FREE ESSAY ON CHILDREN AND TELEVISION ADVERTISING

CHILDREN AND TELEVISION ADVERTISING

Children Interacting
with Television Advertising
Introduction
The following research has sought to understand the influence of television on children
over the past twenty years using a variety of social models, from public policy and
industry self-regulation, to how children receive and process media messages and the
parental responsibility in monitoring what is acceptable for children to view. 
As a baseline, our research used a model of children interacting with television. We
expounded on this model in an effort to seek current data and information that affects
children today. Our group divided this model into the following categories:
? Decision to View Television
?Public Policy Makers
?Consumer Protectionists
?Industry Self-Regulation
?Television Advertising Message
?Receiving and Processing Message
?Cognitions
?Behaviors
?Parents
After analyzing this model, we conducted our own research to study current trends and
determine whether childrens' behavior has changed significantly in the past 20 years.
Our empirical research includes studies in contemporary advertising techniques, changes
in children's television viewing preferences, and the relationship to childhood
development. Each category explains a different element of the process of how children
interpret and act upon the medias influence. 
The Decision to View Television and Parental Influence
Today, children in the United States watch an average of 3 to 5 hours of television every
day, and up to an average of 24 hours of television a week. Did you know that on average,
children will see 576 or more commercials each week? Children's programming devotes up to
12 hours to advertising a week. 
Research has demonstrated that the effect of television viewing on children leads to a
number of possible problems. Television affects social and emotional behavior, creativity
and language skills, and school achievement. There is an organization out there in
support of children and parents who are concerned with the way television is being
viewed. The name of this organization is CARU, Children's Advertising Review Unit, and it
is an industry supported self-regulatory system of the children's advertising industry.
"CARU works with the industry to ensure that advertising directed to kids is truthful,
and above all fair." (Better Business Bureau) The purpose of CARU is to maintain a
balance between controlling the message children receive from advertising, and promoting
the important information to children through advertising. Another organization working
towards controlling advertising towards children is the "Children's Television Act of
1990 who limited advertising on children's programs to 10.5 minutes per hour on weekends
and 12 minutes per hour on weekdays." (famailyeducation.com) Food advertising makes up
the largest category of advertisements directed towards children. Breakfast cereals and
fast food restaurants account for over half of all food advertisements aimed at children.
In the United States less than one percent of advertisements were for healthier foods
such as fruit and vegetables.
There are three advertising methods, which are the most popular with advertisers. The
first form of advertising is called premiums and has been around since Dick Tracy decoder
rings and Little Orphan Annie stickers, over 50 years. The problem with this form of
advertising is that children have difficulty telling the difference between the actual
product and the premium, or in other words, the prize. The second popular form of
advertising to children is through sweepstakes. Children find this very exciting, and in
turn this raises children's expectations of their chances of winning a prize. Most young
children have trouble realizing that not every child wins and so sweepstakes usually
require some form of parent involvement. The last form of advertisements that is geared
toward children is what we call "Kids Clubs". For an advertiser to use the word "club" a
few requirements need to be met. Interactivity needs to be met which means that a child
should perform some kind of an action to join the club, and in return receives a reward,
membership to the club. Also continuity needs to be performed, this is an ongoing
relationship between the club members either through a newsletter or some other
interaction with the members.
Parents can guide their children's television viewing in many ways. First, parents should
set limits to the amount of TV a child should watch in a given day. Because television
watching is often habit, 1 to 2 hours a day should be enough. An easy way to accomplish
this would be to set a few basic rules, such as no television during meals, or before
completing homework. Second, help plan a child's television viewing with the child. Sit
down with a newspaper listing of shows and plan the television schedule for the week.
Third, to know what a child is watching on the television means that a parent needs to
participate. By watching television with a child and then talking about what was watched
will give the parent greater control of what kinds of programs are watched in the home.
Monitoring the programs that a child watches is the fourth rule for parents. Encourage
children to watch programs about characters that cooperate and care for each other. The
fifth rule is to analyze commercials. "Children need help to critically evaluate the
validity of the many products advertised on television." (accesseric.org) The last rule
is to express your views. Call your local television station if you are not happy with
what is being shown. Stations, networks, and sponsors are all concerned about the effects
of television viewing on children, and are willing to listen to parents concerns. 
Public Policy and Consumer Protectionism
Children's advertising is mainly governed by CARU, the Children's Advertising Review
Board, which is part of the Better Business Bureau. The board reviews advertising that is
directed towards children in all forms of media and seek change through voluntary and
self-regulating cooperation of advertisers. CARU's seeks to find misleading, inaccurate
or inconsistent advertising under the Self Regulatory Guidelines for Children's
Advertising. 
The Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus
was established in 1974 by the National Advertising Review Council (NARC) to promote
responsible children's advertising and to respond to public concerns. Its Board of
Directors comprises key executives from the CBBB, the American Association of Advertising
Agencies (AAAA), the American Advertising Federation (AAF) and the Association of
National Advertisers (ANA). The NARC Board sets policy for CARU's self-regulatory
program, which is administered by the CBBB and is funded directly by members of the
children's advertising industry.
CARU's Self-Regulatory Guidelines are subjective, going beyond the issues of truthfulness
and accuracy to take into account the uniquely impressionable and vulnerability of the
child audience. They recognize that the special nature and needs of children require
particular care and dedication on the part of advertisers. In 1998, CARU monitored more
than 11,700 television commercials, often with the assistance of local BBBs, and reviewed
advertisements in print and on the internet. (bbbonline.org)
To keep the CARU guidelines relevant, the Council's Children's Advertising Review Unit
and its Business and Academic Advisory Committees regularly review CARU's Self-Regulatory
Guidelines to insure that they remain current in the rapidly evolving children's market.
CARU's board consists of academic and business leaders and experts in education,
communication and child development. In addition, prominent business and industry leaders
advise on general issues and guideline revisions.
CARU provides a general advisory service for advertisers and agencies and also is a
source of informational material for children, parents and educators. CARU encourages
advertisers to develop and promote educational messages to children consistent with the
Children's Television Act of 1990. In addition, CARU publishes a wealth of materials made
available to those seeking to be more informed.
There are six basic principles that underlie CARU's Guidelines for Advertising, directed
at children under age 12. They are intended to be illustrative rather than limiting and
are:
1. Advertisers should always take into account the level of knowledge, sophistication and
maturity of the audience to which their message is primarily directed. Younger children
have a limited capacity for evaluating the credibility of information they receive. They
also may lack the ability to understand the nature of the information they provide.
Advertisers, therefore, have a special responsibility to protect children from their own
susceptibilities. 
2. Realizing that children are imaginative and that make-believe play constitutes an
important part of the growing up process, advertisers should exercise care not to exploit
unfairly the imaginative quality of children. Advertising should not stimulate
unreasonable expectations of product quality or performance either directly or
indirectly.
3. Recognizing that advertising may play an important part in educating the child,
advertisers should communicate information in a truthful and accurate manner and in
language understandable to young children with full recognition that the child may learn
practices from advertising which can affect his or her health and well-being.
4. Advertisers are urged to capitalize on the potential of advertising to influence
behavior by developing advertising that, wherever possible, addresses itself to positive
and beneficial social behavior, such as friendship, kindness, honesty, justice,
generosity and respect for others.
5. Care should be taken to incorporate minority and other groups in advertisements in
order to present positive and pro-social roles and role models wherever possible. Social
stereotyping and appeals to prejudice should be avoided.
6. Although many influences affect a child's personal and social development, it remains
the prime responsibility of the parents to provide guidance for children. Advertisers
should contribute to this parent-child relationship in a constructive manner.
Because children are still developing their minds and knowledge and they are limited in
their experiences and skills required to evaluate advertising and thus to make purchasing
decisions, CARU assists advertisers in general advisory service and recommendations as
well as pre-approving advertisements that meet their guidelines. Care is advocated in
regards to product presentations and claims, sales pressure, disclosures and disclaimers,
comparative claims, endorsements and promotions by program characters, premiums and
sweepstakes and safety. 
Industry Self-regulation
Self-regulation is a ruling by the National Association of Broadcasters that lessens the
need for advertising agencies to comply with statutory regulations and other issues
dealing with state and federal laws. Large organizations such as the Federal Trade
Commission, and the Federal Communications Commission exercise certain power to control
and regulate some content, which is broadcast over television media. The self-regulation
ruling protects broadcasters from the controls and constraints of the FTC and FCC
guidelines.
The Federal Trade Commission was established in 1914 as an independent U.S. agency. The
purpose is to keep business competition free and fair, prevent the distribution of false
and/ or deceptive advertising, and to enforce antitrust laws. The FTC defines deceptive
advertising as a misrepresentation, omission or practice that is likely to mislead. The
FTC also regulates the labeling and packaging of commodities, and gathers information
concerning a companies business decisions. All of this information is made available to
the public. The FTC may require corporations to submit information about their business
practices if they feel there is evidence of unlawful activity. In addition, the FTC is
empowered to issue cease and desist orders to take violators to court.
