Answer

The Effects of Television Advertising on Children

Introduction

This paper aims at exploring the effects of television advertising on children, the subject of this paper. Among the strongest media of advertisement is television since it reaches a mass audience. This subject is important in the present time since several media companies have come up with a number of ways through which they advertise and these channels have been found to impact on children variedly. Also, this topic is relevant and important since presently, there have been observed an increasing trend of child obesity globally attributed to unintended effect of advertising. Also, it is important since parents have been found to believe that children’s behaviours often change when they watch television advertisements as it sometimes negatively influence their behaviours because whenever they come across certain advertisements, they tend to demand to buy the advertised products (Adler et al., 2008). Johnson et al. (2002) also reason that children who watch more TV may be among those who do not take part in games, often tend to be heavy fat consumers, and high consumers of energy snack foods. Some commercials, according to Livingstone and Helpser (2004), could be labelled deceptive or misleading since some of them do not show the right kind of foods that should be consumed by children to keep them healthy. In contrast, TV watching serves to enlighten the audience (Shaista & Sheheryar, 2014), provide information (Macklin, 2017), make accessible skills regarding how to handle various individuals in various conditions/situations, and educate them (Buijzen & Valkenburg (2000). To this end, this study argues that TV advertising significantly influences children.

Summary of Research

TV advertising can influence people’s attitude, lifestyle, behaviour, exposure, as well as other facets of life like culture and belief of a country (Johnson et al., 2002). By all definitions, children are the most affected victims of television influences. The influence of television upon children is naturally universal. However, the magnitude of the influence varies from one child to another depending upon factors such as a child’s individuality and age (Buijzen & Valkenburg (2000), their patterns of viewing which encompasses the duration of television watching, the kinds of programs watched, as well as the direction that parents provide to them (Johnson et al., 2002).

In the article Impact of Television Programs and Advertisements of School Going Adolescents: A Case Study of Bahawalpur City, Pakistan by Ali and Muhammad (2013), it is argued that different hobbies and sports consisting physical work are sources of energy, while TV viewing is but a source of useless/unusable energy. Television has become a persistent medium that is currently available to virtually all children all over the world (Ali & Muhammad, 2013). As children start following TV programs, they find it difficulties understanding the programs. However, since they are immediate learners, they are often able to make balanced choices regarding wrong or right under proper guidance by their parents (Ali & Muhammad, 2013). According to TV viewers, TV is regarded as a mode of relaxation (Ali & Muhammad, 2013). Advertising industries often intentionally tone down their influence as well as possible adverse effects of the products that they advertise. They do this by portraying innocent aspects of everyday life within their commercial advertisements, hoping that the innocent aspects of life would not just entice the attention of potential consumer and customers, but would equally influence the consumers (Ali & Muhammad, 2013).

Shaista and Sheheryar (2014), in their article, Impact of TV Advertisement on Children Attitude in Karachi, showed that TV ads significantly influence children relative to other age cohorts, and children generally believe in what ads have to portray or say concerning a product. Advertisers currently prefer their products to more children than other age groups as a result of such advert’s deep impact (Shaista & Sheheryar, 2014). Since it is fairly easy to influence children’s buying decision, advertisers do not only target them via TV programs, but as well through advertisements in schools and classrooms. Children’s attention towards advertisements is highly reliant upon factors like simplicity of adverts and contents of such adverts aimed at children (Shaista & Sheheryar, 2014). For this reason, according to the study, when children begin watching TV programs during their early childhood, it becomes significantly hard to explain to them, for instance, what they should eat for needful nutrients and not for mere pleasures. This is hinged on the fact that children’s ability to comprehend advertising messages is reliant on factors such as their skill and ability to differentiate between non-commercial and commercial contents, and equally, they need to be disbelieving towards the convincing intention of TV advertising in the framework of their individual knowledge. This process of analysing TV commercials is commonly known as intellectual and development/growth development according to Ali and Muhammad (2013), Livingstone and Helpser (2004), and Rice and Woodsmail (2018).

