Australian Council on Children & the Media

Advertising - an overview

or you may
view a list of all available Fact Sheets

What is it?

Children are exposed to high levels of advertisements on free-to-air TV, on the internet and, to lesser amounts, on pay TV. Some of these advertisements will be specifically directed at children.

Advertising directed to children includes paid advertisements or commercials that appear in TV programs specifically made for children or in other programs for children and where the product is principally of interest to children under the age of 13 years.

Where does it occur?

Free-to-air TV

Advertising directed to children occurs:

in TV programs that are specifically made for children (such as C programs on commercial TV)
in other children's programs (such as cartoon programs), and
in other G programs.

The amount of advertising can be as high as 15 minutes per hour.

Sometimes, the descriptions of prizes for a competition, or the demonstration of a product in a cartoon program can be construed as advertising. Such practices should occur in discrete segments within the program.

Pay TV

Pay TV also carries advertising directed to children, but at a lower level of minutes per hour.

Internet

Advertising directed to children also occurs on the Internet e.g. in banner ads.

Relevant statistics

Australian children on average watch 2 hours and 30 minutes of TV per day. In terms of advertising this means that Australian children watching commercial TV are likely to see:

30 commercials per hour
75 commercials per day, and
23,000 commercials per year

Why advertising to children is a problem

What is advertised

Many of the products advertised are fatty, salty, sugary and fast foods. Nutritionists and other health professionals see these as promoting poor eating practices in children (see related topic: Food Advertising).

Other ads are for toys, many of which:

limit creative play
encourage violent play
are linked to violent movies which are unsuitable for children, but nonetheless marketed to them
encourage girls to focus on their appearance, including a range of highly sexualised dolls with skimpy clothing, unrealistic body proportions and provocative expressions
(see related topic Toy Advertising).

Ability to distinguish advertising from programs

Young children are particularly vulnerable to advertising as they are often unable to distinguish advertising from programs. US researchers such as Dale Kunkel (University of California at Santa Barbara) and Don Roberts (Stanford University) say that children under age of 5 or 6 do not distinguish effectively between advertisements and the programs they are watching.

Ability to understand 'selling' intent of advertising

Children under the age of seven are unlikely to understand selling intent. As Roberts says, to understand selling intent, the child has to be able to take the perspective of another, and to understand that the seller will engage in puffery, trickery, exaggeration in order to sell. Children are not developmentally capable of this until the age of seven or eight.

Many of the advertisements use techniques that mislead children as to the worth or performance of the product, both food and toys.

Impact on family

Children are effective influencers of family purchasers, pestering their parents to buy products that they neither need nor really understand. A British study reported that 85% of a sample of 4-13 year olds acknowledged that they had asked their parents to buy advertised products and 66% claimed that their parents had met their request.

Advertising pressures can produce significant conflict between parents and children. Many vulnerable families succumb, spending dollars they can least afford. Pester power often works.

Who are the most vulnerable?

Children under the age of 7 or 8. Advertising directed at this age group is inherently unfair.

But even older children do not always know when advertisements are telling the truth, and are vulnerable (as are adults) to the appeals to their self esteem, anxieties, and need to be seen as "cool".

Steve Biddulph, noted Australian author of books on child raising, says that advertising to children is an unfair practice. He says that advertising works by making them unhappy with their lives, anxious and unsatisfied. It sells to them by damaging their mental health.

The advertising industry

Big business now runs annual conferences (with big fees) to share the best techniques to sell their products to children. Children are being actively targeted by the advertising industry for three reasons:
they have considerable money of their own
they are powerful influencers of family purchases, from breakfast cereal to the family car
if captured early, can develop a warm and fuzzy feeling towards a company for life.

Relevant rules and regulations

The Australian Communications and Media Authority(ACMA) has a set of legally binding standards for advertising directed to children that occurs within C programs. Commercial and Pay TV have Codes of Practice governing advertising directed to children in other children's programs. There are limits on the amount of time occupied by the advertisements.

Basically they require that no advertisement may mislead or deceive a child, and that the techniques used in ads should fairly represent the product.

There are requirements that apply to the promotion of "premium offers" (the trinket a child gets if they buy some other product such as a fast food meal).

What parents can do

If you see advertising that you believe is misleading or unfair, complain to the station that screened it.
Give your children a solid sense of self esteem. For more information about self esteem and how to help your children develop it, go to the topic Self Esteem on the Child & Youth Health (South Australian Department of Human Services) website
Minimise exposure to commercial TV until children are over eight. Watch the ABC or Pay TV. Keep a stock of favourite videos (or borrow from the local library) for young children.
Avoid exposure to cartoon series that are toy linked (see related topics).
Encourage children to avoid Internet sites that are product linked.
Use your power as parent to educate your children about advertising. Talk about the techniques, show children the real product in stores and compare it to the way it was advertised. Comment on advertisements that exploit.

What regulators could do

Regulators need to be encouraged to enforce the present set of standards for advertising to children more effectively.

Summary

Advertising and marketing to children is big business. The techniques being used are unfair to young children. Parents need to minimise (where possible) young children's exposure to advertising, and seek less commercial environments. Parents can also be powerful media educators.