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Research on the Effects of Television Advertising on Children; a Review of the Literature and Recommendations for Future Research

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Research on the Effects of Television Advertising on Children; a Review of the Literature and Recommendations for Future Research DOCUMENT RESUME ED 145 499 CS 501 878 AUTHOR Adler, Richard P.; And Others TITLE Research on the Effects of Television Advertising on Children; A Review of the Literature and Recommendations for Future Research. .INSTITUTION National Science Foundation, Washington, L.C. RANN Program. PUB DATE 77 GRANT APR-75-10126' NOTE 230p.; Some pages of docuent may be marginally legible due to size of type AVAILABLE FROM Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402 (Stock No. 038-000-00336-4, $3.75 paper) EDRS PRICE MF-S0.83 HC-$12.71 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Bibliographies; Childhood Attitudes; *Children; *Childrens Television; Guidelines; *Literature Reviews; *Television Commercials; *Television Research; Television Viewing IDENTIFIERS *Advertising ABSTRACT This report summarizes the present state of knowledge about the effects of television advertising on children. After a discussion cf children's television viewing patterns, the report reviews the existing research relevant to such,issuas as children's ability to distinguish commercials from program material; the influence of format and audiovisual techniques on children's perceptions of commercials; the effects of characters in commercials, self-concept appeals, premium offers, food advertising, theivolume and repetition of commercials, and medicine advertising; violence and unsafe acts in commercials directed to children; the effects of television advertising on consumer socialization; and television advertising and parent/child relations. The report then makes recommendations for future research. Appendixes present evaluations of 21 individual studies, a statistical profile of the national research resources currently available for relevant studies, and the children's advertising guidelines issued,by the National Association of Broadcasters, Code Authority. A bibliography of relevant publica.dons is included.(GW) ***********e*********************************************************** Documents acquired by ERIC include many informal unpublished * materials not available from other sources. ERIC makes every effort * * to obtain the best copy available. Nevertheless, items of marginal * * reproducibility are often encountered and this affects the quality * * of the microfiche and hardcopy reproductions ERIC makes available * * via the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EERS). EDRS is not * responsible for the quality of the original document. Reproductions * * supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original. * **************************************************************,******** U S DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH EDUCATION& WELFARE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION TH,S DOCUMENT HAS PEEN REPRO DUCED E`AAC it Y AS RECEiVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATONORGiN ATING IT POINTS OF vIE v4 OR OPINIONS STA TEO DO NOT NECE SSAR+L RE PRE ',ENT OF FILIAL NA TONAL iNST,TOTE 0$ EDur AEON P0,0 TJON OP POL Research or, the Effects of Television Advertising on Children A Review of the Literature and Recommendations for Future Research Report prepared for: NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION Research Applications Directorate RANNResearch Applied to National Needs Division of Advanced Productivity Research and Technology This material is based upon research supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. Apr'75-10126. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recom- mendations expressed in this publication are those of the author {s} and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. CONTENTS Executive Summary 1 I. i. Introduction 3 II. Background: Children's Television Viewing Patterns II H. I.Children's Ability to Distinguish Television Commercials from Program Material 25 2. The Influence of Format and Audio-Visual Techniques on Children's Perceptions of Commercial Messages 33 3. Source Effects and Self-Concept Appeals in Children's Television Ad- vertising 43 4. The Effects of Premium Offers in Children's Television Advertising 63 5. Violence and Unsafe Acts in Television Commercials Directed to Children 75 6. The Impact of Proprietary Medicine Advertising on Children .... 93 7. The Effects of Children's Television Food Advertising 99 8. The Effects of the Volume and Repetition of Television Commercials 109 9. The Effects of Television Advertising on Consumer Socialization .... 