Exploring children's understanding of television advertising – beyond the advertiser's perspective

Abstract

Purpose -The aim of this article is to explore children's understanding of television advertising intent. Design/methodology/approach -A different perspective on advertising intent is offered in this paper, as evidenced in an interpretive study of Irish children, aged between seven and nine years. A qualitative approach was employed, involving a series of focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with 52 children. Findings -The findings indicate that the participating children view advertising as serving interests including, but not limited to, the advertiser. The existence of other interested parties is suggested by the children, namely the agendas of viewers and television channels. The authors assert that these children view advertising as being larger and more complex than the advertiser's perspective, which has been the traditional focus in the extant research. Originality/value -Adopting an advertising literacy perspective, the authors seek to explore children's "reading" and understanding of advertising. Advertising literacy is an approach to understanding advertising that has not received substantial attention in the child-advertising literature. The literature to date has tended to focus on the following question -do children understand the persuasive intent of advertising? This question is suggestive of a "yes/no" answer. In contrast, the authors view the concept of understanding as being more complex and multi-faceted, and accordingly, seek to develop this concept by way of a classification that suggests four different levels of understanding that children may exhibit towards advertising

Children's understanding of television advertising: A grounded theory approach

“…However, the 6‐ to 7‐year‐old children mainly perceived advertisements as a break for either the people working on television or the viewers. These findings agree with Lawlor and Prothero's (2008) research, where they suggested that children, just like adults, can appropriate the commercial break for their own convenience and plan other activities around a desired program. Only some children (10 to 11 years) realized that the advertising activity finances television channels.…”

Young consumers’ brand communications literacy in a social networking site context

“…It is proposed that as children move from the stages of early childhood to adolescence, they gradually develop the ability to (a) discern between advertising and other genres of communication, (b) develop a more sophisticated understanding of advertising's persuasive intent and (c) develop recognition of a commercial agenda or bias (Lawlor and Prothero, 2008;Moore and Rideout, 2007). From a consumer socialisation perspective, the emergence of this understanding helps children to navigate the commercial world (Kerrane and Hogg, 2013;Ward, 1974).…”

Perceived informative intention in advertising and its attenuating effect on persuasion attribution among children

“…Previous research has focused on children's ability to comprehend only one intention in advertising, which has been identified as a limitation (see Wright, Friestad, & Boush, ). Although some scholars have advocated for a more complex investigation of the evaluations of advertisements on children's behalf (Lawlor & Prothero, ), as well as the consideration of the informative nature of advertisements (van Evra, ), little attempts have been made to study multiple intentions grasped by young consumers in commercial messages. While it is logical to assume that understanding of attention capturing and product liking intentions could relate to persuasion attribution, no empirical evidence exists to confirm these relationships.…”