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INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, KARACHI

Advertisements and

ChildrenAdvertising Assignment 25/20/2013

Group Members:Faisal Javed

M. Aizaz HaqRafia Husain

BBA-VIIITeacher: Ms. Farah Naz Baig


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We are very grateful to Ms. Farah NazBaig, our course instructor for Advertising, for providing

us with the opportunity to work on this research. Without her support and dedication, ourmotivation would not have been the same.

Moreover, we are also thankful to all those people who were the sample population of ourprimary data. Their honest answers and valued time taken out to fill the questionnaire is muchappreciated.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

S. No. Topic Page No.

1. Executive Summary

2. Introduction

3. Research Objectives

4. Literature Review

5. Methodology

6. Primary data

7. Findings and analysis (Key insights)

8. Limitations

9. Conclusion

10. Appendix

11. References


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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

History will see advertising as one of the real evil things of our time. It is stimulating people to

constantly want things, want this, want that .

Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990)

Advertising is one of the marketing tools used by the companies to promote their products andinstigate the customers to buy them. Though it is just the tip of the ice-berg, it is considered tobe the biggest and most effective communication tool enabling companies to enjoy higher salesand better profit margins through hard-sell or soft-sell approaches used in advertising (pushstrategy). It is used to encourage, persuade, or manipulate an audience into taking some action.1

Advertising is targeted towards the general audience in large unless it is segmented into

different target markets. Recently the concepts of marketing to and through children haveemerged over time and are now being used widely. Even though children may or may not bethe end consumers, they are being targeted because of the pester power in volved. Due to thisreason, there has been a rapid increase in spending on advertisements specially designed forchildren who then act as the indirect decision makers of the house, pushing their parents to buyproducts which may not be good for them (like junk food).

Therefore, advertising agencies and brand teams use the pester power to exploit the childrenand lure them into taking action favorable to the brands involved but not to the children

themselves. This raises an ethical concern; whether it is ethically correct and morally acceptableto target children.

1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertisinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertisinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertisinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising


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RESEARCH OBJECTIVES:

The objectives of our research are:

To study the impact of advertisements on children:

In food consumption In attitude change In personality development In feeling self-deprivation

To find out changes in childrens language attributed to growing exposure toadvertisements

To find the reason why advertisements targeting children are an unethical practice

To see how the purchase behavior of parents are influenced by the children due to theinfluence of media

LITERATURE REVIEW:

It may not be thought of as a major issue in Pakistan as compared to other developed

countries, however marketing directly to children is an area of concern giving the impact it has

on children. Worldwide, such marketing practice is seen as a significant issue.

Through research, it has been recognized that a child as young as 6 months can identify brands.

Therefore marketers try to capture consumers at a very early age, with an increase in sales, also

hoping to build loyalty as early as possible. In order to build this loyalty, not only does the

marketer try to sell the product, but also tries to shape a childs mind. Shape the entire view of

world, his/her preferences of needs and wants. Ultimately trying to decide the meaning of life

for the child as to what the child would need to have a good life, and to be loved by family and

society.

As compared to adults, it has been witnessed that changing children to lifelong loyal customers

is easier by bombarding them with ads over and over again throughout their early years. It

helps the company to build and establish their need for the products. One way of doing this is


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by associating products with cartoons, games and other entertainment media in order to

emotionally attach themselves with children.

Despite the potential great success for brands who are able to associate themselves to children,

most people think that advertising to children is unethical because a child s reasoning and

mental processing capacity is not as developed as adults. The concern over here is, should

children be treated as regular consumers, or they should be worthy of special consideration

while advertised or should they not be advertised to at all.

To consider the international standards in this regards and those followed by developed

countries, Canada is known to severely restrict advertising to children and so do some

European countries. Sweden is perhaps the strictest nation, prohibiting any advertising aimedat children under the age of 12 (Mitchener, 2001). Luxembourg and Belgium prohibit ads for

five minutes before, during, and after children's programming so that children can be refrained

from viewing these ads (Dumont, 2001). In Canada, ads cannot exceed four minutes in each

half-hour of programming directed to children (Broadcast Code for Advertising to Children).

