advertisers should take extreme care not to exult violence, or present it as being an acceptable method of achieving social or interpersonal aims. 3. Advertisers should communicate information in a truthful and accurate manner and be aware that a child may learn practices from advertising that can affect his or her health and well being. 4. Advertisers should use advertising that displays good taste, and which addresses positive, beneficial and prosocial behaviour, such as friendship, kindness, honesty, justice, generosity, the protection of the environment and respect for other people and for animals. Advertising should not portray children in a sexually provocative manner. 5. Advertisers should take care neither to mislead children, nor to exploit the imaginative quality of children. Advertising should not stimulate unreasonable expectations of product quality or performance. 6. Advertisers should contribute to the parent-child relationship in a constructive manner. These principles are elaborated on and operationally defined via a set of guidelines that provide more detailed recomm-endations to advertisers about their dealings with children. The guidelines address a number of important issues: the use of treatments that may mislead children; the need to provide clear separation between programmes and advertisements; avoidance of placing undue sales pressure on children; the clarity and comprehensibility of disclaimers and qualifiers; the provision of clear factual information to reinforce comparative claims; the use of celebrity or TV characters as product endorsers; the use of premium offers, sweepstakes, and children's clubs; and safety issues. KEY ISSUES AND RESEARCH Concern about advertising aimed at children on television represents part of a wider public debate about how much
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protection children need in a society where sources of information and entertainment are expanding and new communications technologies have facilitated greater access to content through a variety of platforms. In this environment, it may become increasingly difficult for parents to control their children's media consumption, despite their willingness to continue to assume such responsibility wherever possible. Hence, there remains a need for centralized regulation and control over media content of all kinds. But what degree of regulation is needed to offer children effective protection against misleading commercial messages and advertising that might encourage potentially harmful behaviour? Within this context, how relevant is research into children and advertising? Has it yielded useful findings to inform policy, regulation, codes of practice, and control implementation strategies? REGULATIONS MAP ONTO KNOWLEDGE
A key question is whether the regulations that cover television advertising correspond with evidence from audience research about the impact or influences of advertisingintended and unintended-on children. Regulations that derive from national and international regulators, industry, and trade associations and consumer groups are extensive. They can be reduced to a small number of categories of concern about advertising. The main headings under which these issues can be conveniently divided are: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Scheduling restrictions; Product category restrictions; Advertising treatments; and Misleadingness. Regulations pertaining to each of these issues are designed to protect all consumers to some degree but have a special part to play in the protection of young consumers whose cognitive immaturity is believed to render them more vulnerable to the effects of advertising. The next section discusses each of the four issues about regulation (listed earlier) and their relationship to what we
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know about the effects of advertising on children. The discussion is brief because the background and the research evidence related to most of these issues have already been discussed in previous chapters, and we will refer back to those chapters as necessary. SCHEDULING RESTRICTIONS
There are two main reasons for the imposition of scheduling restrictions. The first is to reduce the likelihood that children will see advertising that is deemed unsuitable for them. This type of restriction derives from regulatory practices for programmes. Such restrictions apply to advertising products or the use of production treatments that are not deemed inappropriate for broadcast in general but are regarded as unsuitable for young viewers. The second reason for scheduling restrictions is to make it easier for children to recognize an advertisement as distinct from a programme. The imposition of scheduling restrictions on certain kinds of advertising is grounded in some sense of when children watch television. For example, by restricting advertisements for alcoholic drinks to the post-9 pm period, it is believed that there is less likelihood that children will see such advertisements. Moreover, in the United Kingdom, there is a principle that broadcasters will take primary responsibility for safeguarding children up to 9 pm, but that parents assume that responsibility increasingly after that time. In reality, children (Le., individuals up to 12 and certainly up to 15 years of age) may be watching at any time of the day. Television viewing figures may indicate that child audience peak consistently at particular times and that these are therefore times to be avoided, but they may also show that children are still present in the audience at times when broadcast regulators presume many have gone to bed. Achieving scheduling standards, across Europe is therefore difficult given different lifestyles and diurnal patterns in different member states. The need to help children distinguish between advertising and programmes has led to regulations that impose restrictions on certain types of advertisements. Any features of
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advertisements that might weaken children's ability to make such a distinction are regarded as placing children at a disadvantage. For this reason, characters from children's programmes cannot appear in advertisements embedded within the programmes that include those characters, and merchandise that derives from a programme cannot be advertised in close proximity to those programmes. How serious is this issue? . Researchers have shown that advertisements are the earliest category to emerge in a child's understanding of television.Different researchers have suggested different ages for when children can distinguish advertisements from programmes. Estimates of when children understand the distinction between advertisements and programmes vary from three years of age to six years of age. As explained in chapter three, the varying estimates may derive from the different ways that children's ability has been tested. Researchers who have used nonverbal methods have suggested that children may be able to discriminate between advertisements and programmes from three or four years of age. But researchers who have used other methods of testing have suggested slightly older ages. A conservative estimate of when most children can consistently distinguish advertisements and programmes might be five years of age. Before that age children may need as much support as possible to distinguish between advertisements and programmes, and regulations that help to emphasize the distinction between the two are important. The need for caution in the placing of advertisements in programmes has been reinforced by research that has revealed powerful influences of the surrounding programme environment on adults' memory for television advertising. As discussed in that chapter, the nature of the surrounding programming has also been found to affect children's recall of television advertising. Such evidence supports the point made in the previous paragraph-that regulations about the placement of advertisements can help young children distinguish the content of an advertisement from the content of the surrounding programme.
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PRODUCT CATEGORY RESTRICTIONS
Rules relating to advertising content are frequently linked to laws that place prohibitions on children's consumption of specified products, such as tobacco, alcohol, and prescription medicines. Some critics argue that advertising such products may encourage young consumers to adopt behaviours that are damaging to them. For instance, advertisements for tobacco products are believed to encourage teenage smoking, and advertisements for alcoholic drinks may encourage underage drinking. Social statistics show that both of these behaviours have increased and have heightened concerns among consumer and health lobbyists that advertising such products should remain tightly controlled. As we pointed out in that chapter, tobacco and alcohol have rarely been directly advertised to young people, but children and young people may see advertisements for such products, and this is one aspect of the "incidental" effects of advertising. From such incidental exposure children may well develop an awareness of brands and a desire to consume such products in the future. For this reason, regulations that just control the scheduling of advertisements for certain products may not be sufficient, and there may be a n~ed for more extensive bans on advertising products that a society considers harmful for children. Having said that, the points made in earlier chapters should be repeated-that television advertising for such products (such as alcohol) is only one of the influences on young people's desire to consume those products. There are also opposing viewpoints in terms of interpretation of empirical data on the role of advertising and marketing, for example, in relation to the initiation of behaviour such as smoking among teenagers. Another aspect of product category restrictions is the advertising of food products on television. Advertising for such products can legally be directed at children. The concern, voiced usually by health consumer lobby groups, is that there is a disproportionate, even excessive, amount of advertising for food products of questionable nutritional value. In chapter
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eight, we discussed the research showing that the amount of television children watched was correlated with their consumption of foods advertised on television and with their attempts to influence their mothers' food purchases. Heavily advertised foods often have high status even though they may not be the most nutritious food to consume. As with alcohol and other products, television advertising is only one factor in influencing children's diet and eating habits but it is one that has generated a great deal of concern. This is one of the reasons why the ITC Code of Advertising Standards and Practice states that: advertisements must not encourage children to eat frequently throughout the day, or encourage them to consume food or drink (especially sweet, sticky foods) near bedtime or suggest that confectionery and snack foods can be substituted for balanced meals. ADVERTISING TREATMENTS
Three broad categories of treatment apply here: on-screen behaviours that: 1. 2. 3.
Put children at risk, Encourage antisocial behaviour, or Promote excessive purchase demands. In addition, there is the more general concern about children's awareness of the tactics used by advertisers to persuade consumers to prefer the advertised brand above others. While six-year-olds may exhibit no understanding of advertisers' motives, older children slowly develop an awareness of the purpose of advertising. By their early teens, young consumers display an understanding of advertisers' use of tactics such as humour, celebrity endorsement, and product comparisons to establish a persuasive appeal. Skepticism about advertising is especially likely to emerge among children brought up in homes where their parents encourage them to think for themselves, who are less susceptible to peer group influences, and who watch more (rather than less) television.
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At Risk Behaviours.
As discussed earlier in this chapt~r advertising treatment regulations focus on the depiction of children in advertisements and restrict the portrayal of on-screen behaviours that might be copied and might put children at risk. Although no research has examined whether advertising that depicts prohibited behaviours would result in harm to children, research with television programmes shows that displays of physical risk-taking behaviour can lead to an increased willin~ess on the part of children to take physical risks themselves. Antir.ocial Conduct
Advertisements must not encourage children to be impolite or ill-mannered or to behave in an antisocial manneL These restrictions are based on concerns about children copying antisocial behaviours, especially if they see those behaviours carried out by child actors. Laboratory research evidence over many years has indicated that children will copy the actions of attractive screen role models. For example, research in the United States has indicated that children display increased aggressiveness in a play context after watching an episode from a popular television series for children, The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and this was especially true of boys in the audience. However, whether children respond in an antisocial way to antisocial conduct may also depend on their preexisting personalities. Children who already exhibit aggressive dispositions are more likely to display enhanced antisocial conduct after viewing screen violence than are children with non-aggressive personalities Research into the possible antisocial or physically damaging effects of advertising portrayals has been rare and has tended to take the form of qualitative investigations rather than experimental methodologies. For example, Hanley et a1. (2000) interviewed children and teenagers, aged nine to 16 years, in focus groups. The participants were also shown television advertisements that exemplified the specifh? concerns of adult audiencp.s about advertising, in some cases
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as registered through viewers' complaints to the television advertising regulator. We have mentioned one particular advertisement for a fizzy drink product-Tango Orange-in chapter seven. This advertisement depicted a youth taking a sip of Tango, on which a strange looking, partly naked man with all-over orange make-up rushes up and slaps the youth simultaneously on both cheeks. The youth's shock is supposed to illustrate the sharp bite of the drink. The Independent Television Commission received reports of playground emulation of this behaviour and cases of children suffering ear damage as a result. Children and teenagers found this advertisement familiar and appealing. They liked the product and thought the treatment was funny and entertaining, especially the slapping and the expression of the slapped man. They imagined that other children would be quite likely to copy the behaviour, though generally they projected this belief on to an age group slightly younger than themselves. Although such research cannot demonstrate specific cause-effect relationship between the behaviour of children and exposure to this advertisement, the unusual and readily imitative behaviour in the advertisement did attract children's attention and stuck in their minds. Excessive Purchase Demands
There is much evidence that children pester their parents to buy them products and the kinds of items most frequently requested are breakfast cereals, snacks, or confectionery, or toys. Not all pestering sterns from television advertising because there will be other influences on children (e.g., from peer groups), nonetheless advertising does lead to parents being pestered to buy products. The most significant period for parental pestering is the pre Christmas spell when there are large numbers of television advertisements for toys and other gifts aimed at children. Indeed, it has been observed that children may increase their viewing at this time in pursuit of ideas for Christmas gifts. There are restrictions on advertising treatments that centre on consumer behaviour, including pestering parents. For
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example, advertisements should not show children pestering their parents or other adults to buy them things. Nor should advertisements give the impression that by not buying something a child will be placed at a social or physical disadvantage. Misleadingness
Perhaps the primary concern about advertising, and one of the key areas of regulation in the United Kingdom, Europe, and other parts of the world, is that it should not mislead consumers. Most commentators believe that advertisers have a special responsibility not to mislead children about produc;:ts. Essentially, the demand placed on advertisers is to be truthful. Specific requirements related to misleadingness have emerged in the context of advertising toys. Toy advertising should not give children the impression that a toy is bigger, better, and more versatile than it really is. Advertising treatments should enable a child in the audience to determine the scale and size of the toy, to realise whether it is selfpropelled or manually operated, and to know whether some degree of self-construction is needed once the product has been acquired. Such requirements along with others have not only been integrated into official codes of advertising practice but also endorsed by the toy manufacturers in Europe. As far as truthfulness is concerned, some advertisements for toys and foods have been reportedly misleading for younger children because the special visual and auditory techniques used require certain cognitive skills for evaluating the reliability of the message. For example, advertising can make toys appear bigger than they really are or capable of feats that they cannot possibly achieve. Moreover, special efforts should be made to ensure that the commercial information is presented in a form that is comprehensible to young children. Disclaimer messages can be effective, provided the messages are understood by children. For example, very young children under the age of five years may be unable to understand the nature and intent of disclaimers in advertising. Of fundamental importance to
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children's understanding of disclaimers, however, is the language they use. Toy advertisements that use a standard disclaimer such as "some assembly required" do not invariably lead to a better understanding that the toy has to be put together than do similar advertisements without a disclaimer. But if the disclaimer is reworded to the child's level of comprehension, it can be understood by nearly all children, even as young as four or five years. Advertisements that include statements like, "you have to put it together," or "it must be put together before you can play with it" have been found to be quite effective at telling a child what is required. In 1996, the Independent Television Commission in the United Kingdom conducted research to examine whether rules in its Code of Advertising Standards and Practice were sufficient to prevent children being misled by toy advertising. Focus group interviews were carried out with children aged four to nine years and with their mothers. Copies of American toy advertisements were obtained that had not been shown on television in the United Kingdom and that were therefore unfamiliar to the children. These advertisements were placed between two cartoon programme segments and presented as if forming a commercial break. Families were given a copy of the tape with this material before being interviewed to give them the opportunity to become familiar with the advertisements. The study found that the children, particularly the older ones, were quick to assimilate and interpret what they were shown. For instance, the older children (eight-nine-year-olds) accepted and understood a range of special effects and devices within the advertisements, but younger children were less experienced in recognizing and interpreting advertisements. The younger children also had exhibited more literal interpretations of advertising and had heightened expectations about the products they saw compared with the older children. When the children could equate an unfamiliar toy with a toy or category of toys they already knew about, they were able to make sense of the advertisement and the product more readily. But danger of being misled about a toy increased when the product defied classification or did not conform to the expected category.
