AN ANALYSIS OF CHILDREN’S VIEWS AND PRACTICES REGARDING

TELEVISION ADVERTISING IN NIGERIA.

BY

ADELAE BLESSING DORCAS

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

The alarming rate, at which children’s advertising programs are broadcast on television, is a

problem and an issue that must be addressed. It is necessary to understand the perception of the

children on the advertising they are exposed to. Research shows that children under the age of

eight (8) are unable to understand television advertising messages and are more likely to accept

advertiser messages as truthful, accurate and unbiased (WASHINGTON).

Advertising is a strong force in the culture of every country. Its purpose is to sell goods and

services. Advertising comprises of all the activities involves in presenting to a group, non-

personal, oral or visual, openly sponsored messages regarding disseminated through an identifies

sponsor (William J. Stanton).

The principal goal of adverting for children’s views is to sell product to children with food and

toys being the two most frequently advertised product categories, (Dietz and Strasburger, 1991).

In recent times children have been subjected to a great deal of advertising initiatives aimed at

selling products and services to them. Advertisers are now focusing their efforts on children as

an important marketing area.

Children: a child is a person under the age of sixteen (16). Hornby (2001) defined children as

young human beings who are not yet an adult.

Television: This is defined as a thing shaped like a box with a screen on which you watch

programmes (Gadsby, 2003). It is also an electronic system of transmitting transient images of

fixed or moving objects together with sound over a wire or through space by apparatus that

converts light and sound into electrical waves and reconverts them into visible light rays and

audible sound.

Television advertising: Television advertising represented slightly over one-third of marketing

expenditures on adolescent-targeted programs, followed by marketing in schools and stores, events

marketing, and radio advertising.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

The rate of television advertising for the viewership of children as greatly affects the practices

and behavior of children. Children base their beliefs and actions on what they see, hear from

either their parents or the type of shows and advertisement they are exposed to. Television

provides one of the great medium for the transmission of commercials messages to children.

Because children can assimilate things quickly and this can affect their way of thinking and how

they behave in public.

Some advertisers have the believe that children as a matter of fact do not understand when

products or shows are projected on television, without putting in mind that children are

vulnerable target audience who can be easily carried away and influence by what they see. This

research will help analyze the impact of television advertising in the practice of children’s.
RESEARCHABILITY OF THE TOPIC

This topic: An analysis of children’s views and practices regarding Television advertising in

Nigeria; is researchable for the following reasons:

 Dependent and Independent Variables: the research topic is to have this two variables,

a dependent (what the researcher wishes to explain or the presumed effect of the

research) and an independent variables (the presumed cause or correlate of dependent

variables). This topic has the following variables:

 The dependent variable here is Children’s views and practices because this is

what this study wants to explain, how they are affected and how they behave base

on what they see and watch.

 The Independent variables is Television advertising because this is the cause of

the practices and behavior adopted by children. And through some advertising the

children’s beliefs are changed.

Research Questions:

 What type of Television Advertisement affects the behavior of children?

 Can the children’s behavior and actions be linked to advertisement shown on TV?

 What are the common practices among children’s of ages 8-10 years?

 What are the children’s views about children adverts?

 What interest children in Television advertising?

Existence of a Clear Gap: This research doesn’t possesses a clear gap because it is a research

that has being worked on but because human beings doesn’t think alike, there is possibility that
the research can be based on different perceptive. This therefore leads to detecting some

unanswered questions:

 To what extent does this advert affects the children’s?

 Does this adverts promotes the children’s beliefs?

Feasibility of Data Collection: from the generated questions, the required data would be

collected and determined through interviews guides and discussions with children’s of the

primary level stage which are from the age of 8-10. The interview will be able to get information

on the effects of the adverts.

Availability of Relevant Theoretical Framework

 Cultivation Theory: this says that media cultivates the minds of the people; this shows

that through the heavy exposure to television, people begin to view the world similar to

the television world. Cultivation theory pose that television viewing can have long-term

effects that gradually affects the audiences.