Advertising to Children: Issues of contextualisation

Brian Young PhDSchool of PsychologyUniversity of Exeter

Approaching the issue

• Health and welfare concerns• Anthropological/Sociological• Communication/linguistic• Marketing• Psychology (developmental)• Economic psychology

Health and welfare concerns

• Dental• Diet• Obesity• Body image• Materialism• Celebrity endorsement• Regulations

Anthropological/Sociological• Images of childhood

– ‘children’ and ‘kids’

• Cultural representations of TV– Window on the world’– TV carrying commercial messages– Negative images

• The home and sentimentalisation of childhood– Changes in USA in 19th century– Development of towns where commerce went on– Not the place for women and children!– Sentimentalisation of childhood and the home (motherhood as well)

• Sacred/profane

Sacred/profane

• Belk, R. W., Wallendorf, M., and Sherry, J. F. (1989). The sacred and the profane in consumer behavior: theodicy on the odyssey. Journal of Consumer Research, 16, 1-38.

• Origins with Durkheim• Can be extended to e.g. advertising in

schools debate; September 11.

Put children and advertising together...

• Child as innocent• Advertiser as seducer

• A relationship that evokes emotions of mythic proportions.

Communication/linguistic

• Pragmatics• Rules of communicative conduct• Pateman had done some work on theory of

communication in advertising using pragmatics• May, J. D. (1981). Practical reasoning: extracting

useful information from partial informants. Journal of Pragmatics, 5, 45-59.

Marketing

• Lurid language!• Assume they’re ‘kids’• 3 markets (McNeal) - present, future,

family• IJAMC

Psychology (developmental)

• Theory of child development• Theory of mind as the base• Reality/pretence• Perspective taking (Selman)• Limited information processing (John)

Advertising Literacy

• Academically interesting• Of value to practitioners• Any results should be able to inform the

debate on regulation

• ‘Good enough’ literacy

A summary of the evidence on intent

• Children under 5 years of age see advertising as ‘just entertainment’

• Between 5 and 7 children begin to understand the promotional, informative, persuasive, and commercial functions of advertising

• By 8-9 years of age most children understand the commercial and persuasive function of advertising.

Understanding promotional intent

• What is it?

• Understanding that advertising and marketing is a type of communication where only positive information about a topic (the brand) is presented

Advantages of a promotional communication approach

• Avoids marginalizing and demonizing advertising

• Theoretically sound• Provides a link between two different areas• Acknowledges a plurality of

communicative types.

Child’s understanding of promotional intent in advertising

The experiment

Source

• Young, B. M. (2000). The child’s understanding of promotional communication. International Journal of Advertising and Marketing to Children, 2(3), 191-203.

Original intention

• Present child with an ad that broke the promotional rule and question him/her about it.

• But ads for kids are surreal and lack a structure.

• So we presented them with ads for adults that had a ‘pain-pill-pleasure’ narrative.

Structure of experiment

• Each child had 7 trials - order of presentation was cycled.

• Videotape of a TV commercial was presented with last narrative sequence missing (i.e. the ‘pleasure’ part).

• Child was asked to choose one of three endings (3 pictures presented)

The instruction...

• As you can see the end is missing. But we think we can use one of these pictures for a possible ending. Which one do you think should be used when the advert’s shown on TV? Which one is the best to use?

Three endings were...

• Promotional where the brand + logo was presented with all problems solved

• Neutral where the actor was presented with e.g. neutral facial expression - no brand logo

• Entertaining where the brand + logo was presented with a funny ending (independently checked) that showed the brand in a negative way

Here’s one trial

• [VIDEO] A cold day with a woman walking to a school. Children come out of school gate and woman greets a child. Pack shot of Cyclax Moistura Moisturiser (a face cream). Woman shown applying cream. [AUDIO] “Cold wintry days dry and chap my face so I always protect my complexion with Moisturisa Moisturiser by Cyclax. This one for normal or dry skin or for combination skin new Moisturiser selective moisturiser. Its special formula only moisturises where your skin needs it. More in dry places, less in the oily areas”. Time - 21secs.

And here’s another...• Businessman in airport lounge looking out through plate glass window

at airport tarmac where airplane is visible. He puts his hand to his throat and looks at the camera with a pained expression. Small cough. Turns and walks away. Shot of plane taking off with sfx. Cut to plane interior - businessman in outside seat still touching throat and other businessman in inside seat takes off glasses and looks at him. Small cough. v/o “At the first sign of an irritating sore throat you need the soothing touch of Strepsils”. Shot of air stewardess offering brand pack to him. Pack shot with throat sweets in plastic wrap emerging out of box. Shot of businessman taking one and putting it in mouth. v/o “Strepsils two active ingredients help fight the infections that cause sore throats”. Shot of golden syrupy liquid being poured from the side of a spoon and being poured into a lozenge shape. Time - 15 secs.

Percentage choice of response alternatives by age bands

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

4-5 years 5-6 years 6-7 years 7-8 years 8-9 years

EntertainingNeutralPromotional