The Federal Communications Commission was created in 1934. The FCC exercises the power of
licensing and license renewal for radio and television stations. It has the power to
revoke or issue fines to a broadcast licensee for violating its regulations. These
measures can be invoked when a licensee has aired obscene or indecent language, revealed
confidential lottery information, or obtained money under false pretenses. The FCC is not
allowed to censor material or enforce regulations that interfere with freedom of
expression. The subject matter of the programming is up to the discretion of the
individual broadcast station. 
Because the FTC and FCC guidelines are broad and subject to interpretation, it is
difficult to define what is considered obscene, what is age appropriate for children to
view, and what subject matter is acceptable. The FCC does have some provisions for
licensees concerning children's television programming. Every commercial and
non-commercial educational television licensee is obligated to foster the educational and
informational needs of children 16 years and under. The programs must serve a specific
purpose and must be aired regularly between 7:00 am and 10:00 pm, and must be at least 30
minutes long. Licensees must identify programs specifically designed to educate and
inform children at the beginning of the program, and it must classify such programs to
publishers of program guides. In addition, television programs aimed at children 12 and
under cannot advertise commercials for more that 10.5 minutes an hour on weekends and 12
minutes on weekdays. 
Television is one of the most encompassing and persuasive forms of media available to
children today. The subject of children's programming is highly controversial and at the
forefront of American politics today. It is important for advertisers and advertising
agencies to have a certain amount of autonomy and self-regulation. It is in the publics'
interest for advertisers to protect themselves through self-regulation from the
restrictions and costly lawsuits that can deny freedom of speech and expression. 
Receiving and Processing Messages
Obviously, a majority of the television advertising to children is in the product
category of toys and food. The ads attempt to provoke children to request that their
parents purchase the advertised brand. In order to stimulate this type of reaction,
advertisers must appeal to certain needs. The table below shows the results of a 1985
study of the needs appealed to in television ads during children's programming.
Needs Appealed to in Television Advertising during 
Children's Programming, November 1985 
Advertisements
Appealing to
Need Need (%)
Sentience (to seek sensuous gratification) 64
Play (to relax or have fun) 52
Affiliation (to have cooperative relationships with others) 33
Nurturance (to protect and care for others) 21
Achievement (to accomplish something difficult) 14
Harm avoidance (to avoid physical pain or harm) 9
Aggression (to overcome opposition) 9
Understand (to analyze or experience ideas or objects) 8
Exhibition (to make an impression) 8
Dominance (to influence behavior of others) 5
Autonomy (to resist influence or coercion) 4
Infavoidance (to avoid embarrassment) 4
Deference (to admire or support a superior) 4
Source: McNeal (1987) 
When appealing to these needs it is important for advertisers not to deceive children
with their advertisements. There are five ways in which advertisements may deceive their
young audience (McNeal 1987):
1. They may use celebrity presenters, which can exploit children's trust in authority
figures (McNeal 1987).
Celebrity endorsements which are common in many advertisements today, could be a bit too
effective if the brand associated with the celebrity or role model does not hold enough
merit on its own. Children might be swayed to ask their parents to purchase products
because their favorite athlete, cartoon character, or actor "uses" the product, not
because the product would improve the quality of their life in any way.
2. They may present products such as candy bars, toys, and hamburgers, without reference
to a scale which may exploit children's limited perception skills (McNeal 1987).
It is unfair to coerce children to make unhealthy choices because they lack the necessary
cognition to know any better. That should go without saying however, the bottom line is
the bottom line, and advertisers are in the business to sell their products.
3. They may focus on premiums rather than on the product, which may cause children to use
wrong standards for assessing the product (McNeal 1987).
Anything that adds false merit to a product should be eliminated from advertising to
children. This is an unfair advantage advertisers have over there young audience because
they can project an image of a particular brand without providing any support for that
image other than the superficial benefits of the product.
4. They may use adult terminology and contrived terms, which take advantage of children's
limited knowledge (McNeal 1987).
Sometimes adults don't understand "adult terminology." It is unfair to children for
advertisers to use language that might prevent them from making correct judgements about
advertised brands.
5. They may make excessive use of emotional terms and/or intense sounds or colors, which
may exploit children's gullibility (McNeal 1987).
Sensory overload is rightfully off limits because children are emotional enough and don't
need the extra help from television advertisements.
