An Essay on the Impact of Television Advertisements on Children

This essay examines the significant influence of television advertisements on children's behavior and purchasing decisions. It explores various marketing strategies employed by corporations to attract children, including the use of vibrant colors, product placement in movies and TV shows, celebrity endorsements, and cross-promotions. The essay highlights the concept of "Pester Power" and how children's limited reasoning abilities make them susceptible to impulsive decisions based on advertisements. It discusses the negative impacts, such as the promotion of unhealthy habits and the potential for violent or sexual content. The essay references studies and provides a comprehensive overview of the effects of TV ads on children, advocating for stricter regulations to protect children and promote healthy choices. The paper draws on academic sources to support its claims.

Running head: TV ADVERTISEMENTS 0
Essay

TV ADVERTISEMENTS 1
Effect of TV Advertisements over
Children
The influence of Social media websites has been growing substantially, but still, television
advertisements are the most influential medium in customers purchasing behaviour. The
benefits of television advertisement include large demographic audience, significant impact
on views’ behaviour, cost-effective and it compliments other mediums of advertisement.
Modern television advertisements are influencing the behaviours and attitude of children.
There have been several studies on the negative impact of television advertisements over
children behaviour. As per Boyland and Halford (2013), organisations use sound, pictures,
actions and vibrant colours in their commercials to attract the attention of its viewers.
Children have low reasoning abilities, which is why they take impulsive decisions based upon
television advertisements.
Children are an important demographic for corporations because other than their purchasing
power they also influence the buying decision of their parents. In recent times, children are
more vocal regarding their demands, and they nag their parents into buying items for them,
this is called “Pester Power.” According to Lawlor and Prothero (2011), many corporations
prefer to target children for their advertisement because they are easy to influence. Most of
the children watching television advertisement did not have logical abilities to understand its
impacts; therefore, they confuse the television with reality and demand for the products from
the advertisements. Thus, corporations target children because it is easier for them to
influence them into purchasing their products.
To attract children into purchasing their products, companies are required to influence their
interests. According to Kelly et al. (2010), organisations invest in the research of
understanding the psychology of kids and other factors such as development, social and
emotional requirements. Marketing professionals can use the data acquired by companies
from the research for making advertisements which target the interest of children. The
marketing experts use many strategies to influence the behaviours of children, such as
product placement, cross-promotion, or celebrity endorsements. As per Calvert (2008), one of
the most influencing advertisement strategies is product placement by the corporations in

TV ADVERTISEMENTS 2
movies and TV shows. The enterprises research most favorite films and TV shows of
children and place their advertisement in them which easily influence the behaviour of
children, for example, Reese’s Pieces placement in E.T. movie and Coca-Cola & KFC
placement in Superman movie.
Many corporations use influencing the power of celebrities to attract children into buying
their products. Usually, children follow the stars they like blinding and want to become just
like them. As per Kelly et al. (2008), the children saw their favorite celebrities on TV
promoting a particular product, and they ask their parents to buy such product, to become like
them. Many corporations use cartoon or characters from children favorite TV shows or
movies to influence them into buying their products, for example, SpongeBob SquarePants,
Superman, Batman and Dora the Explorer. Many corporations use cross-promotion to attract
children, for instance, Coca-Cola enters into a $150 million deal with Warner Bros Studios
for the global marketing right of their famous movie ‘Harry Potter’ and more than 20 percent
of fast food chains use toy character to promote their products such as McDonald’s happy
meals.
Many studies have been conducted for understanding the effects of television advertisement
over children. A survey conducted by Ogbu, Tarnongo, and Alakali (2013) over 800 children
provided that television advertisement arouses the interest of children. In this study, more
than 75 percent children desired to be like the character of television advertisement and buy
their products. The influence is significantly storing in children below the age of 11 years,
and they made choices based upon advertisements. Many critics believe that advertisements
promote unhealthy habits, violent behaviour, alcohol and cigarette usage, nagging and sexual
content in between children behaviour. Fast food chains use the influence of beloved cartoon
character and celebrities to promote their products for children, for example, McDonald’s
advertise happy meal with popular toys. These advertisements create an obesity problem in
between children because they encourage the usage of fast food in their daily eating routine,
instead of healthy foods.
As per Henry and Borzekowski (2011), many children nag their parents to get the product
they watch in a television advertisement, which adversely influences their attitude and
behaviour. The sexual and violent content shown in advertisement negativity impact the
response of children which affects their day-to-day life. The rules regarding television
advertisement for children has been updated by various countries because advertisement

TV ADVERTISEMENTS 3
negatively influences the studies and future of children. It is necessary that government
implement strict regulations to avoid any adverse influence of advertisement over children’s
lives to promote healthy life choices in between children.

TV ADVERTISEMENTS 4
References
Boyland, E.J. and Halford, J.C., 2013. Television advertising and branding. Effects on eating
behaviour and food preferences in children. Appetite, 62, pp.236-241.
Calvert, S.L., 2008. Children as consumers: Advertising and marketing. The future of
children, 18(1), pp.205-234.
Henry, H.K. and Borzekowski, D.L., 2011. The Nag Factor: A mixed-methodology study in
the US of young children's requests for advertised products. Journal of Children and
Media, 5(3), pp.298-317.
Kelly, B., Halford, J.C., Boyland, E.J., Chapman, K., Bautista-Castaño, I., Berg, C., Caroli,
M., Cook, B., Coutinho, J.G., Effertz, T. and Grammatikaki, E., 2010. Television food
advertising to children: a global perspective. American journal of public health, 100(9),
pp.1730-1736.
Kelly, B., Hattersley, L., King, L. and Flood, V., 2008. Persuasive food marketing to
children: use of cartoons and competitions in Australian commercial television
advertisements. Health Promotion International, 23(4), pp.337-344.
Lawlor, M.A. and Prothero, A., 2011. Pester power–A battle of wills between children and
their parents. Journal of Marketing Management, 27(5-6), pp.561-581.
Ogbu, E. I., Tarnongo, M. O., and Alakali, T. F., 2013. Impact Of Television Advertisments
On Children: A Case Study Of Makurdi Town. [PDF file]. Journal of Humanities and Social
Science. Retrieved from <
http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jhss/papers/Vol10-issue3/N01038291.pdf?id=6227 >