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CONCLUSIONS
Television advertising regulation in Britain and Europe recognizes the need for special consideration to be given to children, and the national and transnational codes of advertising practice accord children additional protection over and above the standard regulations that cover advertising to consumers in general. The nature and stringency of advertising regulation varies from one country to another, with some countries employing more restrictive codes than others. A few countries observe an all-out ban on advertising directed at children, but others place selective restrictions on certain categories of advertising or on the times when particular types of advertisement may be transmitted. The core principle for advertiSing that is reflected in all codes of practice, whether observed on an international or national scale, endorsed by statutory legislation, or voluntary industry codes, is the need for advertising to be truthful in its claims and the way it represents the product being promoted. This principle is never disputed, although the degree of detail in which misleadingness is defined can vary from code to code. Criticism of television advertiSing and its regulation has predominantly derived from consumer organizations. One of the chief areas of complaint has centreed on the advertising of foods directed at children and advertising has been accused of focusing on promotion of foods of dubious nutritional value. Current regulations and codes of practice in countries such as the United Kingdom do advise advertisers against reinforcing unhealthy eating habits, but critics feel that such codes, although helpful, do not go far enough. One limitation of the codes is that they focus on individual advertisements and do not address the volume and intensity of such advertising in its totality. In any case, it is unlikely that any code could. address advertising in its totality (e.g. by introducing restrictive quotas for advertising of particular categories of product). Codes of practice jor television advertising are comprehensive in scope and generally effective. But perhaps
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the weakest area of regulation in the United Kingdom, when judging the codes against research evidence, is that of scheduling restrictions. Such restrictions are designed to minimize the chances that children will be exposed to ad vertising that is inappropriate for them. In other words, they should not be exposed to advertisements for products they are legally unable to buy or to consume (e.g., alcoholic drinks,). They should not experience advertising treatments deemed inappropriate for them (e.g., advertisements featuring nudity or potentially frightening images). And they should not be exposed to advertising that bears a close resemblance to programmes that they might normally watch (e.g., products that are endorsed by children's TV presenters). But the reality of children's television viewing habits means that such restrictive scheduling practices are unlikely to be totally successful because children often watch television long after dedicated children's programmes have finished. The implicit "deal" between broadcasters and parents that after an agreed watershed parents will assume greater responsibility for their children's viewing (e.g., after 9 pm), removes the responsibility from the broadcasters. But it does not necessarily get round the problem of children seeing advertisements that have a content that is inappropriate for them. . The debate about children and the regulation of advertising could be broadened out to consider the wider implications of tighter regulation or alternative modes of protecting children's interests as consumers. However, tighter regulation of advertising could be interpreted as an infringement of the right to freedom of speech, and this is certainly true in the United States. In Europe, case law of the European Court of Human Rights has established that "information of a commercial nature" falls under the protection of article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. In practice, however, commercial speech has not received as much legal protection as other forms of public speech. An alternative to tighter regulation might be better consumer literacy training. In chapter three, we discussed
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media training programmes for children, and some of these programmes include raising children's awareness about the nature of advertising. The assumption behind advertising literacy programmes is that if young children can be taught about advertising they will develop better "cognitive defences" to protect themselves from the claims of advertisements and, therefore, like adults, they will be in less need of protective regulation. In chapter five, however, we argued that very young children may simply not have the available cognitive processes to develop a full understanding of advertisements. If this is the case, then advertising regulations will always be an important way to protect children until they reach an age when they can develop their own full appreciation of the.form, nature, and content of advertising. CONCLUDING COMMENTS
Increased merchandising to young consumers has placed consumerism centre stage in the lives of children and teenagers. This phenomenon has been accompanied by growing concerns about the ability of youngsters to make mature judgements about commercial messages. The psychological immaturity of children may render them more susceptible to the temptations of promotional messages and campaigns. While this fact is not inherently or necessarily a bad thing, it may mean that youngsters may be particularly vulnerable to misleading commercial messages that make claims about products or brands that do not represent the truth. Before accusing advertisers and marketers of unscrupulous behaviour and of deliberate attempts to lead child consumers astray, it is important to study the evidence about the ways children engage with advertising and the significance it may have in relation to their brand preferences, purchase behaviour and consumer socialization: Over the years, research into advertising has accumulated giving rise to a body of knowledge about the part it plays in shaping consumers' desires, beliefs, values, and choices. Television has emerged as a particularly salient advertising medium, which is not surprising given its ubiquity and
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prominence as a source of entertainment and information. This book represents one attempt to review research evidence about children and advertising on television, examining the nature of advertising on the small screen, children's awareness and understanding of televised advertising, and the different ways in which advertising messages can influence youngsters . . On the other hand, consumer groups and parents have often voiced their concerns about advertising to children who might not have a full critical awareness of the nature of advertising. As we have pointed out, these concerns are related to several issues. The effects of food advertising on children's health has been a major concern but so has the influence of alcohol advertising on young people, and in some countries, the effects of tobacco advertising. There may be more general concerns about the presentation of products and the incidental effects of that presentation for implying social and gender stereotypes. Parents have also expressed concerns that, in recent years, new markets have been developed to target ever younger children with programmes and products aimed specifically at very young children (e.g., the BBC programme, Tektubbies). At the same time, a number of new products have become available (from computer games to mobile telephones) and are now marketed to children. The increasing children's market may lead to more family conflicts as children want or expect a larger number of possessions, including products that are often more expensive to buy and update than traditional toys and games. The research described in this book can be, very broadly, divided into two parts. The research that has focused on children's understanding of advertising messages and the research that has examined the effects of advertising on children. Both these areas have been extensively researched, and therefore, we have some idea of when children are aware of advertising and some idea of the effects that advertising can have. Nonetheless, both areas of research have some limitations. As pointed out in chapter five, most research into children's understanding of television advertising has been
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.earried out in the absence of any strong theoretical framework. For this reason, much of the evidence about children's understanding remains descriptive, and although the results of the research have indicated when children can (and cannot) understand various concepts associated with advertising, we do not know very much about the factors that contribute to the development of that understanding. Or indeed, why young children who may have watched many thousands of advertisements do not have greater insights into advertising. We have suggested that children's understanding of concepts (such as the nature of persuasion in advertisements) may be directly related to their understanding of the same concepts in other contexts. However, as yet we know comparatively little about the development of children's notions of persuasion, honesty, truthfulness, misleadingness, exaggeration, self-presentation, or any of the other factors that might be associated with advertising messages. Even when those factors have been researched by developmental psychologists, they have been researched in contexts far removed from television advertising. Children may need to achieve certain levels of cognitive development before they have an understanding of the factors related to advertising. For example, we suggest that once children understand the nature of persuasion in social contexts, they may then be able to apply that concept to other areas, such as advertising messages. Research into children's understanding of advertising cannot therefore be separated from research into the development of their cognitive abilities in general. However, researchers have not yet compared children's understanding of advertising concepts with their understanding of the same concepts in other domains. For this reason, the studies into children and advertising tend to be an island of research. Although informative in themselves, this work has hardly ever, and with any degree of sophistication, been joined to the wider research into, and the contemporary theories of, children's development. In future research, it will be important to make stronger links between children's understanding of advertisements and
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children's cognitive development, :or several reasons. First, although what has been said earlier implies a causal relationship, with developing cognitive abilities leading to a better understanding of advertisements, there may well be an effect in the opposite direction, with children's growing awareness of advertising influencing their understanding of concepts like persuasion, presentation, and misleadingness. After all, children's awareness, and occasional cynicism, about advertising may stem from their disappointment between expectations about a product and the actual experience of the product. Given the role that advertising plays in children's lives it would not be surprising if children learn some concepts 'as much from the media as from other areas of their experience. Second, young children's understanding of advertising may be informed by other factors. It is possible that parents' comments or specific teaching (e.g., in media skills courses) could play an important part in enhancing their consumer literacy. More recently, it has become possible that some young children may even develop their own advertising skills through using advertisements to swap items over the Web. To do this successfully, they need to find ways to describe items effectively and attractively, and they must also do so with some accuracy and fairness if they want to be recognized as reliable "traders". The relative importance of all these factors in contributing to children's understanding of advertisements still needs to be researched. In particular, training programmes (e.g. MediaSmart, 2003) that have been specifically designed to help children understand the nature of advertising and demonstrate how advertisements are created, need to be critically evaluated to find out how effective they are in increasing children's awareness. The second broad area of research into children and advertising considered the effects of advertising on children. This includes both the deliberate effects, such as whether children are more likely to want or buy products that they have seen advertised and the incidental or unintended effects of advertising. Advertising does work, and chapter seven included examples of experimental work in which children
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saw a product advertised and were then more likely to choose that product soon afterward. However, this research is limited in that it is difficult to design experiments to investigate the effects of advertising when there is a delay between viewing an advertisement and making a product choice. This is especially the case in real life contexts when there will usually be a long delay between an advertising message and a purchase and where there will also be many other influences on children's choices. Two of the most important influences upon children's consumer socialization are parents and peer groups although there has been little research into the relative importance of advertising influences, parental influence, and peer influence. In fact, it might be difficult ever to establish exactly how these influences interact as the precise balance of influence from advertising and from other sources varies depending on many factors. These factors will include the age of the child, the child's perception of the importance of parents' or peers' comments the time, and the attractiveness of a particular product. The relationship between such factors is likely to be fluid, and the relative importance of anyone factor at anyone time may be hard to determine.
at
Most of the research has considered the effects of advertiSing on children in the context of mediating factors like the influence of parents and peers (where peers usually means face-to-face friendship groups). With the advent of contemporary communi-cation technology (the Internet and mobile telephones), however, children now have access to friends, peers, and chat rooms, well beyond their immediate family or a friendship group. For this reason, the influences on contemporary children are much broader and more complex than the influences on children in previous generations. More important, access to the Internet not only provides ideas and influences but can also be a source of information so that children can actively search out details about products. They can locate reviews of those products and can obtain information to check out the claims of any advertisement before deciding whether or not to purchase the
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product. Children's role as searchers of information, rather than simply being recipients of views from family or immediate friends, is a major change in the independence of children as consumers. Children now have the ability to compare advertising claims about a product with a range of sources providing other information about that product from different Web sites. How this ability will affect children's purchase behaviour is unknown but will be an important area of research in the future. The majority of academic research studies into children and advertising has been carried out in North America, and most of the rest has been conducted in Western Europe. Thisbias may not have serious implications for our knowledge of children's understanding of advertisements. If we assume that understanding follows in the wake of cognitive development and that all children do develop in similar ways in different cultures, then children's ability to recognize, and later to interpret advertisements, should be a similar achievement irrespective of the culture in which they are brought up. The concentration of research in just a few countries, however, might affect our interpretation of the research into the effects of advertising. The influence of advertising is likely to be mediated by the culture and the social traditions in which children are reared. Children in different cultures may be more or less materialistic than children in other cultures and the effects of advertising may also differ, but there has been little research comparing children from different countries. In a world with global markets and global advertising, there is a need to increase the number of studies from different countries to establish similarities and differences in the effects of advertising on children. One of the most important changes in contemporary children's lives is the rapid increase in all forms of electronic communication. Not only does such communication connect children instantly to other children across the globe, but as these forms of c{lmmunication become both cheaper and more portable,' they are accessible to all. A generation of children with constant access to the 'Internet, wherever they are and
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whatever they are doing, represent a new market access opportunity for advertisers who target children. As Internet advertising, including text and video messaging, increases with the growth of electronic communication, then the context of television advertising will change. At present, television advertising is the predominant form of marketing to children, but this may well change as other forms of advertising become more common. The relative influence of television advertising in the context of all the new ways that children will experience advertising will be an important research area in the near future. Most of the current academic studies into children and advertising have considered only children's understanding of television or the effects of that advertising. This focus has been appropriate while television advertising has dominated all advertising to children, but in the future, children's awareness of television advertising will need to be considered in a wider context because television advertising is likely to become only one of many marketing channels to children. The advance of home entertainment technology and the merging of currently distinct technologies, such as the television and home computer, will also empower consumers in ways that may render traditional forms of advertising redundant or no longer effective. Television will become an interactive medium and technologically enhanced to enable media consumers to control reception of content to a far greater extent than today. New reception technologies may enable viewers to screen out advertisements in traditional "natural breaks"within and between programmes. Advertisers will need to become more inventive and subtle in the ways they get their messages through. Programme sponsorship could become more significant along with product placement. While most countries deploy regulatory restrictions of these forms of advertising, there may be financial pressures upon the media and communications sectors that encourage regulators or governments to relax these restrictions. Interactive television opens up other new marketing and promoi.ional possibilities for advertisers. Advertisers such as
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Advertising Regulation and Research
Coca Cola have already begun to experiment with interactive advertising campaigns in which viewers are encouraged to connect with competitions and free offers through the interactive facility of interactive digital television. In this way, advertisements become intimately linked to entertainment activities via television that tempt consumers to pay attention to the advertising and present the advertisers with subtle opportunities to reinforce brand awareness by grabbing and maintaining consumers' attention beyond the advertising itself. Such developments will undoubtedly raise significant questions about the effects such schemes may have on young consumers. It will be important that researchers are equipped theoretically and methodologically to investigate these new advertising phenomena.
