Department of Advertising

Children

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

As this web site develops, in the space below we will provide a bibliography of articles and books relevant to this topic. To the extent practical, bibliographic references will be annotated.

Anyone interested in submitting additional bibliographic material for this reference page, or for any of the others at this site, is welcome to send such material via e-mail to jef@mail.utexas.edu. Please type the references in the same format as is used here, and keep the annotations to a few sentences.

  1. M. Carole Macklin (1987). Preschoolers' Understanding of the Informational Function of Television Advertising. Journal of Consumer Research, 14 (September): 229-39.

    Two nonverbal measures are developed and employed in two experiments to examine preschoolers' understanding of the informational function of television advertising. Results are reported to show that nonverbal techniques are appropriate for use with young children who are linguistically limited. It is concluded that such nonverbal techniques should be used to assess children's abilities in a commercial context.

  2. Matt J. Rossano and Eliot J. Butter (1987). Television Advertising and Childrens' Attitudes Toward Proprietary Medicine. Psychology and Marketing, 4 (3): 213-24.

    Two experiments are conducted to investigate the effect of exposure to television drug advertising on children's attitudes toward proprietary medicines and medicine use. In the first experiment a sample of third and sixth-graders are exposed to the experimental commercials, along with nondrug ads and a program. The second experiment involves a sample of fifth-graders and employs a more controlled exposure condition. Actual television commercials for various types of drug are used in both experiments. Results of both studies indicate that exposure to drug advertising have little impact on children's attitudes.

  3. Mary Ann Stutts and Garland G. Hunnicutt (1987). Can Young Children Understand Disclaimers in Television Commercials? Journal of Advertising, 16 (1): 41-46.

    Preschoolers' ability to identify disclaimers in television advertising is investigated in an experiment. The study consists of a sample of children between the ages of three and five. Results suggest that the ability of children to give a correct response is related to age, improving with increasing age, while the tendency to provide correct nonverbal responses is not.

  4. Carolyn L. Costley and Merrie Brucks (1986). Product Knowledge as an Explanation for Age-Related Differences in Children's Cognitive Responses to Advertising. Advances in Consumer Research, 14: 288- 92.

    This research examines if age-related differences in children's cognitive processing of advertising are due to their increased knowledge about the products advertised. An experiment using print ads for a hypothetical brand of bicycle is conducted with 38 boys from two age groups (ages of 8 or 9 and ages of 11 or 12) whose responses are obtained via think-aloud elicitation techniques. The results indicate that product knowledge provides an incomplete explanation of age differences in cognitive response to advertising. Results are interpreted from a theoretical framework proposed in the psychology literature. Directions for future research are suggested.

  5. James P. Neelankavil, John V. O'Brien, and Richard Tashjian (1985). Techniques to Obtain Market-related Information from Very Young Children. Journal of Advertising Research, 25 (June/July): 41-47.

    This article presents an approach for obtaining meaningful qualitative information from 5- and 6-year-old children. The method called "VATAYC" (verbal advertising testing among young children) involves children as well as their mothers who are questioned separately from their children. The procedure is described as applied in a study conducted for a leading marketer of children's products. Analysis of data obtained suggests the usefulness of the technique in assessing young children's response to the commercial.

  6. Henrianne Sanft (1985). The Role of Knowledge in the Effects of Television Advertising on Children. Advances in Consumer Research, 13: 147-52.

    The research examines memory performance (as measured by recall and recognition) and preference of children who have knowledge about the purpose of advertising and those who do not. A group of preschoolers between the ages of 5 and 6 are exposed to actual television commercials for national cereal brands not being aired on television at the time of the study. Findings reveal that those children who have knowledge about advertising remembers more product-related information from commercials. No significant are found on preference measures. Some theoretical issues concerning the advertising effect on children are raised, and implications for public policy issues on misleading advertising are discussed.

  7. Bruce L. Stern and Robert R. Harmon (1984). The Incidence and Characteristics of Disclaimers in Children's Television Advertising. Journal of Advertising, 13 (2): 12-16.

    This study examines the incidence, form, position, language level and variance by product category of disclaimers in TV commercials broadcast during children's programs. Results indicate that disclaimers appear in just over one-third of all children's commercials and that the major users of disclaimers are breakfast foods and toy products. The study also shows that disclaimers are likely to be inserted at the end of the commercial, occur in an audio format and use adult terminology.

  8. M. Carole Macklin and Richard H. Kolbe (1984). Sex Role Stereotyping in Children's Advertising: Current and Past Trends. Journal of Advertising, 13 (2): 34-42.

    The study presents the results of a content analysis of 64 television commercials directed toward children. The results are compared with the findings from previous studies in terms of ad dominance, active/passive behavior, aggressive behavior, voice-overs, and audio track/background music. Problems with trend analysis in the area are discussed and some suggestions for future research are provided.

  9. Gina M. Garramone, Sandra J. Smith, and Mary A. Adrian (1984). Trade Character Advertising to Children. Proceedings of the 1984 Convention of the American Academy of Advertising, (ed.), Donald R. Glover: 29-33.

    The incidence of and traits of trade characters in advertising to children are examined in a content analysis of 105 nonidentical TV commercials selected from the three networks. A number of content dimensions are drawn from various theoretical perspectives. The use of trade characters by advertisers is found to differ by product type with its most frequent use being in cereal commercials and the least use in commercials for toys and games. Findings also reveal that for the majority of those commercials featuring trade characters are animated and humorous, with the presence of a fantacy element, and that the trade characters are predominantly white, male, and adults.

  10. Sanford L. Grossbart and Lawrence A. Crosby (1984). Understanding the Bases of Parental Concern and Reaction to Children's Food Advertising. Journal of Marketing, 48 (2): 79-92.

    The relationship between parental socialization tendencies and their concern about TV food advertising directed at children is examined in a mail survey with mothers of elementary school children, grades 1-6. Parents' nutritional tendencies, tendencies toward anxious-emotional involvement and authoritational control are found to constitute roots of parental objections to TV food advertising aimed at children.

  11. M. Carole Macklin (1983). Do Children Understand TV Ads? Journal of Advertising Research, 23 (February/March): 63-69.

    Research about preschoolers' responses to commercials is presented. TV commercials for a candy bar, a sugarless gum and a cereal are used in the experiment. Results are illustrated from two opposing views--the traditional stage view and nonverbal response mode--with regard to children's ability to process commercials. While recall data in this study indicate limited processing capacity supporting the traditional perspective, results on the nonresponse mode (such as physical product or brand recognition) show increased understanding of commercials. The author concludes that the selection of a theoretical framework and corresponding measures may influence subsequent conclusions made about the child's ability to understand commercials.

  12. Ruth N. Bolton (1983). Modeling the Impact of Television Food Advertising on Children's Diets. Current Issues and Research in Advertising, 6 (1): 173-199.

    The effect of television food advertising on children's diets is explored by analyzing diary data involving 262 children aged between 2 to 11. The investigation utilizes a structural equation model estimated on cross- sectional data. Results of the analysis indicate that exposure to TV food advertising leads to an increase in food snacking and caloric intake, but a decrease in nutrient efficiency among children. The long-run effects of children's exposure to TV food advertising are found to be very small in comparison with that of other effects such as parental influence.

© 1995, 1996, 1997 Jef I. Richards
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