Concern is growing about the effectiveness of television advertising regulation in the light of technological developments in the media. The current rapid growth of TV platforms in terrestrial, sattelite, and cable formats will soon move into digital transmission. These all offer opportunities for greater commercialization through advertising on media that have not previously been exploited. In democratic societies, there is a tension between freedom of speech rights and the harm that might be done to children through commercial messages. This book explores all of these issues and looks to the future in considering how effective codes of practice and regulation will develop.
The current rapid growth of TV platforms in terrestrial, sattelite, and cable formats will soon move into digital transmission, offering opportunities for greater commercialization through advertising on media that have not previously been exploited. In
Children represent a valuable target audience for advertisers, with over $200 billion in direct purchases and influenced spending. However, questions exist about both the effectiveness of marketing to children as well as the impact this advertising has on the children themselves. Current debates over smoking and alcohol consumption highlight this issue from all perspectives: marketers, parents, and policymakers. Advertising to Children presents cutting-edge research designed to stimulate and inform this debate. Well-known authors contribute their perspectives, with chapters organized in sections to address what children know and think about advertising, how advertising works with children, and what issues are at the forefront of societal and public-policy thinking. Editors M. Carole Macklin and Les Carlson have lead research in this field and lend their expertise. More than just a litany of hot topics, this book provides a wide-angle lens on the field, with insights from advertising, marketing, communication, and psychology.
"We all know the box was not the best invention for children. A recently released tome, The Impact of Television Advertising on Children reinforces our trepidations. Written by Shailaja Bajpai and Namita Unnikjrishnan and published by Sage, the researched work also alerts us to the hazards of consumerism that TV exposes innocent minds to." --Metropolis on Saturday "Questions the notion that children are mature enough to recognise the commercial intent of advertising. The book concludes that a child 'instinctively trusts the adult world1⁄4 consequently television, which is peopled by grown ups, inspires them with the faith that whatever appears on TV is real and not be doubted'." --Times of India "Meticulously researched, yes. Cogently argued, perhaps1⁄4. In many ways, this is a seminal book." --Business World "The Impact of Television Advertising on Children is a book that deserves to be read by all adults responsible in any way in shaping the life of children in their charge." --Times of India "An important point of view in the discussion about media responsibility. This research study is a welcome contribution to public discourse because it is calmly argued and eschews the fashionable tendency to bandy weather-beaten buzz words. The book will be valuable to anybody wanting to understand how television bends the mind, because although Unnikrishnan and Bajpai focus on children, the scope of the work includes and informed analysis of the medium itself." --Newstime "This is a timely book. Also a useful one. In fact, a given its capsule format and its passion for facts, statistics and tables, it is really more a book to be used by professionals of various kinds. Some kinds of data that they have chosen to elicit... would be of interest to advertisers.... Of interesting data there is plenty. In essence, this is a field study, the first to be put out by a major publisher on the specific topic of children and television advertising in India." --Biblio "A seminal study.... The most complete analysis yet of the child as consumer." --Business Today The manner in which ideas conveyed by television programs and advertising shape our children's consciousness is of growing concern in India and throughout the world today. Children, the most impressionable of any group, are continually targeted by the media, and despite the rapid proliferation of television in India, there is little informed research on its effects on India's "littlest consumers." Based on in-depth interviews with over 730 children between the ages of 5 and 15, The Impact of Television Advertising on Children highlights the impact that TV has on the values, attitudes, and aspirations of Indian children. The book provides an insight into the lives of children from different social strata, and their respective ways of handling, negotiating, and understanding information made available to them over television. In particular, the authors closely examine children's view on advertising and what it means to them in their lives. This lively book, the first of its kind pertaining to India, draws the reader into a healthy questioning of the role of television and advertising in society. Lucidly written, it will be of great interest to academics, researchers, and professionals in mass communication, media studies, sociology, and social psychology and to all those concerned with the impact that television advertising has on our lives.
A study which examines the question of whether children understand television advertising and the effects of advertising on children. Young has jointly published with R. Calam "Children, Television Viewing and Family Beliefs: An Empirical Study".
This important source for students, researchers, advertisers and parents reviews the debates and presents new research about advertising to children. Chapters cover food and alcohol advertising, the effects of product placement and new media advertising, and the role of parents and teachers in helping children to learn more about advertising.