Advertisers attempt to cover up any possibly misleading message with disclaimers (McNeal
1987). Disclaimers such as "some assembly required," "batteries not included," or
"accessories sold separately," serve as the prerequisite for a moral, non-deceptive
message. Research has shown that "these disclaimers do not have their intended result,"
(McNeal 1987), and that "this incorrect impression may be passed on to parents" (McNeal
1987). This shows that children not understanding disclaimers can lead to frustration in
parents and a very unsatisfied customer. The ad was successful in that it provoked a sale
of the product, yet no brand loyalty would be built between those frustrated parents and
the company selling the product.
One area under dispute is that children cannot distinguish between children's programming
and advertisements. Separators like "after these messages, we'll be right back," forecast
to children that commercials are coming. Separators are also under criticism because they
are not specific enough for children to understand. A study by Stutts, Vance, and
Huddleson in 1981 showed that "seven year olds more quickly recognized commercial
material when 'The Bugs Bunny Show will be right back after these messages' was changed
to 'Hey Kids. The next thing you will see will be a commercial and not part of the
program you've been watching'" (McNeal 1987). It seems that if advertisers were more
specific with respect to disclaimers and separators, they would be attacked less for
their unethical practices when advertising to children.
For children to begin processing the message, they must pay attention to the message.
Children's attention to the advertisements is affected by both personal and stimulus
factors (McNeal 1987). The following table summarizes these types of factors.
Factors That Affect Children's Attention to Television Advertisements
Personal Factors 
Level of motivation The child may desire to watch commercials, or certain 
commercials, for information or entertainment value. 
Attitudes toward commercials Children have developed negative feelings towards ads
because 
the ads interrupt programming or because they are perceived as 
generally dishonest. 
Influence of parents and peers Parents and peers can distract children from commercials 
because of conversation that may begin at commercial time or 
because of warnings about commercial content. 
Lack of knowledge about commercials Children's attention may remain constant as
programming 
changes to commercials because the youngsters do not know
the difference between the two. 
Stimulus Factors 
Programming nature Attention to commercials may vary because programs are boring 
or interesting; for example, boring programs may invite attention 
to entertaining commercials 
Commercial content Advertisers use a variety of practices to get and keep children's 
attention: music, singing, jingles, sound effects, animation, 
celebrities, and well-known characters. Some are more effective 
than others. 
Product advertised Certainly the involvement children have with the products in 
commercials will influence their attention to the ads, for example, 
attention might be expected to vary depending on whether the 
products advertised are for children or adults. 
Public service announcements Because public service announcements are different from 
commercial announcements (they may even be contrary to 
them), children may give them special attention. 
Source: McNeal (1987) 
These factors represent a challenge facing advertisers today. Advertisers know that they
cannot control most of these factors. However, they know that if a child does not pay
attention to an ad, that child can have no cognition or display the desired purchase
behavior. It is critically important that ads grab the attention of their young audience
or they will be completely ineffective.
Cognitive Analysis of Children's Behavior in Regards to Consumer Advertising
Cognition is the mental faculty or process by which knowledge is acquired. It is
knowledge gained as through perception, reasoning, or intuition. (Webster's II, 1984)
It is important to understand that there are many differences between children and adults
who watch T.V. Children are different not only in the values and standards they bring,
but also in the years of experience they have behind them, the physiological bases of
their needs, and their abilities. I hope to clear up the reasons behind all of these
differences and will start with a child's basic cognitive process and then move into more
specific situations.
We want to start out by discussing Jean Piaget's cognitive development theory, but first
here is a definition of cognitive theory. It is concerned with central organizing
processes in higher animals, and it recognizes a partial autonomy of these processes,
such that the animal becomes an actor upon, rather than simply a reactor to its
environment. (Phillips, Jr. John L.,1969)
The cognitive approach is concerned more with structure rather than content with how the
mind works. Cognitive development probably begins before birth according to many
psychologists. Piaget has come up with four separate stages of cognitive development
humans go through from birth do adulthood. The concept of cognitive states has several
implications for how children perceive and think. First, stages imply distinct,
qualitative differences in children's modes of thinking or problem solving at different
stages. Second, stages of thought form an invariant sequence in individual development,
so although environmental factors may alter the rate of growth, they do not change the
sequence. Third, thinking typical of his stage in numerous situations that may differ
widely. Fourth, cognitive stages are hierarchical and integrative: higher stages become
increasingly differentiated and at the same time integrate lower stages at a new level of
organization; in short, one stage "melds" into another. (Wackman, Daniel B.1977) The four
stages Piaget came up with were the sensorimotor stage (0-2 years old) where the infant's
behavior is not at all mediated by thought, as we know it, but rather by set behavior
patterns. I have included a chart to help explain the period, but will end discussion
here on this period as I will focus mainly on the next period, the Preoperational period,
(2-7 years old). The final two stages are concrete operational (7-11 years old) and
Formal Operations (11-15). (Phillips,Jr. John L.,1969)
In the preoperational period the child is developing symbolic abilities (such as language
and mental imagery), but his behavior is still very closely linked to perception. Piaget
characterizes the mental processes of this stage as a "mental experiment" in which the
child's thought is a replication in mental imagery of various stimuli, which often bear
no logical relation to each other. (Phillips,Jr. John L.,1969)
In advancing from the sensiomotor stage to the preoperational there is a key difference
to notice. A sensiomotor child can seldom utilize any but concrete signals, whereas the
Preoperational child can make an internal response or a mediating process that represents
an absent object or event.
