Impact of Advertising

Fern Johnson

Impact of advertising on children (Social)
Background: The influence of TV advertising on children & stereotyping in such advertising
Key Study: Johnson & Young
Application: Reduce impact of advertising which is aimed at children

Background: The influence of television advertising on children: Do children copy what they see?

Bandura’s research suggested that children will observe and imitate behaviour.
A cause of concern with this theory is the idea that children will copy violent or aggressive behaviour.
The case of Jamie Bulger, who was murdered by two boys who claimed to be imitating the movie Child’s Play 3, seems to confirm this point.
In addition, films and video games have age appropriate ratings to ensure that children don’t observe behaviour that would be upsetting or disturbing to them.
The 9pm watershed is also set in place on television to protect children.
However, if all children imitated violence then we would see many more acts of violent behaviour from children than we actually do.
So factors can influence whether or not a child will choose to imitate behaviours they see on television.

The influence of television advertising on children: Advertising

Companies count on the fact that children will observe their adverts and imitate behaviour.
How successfully do advertisements do this though? And how do they try to make their products appealing to certain groups?
Nielsen et al. (2008) identified that successful television programmes for young children included interactivity by having a person talk to the child directly or wait for a response.
Advertisements also try to be interactive by asking the audience questions and presenting information over and over again. Does this aid social learning (observation, imitation)?
Another successful advertising technique could be to use behaviourist concepts of association and positive reinforcement.
Think of advertisements you’ve seen lately. How might they try to get you to associate the product with something positive?

The influence of television advertising on children: Concerns about advertising

Although advertising is designed to encourage people to buy a product, sometimes it has other consequences.
A campaign for Tango drink depicting an orange Tango man running up to people and slapping them was banned in 1991 as it was being imitated in playgrounds across the country.
Hanley (2000) conducted research investigating the concerns that television could cause children to copy dangerous things they see on television (e.g. climbing out of a window) or create a negative culture (e.g. antisocial behaviour towards others).
Research shows that key influences on children are parents, siblings and teachers but television is also a powerful influence.
Role models like celebrities are key in encouraging behaviour and in advertising, commercials that depict easy to copy behaviour, appealing behaviours to children and forbidden behaviours all encourage imitation.
In addition, advertisements shown at a time when children are most likely to watch featured high production values and people ‘getting away with it’, also encouraged imitation.

The influence of television advertising on children: Toys and advertising

Buijen and Valkenburg (2000) found out whether children were influenced by toy commercials.
They asked 50 children to make a list of what they would want for Christmas and this list was then compared to what television advertisements were shown at the same time.
They found that:

          67% of 7 and 8 year olds
          49% of 9 and 10 year olds
          40% of 11 and 12 year olds
asked for at least one advertised product.

Further analysis revealed a correlation between the time spent watching television and what they wanted for Christmas, with the products with commercials most often shown.
Pine and Nash (2000) also found children who watch television alone are more susceptible to advertising than children who watch television with siblings.

The influence of television advertising on children: Stereotyping in advertising

A stereotype is a belief that people from a certain group all have similar characteristics to each other (e.g. all Indian people like curry).
Despite the modern belief that stereotypes are wrong, advertising can perpetuate these stereotypes, particularly in relation to gender.
Have you ever seen advertisements that portray women in relation to cleaning, cooking or caring for babies? Or advertisements that relate men to DIY, driving and sports?
Not all advertisements are as obvious in their use of stereotypes but they can sometimes portray these generalisations in more subtle ways (through voiceovers, colours and lighting).
This can have a negative impact on children if they learn stereotypes through advertising on television.

Key Study: Johnson and Young (2009) Gendered voices in children’s advertising
Aim = To investigate what themes and styles contribute to what children learn about gender from television commercials.

Research Questions = Do advertisers use different scripts for males and females in adverts designed for preschool and early primary school children? How is gender used as a code to link products to gender roles?