In United States advertisements continue to be directed to children for cereals, toys, and other

commodities. According to a consumer union, a child in United States sees 30,000 commercial

per year. The reason for such a scenario in the United States is the deregulation in the 1980s,

which took away the FTAs authority to regulate advertising to kids after the lobbying by large

sugar cereal companies (like Kelloggs) and toy manufacturing companies. After such pressure,

in 1980s, Congress passed the FTC Improvement Act. The law mandated that FTC would no

longer have any authority to publicize any rules regarding childrens advertising. Since then the

kids consumer spending has increased at a rate of 35% per year, from 4.2 billion dollars in 1984

to 40 billion dollars in 2010.

Considering the lack of proper regulation and the misuse of power very much observed in the

Pakistani society, there is no channel regulating the advertisements and promotions targeting

children. Hence this segment of population contributes to an increasing family spending

significantly through nagging tactics and straining the already limited income of families by


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diverting spending from the necessary products to spendthrift goods sought by the children.

The Nag factor, an elaborate marketing strategy brought forth by the Initiative Media- North

America, studies and explains how a childs nagging sways a parents purchasing decision. It

offers guidance to businesses regarding how to encourage and increase the nagging kids do for

their c ompanys products worldwide.

The concern here about marketing is not just trying to persuade children to buy goods but with

literally forcing them down their throats. Its the extensive marketing in schools, cafes, malls,

parks, all directed to the children below the age of 12. You end up having junk food promoted

at restaurants, breakfast cereals with images of characters from games and movies; you have

bed sheets so that children literally go to bed thinking about the images. Then they go to school

with their backpacks and their lunchboxes with the logos, and their friends have logos on the t-

shirts and the shoes, which encourage them even more to have such goods. Having all these

materials has become the definition for being cool for children and being irrational thinkers,

such playing with the social dynamics of children, it becomes really easy for the marketers to

manipulate them. But then again, the major question is that are all these goods really

important and necessary for children to be socially acceptable? Or are they only a means of

high profits for the companies.

Cartoons are the main way advertisers try and target

children. Why? The answer is simply because they like

cartoons. Cartoons have bright smiling faces and flashy

colors that attract children. A very popular example from

Pakistan would be of the Ding Dong Bubble Gum. Most of

the Pakistani young population, has been consuming Ding

Dong for several years now. Wed often hear children belowthe age of 10 or maybe even adults singing the ding dong...

jingle to the children, or wed see small kids nagging fo r Ding

Dong bubble at a store. There is a reason why it is a leading brand in the Confectionery Industry

despite bubble gums having significant health implications particularly for children if

Image 1: Ding Dong CartoonCharacter


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swallowed. The success of the product is not because it just tastes good, but primarily because

it has a series of cartoon episodes in every ad that attract kids and every wrapper holds a scene

from the cartoon episode. Hilal Confectionery (Pvt.) Limited, the manufacturer of Ding Dong

has alone a market share of 26% in Pakistan (Chocolate and Confectionery Industry Pakistan).

Another example for such promotion would be of Safeguard antibacterial soap, which also has

an entire animated cartoon around it. It now has its own website, games, movies, music, art

and other downloadable content. This doesnt mean children or people in general will use

soaps more often, however theyd definitely buy more safeguard. Consumers would more

importantly move from other competitive brands like Lux, Ponds, or Lifebuoy to Safeguard.

The point of contention is not that it is wrong to promotehealth awareness and the importance of hygiene and

sanitation among children. But it is, that it is wrong to

influence children about a product to such an extent that

they act as decision makers for the purchase of the product,

since their mental faculties are not as developed nor are they

as aware of the benefits and harms of a particular product

such as an anti-bacterial soap to judge which would be the

best one for purchase and use.

Another example that supports this is the fast food

marketing by McDonalds and other chains that

promote the Kids Meal to children with a toy featuring

the latest cartoon character from a movie. This

promotion tactic influences the children to such anextent that they force their parents to purchase the

meal for them even if they think it is not nutritious

enough for their diet. Although the methodology might

not seem obviously unethical for the company, but

Image 3: McDonald's Happy Meal Toys

Image 2 : Commander safeguardAnimated Character


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nevertheless this phenomenon has significant societal implications as translated by the ever

increasing obesity problems among the youth in developed countries where these fast-food

chains have already developed a strong hold in the market. Research conducted on television

advertisements in America shows that 9 out of 10 food advertisements shown during Saturday

morning childrens television programming were for foods high in fat, sodium, or added sugars,

or low in nutrients. Cartoon characters were used in 74% of food advertisements, and toys or

other giveaways were used in 26% of food advertisements to attract children (Batada, Seitz,

Wootan& Story, 2008).