--~-Advertising: The Concern On many television networks around the world a not insubstantial proportion of TV airtime is filled by advertisements. Controls over advertising on television are more rigid in some countries than others. For example, rules governing the amount of ad vertising content in each broadcast hour, and the frequency with which advertising breaks can occur during a single programme place more restrictions on television advertising in Britain than is found in the United States. Even so, the number of advertising breaks during the course of each day's programming on British television, especially during peak time, is sufficient to merit empirical consideration and exploration relating to the impact this material has on the audience . . In the United States, anxieties over the influence of television advertising, especially on children, have resulted in parental movements on a national scale which have voiced their concern at the highest levels. On an intuitive levet at least, this concern of parents for the mental and behavioural welfare of their youngsters, who may be exposed to thousands of commercials during their young lives, should not be regarded as trivial or unwarranted. Very oftel1, the standards of production of television advertisements are equal to or even better than those in programmes and consequently their impact on the attention of the television audience should not be underrated or ignored. Furthermore, the faces and voices prevalent on television advertisements are often the same 1S
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those seen and heard in other contexts on popular television shows. One ought not to be too surprised, therefore, if young children confuse programmes and advertisements. Given these similarities between programming and advertising, how difficult is it for children to distinguish between the two and how susceptible are they, therefore, to commercilll appeals broadcast on television? The answer to this question is not certain because research in this field lags behind that on effects of other types of television content such as violence or sex-at least in the academic sphere. There is, of course, ample research conducted by advertising agencies and others involved in the advertising industry. This proprietary research rarely surfaces outside the agencies responsible for conducting it and seldom enters into discussion about the efficacy of television advertising. Although increasing numbers of academic studies have emerged during the 1970s and 1980s, our knowledge of the ways children are affected cognitively, emotionally and behaviourally by commercial messages on television is still limited. Many parents and critics fear that children are particularly susceptible to commercial appeals because young viewers lack the necessary cognitive skills to defend themselves against what are often highly attractive and skilfully worded persuasive messages. Other undesirable consequences of television commercials listed by their critics are that they lead youngsters to pressure parents into purchasing products unnecessarily and thereby often create conflict within the family, and that the number and nature of televised commercials to which children are exposed before they leave school are such that they are likely to be socialised into overmaterialistic ways. The first published work in the area of advertising was an American study carried out with 400 children aged 6 to 12 years, who were asked to list as many products advertised on television as they could remember. They were given fifteen minutes to do this. Even the youngest could recall some products, with children generally producing an average of
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twenty. The three most recalled products were detergents, beer and cigarettes, which were not directly advertised to children. A few years later, a book called The Hidden Persuaders emerged which painted a picture of people-the innocents-being manipulated by advertisers who used sophisticated selling techniques to persuade people to buy things they do not really need anyway. This was a highly rhetorical statement about the impact of advertising, but not effectively backed up with hard evidence. Nevertheless it set the scene for future thinking about advertising. CHILDREN'S REACTIONS TO ADVERTISING
Many early instances of advertising adopted a very simplistic understanding of the way advertising works. Where children are concerned, for instance, there is assumed to be a straightforward cause-and-effect relationship between the advertised message and the behaviour it recommends. In other words, on watching an advertisement on television children may be directly encouraged to go out and buy the advertised or attempt to persuade someone else-a parent perhaps-to buy it for them. This view of the influence of advertising fails to take into account the full complexities of the process, however. It ignores children's ability to process and evaluate advertisements, just as they do with programmes, prior to deciding whether or not to believe the commercial appeal or to act upon it. Growing concern about children's susceptibility to more subtle messages in advertisements has, on occasions, prompted broadcast regulators to act against specific commercials, as witnessed when the Independent Broadcasting Authority, which regulated advertising on television in the UK in the 1980s, judged a commercial for Levi's 501 jeans as too sexy to be shown during children's programmes or on Saturday afternoons. One writer warned that such steps reflected a reaction to a trend in the pursuit of selling whereby the barriers are being shifted to a point many will find unacceptable. The first advertisement in the Levi's campaign, Nick Kamen's launderette commercial, was marked with a touch
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more humour than sex. The next, however, used a 14-yearold girl, shown after parting from her boyfriend, lying on her back dressed in T-shirt and knickers, suggestively pulling on the Levi's he had left her. A third commercial in the series had a muscular stranger coming downstairs in an American Midwestern boarding house, dressed only in shirt and underpants. He smoulders at the owner's daughter as the father looks on with suspicion; he sighs as he pulls on his Levi's taken from the fridge and then rides off into the desert, leaving an obviously aroused woman behind him. The advertisement was extremely well made-but to what end? It is not just increasingly explicit sex that advertisers are using; it is a whole range of immoral practices, from attempted murder to squeezing a man out of his job. Two more examples illustrate this point. In a commercial for Pirelli, again a beautifully crafted little piece of drama, the male protagonist set out in his car-but the woman in his life had tampered with the brakes. Thanks to Pirelli tyres, he survives. Then, there was the bought woman in a Volkswagen commercial. This time the mistress walked out; symbolically she threw away a succession of expensive gifts including the expensive fur. But she kept the keys to the Volkswagen Golf. The concern among some writers is that, while using 'immorality' to sell goods, the advertisers are also selling the immorality itself. Another worry is that audiences will grow accustomed to this style of advertising and be less aware of its gradual influence upon them. To what extent is this alarmist viewpoint substantiated by what is known about the effect of advertising on children-and with what children themselves know and understand and have to say about advertisements? Increasingly, research has revealed that children exhibit a growing sophistication about advertising during their formative years. Although early on in life they may have no proper understanding of the dishonest character of advertisements and their purposes compared with
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programmes, this soon changes. Research has shown that advertising does not directly influence its audience. It may, nonetheless, play an important role in children's consumer socialisation, teaching them consumer values and ways of expressing them. The potential impact of the message can be determined by a whole range of other factors. In this chapter we shall examine the nature and extent of television advertising's influence on children. We can begin by examining some of the substantiated facts about children's experience with television advertising and then explore what children themselves think about television commercials. MAKING SENSE OF ADVERTISING
Although advertisi.ng is designed ultimately to manipulate consumer behaviour, this influence is mediated by what people think about advertising per se as well as about specific advertisements. Before a commercial can change people's minds about what to buy or encourage them to favour one brand over another, its message must be taken in and examined. Viewers must pay attention to their TV sets for this to happen. They must pay sufficient attention that they are able to remember the commercial or the elements of it that the advertiser hopes will make their product more appealing. However, the influence process also depends on what viewers know about the aims of advertising and on how much they believe what advertisements tell them. Thus, in t.~e context of the impact of television advertising upon children, several important questions need to be considered. •
Are children aware of advertisements as distinct from programmes?
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Do children understand what advertisements are about?
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Do children remember and believe what advertisements tell them?
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Are children likely to respond to advertising by wanting the things advertised for themselves?
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Before advertising can affect young viewers, it must impinge upon their consciousness in some way. Although there has in the past been concern about the effects of subliminal advertising, solid support for the efficacy of this sort of advertising from research has failed to materialise. In any case, the use of subliminal images or messages in TV advertising in the UK is outlawed. Even though presented in a normal, perceptible way, children may not necessarily notice advertisements. If they look away from the screen for a minute or two, the message may easily be missed. Another problem, especially with very young viewers, is that they simply may fail to make the distinction between programmes and advertisements. The two may run together as an indistinguishable montage of images and voices. Children's attention to TV advertising can be measured in a variety of ways. Children can be asked directly whether they watch and remember advertisements, or parents can be questioned about their children's reactions to TV ads. A more objective method used by some researchers has been to make their own direct observations of children's attention to the screen during ad breaks. The latter have the advantage that they monitor children continuously while watching television and that running logs are kept by independent observers of levels of attention during actual viewing. Evidence derived from the reports of children or their parents may lack the same degree of measuring because it relies heavily on the often fallible memories and dubious vigilance of respondents when required to monitor their own or others' viewing behaviours. Parents, for example, have been found to provide higher estimates of children's attention to TV adverts than independent, continuous observations typically viewed. Both types of evidence, however, have indicated an increase in attention to screen during ad breaks with age. Thus, when, in
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oIle American study, sixty-five mothers were invited to report on the home viewing of their children (aged 5 to 12 years), they indicated lower levels of attention among younger children than among older ones. Younger children also tended to pay less attention throughout the advertisements as compared with older children. Children aged 5-8 years were at full attention 67 per cent of advertisement viewing time, and 9- to 12-year-olds averaged full attention 75 per cent of the viewing time. Older children's attention when a series of advertisements was presented in a block tended to drop towards the end. Older children tended to make more critical comments about adverts they saw than did younger children. In an observational study in which researchers placed video cameras in family homes, somewhat lower levels of attention to television advertisements were found. They found that children up to 10 years old whom they observed watched adverts only 40 per cent of the time they were on air, while 11- to 19-year-olds watched them 55 per cent of the time they were on. Even direct observations of children's television viewing by trained monitors do not always produce the same impressions of young viewers' attention to the screen. Much depends on the setting in which viewing takes place. For example, observations made of children's viewing in schools have found higher levels of attention to advertisements than ones made in home viewing contexts. Another indication of children's awareness of advertising is their ability to recognise or recall it. As with their level of attention to ad breaks, children's memory for advertisements changes with age. As they get older, children become better at remembering adverts and are able to recall more about different TV ads. It would appear that there is a major change in the type of information retained from advertisements between the ages of 5-6 and 8-9 years.