Increasing internalization of representational actions and increasing differentiation of
signifiers from significant mark this period. (Phillips,Jr. John L.,1969)
Adaptive behavior:
Intelligence can be defined as the organization of adaptive behavior; this changes in the
Preoperational period. (Phillips,Jr. John L.,1969) A Preoperational child can reflect
upon his own behavior as it relates to the goal rather than just on the goal itself.
Preoperational has access to a comprehensive representation of reality that can include
past, present, and future and can occur in an exceedingly short period of time.
The eventual results of this extension in scope and shift of interest from action to
explanation is the development of a system of codified symbols that can be manipulated
and communicated to the other.
In this period there is accommodation and assimilation. Accommodation involves
signifiers, which are events that have been internalized and intimidated. In assimilation
the signifiers acquires meaning when it is assimilated to the schemes that represent the
signified event. (Phillips,Jr. John L.,1969)
When imitations become internalized Piaget calls them "images" and these are the first
signifiers. Words serve as signifiers and their meanings are similarly determined.
(Phillips,Jr. John L.,1969) An example of this is how a girl sees a car or glass on T.V.
She takes a shell and calls it a cup as she assimilates the glass she saw and begins to
drink from the shell. Or she takes a box and drives it around as if it were a car, same
idea.
There are six basic limitations that separate the child from an adult; concreteness,
irreversibility, egocentrism, centering, states vs. transformations, and transductive
reasoning.
Concreteness:
Instead of the adult pattern of analyzing and synthesizing, the child simply runs through
the symbols for events as though he were actually participating in the events themselves.
(Phillips,Jr. John L.,1969)
Irreversibility:
Where a child's thoughts cannot reverse itself back to the point of origin. An example of
this is a child sees two clay balls of equal size. When asked if they are the same the
child responds yes. Now, when one of the balls is molded to look like a hot dog in front
of the child he is asked the same question and says no they aren't the same size. The
reason is the child can't see that since nothing has been added or removed that it could
be made back into original ball. He can't see that every change in height is compensated
by a change in width.
Egocentrism:
This is the inability to take another person's point of view.
Centering: 
This is a child's tendency to center his attention on one detail of an event and his
inability to process information from other aspects of the situation. When two glasses
are placed in front of a child one tall and one fat with equal amounts of water the child
will think that they are not equal. The reason is that the child only looks at the height
not the width so they decenter and answer incorrectly. (Phillips,Jr. John L.,1969)
State vs. Transformation:
This is where a child focuses on the successive states of a display rather than on the
transformations by which one state is changed into another. An example is where water is
passed from one container to another. An adult sees this as one movie, but a child sees
this as a series of pictures. When a child is asked to draw in sequence of events a board
dropping, they can't do it. It should look like this: 
They are unable to integrate a series of states or conditions into a coherent whole
namely, a transformation. (Phillips,Jr. John L.,1969)
Transductive Reasoning:
This is where a child proceeds from particular to particular instead of general to
specific or specific to general. An example is A causes B is not different from B causes
A. (Phillips,Jr. John L.,1969) "Daddy's shave requires hot water," is not different from
"hot water requires daddy's shave."
It is evident that the CTS (Children's Television Standards) recognize the stages of
children's development. This is apparent, as they require special consideration in areas
such as advertising and the presentation of material that may be harmful. (WEB. Program
content advertising to children on TV)
The next stage of Piaget's theory is called the Concrete Operations Period (7-11). The
child developing conceptual skills, which enable him to mediate perceptual activity, but
only when dealing with concrete objects, marks the change. 
Another idea is of consumer socialization which is best understood as a child's
developing ability to select, evaluate, and use information relevant to purchasing
(information processing). Children ignore some messages and accept others. They search
for it select it and interpret their selection are all ideas of this concept. REFER to
Chart. . (Wackman, Daniel B.1977)
Wohlwill argues that the most important aspect of cognitive growth is the child's
increasing ability to organize his conceptual skills to mediate incoming stimuli rather
than to simply respond to what he perceives. They use the term perceptual boundness (the
tendency to focus on and respond primarily to perceptual aspects of the environment) to
refer to this dimension of growth.
