impact of advertising on children

Question 1

statistics of children and tv?

Answer 1

1 in 5 children under 4 have a tv in their room

in 2020, 95% of uk households had a tv

Question 2

children as consumers?

Answer 2

2009: us companies spent $17 billion on advertising to children

older children have income in form of pocket money, younger use pester power or accept bribery

Question 3

pine & nash?

Answer 3

2002 study

looked at children’s letters to santa from british 4-6 yr olds

found that children who watched more commercial tv asked for more branded items compared to those who watched non-commercial tv

children who watched alone were also more susceptible

Question 4

adverts as role models?

Answer 4

research such as bandura’s shows a correlation between a child viewing and a learned behaviour

adverts use celebrities/sports people/musicians/influencers who are all likely role models

behaviors looking to be copied should be: easy to copy, similar to accepted behaviours, cheeky, appealing, funny and characters should get away with it

Question 5

johnson & young aim?

Answer 5

to determine whether advertisers script television adverts differently for boys and girls of school age

with links to gender stereotypical roles

Question 6

johnson & young method?

Answer 6

content analysis: examining content of adverts for specific predetermined categories

discourse analysis: critical analysis of vocabulary, tone and other aspects of speech

Question 7

johnson & young sample?

Answer 7

adverts appearing before, during and after half hour kids tv shows

nickelodeon, commercial networks and regional new england stations

autumns of 1996, 1997 and 1999

6 categories of adverts, 2nd most popular category of toys with 188 adverts was studied

Question 8

johnson & young procedure?

Answer 8

3 categories of ads: targeted towards boys, towards girls, no gender specific content/both featured

gender of voice over actor noted and whether there was gendered exaggeration

use of word ‘power’ and verb types used also studied

Question 9

johnson & young verb types?

Answer 9

action, competition/destruction, agency/control, limited activity, feeling/nurturing

Question 10

johnson & young results?

Answer 10

over half of the 188 ads were targeted only at boys, with only a third targeted towards only girls

Question 11

johnson & young results, names & types of toys?

Answer 11

names toys reinforced stereotypes: big time action heros for boys and take care of me twins and girl talk for girls

boy oriented tended to be action figures, and then in 1999 computer related and handheld games

girl oriented tended to be posable figures and animals

use of these in adverts was more active for boys

Question 12

johnson & young results, voice overs?

Answer 12

all boy orientated adverts, including boy/girl were narrated by male voices
80% had gender exaggeration (boy only)

89% of girl orientated adverts were narrated by a female voice
87% had gender exaggeration

exaggeration not seen in boy/girl adverts

Question 13

johnson & young results, verbs used?

Answer 13

feeling/nurturing verbs absent from boy oriented ads but appeared 66 times for girl orientated

competition/destruction verbs 12x more likely in boy ads

limited activity verbs more common in girl ads

agency/control verbs more common in boy ads

action verbs slightly more common in boy ads

Question 14

johnson & young results, power use?

Answer 14

appeared in 20% of boy oriented adverts

but only once in a girl oriented advert when referring to the manufacturer (power wheels)

Question 15

johnson & young conclusions?

Answer 15

gender stereotypes underlie tv adverts as they portray boys and girls through traditional gender stereotypical discourse

the reason for this could be a history of this being a profitable marketing strategy and creating two seperate more profitable markets

Question 16

application: background?

Answer 16

research shows that children do not understand the advertising or persuasive intent of adverts

countries such as sweden have legislated against some advertising but we rely on self regulatory bodies such as the national advertising standards agency

Question 17

application: media literacy?

Answer 17

aims to help children develop critical awareness of mass media and advertising

to know when they are being manipulated or mislead to become more skeptical

Question 18

application: ‘media smart’?

Answer 18

non-profit that creates free materials for schools to help 6-11 yr olds think critically about advertising

uses real and current examples of advertising to teach core media literacy skills

funded by uk advertising industry but checked by independent academic experts

resources include ‘be adwise’ worksheets that teach about how advertising works and persuasive methods that may be used