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Younger children tend to recall single elements from the commercials whereas older children tend to recall more product and commercial plot-line information. Recognition (measured by selection from a range of alternatives) seems to be uniformly poor, ranging from a level slightly above chance for 5- to 6-year-olds to an average level of 70 per cent for 8- to 9-year-olds (based on a chance recognition score of 33 per cent). There can be a high degree of variability across children, however. Despite generally low recognition and recall scores, young children seem to find certain features of advertisements more salient than others. In particular, commercial slogans, jingles or unusual, humorous elements may stand out far more than brand names. CHILDREN'S UNDERSTANDING OF TV ADVERTISING
There are two principal issues concerning children's understanding of TV advertising. The first concerns their understanding of what TV advertising is about. What is the purpose of advertising? How does it differ from programming in its aims? A second important feature of children's understanding relates to how much they are able to follow and interpret the appeals made by adverts for the commodities being advertised. For children to understand the purpose of TV advertising, however, they must be capable of making a series of important discriminations. They must be able to: •
Distinguish advertisements as separate from programmes; • Recognise a sponsor as the source of the commercial message; • Perceive the idea of an intended audience for the message; • Understand the symbolic' nature of products, character and contextual representation in commercials; • To discriminate by example between product as advertised and products as experienced. When interviewed or questioned in general terms about TV advertising, children's ability to describe the differences I
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between advertisements and programmes has been found to improve considerably with age. Usually, very young children below 8 years old express a certain amount of confusion when asked to define the nature of television commercials. Older children, on the other hand, are able to distinguish between programme and commercial material on the basis of an overall understanding of each message's meaning. To measure children's awareness of TV advertisements as distinct entities from programmes without relying purely on youngsters' personal accounts, some researchers have monitored changes in children's levels of visual attention whilst they are actually watching television. One consistent finding is a tendency often for children to exhibit a drop in visual attention to the screen during an advertising break compared with their amount of looking at the screen while watching prior programming. In addition, children's looking at the screen may continue to decline across the ad break and over the course of subsequent breaks in a programme. Age differences are, once again, very apparent. The smallest decreases in attention tend to occur among the youngest viewers (5- to 7-year-olds) who displayed higher and more stable levels of visual attention to both advertisements and programmes than do older children. Young and immature children may exhibit a higher degree of stability in their visual attention to programmes and advertisements, whereas older children show a higher degree of differentiation in when they look attentively at the screen. In one illustration of children's patterns of looking at television across different kinds of material, one group of researchers showed groups of 6-, 8-and lO-year-old children a fifteen-minute television programme in which was embedded a commercial break consisting of two advertisements. While viewing this material the children themselves were videotaped and their attention to the programme and the advertisements was assessed. Attention dropped during the time the first advertisement appeared, and decreased even further during the course of the second advertisement. This effect occurred whether the advertisements were presented in the context of
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a live-action or an animated programme and was observed ewer eight different types of advertisements, indicating that it was unlikely that the drop in attention was specific to particular kinds of advertising or programme content. Studies which use children's visual attention to the television screen as a measure of their ability to discriminate between programmes and advertisements can be difficult to interpret. Attention to an advertisement or a programme may shift because of differences in certain physical features, such as the kinds of images being shown, the background music and so on. This does not necessarily mean that children are making a conceptual distinction between an 'advertisement' and a 'programme' and thus choose mentally to switch off when the ad break occurs. The children's attention may shift according to how interesting or boring they find what they are watching and not just because they know what is coming next (i.e. an ad break) and therefore do not need to watch. Although shifts in amount of looking do occur among children when watching programmes and advertisements, these may signify little more than superficial perceptual responses to these two types of material and may not confidently be interpreted to represent a deeper, conceptual differentiation between advertising and programming. A more precise measure of children's understanding of television advertising is needed which explores what they actually assimilate from individual commercials. The level of attention children pay to television advertising can be influenced by a variety of production features residing within the commercial itself. Visual scene changes and changes in the nature or amplitude of the soundtrack can affect audiences' attention. Advertisements which contain a large number of visual changes in scene, action and characters, and which have fast-paced production features-such as rapid cutting between camera shots, zooming in and out of close-ups and fading the picture up or down to a brighter or darker level of lighting-can hold the child's visual
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attention. On an auditory level, lively music, sound effects, unusual voices, children's and women's voices and laughter are all effective for maintaining attention. Children often monitor television advertisements via the soundtrack even when they are looking away from the screen. When their interest is triggered, they will tum to look at the screen again and maintain eye contact with it for as long as the commercial engages their interest. Music plays an important role in this process since it may both attract and hold the young viewer's attention, and increase the likelihood of repeat viewing and listening whenever the advertisement appears, enhancing its potential impact. Most studies, however, reveal that music is by no means an isolated element of a commercial, and only functions in relationship with other features of an advertisement, such as dialogue, type of voice, and visual elements. As a result of this, the salience and impact of music will vary from advertisement to advertisement, and it is not realistic to expect that the relationship between music and consumer response will be consistent. For young people it is, of course, probably the type of music played during the advertisement that is of great significance. WHAT DO CHILDREN REMEMBER FROM TV ADVERTISING
From the perspective of the advertiser, a successful advertising campaign is a memorable one because the opportunity to buy a product following its appearance on a television advertisement is usually delayed. Therefore, it is the information which the viewer has stored, and is subsequently able to retrieve from memory about the advertised brand, that will influence the decision whether or not to choo~e that brand rather than others from the same product category. However, measures of children's memory for advertising content may also provide an indication of how children come to understand the nature and purpose of advertisements as distinct from programmes.
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It seems that, although there is generally no intent among young viewers to seek information from television commercials to use in a purchase decision (except perhaps at Christmas time when they may be looking for gift ideas), children may nevertheless use information which they have already learned from commercials when asking parents for specific products at a later date. Advertising may also influence a child to buy a particular attractive or highly valued attribute rather than other brands of the same type. Children may remember certain aspects of TV adverts better than others. Furthermore, it seems that the better children are able to retain and understand factual and emotional appeals made about products by advertisements, the more they distinguish adverts from surrounding programmes.
Researchers can sometimes underestimate children's understanding of television, however, especially when they use techniques which are insensitive to the subtleties of what children pick up from what they watch. One illustration of this is the way children are tested for what they can remember about adverts. Recall measures may not always be sufficient to tap memory (and therefore perhaps comprehension) performance of children on television commercials. When asked to recall freely, younger children may not always understand what is required of them and inevitably lack the skill to articulate their thoughts as clearly as older children. Instead, recognition scores may be a more sensitive means of measuring memory, especially among very young viewers. Fortunately, using recall, one study found that 8-year-olds showed considerably better overall memory for the product appeals contained in commercials than 3- to 4-year-olds. But, when recognition measures were used, this difference was substantially reduced as the percentage of younger viewers remembering the commercial products elements increased substantially. Another study provided children aged between 4 and 10 years with photographs of animated presenter characters from either programmes or food commercials and asked them to identify the characters. On the basis of recognition scores, it was found that even children as young
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as 4 years could distinguish between animated characters as they appeared in programmes ar commercials, and could also link those characters from food commercials to their respective products. Memory for advertising may be a significant factor at the point of purchase. Research suggests that when children have to choose a brand out of a wide range of largely similar products, one of the factors that will influence their choice will be the most salient advertisement for an available brand retrieved from memory, rather than the most recent television advertisement seen or heard. The child's memory for advertisements, however, is a very complex issue. Brands do not simply exist in isolation in children's minds; they are clustered in groups of products having similar characteristics. Consequently, a commercial for one brand may increase the salience of related brands from the same product category. DISTINGUISHING ADVERTISEMENTS FROM PROGRAMMES
One significant aspect of children's understanding of television advertising is their ability to tell the difference between commercials and programmes. The suggestion made by some researchers-that with growing maturity and viewing experience children develop their own 'cognitive defences' against the influences of advertising-rests on an assumption that they can recognise a commercial in the first place. Early signs that advertisements are distinguished from programmes emerged with the observation that children's level of visual attention would often shift when a programme broke for a commercial. Children's ability to make this distinction develops with age. It emerges, however, very early. A number of researchers have noted that by 5 years of age, most children can consistently distinguish advertisements from programmes. One study found that 3- to 5-year-olds applied the terms 'programme' or 'commercial' correctly about two-thirds of the time when a videotape with programming and advertising was stopped at random points. Research that
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does not rely on children's verbal abilities has found that children as young as 3 know the difference between television programmes and advertisements. The symbolic meaning of products grows stronger between the ages of 9 and 11. Children of this age have been found to possess the ability to describe the kind of child likely to own familiar products when photographs of these" products are shown to them. Product symbolism tends to be stronger in girls than boys, and is better developed in middle-class children than working-class children. After the age of 9, children show steady improvement in understanding the ambiguous wording, humour and imagery found in advertisements. Children's ability to distinguish between programmes and advertisements on television can also be influenced by advertising-related factors. Sometimes these factors can make it easier for children to distinguish advertisements; on other occasions, such factors make it more difficult. The use of popular television characters or animated cartoon heroes in commercials may lead children to become more confused about what they are watching. There is no universal agreement on this issue. At least one author has observed, however, that the use of licensed characters (such as Walt Disney characters or the Smurfs) within an advertisement removes some of the formal distinctive features of advertisements and may therefore lead to confusion among younger children as to whether they appear in an advertisement or a programme. Another phenomenon which has been considered within the current context is the existence of a wide variety of advertiser-initiated, product-related shows and programme sponsorship. Although these commercial and promotional schemes go beyond the usual form of spot advertising, they nevertheless represent a form of marketing designed to raise brand awareness among young consumers. Furthermore, for some observers, this form of commercialism represents an insidious kind of advertising in which the real purpose of ostensibly entertainment-oriented programming is little more than an extended advertisement for a product.
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THE SELLING PURPOSE OF TV ADVERTISING
Another important aspect of children's understanding of TV advertising is the ability to recognise the selling motive of adverts. A key component of the selling motive is the persuasive intent of advertising. If children are unaware of the persuasive purpose of advertising, they could be more vulnerable to its influences. Most researchers agree that the awareness of the purpose of television advertising is a very important step in the child's acquisition of the necessary skills to become advertising-literate. There is consistent evidence that younger children who do not understand the persuasive intent of commercials are more likely to perceive them as truthful messages, whereas older children who can discern persuasive intent tend to express sceptical attitudes towards commercials. Results of various survey studies indicate that, below the age of 6, the vast majority of children cannot readily explain the selling purpose of advertising. Between the ages of about 5 and 9 years, the majority of children come to be able to recognise and explain the selling intent of advertising. In a British survey, when children were asked, 'What is the main reason they have advertisements on TV?', eight out of ten (SO per cent) replied that it is because the advertisers want to sell you something, while around one in eight (12 per cent) thought it is because they want you to know something. Fewer than one in ten (S per cent) did not know. These responses did not differ by age or by social class, but they did differ by sex. The girls in the study were even more likely (S4 per cent) than the boys (75 per cent) to indicate that the main purpose of advertisements was to sell something; the boys were more likely to indicate that they did not know the main purpose. Children's verbal replies to questions about what television advertisements are and why they are shown have thus revealed significant improvements in understanding. In all such studies, however, the apparent growth in understanding has to be weighed against the relative abilities
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of younger and older children to articulate the differences between programmes and advertisements, regardless of whether or not they actually make the &~tinction in their own minds. R'::!search in which understanding of the purpose of television advertisements has not relied on the children's verbal abilities, but in which children merely have to point at pictures in order to indicate what the character in a commercial wanted them to do, has revealed that, although the grasp of concepts improves with age, children as young as 3 years of age have exhibited some understanding of selling intent. CHILDREN'S TRUST IN TV ADVERTISING
Whilst understanding of the nature of TV advertisements "appears to improve as children get older, belief in the truthfulness of advertising appeals tends to decline. Before they begin school, there is widespread belief among young viewers that TV adverts tell the truth all the time. While few believe this at age 8, hardly any still do at age 12. The advertising industry can therefore begin to suffer from a credibility gap among quite young children. At the same time, children's attempts to influence parents to buy advertised products seen on television show a marked decline. In general, it seems that as children grow older they understand more completely the selling motive underlying television advertising and become less responsive to commercial appeals. Older children make more numerous and more refined judgements about television commercials and develop a cognitive mechanism against persuasion. A survey of British children's views about TV advertising asked a national sample of 4- to 13-year-olds (over 500 children) if they thought that advertisements on television tell the truth. Only a few (6 per cent) thought that advertisements 'always' tell the truth, while rather more (15 per cent) thought that they 'quite often' are truthful. Most (60 per cent) felt that advertisements tell the truth' sometimes'. Nearly one in five
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(18 per cent) thought that it is not common for advertisements to tell the truth, while a small number (2 per cent) felt that advertisements were never truthful. Perceived truth in advertising was not found to differ according to the sex or social class of the children, but age did make a difference. The youngest children were most likely to believe that advertisements told the truth, while older children became more scepticaL Attention to advertisements would seem to vary across children. Around one in three (31 per cent) said that when advertisements come on they watch them all, while even more (37 per cent) said they watch most. Relatively fewer claim to be less attentive; fewer than one in five in each case said they watch around half the advertisements in a break (15 per cent) or watch just a few (18 per cent). None of the children said that they did not watch any. Responses to this question did not differ by age or social class, but there was a significant, although not large, difference between boys and girls. The girls reported greater attention to advertising than did the boys, a phenomenon which other research indicates carries over to adulthood. Furthermore, amount of exposure to advertising was positively related to the perceived truthfulness of advertising; those who said they paid more attention to advertisements were also more likely to say they believed more of the advertisements. And those who said they were more attentive were also more likely either to give positive or negative opinions about advertising. Despite their scepticism, young consumers often have favourable attitudes towards specific advertisements. A study carried out among children aged 9 and 10 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, found that two-thirds believed that advertisers tell the truth only some of the time. Despite this negative global opinion towards advertising, most of the children said they enjoyed particular advertisements, especially the ones featuring humour.
