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Younger
children tend to pay more attention throughout the commercial---something
of attentional inertia---compared with older children. Older children's
attention, within a series of commercials presented in a block, tended to
drop towards the end.
For
all children, full attention to commercials is highest for those
advertisements shown at the beginning of the programmes. And for children,
the auditory pull of commercials is often more powerful than the visual.
The accustomed viewing style has its impact on attention. For example,
viewing while sleeping in bed, sitting on the floor, at the dining table
or while doing homework or eating or reading comics or in the presence of
friends could result in reduced attention to commercials.
What
are television commercials? What do they try to do? If children of
different ages are asked questions like these, their replies commonly vary
according to their ages. Older children aged nine or over might say that
they are there to persuade you to buy things. Children of five to six
years may simply say ads are fun and that they're there to make you laugh.
To children of seven to eight years ads could be revealing "important
things". In one experiment half of the 11 year olds interviewed felt
that commercials do not always tell the truth. As the children grow up,
they start conceiving the character of T.V. commercials as more persuasive
than assertive. Children of parents with higher educational levels will
tend to attribute persuasive intent at an earlier age-by 10 years or
so-than the parents with lower educational levels.
It
is possible to arm children against commercials i.e. stopping the urge to
buy products not beneficial to them and to use consumer educational
strategies to reduce their vulnerability to commercial appeal.
The
general research consensus is that children's attitudes to television
commercials tend to become more negative as they grow older. Some older
children even find 'ads' silly. Of course some commercials are
intrinsically more interesting than the others and this will influence the
extent to which children want to watch a particular commercial.
Older
children and adolescents in order to distance themselves from younger
children often claim to be unimpressed and cynical about ads. Heavy
viewers however tend to like and trust commercials and express stronger
behavioral intentions towards products advertised.
Researchers
have not been able to evolve any consensus about the eventual effects of
advertising on children's behavior, though they deem it to be a matter of
crucial importance. At the most they make out that there is a short term
increase in the demand and consumption of sugared products as a
consequence of advertising, especially of the brands heavily advertised.
The
gulf between attitude and behavior and the indeterminacy of decision
making in myriads of social and economic situations all pose difficult and
perhaps insurmountable problems to come to any definite conclusion as to
what goes on in the real
world. More research is needed for credible answers.
Again
it can't be said with any certainty whether children hold more
materialistic values because of the television commercials. Indeed it
would be difficult to put this general question to test given the
virtually universal presence of advertising from the cradle to the grave.
There
is however an emerging agreement among the experts that controls on
television commercials primarily targeted at children need some
tightening.
For
example, care has to be taken that television commercials don't make
appeals that contend that, if children possess a product, they are better
than their peers or that in lacking it they will not be accepted by their
peers. The child's feelings and motives must not be manipulated-something
that is easier said than enforced.
Many
countries debar the use of cartoon characters to endorse products. Some do
not allow children below a certain age to endorse products. All said and
done some clear ground rules have to be enforced especially when
advertisers have every incentive to exploit loopholes in their bid for
aggressive selling. |