Younger preoperational children tend to be perceptually bound in their interactions with
the environment. However, older kids in the concrete operational stage (7-11) don't
simply accept what is perceived is reality, but can mentally manipulate perceived
elements.
For Piaget development is the result of four factors: Maturation of the physical
abilities of the child; the child's own experience with objects in the world; social
transmission, such as parents talking with the child, and equilibration, the child's
self-regulatory processes. (Lyle, Jack, 1961)
It is important to note that in the beginning that most kids don't go to the T.V. to
learn, it is incidental. This just means that when a viewer goes to a T.V. for
entertainment and stores up facts by accident it is incidental. In a study done this idea
was proved when kids where asked, "What T.V. shows do you watch?" The response was that
out of 111 programs only four where informational that kids watched when asked. (Jack
Lyle, 1961) 
Incidental learning depends on a kid's ability to learn, his needs at the moment, and
what he pays attention to. An important thing to note is that kids are more willing to
learn something when it is new to them as long as it is not too unfamiliar. Another point
is that kids are more likely to learn or act on ideas if they think that they will work.
(Jack Lyle, 1961) For example if a fictional character can't get away with it then there
is good reason not to try it. A man by the name of Zajonc tried an experiment once to
prove this idea. He made a comic book in which a character commits a violent act and gets
away with it and one in which the character gets punished. In that experiment the
children that read the first comic where the hero gets away with the act approved despite
the morals they previously had. (Jack Lyle, 1961)
Perception of the intent of Commercials:
The last thing we want to talk about is how children perceive commercials. In a study by
Ward and Wackman (1973) 5-12 year olds were questioned about the purpose of commercials.
Nearly one-half (47%) of the children verbalized low levels of understanding of the
selling of motives of commercials. It was realized by Robertson and Rossiter (1974) that
the ability to recognize the persuasive intent of commercials would depend in part upon
the child's prior cognitive distinctions: 1) Discrimination between programming and
commercials; 2) Recognition of an external source (a sponsor); 3) Perception of an
intended audience as the target of the advertiser's message; 4) Awareness of the
symbolic, as opposed to the realistic, nature of commercials and 5) Recall of personal
experiences in which discrepancies had been discovered between products as advertised and
products in actuality. (Adler, Richard P-1980)
We include all these ideas in order to show how tough it is for advertisers to get their
messages across to kids. The Commercials have to have so many different criteria and the
children still have to be there at the right moment, be in the correct mood and
understand everything that is being told to them. Maybe this is why commercials are shown
over and over and over again.
An analysis as to how children develop behaviors that emanate from television advertising
is an enormous field to research. The focus of this analysis will be limited to
children's requests to parents, purchases, and how they relate to television
advertisements. Children develop a sense of what they should eat in two ways. First of
all, parents instill their eating habits on their children when they make dinner, snacks,
etc. Secondly, children are influenced by commercials they see and store this in their
memory that comes to light when they go shopping with their parents. To give an example
as to how prominent a role children play in buying food at the grocery store, a study by
Galst and White (1976) stated that children averaged a purchase-influence attempt every
two minutes while shopping with parents (McNeal 1987). The research further indicates
that the level of purchase attempts increases when children watch more television. This
bit of information is of particular importance for cereal and food manufacturers that
market their products on television. In many cases, television advertising is the primary
source of information about products such as cereal and toys for children. It is often
noted throughout research on purchase requests to parents by children that the younger
the child, the more requests are made. The number of requests tends to decrease as the
child gets older. When children were questioned about how often they ask their parents to
buy them something after seeing it on television, children considered heavy viewers asked
40% of the time compared to 16% of the time for light viewers (Adler p. 141). Further
evidence as to how strongly children influence purchase decisions for advertised goods on
their parents came about in a study of 1053 six to fourteen year old children and 591 of
their mothers. The two groups were question on 20 product categories including cereal,
cookies, drinks, etc. In the end, 75% of the mothers who purchased these products said
they were influenced by their children in brand and product selection (Adler p. 103).
Parents with higher levels of education seem to be less influenced by purchase requests
by their children. A study by Rossiter (1979) concluded that television advertising has
the greatest effects on the youngest children in families with parents of low education
and most likely low income (McNeal 1987). The results of this combination can lead to
significant conflict between the parent and child.
The buying power of children today is a segment that advertisers are well aware of.