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DO CHILDREN WANT WHAT THEY SEE ADVERTISED ON TV Television advertising is designed to influence consumer behaviour either by encouraging consumers principally to switch from one brand to another or to remain loyal to the one they currently buy. To some extent, advertising may also be concerned with creating markets for new brands. When looking at possible influences of TV advertising on children, it is important to make certain crucial distinctions between them and adult consumers. Children do not always have the means to buy many advertised items. Although children today have more personal disposable income than at any time hitherto, they are often reliant on parents to buy things for them. This situation commonly changes with age. As they get into their teens, young consumers have money of their own to spend-either from parttime jobs or pocket money. They also have more freedom and independence to go out on their own than during earlier years. Thus new opportunities to spend open up to them. To some extent, therefore, advertisements may probably direct themselves at youngsters who have their own money to spend. Alternatively, advertising may operate through encouraging children to approach their parents with requests to purchase items. Research in a number of different countries, including the United States, Britain and Japan, has indicated that children's requests for advertised products can result in conflicts within the family. A study by Adler and his colleagues asked more than 700 American children aged 4 to 10 years whether they urged their mothers to buy toys they had seen advertised on television. Children who were heavy viewers of television were more likely to ask for advertised products (40 per cent) than infrequent viewers (16 per cent). The amount of parental pestering that occurs can be reduced if children are more usually involved in family purchase decisions and if parents discuss television and
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advertising with them. The extent to which children ask their parents to buy them things they have seen advertised on TV can vary across items. Most researchers agree that children are more likely to make requests for products which are frequently consumed by them, such as breakfast cereals, snacks or sweets, or for products that are of particular interest to them, such as toys or those with special offers. Products which are usually requested also vary importantly according to the child's age, with requests for toys, breakfast cereals and sweets being more frequent with younger children (aged 5-7 years) and requests for clothing or records more frequent among children aged 11-12. There is no firm evidence,. however, that children necessarily become generally less demanding as they get older. It has been observed that requests for some toys advertised in the pre-Christmas period became less frequent, but this may simply reflect a declining interest in toys anyway as children grow older. Requests for TV-advertised products which are relevant to children of all ages, such as snack foods and soft drinks, tend not to decline with age. In Britain, one survey (referred to earlier), found, on asking a national sample of children whether they had asked their parents to buy them something they had seen in an advertisement on television, that 85 per cent said that they had, while just 15 per cent claimed not to have done. Asking for something they had seen advertised on television was done equally by boys and girls. However, there were differences by age and social class. For the age groups, there was a dropoff in such requests among older children: 97 per ~ent of 4- to 5-year-olds, 94 per cent of 6- to 7-year-oIds, 86 per cent of 8to 9-year-olds and 71 per cent of 10- to 13-year-olds claimed to have made such requests of their parents. For the social classes, there was a substantial lessening of such requests reported among the higher social classes. Requests were reported by 81 per cent of children from ABC1 households, by 84 per cent of C2 households and by 92 per cent of DE households. Some 66 per cent claimed that their parents had
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bought them something advertised on television after they had requested it. The rate of buying did not differ by sex, age or social class. Those children who did report that their parents had bought something were asked what it waf>, and then their responses were grouped into several major product categories, constructed on the basis of the responses received. The distribution, by category, of items purchased was food/cereal (15 per cent), toys/dolls (44 per cent), toys/others (28 per cent) and all others (13 per cent). What was bought for the children did not differ by sex (note: Transformers were considered as male dolls) or by social class, but did differ by age. By age, the results are linear; that is, they increase or decrease consistently across the four age groups, with the following results: the oldest were more likely to have received a cereal purchase (21 per cent) by comparison with the youngest (7 per cent). The youngest were more likely to have received a toy/ doll purchase (51 per cent vs 11 per cent) and a toy/other purchase (31 per cent vs 21 per cent). The oldest were more likely to have received some other purchase (15 per cent vs 6 per cent). To what extent do parents acquiesce to children's requests? From the same survey, most of the children reported that they had asked their parents to buy them something they had seen advertised on television; a sizeable majority of those making the request were granted it. The children were asked to identify one such product. In all, the children identified 161 different products that had been purchased at their request. Three different products dominated these purchases: My Little Pony was cited by fortyeight youngsters (9 per cent of all the youngsters in the survey);Transformers were cited by fortyfour (8 per cent); and Barbie products by thirty (6 per cent). No other single product was cited by as many as twenty of the youngsters. However, twenty-six of them responded to the question with the generic term 'toys'. Eighty-nine children each cited one specific product, and thirty-two products each were cited by two children. The dominance of toys as the item
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requested from parents is apparent already; it is further emphasised by the fact that the next four most-mentioned products of parental-induced purchase were also toys-Care Bears (15), Star Wars (13), Sindy (12) and He-Man (12). A majority of the children specifically attributed a toy purchase requested by them of their parents to a television advertisement. IS THERE A BEHAVIOURAL EFFECT OF TV ADVERTISIG
Research into the way children respond to television advertising is ultimately concerned with the impact advertising has upon children's behaviour. Does television advertising affect children's purchasing of goods? Two types of methodology have been applied to this problem: experimental research and survey research. The former attempts to manipulate children's exposure to television advertising in order to measure its direct effects upon their subsequent behaviour. The latter examines relationships between levels of advertising exposure over time and purchase behaviour patterns. Studies which have adopted an 'experimental' methodology have generally supported the view that the impact of television advertising on children is considerable, whereas survey research studies have more usually indicated that advertising effects operate at a fairly low level. In experimental studies, children are allocated to various viewing conditions. Some of the children will generally be shown advertisements, usually for various kinds of toys or snacks. After being exposed to advertising materials under controlled viewing conditions, the children will be given an opportunity to select a snack or toy out of a range of items. The key findings rest on the product choices that are made. If there is a tendency to select those items for which commercials have just been seen, rather than items not featured in the commercials, such a result is taken as evidence of an effect for advertising.
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There are a number of drawbacks to this kind of research. First, it does not actually examine children's purchase behaviour, but only deals with the child's choice out of a number of prizes which are offered as a free gift. Second, the effects that are measured are short-term effects, since the 'choosing phase' usually takes place immediately after exposure to the advertising. Third, it does not explore any of the processes that mediate between watching advertising and eventual product purchase. Fourth, it does not stimulate the natural activities of television viewing and consumer behaviour. Thus, experimental research suffers from having limited external validity. In contrast to experimental research, many researchers have used survey research to study the effects of advertising on children's purchase behaviour. Most research studies that follow this approach emphasise that television advertising is only one of a large number of simultaneously interacting influences on children's purchase behaviour. Consequently, they tend to conclude that television commercials have only a minor role in influencing children's purchase behaviour. Survey research tends to examine naturally occurring behaviour, not that under laboratory conditions. The weakness of survey research, however, lies in the difficulty of attributing causality, because assessing the direction of cause-effects relationships on the basis of correlational data is problematic. Survey research studies also face other methodological problems. Rather than measuring actual behaviour, researchers using this approach tend to rely on respondents' self-reports about their behaviour. The accuracy of such reports depends on how sharp respondents' memories are. Reports by children that they ask parents to buy them items advertised on TV, or from parents that their children make such requests, provide subjective evidence of an impact of TV advertising in young people's consumer behaviour. It is difficult to check the reliability of this evidence, however, since it is dependent on the ability of respondents to provide accurate accounts from memory that such advertising-related behaviours occur.
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A more objective way of assessing the effects of TV advertising on consumerism is to examine links between research exposure to this advertising and the level or nature of consumption for particular commodities. In relation to young people, one area that has come in for close scrutiny in recent years is the role of advertising in alcoholic drinks consumption. Increased concerns about excessive drinking amongst young people, and particularly about under-age drinking, have led to calls for more stringent controls over alcohol advertising. There is evidence that alcoholic drinks adverts are among the most popular advertisements on TV. This has led some critics to argue that advertising plays a significant part in encouraging children and teenagers to experiment with drink. A number of published studies, which include large scale surveys and controlled experiments, have attempted to produce evidence to clarify whether or not this influence occurs. One American survey of teenagers aged 13 to 17 used questionnaires which respondents had to complete themselves and which asked them about their use of various mass media, their personality profiles, family background, alcohol consumption patterns and attitudes towards drinking. Virtually no effects of exposure to televised alcohol advertising on level of consumption emerged for the sample as a whole. However, certain orientations or predispositions to advertising were shown to make a difference to advertising influences. Teenagers who were highly motivated to attend to advertising, because they thought they could learn something from it about how to behave in social situations, were found to be influenced by exposure to alcoholic drinks advertisements. Likewise, among teenagers who attended to advertisements as a means of vicariously participating in desired activities and lifestyles, there was a statistically significant effect of advertising on consumption. There are some important caveats to consider, however. First, even under those conditions in which a significant
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advertising effect was found, the magnitude of the effect was largely trivial. In no case was more than 1.5 per cent of the net variance in consumption associated with advertising exposure. Second, the fact that particular orientations or attitudes to advertising facilitate even the minimal advertising effects found in this research points to the role of parents in socialising children towards media use and consumption behaviour. Developing resistance' to commercial persuasions in adopting particular orientations towards advertising is part of the process by which children learn rational consumption attitudes and behaviours from their parents. I
Survey research generally identifies the causes of consumer choices as deriving from a variety of factors, including consumers' own personality characteristics, abilities to weigh up different sources of information about products and brands, family background (with all the examples of consumer behaviour experienced in that context), current fashions and peer pressures to conform to these trends, as well as disposable income (which covers the bottom line of being able to purchase). They stress that, quite often, effects from television advertisements on children's product and brand preferences, and eventual purchase behaviour, will be mediated by the way parents and children talk to one another, by styles of parental discipline, and by how members of the family in general interact with one another. The role of parents and society is illustrated by the fact that a product which is unacceptable to the parent will actually be vetoed, and that there are many examples of products (e.g. new sweets) which failed to establish a market among children despite being heavily advertised. Even if advertising can persuade children to try out a new product on one occasion, the product itself will have to provide the necessary reasons for the child to buy it again. If the product fails to meet the child's expectations, it will not be bought a second time, regardless of the total amount of advertising devoted to it.
--~-Affect of Advertisement on Children's Health Orientation A knowledge base is being cultivated concerning modern diseases and disabilities which places emphasis upon prevention and self-care more than professional medical treatment and costly cures. If patients can learn to take care of themselves, they will stay healthier, avoid illness and the soaring medical costs that accompany medical treatments. In the world of fast-developing communications technologies, families will have accel'S to greater amounts of information that will help them to manage their own health. Television may be one vital source of such information. To some extent, though, it may already represent a source of influence through its factual programmes about health-care, medicine and medical developments and drama programmes centred on the work of fictional doctors and hospitals. In the pre-electronic media era, medicine was generally familycentred. Family folklore and recipes for medicinal compounds and remedies embodied preventative and curative practices. In one sense, we are witnessing a return to the familycentredness in medicine and health-related matters through the family's use of information and advice sources provided by the mass media. Television has been acknowledged as an important source of information about health and medical matters for many
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years. In Britain, documentary and magazine programmes about health and medicine have been prominent in mainstream television schedules for the past twenty years. While television has been used as a channel through which to provide direct communication to people about specific health topics, it also serves as a wider source of health information which viewers may acquire incidentally as a consequence of watching programmes that contain portrayals with health-related implications. Portrayals of illness, the medical profession, and patient behaviour in television drama (both serious and comedy) can leave their mark. Indirect messages about health may also derive from portrayals of lifestyle behaviours such as eating patterns, smoking, alcohol consumption, dangerous driving or use of seatbelts, illicit drug use, and sexual promiscuity. Although many infectious diseases have been conquered as a, result of advances in medical science, many chronic nlllesses such as heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure and hypertension, in which lifestyle can playa major part, account for substantial numbers of deaths every year. Nutrition and dietary patterns, smoking and alcohol consumption are included among the major risk factors for lifestyle disease. The growth of concern about the spread of sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS have drawn increased attention to sexual behaviour as a lifestyle risk' factor. I
Medicine and health are common themes in television's fictional drama programming. It was observed quite a few years ago that, in American soap operas, up to half of all characters may be involved in health-related events of some kind. Problems depicted most often include psychiatric disorders, heart disease, pregnancies, car accidents and infectious diseases. Medical drama series have a long history and have proved to be among the best-liked television shows. There has been concern in particular about television's portrayal of certain kinds of behaviour which, although often socially acceptable, nevertheless are known to cause physical
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harm when indulged in to excess -as is often shown on television. The depiction of smoking, drinking alcohol and the use of other drugs has given rise to concern because of the potential social learning which might occur among young viewers. Another aspect of health and medicine shown commonly on television is the health profession and the treatment of illhealth or physical injury. American research has indicated that in general there tend to be many more health or medical professionals in American television serials than in real life. Television doctors tend to be portrayed as highly competent and nearly always make correct diagnoses, even though their patients often withhold vital diagnostic information from them. Medical dramas have been very popular with audiences. American series such as Dr Kildare, Ben Casey, Marcus Welby M.D., St. Elsewhere, ER, and Chicago Hope have attracted large audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. UK productions such as Peak Practice, Casualty and Medics have been major ratings successes in Britain. Anecdotal evidence has indicated that viewers often take these fictional series seriously and may write in to the leading characters, the actors playing those roles, or to the producers, requesting medical advice. Thus medical dramas would appear to have the potential to exert widespread influence in relation to public knowledge and beliefs about illness, medical treatment and health care. The potential role of television in shaping young people's health beliefs, attitudes and related behaviours is considered by some researchers to derive from stereotyped patterns of health-related portrayals on television and the observation that many viewers watch television non-selectively. In establishing the effects that television might have upon young viewers' health-related knowledge and habits, therefore, it is important, first of all, to look at how health and medical matters are displayed on television and then to find out if there are any links between what viewers see on screen and the beliefs, attitudes and behavioural intentions they hold.