127 10. Television Advertising and Parent-Child Relations 133 I I.Summary of Research Findings 145 III. 12. Recommendations for Future Research 151 Appendices A. Key Studies 155 B. Research Roster (Summary) 189 C. NAB and NAD Children's Advertising Guidelines 193 3 VIP hor sale to, the Superintendent of Documents. t S tr,osernment Printing (Kee Washington, D.0 20402 - Price $3 75 stock No. 038-000-00336-4 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We wish to express our appreciation to the RANN program of the National. Science Foundation for its sup= port of the preparation of this report, and to NSF Program Officers, Allen Shinn, Charles Brownstein,and Rol- land Johnson, for their encouragement and advice. The conclusions and recommendations contained in this report are those of its authors, however, and do not represent the views of the National Science Foundation. This project could not have been completed without the assistance of many members of the staffs of our respective institutions Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania. the University of Hartford, the Marketing Science Institute, and the Aspen Institute. Also too numerous to acknowledge individually are those who took the time to respond to the questionnaire which led to formulation of our list oc issues, and those who supplied information for our research roster. We are also grateful to the Children's Advertising Review Unit of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc., and to its director, Emilie Griffin, for aiding in preparation of the Bibliography. Finally, we are particularly indebted to the members of the project's Advisory Committee whose names ap- pear below. In addition to meeting with us on several occasions, they contributedindividually by reading and commenting on earlier drafts of this report. Although they are not responsible for the report's contents, our ad- visors played a significant role in its development Advisory Committee Seymour Banks Ithiel de Sola Pool Vice President in charge of Department of Political Science Media Research Massachusetts Institute of Leo Burnett, US A. Technology Peggy Charren Eli A Rubinstein President Medical School Health Sciences Center Action for Children's Television State University of New York at Stony Brook Walter J. Clayton, Jr. Alberta Siegel Director of Corporate Commodity Planning nepartment of Psychiatry Hershey Food Corporation Stanford University Medical Center Jam A. Dimling, Jr. Eddie Smardan Vice President and Research Director E. Smardan and Associates, Inc National Association of Broadcasters Mary Gardiner Jones Lawrence Zacharias Vice President, Consumer Affairs Division of Special Projects Western Union Federal Trade Commission Principal Investigator Thomas S.Robertson, The Wharton School. Ugly ersity of Penns y Rama Richard P Adler, Graduate School of Education. John R. Rossuer, 1 he Wharton School, t ni et suN Harvard I ' my crsity of Pennsylvania Scott Ward, Marketing ScienceInstitute and Senior Investigaton Graduate School of Business. Harvard U no, ersit Bernard Z Friedlander, Department of Psychology. linty ersuy of Hartford Gerald S. Lesser, Graduate School of Education. Harvard University Ronald Eaber, Marketing Science Institute Laurene Meringoff, Graduate School of Education, David Pillemer, Graduate School of Education, Harvard University Harvard Universitv J EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The effects of television advertising on children The report has four components have been a matter of concern for over a decade ( I ) identification of major policy issues of cur- That children are a special audience deserving of rent interest, special protection was formally recognized by the television industryin1961, when the National (2) review of existing research organized around Association of Broadcasters adopted its Toy Adver- these issues, tising Guidelines The NAB subsequently expanded (3) recommendations for future policy-relevant its self-regulatory guidelines to include all catego- research; and ries of television advertising intended primarily for children Consumer advocacy groups, including Ac- (4) compilation of a national roster of tion for Children's Television and the Council on researchers on televisionadvertising and Media, Merchandising and Children, have raised children. numerous issues over the past few years related to advertising and children Partly in response to com- Two major conclusions emerge from our review. plaints from these organizations, the Federal Com- The first is a general evaluation, based on the availa- munications Commission and the Federal Trade ble evidence, of the impact of television advertising Commission have considered such issues as the on the child viewer The second relates to the role of amount of advertising to children, the use of hero research in policymaking. figures or program personalities as product present- ers, and the use of premium offers in commercials First, it is clear from the available evidence th it In 1975, a second self-regulatory code for adver- television advertising does influence children. tisers was established through the Children's Adver- Research has demonstrated that children attend to tising Guidelines of the Council of Better Business and learn from commercials,
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