Unrestrained consumption and promotion of fast-food promoted by the giant chains without

conveying their latent negative implications on health particularly of children in the long run

can be classified as negligence of consumer safety and protection from foreseeable risks, for

which the producers are liable.

As the spending power of children has increased, marketers have moved their attention from

targeting adults towards marketing to children. One reason for this is that they are easily

persuaded. The amount of money children spend on food, clothes, movies and other

ele ctronics has immensely increased. Not just that, the real reason for marketers interest for

kids is the direct influence that childrens under the age of 12 have on adult spending. Parentsoften end up buying what their kids tell them to, even if it means making a choice while buying

a car, a phone or any other product. Observing this phenomenon, marketers try to address

themselves to the kids rather than their parents. This being the reason why, quite a lot of ads

portray kids using the product and promoting it. Studies have shown that high viewership of

advertisements by children leads to increased levels of stress. According to researcher Zoe

Williams this is because; Bombarded with images of how they should look and what they

should own, children struggle to keep up, suffering from stress, anxiety, increasingly lowersatisfaction with themselves and their lives, and poorer relationships with others (Scanlon,

2007).

An American Psychological Association task force has also argued that heavy advertising and

marketing campaigns are leading to sexualization and exploitation of young girls as now


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preadolescent girls are purchasing clothing, cosmetics and accessories that previously targeted

only female adolescents as customers (Zurbriggen, 2007).

With reference to the Pakistani society, according to a research carried out to measure effects

of television on children living in urban areas, television influences unnecessary purchasing, low

nutritional food and materialism (Zain Ul Abideen and Rashid M. Salaria, 2009). Over hundred

of advertisements are watched by children every day. Such exposure has a tremendous impact

upon thinking, values, purchases, food intake, attitude, and actions of children. It can be

therefore be summed up that TV advertising is affecting children by increasing their food

consumption pattern, preference for low-nutrient, high in sugar, fat & salt (SFS) foods

and beverages, change in attitude that is aggressive and violent in nature and inclination

towards unnecessary purchasing. (Zain Ul Abideen and Rashid M. Salaria, 2009)

Children are more influenced from the TV advertisements as compared to other age groups. In

general, they believe in what advertisements have to say about the products. If the

advertisements are not very complex, and it says something new, then, likelihood of attracting

childrens attention would increase (Rice and et.al, 1986). To be more precise, a childs

attention on advertisement is dependent on 2 factors:

Simplicity - Simple, easy to understand

Innovation - Creative, clutter breaking

Complex ads are not absolutely ignored instead they are often misinterpreted by children dueto the lack of intellect. For instance Bubloo tumhara sabun slow hei kia? campaign whichsimply tries to compare the functional benefits of liquid soaps, could very easily bemisinterpreted by a child to see it as someone who is better off or more desirable by thesociety after using the liquid soaps.


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METHODOLOGY:

The group started off with literature review that was available related to Pakistan and othercountries that have been discussed in the section. This was done to dive into the concept ofmarketing to children and trying to find out if impact of advertisement on children is a reality or just a myth. Therefore, various articles were studied and also related documentaries were seenby the group members for this purpose.

The second step was to collect primary data for which questionnaires were designed and filledby a diverse audience of 40 families. The respondents comprised of 68 men and women whoanswered our questions according to their childrens changing behavior. Moreover, we alsocollected responses from children in our families and those of our friends to find out which adsthey enjoyed watching. This was part of the informal data that we gathered for our ownknowledge.

PRIMARY DATA:

Findings:

Several questionnaires were asked from respondents. The first question was whether thechildren preferred to play outside or watch television in their leisure time. The results showedthe following:

33%

67%

Preference : Watch TV/ Play Outside

Play Outside

Watch TV


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times makes it difficult for them to come to terms with the reality. The response that we got

was:

Children in general demand the following from their parents when the advertisements tempt

them. We can see the consumable goods purchase have done a very good job in generating

their sales. This category includes all the edibles and fast-moving consumer goods.