Children and teens receive money from jobs, allowances, and birthdays that enables them
to purchase items they would have previously relied on their parents to buy. According to
Wells (1965), children act as consumers in several ways; by making personal purchases
with their own money, by asking their parents at home, by making requests at the store,
and by parents buying items they know their children are willing to consume (Adler 139).
It has been said that one-third of major retailers are aware of children's income and
wish to capitalize on this potential market. In a very interesting study by the Kroger
foundation, children were allowed to shop at the supermarket as if they were adults. It
turns out that the children actively searched out specific items they had seen on
television and that "most of the children selected cereal" they have seen advertised on
television (McNeal 1987). Research indicates that children's wants and desires can be
significantly influenced by what they see on television. In an experiment by Goldberg,
Gorn, and Gibson (1977), two groups of children were subjected to two different sets of
television programs. The first program Fat Albert, stressed the importance of good
nutrition and eating well. The second group of youngsters watched Yogi Bear cartoons that
had several commercials for junk food. Once the programs were viewed, the children were
allowed to select three snacks from the following: a banana, peanuts, raisins, Mounds
candy bar, jellybeans, and Lollipop Lifesavers. The research showed that the children
subjected to the more healthy commercials picked significantly more nutritious items than
did the other group (McNeal 1987). Research like this is of particular importance to
advertisers who market more health conscious food. Not only does the research show that
children know what they should eat, but when exposed to marketing efforts, a significant
portion will pick health conscious food over junk food. 
Research Report
Our group chose to collect data that could prove the Model of Children Interacting with
Television to be true of children today. We found a study done in 1975 that showed the
percentage of children who requested their parents buy toys and cereal for them as a
result of being exposed to television advertising. This study summarized the behavior box
of the model. The results of the 1975 study are summarized in the table below.
Advertising-Initiated Requests 
Light Heavy 
Viewers Viewers
(N = 444) (N = 294)
Many of the TV commercials are for toys - things like dolls and 
racing cars. After you see these toys on TV, how much do you 
ask your mother to buy them for you? 
A Lot 16% 40%
Sometimes 64% 46%
Never 20% 14%
After you see commercials for breakfast cereals on TV, how 
much do you ask your mother to buy the cereal for you? 
A Lot 24% 41%
Sometimes 50% 39%
Never 26% 20%
Source: Adler 
Hypothesis
Our group will attempt to prove that the behavior of children exposed to television
advertisements in 1975 would match the behavior of children today.
Method
Our group chose to survey children at The Airport Club, Albertson's at Bicentennial Way
in Santa Rosa, and KayBee Toys at The Santa Rosa Plaza. We asked each child three
questions. The first question was, "How many hours of TV do you watch each day?" The
second question was, "Many of the TV commercials you watch are for toys. After seeing
these commercials on TV, how much do you ask your mother to buy them for you, A Lot,
Sometimes, or Never?" The third question was, "After you see commercials for breakfast
cereals on TV, how much do you ask your mother to buy the cereal for you, A Lot,
Sometimes, or Never?" 
Results
We compiled the data concurrent with the way in which the data from the 1975 study was
compiled. We grouped the children who watched three or more hours of TV per day as heavy
viewers, and grouped children who watched two or fewer hours of TV per day as light
viewers. A table of our empirical evidence is shown below.
Advertising-Initiated Requests -- Year 2000!
Light Heavy 
Viewers Viewers
(N = 38) (N = 36)
Many of the TV commercials are for toys - things like dolls and 
racing cars. After you see these toys on TV, how much do you 
ask your mother to buy them for you? 
A Lot 16% 22%
Sometimes 32% 50%
Never 53% 28%
After you see commercials for breakfast cereals on TV, how 
much do you ask your mother to buy the cereal for you? 
A Lot 11% 22%
Sometimes 21% 44%
Never 68% 33%
Discussion/Conclusion
The data we collected seemed to follow a completely different trend than the data
collected in 1975. In 1975 the trend seemed to be that children would at least sometimes
ask their parents to purchase the advertised products on TV with the number of children
exhibiting that behavior increasing with the amount of television they watched. Our
survey showed that children today often do not ask their parents to purchase products
that they see advertised on TV. There is a similar trend in that heavy viewers of
television today do tend to ask their parents more, but the collected data presents some
evidence to reject our hypothesis. 
Our sample size was not nearly as large as the study done in 1975. However, a larger
sample size may not be enough to change some of our statistics. There was a huge
difference in the behavior of light television viewers today and the behavior of light
viewers studied in 1975. Since there was such a discrepancy, a few children who responded
that they never asked their parents to purchase the advertised products, were asked why?