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GENERAL HEALTH PORTRAYALS
A variety of health and related issues occur on television. Coverage of health issues can occur in specially produced factual programmes as well as featuring as central or peripheral aspects of television fiction. Television can provide information about illnesses and the causes of ill-health. It can portray health-promoting and health-damaging behaviours. It can also show how the medical profession works. Thus, viewers can, potentially, apprehend a wide range of health and related messages from television. Television has been used as a communication channel by health campaigns, and these messages often take the form of public service announcements. Health campaigns may also be promoted through special television factual productions, advertisements and fictional dramatisations. These vehicles have been used to convey messages about heart disease, sexually transmitted diseases, smoking addiction and alcohol abuse, family planning and personal safety. Television has provided information about many types of disease such as cancer, stroke, hepatitis, venereal disease, AIDS and childassociated illnesses. Some diseases have clearly attracted more attention than others among broadcasters, and health campaigns have, more often than not, achieved mixed success in getting their messages across. The high profile attained by certain diseases such as AIDS has drawn greater attention to health-related topics in more recent years. Brief televised public service messages on heart disease, smoking and crisis centres have been more helpful. Despite these efforts, information about most major health issues such as cancer, stroke, hepatitis, venereal disease, childcare, lead poisoning and family planning has not been very comprehensive. Studies of peak-time and weekend daytime programming on major American television networks, for example, found that dramatic programmes were dominated by themes involving action, power and danger. In many action-adventure series, leading characters could often be seen behaving in ways
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which put their health and safety at risk. Even so, few accidental fatalities were seen to occur as a result of high-speed car chases, use of firearms and other dangerous pursuits. EARLY OBSERVATIONS
Health has featured as a theme on television for many years. Early on, however, it was observed that few television characters appeared to suffer ill-health. One study of American television in the 1950s found that, out of a sample of 1,700 fictional characters catalogued during one week's programming, only one suffered from a physical illness and just twelve had a serious mental illness. Only five of these characters died natural deaths, with most being killed in violent incidents. Other American researchers noted that substantial numbers of fictional programmes on US network television have either focused, or at least touched upon, health and related issues, where such issues have included depictions of physical or mental illness, medical treatment, doctors, smoking or health in general. Television fiction does tend to dramatise health and illness, llowever. One study found that patients portrayed on television were usually those suffering from complaints requiring intensive medical care and treatment. Fictional medical practitioners tended to ca re for their patients' emotional well-being as much as their physical condition, often getting more involved in their private lives than doctors in real life would normally be expected to do. Comic elements in situation comedies and emotional relationships in soap operas were found to obscure the small amounts of specific health information such programmes would actually contain. In the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) report, Television and Behaviour, George Gerbner and his colleagues urged health-care professionals to examine the health messages contained within television entertainment programming in order to understand the images portrayed on television regarding health. They argued that, in utilising television in the service of successful health campaigns, it is important to be aware of the full range of health-related
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messages already presented in programmes and advertisements. Not all of these (often implicit) health messages could be expected to reinforce positive health campaigns. In examining general health messages on television, these researchers noted that prime-time television characters were rarely shown to have any type of physical impairment; in fact, almost none even wore glasses. Only 2 per cent of major characters were physically handicapped. They tended to be older, less positively presented, more likely to be victimised, and were almost never shown on children's programmes. Characters suffering from mental disorders, however, did appear on prime-time programmes with some frequencyabout 17 per cent of prime-time programmes involved a depiction or theme of mental illness. Moreover, about 3 per cent of major characters were identified as mentally ill and, in late evening programmes, this percentage doubled. The mentally ill were also disproportionately depicted both as perpetrators and victims of violence. Mental illness was also found to be closely connected with aggressive tendencies amongst major drama characters. These profiles were observed to reinforce early studies of mass media depictions of mental ill-health which were interpreted as cultivating a stereotype that the mentally ill are dangerous. In an analysis of the most watched fictional scenes on American prime-time television during the 1979-1980 season, researchers found that medical and health-related content appeared with considerable frequency. Health-related scenes averaged 3.3 per episode and 5.5 times per hour on primetime programming. These incidents usually involved older adults, young children and women. One particularly interesting observation was the apparent lack of concern among patients or medical professionals about the cost of medical treatment. Elsewhere, researchers have observed that television portrayals connected with health and medical matters bore
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little resemblance to the significant issues which characterised real life; principally, lack of attention to chronic illnesses, rising medical costs, and competition for patients privately able to pay for treatment. One-third of illness-related coverage was found to occur in television advertisements for pharmaceutical products, especially cold and pain remedies. Peak-time programmes accounted for another third of coverage, daytime serials made up almost one-fifth, news magazines more than one-tenth, and evening news broadcasts less than onetwentieth of the coverage. Whenever illness was featured, however, it tended to take centre stage. DIET AND NUTRITION
Eating and drinking are commonly shown on television entertainment programmes. In popular soap operas and drama serials, dialogue often takes place around the dinner table or over breakfast. Food products are also among the most frequently advertised items on television. Both types of content have been acknowledged as having potential effects upon young people's dietary habits, with certain health-related consequences. Media researchers have tried to establish the nature of the messages about diet and nutrition that are conveyed explicitly or implicitly by programmes and advertisements, and the impact such messages might have upon nutrition-related attitudes and dietary behaviours. THE ROLE OF ADVERTISEMENTS
The source of concern relating to the possible effects of advertising upon children's and teenagers' diets stems in the first instance from the observation that young viewers may be exposed to thousands of commercials on television every year. Even twenty years ago, when there were far fewer television channels than today, it was noted that an American child might see 22,000 television advertisements each year, 5,000 of them for food products, over half of which were highcalorie, high-sugar, low-nutrition items. At least half of the advertising in children's programmes was found to be for sugared cereals and sweets, usually present as snacks to eat
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Between meals. Indeed, sugar-laden products promoted by most food advertisements on children's television were of precisely those kinds that the US Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs urged should be reduced in children's diets. Other observers reported that less than one in ten television advertisements on US network television generally presented healthy foods such as fruits and bread; most were devoted to mass-produced, packaged and marketed foodstuffs of fairly low nutritional value. Even with legislative restrictions on the amount and types of advertising permitted in children's programmes, the number of advertisements on television continued to increase. Thus, children, by the late 1980s, could be exposed to many more advertisements on television than previously. The kinds of products advertised in commercials in children's programmes continued to be dominated by toys, cereals, sweets and snack foods, and fast-food restaurants. While toy commercials may dominate in the two months leading up to Christmas, food commercials tend to dominate for the rest of the year. Very often, these advertised foods are highly sugared products such as pre-sweetened cereals, cakes, sweets, soda and biscuits, rather than healthy food such as fruit or vegetables. The evidence about television advertising indicates that it presents a variety of food product choices to children, but hardly promotes a healthy diet. The food products which are predominantly advertised on television tend to be high in sugar and fat content and low in nutritional value. The question arises, therefore,. as to what this kind of advertising teaches children about food and eating. Television advertising may affect children's knowledge, attitudes or behaviour. In the first instance, what impact does this advertising have upon children's nutrition-related knowledge? One view is that if children repeatedly see advertisements for snack foods or foods with high sugar content from an early age, they may develop limited ideas about what represents a balanced nutritional diet. The research evidence on this point
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is by no means conclusive, however. Indeed, some research suggests that children may develop clear ideas about what the relative nutritional benefits of different foods are (including sweets and snacks), which may be unrelated to levels of exposure to television advertising for these foods. Sweet, snack foods were associated with obesity, dental caries and being sick. Although many children clearly eat and enjoy such foods, they realise that they should not exist on a diet which comprises nothing else. Evidence from another study indicated that children aged 8 to 11 years showed poorer nutritional knowledge the more they were reportedly exposed to television advertising. One interpretation of this finding was that the kinds of nutritional phrases used in advertisements such as 'part of a good breakfast' or 'fortified with essential vitamins' failed to get through to children of this age, or simply confused them. Nutritional messages within television commercials are assimilated by children, who evaluate food products accordingly. One study experimentally manipulated the way a particular food product was extolled within a television commercial. In one version, the product was described as being 'chocolatey, rich and sweet', while in another version it was said to be 'healthful, vitaminy and nutritious'. Afterwards, children aged 5-9 years who had seen the nutritional version were more likely to describe the product as having high nutritional value compared with same-age children who watched the other version. Children's abilities to identify the health risks associated with certain food products varies with age. Younger children are less carable than older children, for example, of identifying that sugared food consumption is related to tooth decay. Thus, advertisements for sugared foods are less likely to be critically appraised by younger children on the basis that such foods may cause dental health problems. Further evidence has indicated that different kinds of advertising messages have different effects upon children's food preferences and consumption patterns. Regular exposure
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to advertising for sugared food products was linked to greater consumption of these products by children. Exposure to advertising for healthy foods (or non-sugared foods) tended to dampen enthusiasm for sugared foods to some extent. Educational programmes which promoted nutritional food consuMption were also found to reduce the impact of advertising for sugared foods. Many of these observed effects, however, were only measured in the short term and did not establish whether such educational material exerted longerterm effects upon children's nutritional knowledge and food preferences. THE ROLE OF PROGRAMMES
Food consumption is emphasised not only in advertisements but also in programmes. The general impression, however, is that nutritional patterns depicted in mainstream programming depict anything but a balanced and relaxed style of eating. On American prime-time drama, for example, three-quarters of all characters were found to be depicted eating or drinking or talking about doing so. These behaviours occurred, on average, nine times an hour. Much eating involved snacks consumed in a hurry rather than relaxed eating at a table. The diet was seldom nutritionally balanced and frequently consisted of fast food. Snacking behaviour was found to be particularly frequent in children's programmes, where regular meals were seldom depicted, and snacks most often comprised high-calorie, high-fat food. Overeating and obesity is a health problem for many people in modem Western societies. It represents a problem whose seeds may be sown in childhood, when eating patterns and food preferences are initially socialised. On television, however, being overweight seldom seems to be a problem. Despite the fact that not many ~ictional characters on television eat a balanced, nutritional diet, relatively few suffer from weight problems. Children and young people were rarely overweight, despite television's erFj.,~hasis upon high-sugar, high-fat-content foods for young people.
