ADVERTISING AND CHILDREN

Advertising and Children

The world of children has changed a great deal over the last decade. Kids are no longer passive consumers of brands that they once used to be, but are active seekers and influencers for a whole range of products affecting their lives. While this is definitely true for products like chocolates, biscuits, ice-creams for which kids are the direct consumers it is also true for a whole other range of high-end consumables like packaged food, computers and believe it or not… cars! Kids are active seekers and influencers for a whole range of products affecting their lives.

It’s a given that the new generation of youngsters is an avid consumer of mass media, especially television. They watch TV with high involvement and more often than not easily led by what is shown on TV. They are increasingly vocal and influential when it comes to ‘Brand Choice’ and ‘Brand Purchase’. And this influence spreads to categories which may not be directly used by kids or products aimed at adult consumption (refrigerators, mobile phones, air conditioners, etc.) E.g.: salt ads, ads on spices, etc.

Advertisers are making their pitches to more and more younger audiences… ‘Catch them young’ seems to be the motto of the day.

Television ads for foods, toys or kitchen products teach children consumerism. They learn what products are available, what products do, and perhaps how to compare them.

Children learn how an item fits the lifestyle from cartoons, soap operas and serials. Thus children develop unrealistic ideas of how people live.

The variety and number of products targeted directly at young people have developed incredibility, from toys and clothes to music, magazines, TV channels and entertainment such as sports and electronic interactive media. Many companies focusing on children have realized that there is a need for redefining the generally accepted definition of childhood.

“Children are getting older beyond their years”, not least due to the dramatic advances in technology, but there are other aspects that make this target group even more important – also for manufacturer of products traditionally targeted at adults.

It is quite evident that today’s generation of children is more computer literate and advertising literate than ever. Equally, they are more brand literate.

Young people have an increasing influence on what their families purchase. Children are the ‘now’ generation. They may lack the so called sophistication of adults; act impulsively and without much rationale. However, advertising research demonstrates that any message that observes the basics of communicating with children in their own ‘Language’ will be registered, even at the very first showing.

Children do make demands on their parents to buy them things whose advertising they have been exposed to. Actions shoes had introduced kids’ shoes that had a light fitment which went on and off as one walked. Not a very persuasive communication but it had children pestering their parents to buy them that particular pair.

Children respond more positively to messages communicated visually rather than voice message. This is especially true among younger audiences, even up to the age of 10 or 12. Visual action is closer to their own play experience where actions speak louder than words. Television is a major form of entertainment. It is reported that children see almost 20,000 ads a year.

Children today are more exposed to media, are extremely brand as well as image conscious. To children, advertising is TV, when questioned about advertising, they invariably respond in terms of TV.

Also with age, TV starts playing a more important role in the kid’s like and the consumption of TV viewing also increases correspondingly. For most of the kids however, television advertising is an integral part of the entertainment that television provides.

Effects of Advertising on children

The impact of television on young children has received much attention. Research suggests that children see television advertising as just another form of programming and react uncritically to its messages, which makes them especially vulnerable to advertising.

Children clearly have an important role to play in the families purchase decision, but their contribution varies by product category. It I also reasonable to then say that since brand characteristics are variable, the impact of advertisements on children must also vary by brand.

Advertising affects children tremendously. Their young impressionable minds are influenced by the advertisements they are exposed to. This effect can be both positive as well as negative.

All tooth paste ads like Colgate, Pepsodent, etc. inculcate a good habit of brushing the teeth in the morning and at night before sleeping. They create awareness among the children regarding the ill effects of germs, weak gums, etc.

The Raymond advertisement

This advertisement shows depressed school student wishing good bye to their principal. Out of their respect and love for their principal, they buy him a Raymond cut piece. It influences the kids to give teachers the respect they deserve and love them for the knowledge they bestow upon us.

 

Thumps UP

Some years back, there was an advertisement for Thumps Up, which had a man standing at a cliff and performing ‘bungee jumping’ just to grab a bottle of Thumps Up from the crates lying in a truck below. A kid after watching this advertisement attempted a similar feat and jumped from the fifth floor of a building in imitation only to fall to his death. Due to this tragic accident, Thumps Up had to withdraw this advertisement.

Kwality Walls

Kwality Walls came with a series of double meaning advertisements with lines like ‘what’s on your stick?’ and the ‘the big F’. It showed a group of girls ragging few guys, where in extremely rude and vulgar behavior was displayed by the protagonist, with an all the more vulgar line ‘The Big F’. Several parents started complaining because they couldn’t handle questions by their kids as to enquiring what did the letter F stands for!

Clinic Shampoo

The Clinic Shampoo advertisement featured a girl child who is embarrassed because of her extremely lifeless hair. Is that the age when a kid should be worried about her looks and hair? Such advertisements make children grow older beyond their years and thus induce wrong attitudes and beliefs in them.

LG Golden Eye

LG colour TV advertisements showed a kid not going back home from school and standing outside a TV showroom just to watch TV because at home his mother doesn’t allow him to do the same. The mother is shown extremely tensed and scared with water in her eyes. The advertisement peddled on the platform of ‘good health’ and ‘good for eyes’. This advertisement indirectly conveyed that how the kids could watch TV unlimited for long hours, without spoiling their eyesight. Hence this advertisement influenced the child in a negative way. Also this was a very unimaginable ground to advertise for Television Sets.

Fair and Lovely Fairness Cream

Harping on the point that fair skin is appreciated and dusky skin not, such advertisements have created an extremely disappointing influence on adolescent girls. Many adolescent girls are unduly influenced by this standard of beauty and thus become dissatisfied with their own natural body colour. They then go out of their way to rectify this and end up landing themselves in depression and lack of self confidence.

Lizol

A child takes one of the biscuits and considers it as if it is a car, and takes the car (biscuit) through all possible places in the house. The biscuit passes through the dirty nooks and corners of the house like on the doormat, the toilet sink, etc. After his drive, the kid peacefully goes back and places the biscuit with the other biscuits on the plate from which he had picked it up.

This advertisement displays unaccepted behavior of the part of the kid. The children, ever inquisitive, are intrigued by certain provocative advertisements. Since they partially understand by the connotation and want to find out more about advertisements of sanitary napkins and want to find out more about advertisements of sanitary napkins and want to know why the girls wear skimpy clothes and why their sisters and mothers don’t wear similar type of clothes. These posers from the kids cause great problems for the parents.

The exposure to the violent content of TV programmes affect children’s attitudes behavior. People flying, turning into monsters, eating weird things coming back from the grave are fantasies that children have difficulty in distinguishing from reality celebrities have a great impact on kids. Ads with free gifts make children force their mothers to buy the product even if it is no use to them.

The all out assault on children’s senses and values have escalated dramatically. Children are the largest and fastest growing market for consumption. Even car companies know that children influence their parents’ choice of automobiles, so they pitch their ads to be attractive to kids.

Kids are becoming incredibly consumerist and influence family spending decisions. Children now share one thing in common – a growing in satiable desire for material goods.

However, there are those who argue that advertising is a part of life and children must learn to deal with in the consumer socialization process of acquiring the skills needed to function in the market place. They say the existing restrictions are adequate for controlling children’s advertising. They argue that adolescents develop skeptical attitudes towards advertising through interactions with socialization agents such as parents and peers. Market place knowledge, they claim plays an important role in the children as this knowledge helps them to evaluate ads and make them recognize the persuasion techniques used by advertisers.