53%36%

11%

Behavioral Impact on Children

Yes

No

Does't matter

14%

18%

23%

45%

Beverages

Health Care

Toy Purchases

Consumable goodspurchase


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On asking which ads make parents uncomfortable when watched by children, these were theresponses we got:

Upon asking the most famous/loved/favorable characters in the advertisements from children

and parents alike, Safeguard Commander got the highest votes. 31% of our sample thinks

Commander Safeguard is very important in teaching children hygiene which is basic

requirement for a healthy life. Moreover, they also believe it is an interesting way to capture

their attention and get them to follow the instructions. Here, we can see the positive impact

advertising is having on the children.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Rational Ads Humurous

Ads

Social

AwarenessAds

Female

Model Ads

Others

12 11

3729

11


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Analysis/Key Insights:

Most of television viewers watch television for more than 3 hours a day on the whole.

The highest viewership is from 8pm to 11pm.

Dil Mange Abhi by Pepsi had a significant recall among children. (New Song with catchy,

jingle music)

Parents want their children to watch meaningful & sensible ads but do not recall any recent

examples that serve this purpose.

Zara Sochiye Awareness Camp aign for however mentioned by a few. They wanted their

children to watch those stories.

Meri Nanhi Pari by Molti Foam had strong emotional attachment for parents.

Advertisement on Cartoon Channels:

Cartoon Channels like Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Baby TV turned out to be the most

favorite for children in noon and evening time bands.

Children up to the age of 13 do not change their cartoon channels during advertisements.

Especially in case of Ben10 & Tom & Jerry cartoon shows.

Babies had a strong infl uence from the music and jingle of the Cerelac Ad Chand Mama .

22

3113

10

11

13

Cartoon Animations Recall ( %)

Ding Dong Cat

Commander Safeguard

Fanty Characters

Tiger Biscuit

Tiger Paddle pop

Milk Candy


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Candy, Maggi, Ding Dong Bubble; Nestle Ads had the highest recall among children.

Most mothers now prefer their children to sit at home and watch television rather than

going out.

Purchase Behavior: Mothers agreed that Commander Safeguards Cartoon Character influenced soap

preferences among children.

Perk monster Ad was popular among little kids, specially the mummy theme music.

Through the eye of the Advertising Agency: (JWT Asiatics res ponse)

LIMITATIONS TO THE RESEARCH:

Primary Research

Time period to conduct the research was limited. Having given more timeframe more

respondents could have been included. Time series data could have been used to measure

results, behavior over a period of time.

There are always some respondents who are eit her reluctant to answer or who dont answer

accurately, possibly, because they dont understand the purpose of the research or because

they dont have time for it.

Better research techniques, tools or measures could not be used to understand the psychic of

children.

Secondary Research

One of the major limitations our secondary research was the lack of quality research carried out

in Pakistan or articles online for the Pakistani society. Much of the research was based on the

Western market and consumers. Theses research findings could easily be applied to our society,


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however they ignored cultural differences or economical situation such as relatively, a child in

Pakistan would not have as much media exposure.

CONCLUSION/RECOMMENDATIONS:

One of the things that families can do to reduce the impact of advertising on children is

to improve communication. Parents should be actively involved in teaching or discussing

the value of media. Parents should try to help children differentiate between reality and

fantasy/fiction.


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Also a child should not have a television in his/ her room, at least till an appropriate age.

In fact other media, such as PC or mobile should also not be accessible till a certain age.

This would ultimately limit the accessibility of marketers to children.

Television viewing should be limited to maybe few hours per day only, while more

emphasis should be given to outdoor activities.

Establishing regulators to control advertising to children.

Moreover, one of the findings was the hesitance of parents in sending their children

outside to play keeping our countrys insecurity in mind. This is why they do not have

many options to relax and move to television or computer for their recreation. Hence,

keeping this in mind, parents should NOT leave their children without any supervision

when they are subjected to TV or any other medium. Also, parents should encourage their children to go out and indulge in extra-curricular

activities. They not only help in increasing physical activity but also in reducing obesity

and stimulating body cells. 5 Hence, this would be like hitting two birds with a single

stone as the childs media consumption will decrease and his health will improve too.