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Television programmes may contain many subtle, indirect messages about health that derive from the lifestyles often depicted. Health portrayals embedded within the content of dramatic and entertainment programmes may provide a source of example to young people, and may playa part in shaping their early eating and drinking habits. The impact of general entertainment programming may be incidental and subtle compared with the effects of advertising, which directly promotes certain forms of food products. However, programmes can also be utilised in a more deliberate fashion to promote healthy eating. One American study presented children with a full-length television programme called Fat Albert that carried the message that junk food is bad and fruit and vegetables are good. This programme used animation and comedy to get its message across. Even when the programme was embedded with commercials for sugared foods, it was effective at reducing the number of sugared foods the children chose from a range of options. DRINKING
The social learning argument has been applied to depictions of alcohol consumption on television. Portrayals of heavy consumption of alcohol in association with successful personal or professional outcomes for characters on television may promote the impression that heavy drinking is a socially desirable behaviour. The evidence of the real world is that, while moderate alcohol consumption (principally wine consumption) may have health-promoting effects, excessive drinking may result in damaged relationships and physical damage to self or others. The damage associated with the use (or abuse) of alcoholic drinks is one of the most pressing public health issues of the day. Although the use of alcohol is well integrated into the social fabric and is a regular part of daily living for a large number of people, the consequences of drinking to excess can be far-reaching and severe. Over the past ten years, there has been a steadily growing concern about the role that television might play in socialising drinking habits, especially among
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young people. Once again, there has been concern about the particular roles played in this context by both advertising and programming. Emphasis has been placed especially upon the potential influence of television advertising for alcoholic beverages. Although television commercials for these products are aimed at adult markets, a number of survey studies have revealed the popularity of advertisements, in particular for various brands of beer and lager, among children and teenagers. In addition to the alcoholic drinks advertising on television, the depiction of drinking behaviour in programmes is also a source of concern. On television, although as many as one-third of characters drink alcohol, few are depicted with drink problems. Alcohol consumption is most often linked with leading male characters and is often done at home. There is a view that such depictions of alcohol consumption in popular programmes may precipitate increased drinking among young viewers. The association of attractive lifestyles or characters with drinking may encourage viewers, especially young ones, to believe that alcohol goes hand in glove with being wealthy and successful. Through such associations, it has been argued, alcoholic drinks may be perceived in a more attractive light. Although it has been shown that many television programmes contain extensive portrayals of alcohol use, empirical evidence concerning the effects of such material on actual alcohol consumption is inconclusive. EFFECTS OF PROGRAMME PORTRAYALS
Research into the depiction of alcohol consumption in television programmes derives largely from the United States and covers the past quarter of a century. A small number of studies have been conducted in other countries, including the United Kingdom and Australia. Early studies in the USA covered relatively small samples of programmes and revealed that mainstream television programmes contained anything from one to three acts of drinking an hour. These scenes were divided equally between actual drinking events and talk about drinking. Rates of drinking and related behaviour or verbal
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references to drink could vary dramatically across different types of programme. Quiz and game shows might contain less than one such incident an hour on average, while soap operas might average between eight and nine such incidents. During the late 1970s, the rate of occurrence of alcohol consumption portrayals on American television increased significantly, especially in peak-time fictional programming. In the context of the possible influences of drinking portrayals on television, however, the nature of drinking behaviour is probably more important than simply how much of it is shown. What kinds of examples of drinking are shown? Generally, drinking was depicted most often as a social activity, consumed on its own among friends. Secondly, it was depicted as a supplement to eating, taken over a meal. Thirdly, it was depicted in connection with business discussions. Drinking alone was relatively rare, as were incidents of drunkenness and of motor-vehicle accidents associated with being over the limit. Drinking portrayals on television did not always result in positive outcomes for those involved. While many of the consequences of drinking were benign, others were not. Unwanted effects included: strained relationships with spouses, family members, friends, bosses and co-workers; danger to self where drinkers put their own health and safety at risk; harm to others, including involvement in crime and violence, or accidents with cars or other machinery; embarrassment or a hangover; and loss of status to the drinker such as loss of spouse, friendships or job. There has been some indication that the subtle messages about drinking carried by programmes may be incompatible with accepted cultural norms or standards of public health. Among the problem portrayals are: characters turning to drink to face a crisis or escape from tension; failure to disapprove strongly enough of alcohol abuse; inability of characters to decline a drink; and the absence of consequences of alcohol abuse which are known to occur in real life. Briti&h research covering two weeks of peak-time television broadcasts on the four major television channels
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found that approxinately two-thirds of programmes monitored contained some visual or verbal reference to alcohol, while actual consumption of alcohol was portrayed in nearly one-third of the programmes. Most of the images of alcohol appeared in fictional programmes, with soap operas having the highest frequency of alcohol portrayal. Fictional programmes in general depicted over three scenes per hour showing characters drinking alcohol, while in soap operas this average increased to over five acts of drinking per hour. Two out of every three drinks consumed by a soap character contained alcohol. Thus, in programmes which attracted the largest audiences, alcohol was the single most prominent drink consumed. Drinking in these programmes was generally dealt with as a natural part of everyday life, which featured especially in the context of social interaction with others. There was little portrayal of excessive consumption or alcohol abuse, nor was alcohol consumption associated with accidents, violence or ill-health. Drinking was most likely to take place in a pub, bar, restaurant or other public drinking location, while around· one in three drinking portrayals took place in the home. Drinking was rarely shown taking place at work. What evidence is there that television programmes can affect young people's propensities to consume alcohol? The handful of published studies which address this question break down into correlational surveys, lYhich examine relationships between television viewing and alcohol consumption, and experimental research, in which groups of youngsters are subjected to controlled exposure to programmes before being given opportunities to drink. In one correlational survey, Tucker investigated the extent to which adolescents classified as light (less than two hours' viewing a day), moderate (two to four hours a day) or heavy (more than four hours a day) television viewers differed regarding alcohol use and the extent to which any association between reported viewing and drinking behaviours were mediated by demographic factors. Nearly 400 adolescent males were questioned about their television viewing and drinking habits. Results showed that heavy viewers reportedly
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consumed more alcohol than did lighter viewers. This applied even when the effects of demographic differences in drinking and viewing had been controlled. Two further studies investigated the impact of portrayals of drinking in programmes under controlled conditions. One study found that children aged 8 to 11 years who were shown the television programme M*A *S*H were subsequently more likely to choose an alcoholic drink over water as the beverage most appropriate for serving to 'parched' adults, compared with children who had watched the same episode with drinking scenes deleted or children who did not watch the programme at all. In another controlled experiment, 10- and 11-year-old children were randomly assigned to groups in which some of them were shown videotaped television programmes featuring leading characters who consumed alcoholic drinks. Immediately after viewing the programmes, the children completed alcohol attitude scales and a questionnaire in which they estimated how likely it was that they would drink in the future. There was only one apparent effect of watching a programme featuring drinking. Boys who watched a television actor drinking were more likely than boys who did not see such a portrayal to say that the good things about alcohol are more important than the bad things. Some of the latest evidence has indicated that portrayals of alcohol consumption in programmes may influence preteenage children's expectations that they too, one day, will drink alcoholic beverages, but only if they identify strongly with such television portrayals and if their parents also drink. Television's influences in this context only occur within the context of other potential influences in the child's life. Parental role models and a favourable attitude towards alcohol consumption in the child's own family appear to be key factors here. Merely seeing drink being consumed on television and enjoyed for its taste did not provide sufficient conditions for children to say that they would expect to take up drinking themselves.
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In Britain, research has been carried out among teenagers, aged 12 to 17 years, to find out if television influences their images of drinking and their beliefs and practices concerning alcohol. The research comprised a survey supplemented by a series of focus groups. An assumption was made at the outset that any contribution television might make to young people's alcohol consumption propensities would take the form of gradual socialisation over a long period of time rather than in terms of short-term changes in behaviour contingent upon exposure to specific individual programmes.
The teenagers were divided into three groups: those who never drank, those whose last drink was more than a week ago, but less than three months ago; and those who had had a drink during the last week. Recency of drinking did not differ by gender, but age differences did emerge, with older teenagers being more likely to claim recent drinking. Taking out the effects of gender, age and social class upon drinking recency, there was little evidence that amount of reported television viewing had any relationship with drinking. There was no evidence to substantiate the view that television viewing contributed independently to frequency of drinking alcohol. However, with increased age, teenagers viewed less and drank more. As the teenagers grew older and socialised away from home more often, their television viewing reduced.
EFFECTS OF ADVERTISING Evidence for the possible effects of television advertising for alcoholic drinks upon children's and teenagers' interest in alcohol consumption derives principally from correlational surveys. This research ras explored the extent to which alcohol advertising affects the level of alcohol consumption among young people and the roles various orientations to advertising play in the influence that such advertising might have. The evidence for television advertising effects upon adolescents' drinking behaviour has been equivocal. American research among teenagers aged between 13 and 17 found no significant relationship between reported exposure to television advertising for alcoholic drinks and the level of
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consumption of such drinks. This relationship was not true for all teenagers, however. Those who were motivated to pay careful attention to such advertising because they thought they might learn something from them about how to behave in different social situations, were found to be potentially more susceptible to advertising's influences. Advertising for alcoholic drinks was also found to be more influential among teenagers, who turned to such advertising to fantasise about certain desired lifestyles. Even when motivated to watch advertising, however, its influence was still relatively trivial. Another American study found that drinkers aged 12 to 16 years, or those who intended to drink alcohol when older, were more likely to have seen beer, wine and spirits commercials on television. The relationship between reported exposure to television advertiSing for alcoholic drinks products and current or intended consumption of these products, however, was relatively strong in respect of spirits consumption, more modest in the case of beer, and weak in relation to wine consumption. One weakness of this study was that the direction of causality was never clearly established. Thus, the relationships observed might indicate that heavier drinkers among the teenagers interviewed were more motivated to watch commercials for drinks products rather than that the exposure to advertising led to their drinking more. Although relationships between exposure to advertising and the consumption of alcoholic drinks have not been conclusively demonstrated by correlational surveys among young people, other evidence has suggested that the impact of advertising on children's or teenagers' propensities to drink may operate in much more subtle ways. British research among children aged 10 to 16 years has examined the advertisements youngsters said they liked or disliked. The findings suggest that advertisements for alcoholic drinks become increasingly salient and attractive over the years from 10 to 14. Although 10-year-olds rarely mentioned advertisements for alcoholic drinks when talking about
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favourite television commercials, older children tended to do so increasingly often. Children's perceptions of the characteristics of drinkers changed as they grew older, tending to become less 'moralistic' and more positive and more differentiated as they approached their mid-teens. There were also consistent developmental trends in their descriptions of liked and disliked qualities of advertisements and of the symbolism in commercials for alcoholic drinks. Whereas the 10-year-olds' comments tended to be tied to what is specifically shown in commercials, the older children tended to go beyond this and alluded to much more complex imagery, much in the same way as adults have been found to do. For example, 14- and 16-year-olds tended to see lager and beer commercials as promoting masculinity, sociability and working-class values, and certain of the more stylish and sophisticated alcoholic drinks advertisements (e.g., Bezique and Martini) were perceived to present attractive qualities, especially to teenage girls. These observations raise an important question about the way in which advertisements may indirectly influence underage potential drinkers. Much of the controversy about whether advertising for alcoholic drinks should be more strongly controlled revolves around the .issue of whether it influences volume sales or whether, as the industry claims, it reflects brand-switching strategies. Despite the claim that the target market at which these advertisements are aimed consists of young adult drinkers, the finding that they also contain attractive images which appeal to younger teenagers carries implications for a possible role they might play in the development of positive attitudes towards alcoholic drinks and drinking behaviour. SMOKING
The role that television might play in influencing children and teenagers to take up smoking is an important issue because cigarette smoking has been recognised as the most important Single preventable cause of death in modem society. Smoking
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has been established as a major cause of cancer, heart disease, emphysema and complications during pregnancy. Smoking is not commonly depicted on television. American research indicated that, on prime-time US television, only 11 per cent of male characters and 2 per cent of females smoked. Advertising for tobacco products on television in many countries, including the United Kingdom, has been banned. What is the evidence for a television influence where child and adolescent smoking is concerned? There is far more research on the impact of advertising than that of programmes. The advertising-related research varies in terms of whether it has attempted to measure direct or indirect effects of advertising upon young people's attitudes to smoking and smoking behaviour. Research among children and adolescents has indicated that advertising may affect their ability to name brands. Brand awareness, however, may not necessarily indicate actual smoking behaviour or an inclination to begin smoking at some point in the future. Teenage smokers in Australia have been found to be significantly better at identifying cigarette advertisements than nonsmokers. In Britain, children aged 9 to 13 years were found to be attracted to certain cigarette advertisements and enjoyed looking at them. One view is that this initial attraction to advertising for cigarettes may lead to positive impressions developing about smoking among young people. Children who could name a favourite cigarette advertisement exhibited significantly greater support to the claimed 'positive values' of smoking, such as looking tough, looking grown up, calming nerves, giving confidence and controlling weight. Among children who smoked, however, only a minority smoked the brand they named as their favourite advertisement, with many expressing no brand loyalty. If brand loyalty existed, the taste of the cigarette was the main reason given for choosing it, not the advertising.
Going beyond the measurement of brand awareness, some studies of the impact of cigarette advertising have focused upon young people's attitudes toward the advertisements
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Affect of Advertisement on Children's Health Orientation
themselves. Attitudes toward television advertising for cigarettes, however, has been found to be less influential than whether best friends and peer groups favour smoking. Teenage smokers have been found to hold generally more favourable opinions about cigarette advertising than non-smokers, which is seen by some researchers as sufficient evidence of a reinforcing effect of cigarette advertising upon smoking. Research on the effect of exposure to cigarette advertising on smoking behaviour consists principally of studies in which teenage smokers have been asked if they feel that their behaviour has been in any way shaped by advertising, and investigations in which independent measures of exposure to advertising messages have been statistically related to the reported smoking behaviour. While teenage smokers have been found to attribute their own smoking behaviour in part to the influence of advertising, no consistent evidence has emerged that levels of exposure to cigarette advertising on television is linked directly to smoking behaviour among teenagers. Another approach to establishing whether cigarette advertising has any influence on smoking among children and teenagers has been to examine the impact of controls over tobacco advertising in different countries. For example, in countries such as Norway and Finland, there is restrictive legislation banning all cigarette advertising. In other countries, such as Australia, United Kingdom and the United States, cigarette advertising on television is banned, though certain other media advertising is allowed. In yet other countries, such as Hong Kong and Spain, cigarette advertising is permitted across all media. Two kinds of comparisons have been made to investigate the impact of restrictive legislation: •
•
Those between smoking prevalence before and after cigarette advertising bans were implemented in particular countries; and Between smoking prevalence in countries with and without advertising restrictions.