The article Television Viewing and Aggressive Behaviour during Adolescence and Adulthood by Johnson et al. (2002) found out that the growth phase of a child plays a very significant role in the impact of commercials. The study highlighted that children do not comprehend why and what sales pitches are employed in an advertisement, implying that the main reason behind TV advertising is to cause a transformation in the behaviour and attitude of the audience. Adults, when watching TV programs, understand them through a mechanism referred to as cognitive filter, a process that entails four procedures: a view that supposes that there is a dissimilar view between the receiver of a message and the source, the intent of the source of a message is often convincing, there exits bias in all convincing messages, and interpretation approaches must vary between a biased and unbiased message, as supported by Barcus et al. (2004), Johnson et al. (2002), and Macklin (2017). Yet, upon reaching a level of comprehending an advert via all these four interpretation procedures, they have already developed mature understanding process of interpreting ads’ contents.

Johnson et al. (2002) further revealed that children aged below eight years lack the ability to comprehend TV moneymaking adverts’ cognitive development technique, with egocentrism being the dominant trait in children in this cohort. This, according to the study, implies that this age group does not have the ability to perceive another person’s perspective. The study adds that children have a tendency to believe in anything that they are told via advertisements as well as many other avenues, thus may presume that they are underprivileged or deprived if they are not given the advertised products. See the note in the appendix.

Proofs of effectiveness of attempts to minimize the sum total of the effect of TV advertising upon a child is fairly mixed up. According to Buijzen and Valkenburg’s (2000) article entitled The Impact of Television Advertising on Children’s Christmas Wishes, alongside TV commercial and its other forms, other determining factors in making decisions regarding purchases are friends, parents, peer groups, direct experience, and others like socio-economic status, age, and cultural extraction like parent’s education level. One advert may marginally influence a person’s brand preference. Nevertheless, Buijzen and Valkenburg (2000) point out that repeated and continued exposure to commercial adverts may function to create in the person a robust desire for the product advertised relative to a competitive product. Buijzen and Valkenburg (2000) add that children may not have the ability to recall a particular TV commercial for some time. Nevertheless, positive inclinations toward a given advertised product may last notwithstanding the fact that the advert has long been forgotten. This study found out that products like cereals, ice creams, and toys have greater influence when the frequency of their ads are made to appear in every single program.

The article by Robertson and Rossiter (1974) on Children and Commercial Persuasion: An Attribution Theory Analysis employed a naturalistic environment and gives reliable evidence that the more TV ads a child watches regarding cereals that are promoted for children, the higher the probability that they will be found within the household. The study hinted that other scholars have asserted that a child’s advancing sense of what their culture recognizes as fit for consumption is heavily influenced by the kind of foods that they see in TV ads since the awareness by the children of brands serves to increase security to the lives of the children. Robertson and Rossiter (1974) add that while the major objective of advertising is to promote products and products’ features, if it is differently perceived, it may have substantial sociological influence. The study further states that TV advertising may role play in encouraging materialism in children and adults as well, in which money and products are perceived crucial for individual happiness as well as social progress relative to spiritual or intellectual concerns. Several studies reveal that TV advertising functions to stimulate materialistic values and morals in children, pointing out that TV advertising is designed with the intention arousing desires for the advertised products that would not be salient otherwise, a finding supported by Barcus et al. (2004), Shaista & Sheheryar (2014), Johnson et al. (2002), Livingstone and Helpser (2004), Macklin (2017) and Rice and Woodsmail (2018).