Common responses were "Mommy just buys our cereal for us," or "Daddy gets mad when we ask
for toys because he says that commercials lie." This leads to an interesting discussion
that parents might be having more of an effect on their children's behavior than in the
past. Or that maybe their parents have a higher level of distrust in television
advertising than their parent's generation. These are interesting ideas that could also
be researched. 
The final conclusion is that our hypothesis will be rejected. The results may not be
statistically significant for publication in a journal, however for our intents and
purposes the data collected was sufficient to base a conclusion on. Children's behavior
today upon exposure to television advertisements does not match the behavior of children
studied in 1975. 
Conclusion
The industry of children's advertising is an extremely complex field of research. The
task for marketers knowing all the laws and regulations in this industry is a chore that
is becoming increasingly difficult in modern times. The ability of marketers to make
commercials for their products, especially those aimed at children is essential in the
survival of consumer goods in our capitalist society. Our research has shown that a
majority of adults and organizations feel that advertisers manipulate the law as well as
their children in how they market their products, especially in the field of breakfast
cereal. Critics have charged that advertisers use celebrities, toys, games, etc. to sell
their product without any effort in communicating the nutritional value of their cereal.
The fact remains that the majority of cereal manufactures that use these types of
marketing campaigns are for cereal that would not be considered of high nutrition. What
has to be remembered is that these huge corporations are here to make money for their
shareholders as well as their employees and if they wish to remain a leader in the
children's cereal product category, then they have to use these forms of advertising to
compete with other corporations. What is obvious from our research is that the behaviors
of children can be influenced by television commercials. Although we had to reject our
own hypothesis that the behavior of children exposed to television advertisements in 1975
would match the behavior of children today it is still clear that advertisers can
influence purchase decisions and behaviors of children. Our research has unveiled that
kids do look for brands in the store while shopping and that is largely due to the fact
that the physiological effects of television as well as the creativity of marketers is
reaching their target markets and doing a very good job of turning children into
consumers. 
Works Cited
Adler P., Lesser, Meringoff, Robertson, Rossiter, and Ward. The Effects of Television
Advertising on Children: Lexington Books: Toronto, 1981.
Adler, Richard P. and all. Research on the Effects of Television on Children.
Publisher: unknown.
Barcus, F. Earle Children's Television: An Analysis of Programming and Advertising:
Praeger Publishers, NY, NY 1977
Batra, Myers, Aaker. Advertising management. New Jersey: Prentice hall, 1996.
Boudreaux , Donald. "Puffery in advertising" The Freemarket Newsletter Feb/March 1995
Lyle, Parker, and Schramm Inc. Television in the lives of our Children: Standford
University Press: Standford, 1961.
McNeal, James U. Children as Consumers.
Canada: D.C. Hearth and Company, 1987
Phillips, Jr. John L. The Origins of Intellect Piaget's Theory: W.H. Freeman 1969
Poussaint Alvin, M.D. and Susan Linn, Ed.D. Surviving Television Advertising. Posted
2000. Accessed 11/7/2000. 
http://familyeducation.com/article/0,1120,1-1528,00.html?email*/A
Somerset-Ward, Richard. The Public and Broadcasting. The Digital Beat. Vol. 1 No.10 June1
999. www.benton.org/digitalbeat/db062599.html
Spencer Mima. What Do Parents Need To Know About Children's Television Viewing? Posted
3/30/1999. Accessed 11/7/2000. 
www.accesseric.org/resources/parents/t.htr
Stewart, David W Effective Television Programming: D.C. Heath and Company, NY, NY 1986
Ulanoff, StanleyM. Advertising in America. New York: Hastings House, 1977
Wackman, Ward, and Wartella, Ing. How Children Learn to Buy: Sage: London, 1977.
Program Content advertising to children on T.V.
http://us.f14.mail.yahoo.com/ym/ShowLetter?MsgId=4827_88755_1195_65357_0&Y
www.lawpublishing.com
Advertising Law resource center
www.bbbonline.org
Better Business Beurau - CARU
www.aba.gov/whaat/program/kids/standard.htm
CTS children's television advertising standards
www.ftc.gov/ftc/consumer,htm
Cederal Trade commission, Consumer affairs in advertising
Better Business Bureaus, Inc. A Practical Guide for Parents: Advertising, Nutrition and
Kids. Posted 1993. Accessed 11/7/2000. 
www.media-awareness.ca/eng/med/home/resource/adfood.ht
FCC and Broadcasting. Consumer Information Bureau. www.fcc.gov/cib/.html