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The evidence for an effect of bans on cigarette consumption from both these sources has failed to substantiate any impact of advertising restrictions in terms of reducing smoking levels. Much of this work !las focused upon adult consumption of cigarettes. Two major international studies among children and teenagers, however, failed to produce evidence that restrictive legislation on cigarette advertising on television (and in other media) had any noticeable effect upon cigarette consumption levels among young people. Another area of concern, in addition to standard forms of advertising, is the sponsorship of televised events by tobacco manufacturers. According to some critics, this coverage can function as advertising for cigarette brands and may influence the smoking behaviour of childrel1 and young people. There is some suspicion that this alternative form of cigarette advertising could encourage children to take up smoking. As to whether televised sports events sponsored by cigarette manufacturers actually influence children and teenagers in this way, little evidence has so far emerged. According to one researcher, who. examined this question among British children aged 11 to 15, sponsored sports events can increase brand awareness and can create a firm association in children's minds between the cigarette brand and the sport being sponsored. This finding was subsequently replicated in a follow-up survey of teenagers in England. Whether or not the awareness engendered by such sponsorship encourages children to take up smoking themselves, however, has not yet been fully demonstrated. IMAGES OF DRUGS Although images relating to drinking and smoking are common on television, images relating to illicit drugs and drug abuse are relatively rare. There are, however, numerous commercials for over-the-counter pharmaceutical products that tend to extol their benefits and offer rapid solutions to ailments. There has been concern about the possible effects images in programmes and advertising relating to legal and illicit drugs might have upon young people's attitudes towards drugs and their use.
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Affect of Advertisement on Children's Health Orienta non
Studies of television output have indicated that illicit drug use/abuse is rare on entertainment programming. Research on prime-time American television network programmes during the early 1970s identified fifty-six programmes which contained any references to drugs. On average, there was one programme about drug use being broadcast every nine days. Forty of these programmes presented drug use as a solitary activity, with heroin the most frequently used drug. The consequences of drug use were generally negative, both personally and socially, with unpleasant repercussions appearing long after the original experience. Later analyses of general-entertainment television output in the United States found that illicit drug use appeared rarely. When it did occur, it was shown in a context of abuse and generally evoked unfavourable reactions. Drug abuse occurred most often in dramas and action-adventure programmes, where drug use was usually followed by arrest and legal, rather than physical or psychological, consequences. Other American research confirmed the general pattern of rare depictions of drug abuse. Research on the impact of television portrayals of drug abuse is rare. It divides between studies of television's legitimate promotion of proprietary drugs, and depictions of illicit drugs and drug-taking. Research into the effects on young viewers of images of drug-taking in programmes has been rare. Recent British research has indicated that children may exhibit sophisticated opinions about dramatic portrayals of drug abuse. Qualitative research among children in London has been used to explore their attitudes towards the way the theme of drug-taking was covered by a popular children's drama serial set in a school environment, Grange Hill. This storyline followed the involvement with drugs of one of the serial's resident characters, a 1S-year-old boy. While this character was depicted obtaining certain pleasure from drug-taking initially, the longer-term deterioration of his health and life provided a major focus and had the most profound impact upon pre-
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313
teenage children and teenagers who watched this drama. Young viewers exhibited a sophisticated and varied array of opinions about this storyline. Even though the series showed the drug-taker being sent away and trying to get over his drug problem, the children interviewed still felt that it encouraged young people to take drugs. They believed that the programme could have done more to show young viewers why they should not take drugs and how to stop if they get started. It was felt that the storyline had, on balance, depicted drugtaking as a dangerous thing to do, with negative consequences which outweigh any short-term pleasures. There was a concern, however, that susceptible young viewers might still have had the idea to take drugs implanted in their heads by such a storyline. Studies of advertising have indicated some relationships between exposure and drug use among children and teenagers. There is little indication that children are strongly disposed toward usage of proprietary drugs from viewing commercials for these products. Certain perceptions of the world may be influenced by this advertising. For example, as their level of exposure to televised advertising for medicines increases, children aged 10 to 12 years have been found to perceive that people are sick more often, worry about getting sick, approve of medicine, and are more likely to report that they feel better after taking medicine. Elsewhere, 8- to 13-year-old children's beliefs about t~e frequency with which people suffer from various health problems (e.g. headaches, stomach upsets) appeared to be unaffected by their apparent level of exposure to televised medicine advertising. Although the use of illicit drugs is depicted relatively infrequently on television drama programming, advertising of proprietary drugs is fairly commonplace during peak viewing hours. Concern has been voiced that the use of illicit drugs may be linked to the use of standard proprietary drugs. Is there any evidence that television advertising for proprietary drugs is linked to their use, and in tum to the use of illicit drugs?
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Affect of Advertisement on Children's Health Orientation
To investigate this question, Milavsky and his colleagues conducted a five-wave panel study with teenage boys, in which they examined the relationship between the boys' exposure to drug advertising on television and their intended or actual use of proprietary and illicit drugs. They found that viewing . of drug advertising exhibited a weak relationship with the boys' reported use of proprietary drugs. Additionally, an inverse correlation was found between viewing these advertisements and the reported use of illicit drugs-both marijuana and narcotics. Finally, although an attitude of readiness to use proprietary or illicit drugs was linked to their actual level of use, this disposition was not related to the boys' exposure to drug advertising on television. Thus, no evidence emerged that drug advertising led teenage boys to take illicit drugs. While sensing evidence for the development of what the authors called a 'pill-pushing' culture, television did not appear to playa significant role in the formation of this attitude. CONCLUSION
The 1990s has witnessed a drive toward healthy living which increasingly places emphasis upon the responsibility of the individual to take control of his or her health and wellbeing. Regular exercise, a balanced diet that is low in fat and sugar, moderate alcohol consumption and no smokingalthough not guaranteeing a lifetime free of illness-represents a pattern of behaviour that will go a long way towards ensuring that individuals are not storing up problems for themselves in later life. These patterns of healthy behaviour need to be instilled in young people so that healthy lifestyles become a natural part of everyday living. Television, along with other major mass media, may have a part to play in getting this message across. Unfortunately, its critics claim that television all too often presents images which encourage unhealthy practices among children and teenagers. Nutritional messages in programmes and advertisements apparently promote consumption of sugared snack foods
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315
rather than fresh fruit and vegetables. The idea of a balanced diet is superseded by portrayals of characters eating whatever comes to hand. Consumption of alcohol, though healthy in moderation for adults, is regularly portrayed without sufficient emphasis being given to the potential dangers of over consumption. Commercials for alcohol products are often among the most popular advertisements rated by young people and may, according to some researchers, create a climate in which the attractions of alcohol are established early on among youngsters before they are legally old enough to drink. While alcohol consumption may therefore be actively cultivated by television, according to some observers, rather less effort is made to warn about the dangers of alcohol when consumed to excess. Concerns about smoking have led to bans on tobacco advertising on television in many countries, although it is unclear that such steps have made much difference to smoking levels among young people. Depictions of the use of harder drugs on television have tended to be rare and generally show the negative consequences of consumption in the longer term. Despite the allegations leveled against the medium by its critics, many accusations about the nature c:.nd significance of television's effects on children's health-related attitudes and behaviour go beyond the research evidence. There can be little doubt that television role models may draw children's attention to the attractions or otherwise of certain types of food, drink and other substances. Singling out the specific influence of television upon children's eventual behaviour from the range of other factors in the home and social environment which playa part in shaping health-related orientations, however, has proven difficult. Whatever the status of television in terms of its actual impact upon how children and young people behave, clearly an abundance of messages and images on television illustrating the advantages of healthy lifestyles and the potential problems associated with unhealthy habits is the desirable goal for material targeted at an age group that generally believes it is invulnerable.
Index A Aad models 107 Adolescents 13,14,24,94,95,96, 97, 100, 169, 216, 219, 224, 225,304,306,309 Advanced understanding 121 Advertising I, 3, 4, 6, 8, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 30, 31, 34, 38,46, 47, 49, 51, 54, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 64, 68, 70, 79, 83, 84, 88, 89,91,94,103,105, 112, 116, 120, 123, 124, 128, 129, 130, 140,218,220,221,227,230, 232, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 239,240,241,242,244,245, 246, 247, 248, 251, 252, 255, 256, 262, 267, 269, 271, 272, 274,277,278, 281, 282, 306, 307,309 Advertising literacy 72,77,259 Advertising treatments 237,248, 252,254,255,258 Age of child 124 Alcohol 5, 6, 13, 14, 88, 89, 90, 91, 100, 101, 198, 220, 221, 222,223,224,225,251,252, 260,289,292, 293,294, 301,
302, 303, 304, 305, 306, 307, 314,315 Antisocial conduct 253 Appeals 43, 50, 114, 127, 185, 204,211,220,268,274,278, 282 Attention 8, 23, 25, 27, 31, 38, 43, 50, 52, 80, 89, 95, 105, 107, 109, 110, 114,122, 128, 129, 135, 138, 155, 167, 169, 170, 175, 186, 187, 189, 190, 191, 192, 198, 199, 201,209,221, 225,229,237,238,254,266, 267, 271, 272, 273, 275, 276, 277,279,283,292,294,297, 307,315 Attitude toward the Ad (Aad) models 107 Attitudes toward ad~ 208 Attitudes toward advertising 89, 124, 138, 139
B BACC 235, 236, 239 BBC 14, 64, 234, 235, 260 Body image 15,16,54,95,96,97, 98,219,220 Brand recognition Ill, 123, 205
317
Index Branded products 9 Broadcast advertising clearance centre 235 Broadcasting act 1990 234 Bumpers 48, 200
c Cereal advertisements 12 Christmas 9, 11, 22, 25, 30, 36, 42, 73, 207, 254, 278, 285, 298 Code of programme sponsorship 234 Code of toy advertising 246 Consumer protection act 234 Consumerism 113, 114, 120, 121, 129, 140,259,289 Consumers international survey 229 Counterarguments 224 Cultivation theory 93 Cultural differences 146 Cynicism 124, 262
D Discrepancy 99 Disordered eating patterns 95
E Eating disorders 54 Effects on children 54, 194, 213 Elaboration likelihood model 107 European 2, 7, 11, 63, 65, 227, 230, 231, 232, 233, 240, 242, 246,258
European Union 230 Exaggeration 61,261 Experimental 34, 82, 83,91, 118, 119, 132, 133, 135, 136, 142, 145, 146,210,218,253,262, 287,288,304
F Factual learning 114 Family communication 121, 12: Fantasy 20, 25, 43, 76, 185, 215 Focus group study 223
G Globalization 10
H Hierarchical models 105 Hierarchy of effects model 103
I ICC code 245 Impact of advertising 30,90, 103, 118, 133, 204, 206, 207, 213, 225,269,300,30~309,311
Independent television commission 234, 254, 256 Information processing 107,109, 190 Internet 2,3,'8,18,49,50,51,52, 55,56,59,65, 184, 193, 194, 195,197,198,234,263,264, 265 Involvement models 106 Issues and research 247
Index
318
M Market research 84 Media 1, 5, 7, 8, 16, 40, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 64, 69, 78, 85, 87, 92, 94, 95, 96, 97, 118, 121, 122, 131, 140, 159, 161, 163, 176, 177, 184, 185, 186, 187, 189, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196,198,220,229,230,245, 248,259, 262, 265, 289, 290, 291,296,310,311,314 Merchandising 14, 259 Metaphors 58
Nonverbal 28, 81, 148, 180, 250 Nutrition 12, 26, 32, 33, 34, 42, 43, 49, 79, 81, 82, 83, 210, 215, 216, 229, 239, 297, 298
o Obesity 4, 12, 42, 80, 197, 216, 217, 299, 300 Office of communication 234
p Parental control 8 Peer pressure 18, 96, 101, 139, 290 Persuasion 30,39,48,50,52,72, 95, 107, 176, 204, 222, 227, 231,261,262,282 Pestering 9, 10, 142, 143, 144, 145,146,147,254,255,284 Piaget 69 Product range 105, 130, 135 Public service announcements 2, 22, 23, 27, 32, 33, 40, 80, 133, 134, 170, 294
Q Qualitative research 312
R Racial 68, 226 Regulation of advertising 17, 244,258 Role models 78, 90, 94, 95, 97, 99,253,305,315 Rules on advertising breaks 234
s Safety concerns 47 Scheduling restrictions 240, 249 Sensorimotor 189 Separators 28, 49, 201 Skepticism 203, 204 Smoking 14,79,84,85,86,87, 88, 100, 101, 251, 292, 293, 294, 295, 308, 309, 310, 311, 314,315 Socioeconomic class 121,122 Spending power 7 Sponsorship 14, 58, 65, 84, 88, 233,234,235,265,280,311 Stereotyping 79, 92, 93, 94,101 Survey research 222, 288, 290 Susceptibility 95, 220, 269
T Television without frontiers 240, 242 Tobacco 6,13, 14, 84, 85, 86, 87, '. 88, 100, 101, 242, 251. 260, 309,310,311, 315 Toward products 115
319
Index
Toy advertisements 12, 45, 256 Toy industries of europe 246 Traditions 7, 10, 11, 193,264 Truthfulness 117,255,261,282, 2-S3 TWF Directive 244
u Underage drinking 251 Understanding of advertisements 16,259,261,262,264 United kingdom 7, 14, 17,55,56, 63, 65, 66, 73, 86, 90, 143,
146,228,230,232,233,234, 310
v Violence 56, lID, 192, 194,-196, 222,244,240253,268,296~
303,304
w Wider consumer socialization n2, 113, 129