Sample
478 advertisements broadcast during cartoons in New England, USA.
They were recorded from 1996, 1997 and 1999:

149 ads in 1996
133 in 1997
196 in 1999

Advertisements were classified into:

Toys (the main focus) 188 specific toy ads were used
Food
Educational announcements (e.g. anti-drug ads)
Recreational facilities (e.g. leisure centres)
Video and film productions
Other (adult targeted ads, e.g. cars)

Procedure
Adverts were categorised into four categories:

Boys’ toys in which boys were shown
Girls’ toys in which girls were shown
Ads with both genders
No specific gender targeted.

There were exceptions to this: if a gender neutral toy (e.g. frisbee) only had boys in the ad it was counted as a single gender ad.

If there was one ‘token’ person of the opposite gender (e.g. one girl in a group of boys) it was counted as a single gender ad.
If an opposite sex gender only appeared very briefly (e.g. a girl appeared for 3 seconds in a super soaker ad) it was classified as a single gender ad.

Results

The names of the toys in the ad reinforced gender stereotypes (e.g. boys’ toys were names like ‘Beast Wars Transformers and Supersonic Power Crash Pit Racers’, while girls’ toys were called ‘Friend Link and Tea Bunnies’.
Even with similar toys like ‘dolls’, girls’ toys shown (e.g. Barbies) were portrayed with far less action than boys toys (e.g. action figures).
Voiceovers also differed according to gender. In both boys’ and gender neutral toys a male voice was used. In girls’ toys a female voice was used 89% of the time but these could have male voices with them.
Girls’ voices were sometimes exaggerated to sound high-pitched or sing-song while male voices sounded loud, deep and aggressive. The exaggerated voices were heard in 87% of ads for girls and 80% of ads for boys.
The concern is that the exaggeration is not noticed by young children and they could learn that this is how genders are ‘meant’ to talk.

Results: Language used
The speech used in the advertisements was analysed into five types:

Action verbs – e.g. ride, jump, crawl
Competition/ destruction – e.g. crush, slam, fire, win
Control – e.g. rule, defeat, control
Limited activity – e.g. beware, look, wait, careful
Feeling and nurturing – e.g. love, cuddle, take care

Language and roles of boys and girls

One stereotype of gender is that girls are talkers and boys are doers.
78 ads had children speaking. In the boys’ ads, 26% of the boys were actually speaking.
In the girls’ and gender neutral ads there was over 50% of speech.
In the gender neutral ads, the boys did speak more than the girls and were shown to say more independent things, while the girls affirmed (agreed with) what the boys were saying.
The use of the word ‘power’ (often associated with masculinity) was used in 21% of boys’ ads with phrases like ‘get the power’, ‘power pack’ and even the names of products ‘power rangers’. Only a single advertisement in the girls’ ads used the word power and this was a product (‘Barbie’s car’ or ‘Power wheels’).

Implications

Advertisements are promoting difference between genders through use of stereotypes.
This occurs through use of language, speech and behaviour that is seen on screen.
The negative implication of this is that children will adopt these stereotypes as truth and then encourage the wider culture to continue an inequality of gender roles.

Why promote gender inequality?
Johnson and Young identify three reasons why toy companies would want to continue stereotypes:

Previously marketing toys in this way has been successful and it makes business sense to stick to what works.
Marketing different toys to boys and girls ensures that parents have to buy separate toys for their sons and daughters which means more profit is made.

Teaching children about gender stereotypes when young will mean they will continue to buy gender-biased products into adult life.

Application: Reducing the impact of advertising

There are simple ways in which the effect advertising has on children can be reduced:

Reduce the amount of television children watch in general.
Restrict children to watching channels that have no advertisements (e.g. BBC or Netflix).

During ads, you can mute them or speak to children about how they might be stereotyping gender

What can Advertisers do?

Advertisers could remove of some the ‘tricks’ they use to make their ads more persuasive, e.g. humour, celebrity models and ‘kids getting away with it’. However, as advertisers want to make money they are unlikely to co-operate.
On the other hand, the government can play a part in forcing advertisers to regulate their commercials. In 2006 the government office of communications (Ofcom) published guidelines about the way high fat, salt and sugar products (HFSS) must be televised. They stated that HFSS ads:
- must not be shown around programmes made specifically for children
- HFSS products must not appear in programmes that appeal to children
- HFSS products cannot sponsor programmes made specifically for children.
This shows how one agency can help reduce the negative impact of advertising.