Robertson and Rossiter (2017) further established that TV advertising serves to propagate the notion that possessions are key alongside the concept that desirable traits/qualities like success, happiness, and beauty can only be acquired through material possessions. Researches regarding the influence of advertising have majorly been directed on two paradigms: the vulnerable child paradigm and the empowered child paradigm. Within the empowered child paradigm, children are perceived as skilled buyers and consumers who have the ability to critically process commercial/advert messages. Studies based upon this paradigm mainly concentrate upon the wished-for influences of advertising, where wished-for influences refer to children’s awareness of brands, brand attitudes, as well as purchase intentions (Robertson & Rossiter, 2017). Robertson and Rossiter (2017) established that advertising-influences study based upon valuable child paradigm presumes that children do not have the cognitive skill required to safeguard themselves against promotional messages. Due to their high susceptibility levels, children are believed to be more vulnerable to the persuasive and seductive effects and influences of TV commercials relative to adults. Studies within the vulnerable paradigm often explores the degree to which advertising is dangerous for children as well as addressing concerns like whether a child ought to be safeguarded from possibility of harmful influences. As such, a study on the effects of TV advertising is very intricate, deserving a deeper exploration.

Analysis

From the above literature, it is evident that TV advertising substantially influences children. While there may be intentional influences of the advertisements, there is no doubt that there several unintended influences of the same. Borrowing from Ali and Muhammad (2013), unintended influences of TV advertising are defined as the secondary, often negative, influences of children’s exposure to TV ads. Using the conclusion of a longitudinal study by Macklin (2017), I personally hold the belief that TV ad exposure has both long and short term influences upon adolescents’ acceptance of materialistic behaviours and values. The result of the study indicated a positive connection between peer group influence and materialism and equally revealed that higher materialism scores were registered for the teens and children who were more vulnerable to peer influence. There is a general agreement among scholars that various brands can be associated with figurative or conceptual meanings, their reputation, conveying standing, and poise. Children and adults usually try adopting models or even illusionary players/characters who are presented in ads since they are depicted as attractive, powerful, smart, dominance in outlook, as well as spendthrift lifestyles. As such, children who extremely watch TV have the tendency of being obese since they less indulge in fruitful and healthy tasks like cycling, running, jumping, and exercising (Stephens & Stutts, 2015; Rice & Woodsmail, 2018; Tariq & Ambreen, 2008). Additionally, children who watch more take foods that are high in fat and sugar like snacks, candy, drinks, and sugary cereals (Robertson & Rossiter, 2017; & Goldberg, 2010).

According to a study by Buijzen and Valkenburg (2000), children’s food preference is largely reliant upon TV advertising. Nonetheless, I have observed that TV ads convey imbalanced nutritional messages. Livingstone and Helpser (2004) found a positive correlation between food ads that children recall and the number of foods such as crisps, soft drink, and savoury snacks that are consumed by children. Among the most significant factors that have been found to influence what children consume and essential in their development of overweight globally is the role played by children’s families, its composition, socio-economic stance, and eating habits and patterns (Adler et al., 2008; Barcus et al., 2004; Macklin, 2017; Stephens & Stutts, 2015). Goldberg (2010) explains that the fundamental agent of children’s, and the young in general, socialization is their families regardless of nationality. The influence of media upon children varies from one age to another. A robust relationship has been established in TV watching poor diets, habits, obesity, and poor health between adults and children (Rice & Woodsmail, 2018; Tariq & Ambreen, 2008; & Carroll, 2014). Since by watching, one remains inactive physically, the individual’s metabolic rates are minimized and their physical exercises displaced (Robertson & Rossiter, 2017; Tariq & Ambreen, 2008; & Goldberg, 2010). Similarly, with the increased ease of accessing food products, too much ads via several media platforms, regular marketing of these kinds of foods (via TV, the Internet, as well as other media), the absence of secure playgrounds, as well as video games add to the issue of overweight and have been suggested to be adding to the ‘toxicity’ of the environment.

