INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, KARACHI

Advertisements and
Children
Advertising Assignment 2
5/20/2013
Group Members:
Faisal Javed
M. Aizaz Haq
Rafia Husain
BBA-VIII
Teacher: Ms. Farah Naz Baig

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, our
motivation would not have been the same.
Moreover, we are also thankful to all those people who were the sample population of our
primary data. Their honest answers and valued time taken out to fill the questionnaire is much
appreciated.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

S. No.

Topic

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

Page No.

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 and
instigate the customers to buy them. Though it is just the tip of the ice-berg, it is considered to
be the biggest and most effective communication tool enabling companies to enjoy higher sales
and better profit margins through hard-sell or soft-sell approaches used in advertising (push
strategy). 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 have
emerged over time and are now being used widely. Even though children may or may not be
the end consumers, they are being targeted because of the pester power involved. Due to this
reason, there has been a rapid increase in spending on advertisements specially designed for
children who then act as the indirect decision makers of the house, pushing their parents to buy
products which may not be good for them (like junk food).
Therefore, advertising agencies and brand teams use the pester power to exploit the children
and 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 acceptable
to target children.

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

INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCH:

"In our factory, we make lipstick. In our advertising, we sell hope."
-Peter NivioZarlenga
The impact of advertising on children can be huge. Before children have even developed their
own identity, they start associating status and self-worth with things. Marketers see children as
current and future consumers which is why they want to target children from a very young age
in order to make them loyal. So when they advertise to children they are thinking about the
Customer Lifetime Value which is the net profit attributed to the entire future relationship with
the customer.2 Due to this, companies have increased their advertising spent focusing on
children mainly.
The growing exposure to advertisements through different media, TV leading the rest, has
caused children to become more demanding and nagging when they go for shopping with their
parents. Children of ages 4-5 years are most receptive to the television advertisements. A study
revealed that 32.85% of children forced their parents into buying food products they were
being advertised. 3

STATISTICS OF PAKISTAN
Total Population
Children (11-15 years)
Population of 10-19 years old
Households with one or more teenagers
Household with children under 10 years
4

169 million
43.40%
30 million
66%
30%

(Salaria, 2009)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_lifetime_value
http://tribune.com.pk/story/107616/falling-to-the-lure-of-food-commercials/
4
http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/22321/1/MPRA_paper_22321.pdf
3

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 to

advertisements
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 the
influence 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

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 childs 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 aimed
at 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

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 companys 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 tshirts 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 below
the age of 10 or maybe even adults singing the ding dong... Image 1: Ding Dong Cartoon
jingle to the children, or wed see small kids nagging for Ding

Character

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

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 promote
health 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
Image 2 : Commander safeguard
Animated Character

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 an
extent 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

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
electronics 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. Parents
often 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 lower
satisfaction 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

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 due
to the lack of intellect. For instance Bubloo tumhara sabun slow hei kia? campaign which
simply tries to compare the functional benefits of liquid soaps, could very easily be
misinterpreted by a child to see it as someone who is better off or more desirable by the
society after using the liquid soaps.

METHODOLOGY:
The group started off with literature review that was available related to Pakistan and other
countries that have been discussed in the section. This was done to dive into the concept of
marketing 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 seen
by the group members for this purpose.
The second step was to collect primary data for which questionnaires were designed and filled
by a diverse audience of 40 families. The respondents comprised of 68 men and women who
answered our questions according to their childrens changing behavior. Moreover, we also
collected responses from children in our families and those of our friends to find out which ads
they enjoyed watching. This was part of the informal data that we gathered for our own
knowledge.

PRIMARY DATA:
Findings:
Several questionnaires were asked from respondents. The first question was whether the
children preferred to play outside or watch television in their leisure time. The results showed
the following:

Preference : Watch TV/ Play Outside

33%
Play Outside
67%

Watch TV

Show Preference (in %)

10
32
23

Cartoons
Movies
Documentaries
7

Music
28

Others

The most recalled advertisements, when shown few videos were:

14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0

13
9

11
7

10
6

11

11
8

Parents were also asked whether they wanted their children to see the advertisements of
expensive toys and merchandise. According to popular belief, watching advertisements of toys
or gadgets which are too expensive for the consumers creates a dissatisfaction in them which at

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

Behavioral Impact on Children

11%

Yes
No

53%
36%

Does't matter

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.

14%
Beverages
Health Care

45%

18%
Toy Purchases
Consumable goods
purchase
23%

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

40
35
30
25
20

37
29

15
10
5

12

11

11

0
Rational Ads

Humurous
Ads

Social
Awareness
Ads

Female
Model Ads

Others

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.

Cartoon Animations Recall ( %)

13

22

11

Ding Dong Cat

Commander Safeguard

10

Fanty Characters
Tiger Biscuit
13

31

Tiger Paddle pop

Milk Candy

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 Campaign 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 influence from the music and jingle of the Cerelac Ad Chand Mama .

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 response)

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 either 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,

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.

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.

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.

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

REFERENCES:

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

Gary Ruskin , TV Turns Kids Into Bullies , April 25th, 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 14th Retrieved from:
http://www.commercialalert.org/issues/culture/television/kids-who-watch-less-tvdemand-fewer-toys

Sue Hubbard, Kids, media and obesity: Too much 'screen time' can harm your child's
health, October 2nd 2012 Retrieved from :
http://www.commercialalert.org/issues/culture/television/kids-media-and-obesity-toomuch-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-unhappytweens-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