5 http://whatworksforhealth.wisc.edu/program.asp?t1=21&t2=12&t3=79&id=306
http://whatworksforhealth.wisc.edu/program.asp?t1=21&t2=12&t3=79&id=306http://whatworksforhealth.wisc.edu/program.asp?t1=21&t2=12&t3=79&id=306http://whatworksforhealth.wisc.edu/program.asp?t1=21&t2=12&t3=79&id=306http://whatworksforhealth.wisc.edu/program.asp?t1=21&t2=12&t3=79&id=306


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REFERENCES:

Salaria , Z. u. (2009). Effects of television advertising on children. Islamabad: SZABIST.

Gary Ruskin , TV Turns Kids Into Bullies , April 25 th, 2005 Retrieved from :

http://www.commercialalert.org/issues/culture/television/tv-turns-kids-into-bullies

Gary Ruskin, Kids Who Watch Less TV Demand Fewer Toys, June 14 th Retrieved from:

http://www.commercialalert.org/issues/culture/television/kids-who-watch-less-tv-

demand-fewer-toys

Sue Hubbard, Kids, media and obesity: Too much 'screen time' can harm your child'shealth, October 2 nd 2012 Retrieved from :

http://www.commercialalert.org/issues/culture/television/kids-media-and-obesity-too-

much-screen-time-can-harm-your-childs-health

Becky Oskin, Tv ads may make unhappy tweens materialistic, Aug 2012 Retreived from

:http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/20/13380824-tv-ads-may-make-unhappy-

tweens-materialistic?lite

Brandon Mitchener, Sweden Pushes Its Ban on Children's Ads, May 29, 2001Retrieved

from :http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0529-05.htm

Batada A, Seitz MD, Wootan MG, Story M, Nine out of 10 food advertisements shown

during Saturday morning children's television programming are for foods high in fat,

sodium, or added sugars, or low in nutrients, April 2008Retrieved from :

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18375225

http://mediasmarts.ca/marketing-consumerism/how-advertisers-target-kids

Food marketing to children, 2005 Retrieved from :

http://www.cspinet.org/new/pdf/food_marketing_to_children.pdf
http://www.commercialalert.org/issues/culture/television/tv-turns-kids-into-bullieshttp://www.commercialalert.org/issues/culture/television/kids-who-watch-less-tv-demand-fewer-toyshttp://www.commercialalert.org/issues/culture/television/kids-who-watch-less-tv-demand-fewer-toyshttp://www.commercialalert.org/issues/culture/television/kids-who-watch-less-tv-demand-fewer-toyshttp://www.commercialalert.org/issues/culture/television/kids-media-and-obesity-too-much-screen-time-can-harm-your-childs-healthhttp://www.commercialalert.org/issues/culture/television/kids-media-and-obesity-too-much-screen-time-can-harm-your-childs-healthhttp://www.commercialalert.org/issues/culture/television/kids-media-and-obesity-too-much-screen-time-can-harm-your-childs-healthhttp://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/20/13380824-tv-ads-may-make-unhappy-tweens-materialistic?litehttp://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/20/13380824-tv-ads-may-make-unhappy-tweens-materialistic?litehttp://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0529-05.htmhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18375225http://mediasmarts.ca/marketing-consumerism/how-marketers-target-kidshttp://www.cspinet.org/new/pdf/food_marketing_to_children.pdfhttp://www.cspinet.org/new/pdf/food_marketing_to_children.pdfhttp://mediasmarts.ca/marketing-consumerism/how-marketers-target-kidshttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18375225http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0529-05.htmhttp://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/20/13380824-tv-ads-may-make-unhappy-tweens-materialistic?litehttp://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/20/13380824-tv-ads-may-make-unhappy-tweens-materialistic?litehttp://www.commercialalert.org/issues/culture/television/kids-media-and-obesity-too-much-screen-time-can-harm-your-childs-healthhttp://www.commercialalert.org/issues/culture/television/kids-media-and-obesity-too-much-screen-time-can-harm-your-childs-healthhttp://www.commercialalert.org/issues/culture/television/kids-who-watch-less-tv-demand-fewer-toyshttp://www.commercialalert.org/issues/culture/television/kids-who-watch-less-tv-demand-fewer-toyshttp://www.commercialalert.org/issues/culture/television/tv-turns-kids-into-bullies

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