Studies regarding children’s consumer behaviour have long been about information processing that embodies children as belonging to either of the following segments, cued processors, strategic processors, and limited processors, depending on the information skills that they have (Livingstone & Helpser, 2004; Macklin, 2017; & Rice & Woodsmail, 2018). Stephens and Stutts (2015) admit that there are several factors that contribute to childhood obesity/overweight, and that watching of TV programs or ads is among the many effects. Substantial research has been conducted on inter-relationships among those who watch videos, films, aggressive behaviours, and TV programs, especially children’s behaviours. From such studies, it can be seen that children’s perceptions and attitudes are equally controlled by media violence. The quantity of TV programs containing violent scenes is fast and alarmingly increasing (Rice & Woodsmail, 2018 & Tariq & Ambreen, 2008), making an average child to view about 12,000 violent scenes and acts on TV yearly, most of such programs depicting murder, sex scenes, and kidnapping (Carroll, 2014). According to Stephens and Stutts (2015), TV programs (like ads) and films are largely full of dreadful scenes and violence, which are being observed in close to every house via cable TV creating social challenges and problems for individuals, children not excluded. What is more, nearly all secrets of adolescence, such as physical and social matters, are viewed by nearly all members, children included. Subsequently, childhood innocence and purity are nearly impossible to maintain among children who watch TV ads since ads come in between programs. Whether TV is actually dangerous to children varies from a child to another; it could be dangerous in certain conditions under certain conditions and may be helpful/useful/valuable to other children in the same conditions. Despite the many studies that have been done on the effects of TV programs on children, there are disagreements on a number of aspects of the studies’ findings. Also, there is relatively a few researches that have been done on the specific topic ‘effects of TV advertising on children.’ As such, this current study helps in bridging the above identified gaps in literature.

Conclusion and Discussion

Discussion

From the foregoing analysis, it is evident that many former studies inferred that the participation of children in their family buying decision is fast increasing and TV ads are substantially role playing in defining their purchasing behaviour trends as well as patterns and their product choice. This is because TV ads are transforming children’s eating habits. Among the product classifications that children enjoy their advertisements are snacks and chocolates, and they often demand for the products (Macklin, 2017). Goldberg (2010) reasons that advertising food products and brands increases the desire for the products and brands among children. In their study to determine the efficacy of TV ads in modelling children’s buying-related behaviours and habits, they exposed children to food ad in affecting, enticing, and captivating selection of brand and products in their natural conditions and settings, while they went about shopping with their parents. The study found out that there is a strong relationship between attempts to purchase with total number of hours an ad is observed per week. Additionally, Carroll (2014) points out that TV ads that are targeted at children often compel them to pester their parents as a result of increased desire in the advertised products, and thus influence their families’ purchasing decisions. This is because as a result of continuous exposure of adolescents and children to TV ads, they get to be better at differentiating between bad and good products and are in situations where they can easily persuade their parents to buy the products that they desire, the advertised products (Tariq & Ambreen, 2008 & Carroll, 2014). Goldberg (2010) states that parents agree that children substantially role play in influencing their families’ decision on what to buy, especially in terms of foods, and that a number of parents consult their children when they are to buy certain things like mobile phones and computers.

Conclusion

To conclude, commercials influence children in a number of ways, both positively and negatively. Children who watch TV advertising, tend to demand to buy certain advertised products and when turned down by their parents, conflicts often ensue. In fact, TV ads lead to increased number of requests by children for advertised products, which accordingly increase the number of products denied since parents cannot afford/honour all that is requested from them. This can make a child unhappy, implying that there is a direct relationship between children’s happiness and the degree of their exposure to TV ads. One possible reason behind this is that when a child observes an ad, s/he compares his/her situation to the idealized character in the commercial world and the gap between them and the idealized world makes them unhappy. Also, children who watch more TV form a significant part of children who do not take part in games, often tend to be heavy fat consumers, and high consumers of energy snack foods. In contrast, TV watching serves to enlighten the audience, provide information, make accessible skills regarding how to handle various individuals in various conditions/situations, and educate them.