Advertising 7
Shaun Webbs
AdvertisingVIIHongKongchildrensunderstandingoftelevisionadvertising4.pdf
Hong Kong children’s understanding of television advertising
KARA CHAN Department of Communication Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
This study exam ines Chinese children’s understanding and com prehension of television advertising. A quota sam ple of 448 children made up of 32 girls and 32 boys from kindergartens and grade s 1– 6, were personally interviewed in May 1998. The results indicated that children in grade 2 (aged 7– 8 years) were beginning to understand what advertising was and were aware of the persuasive intention of television advertising. Over one-third of older children from grade 4 understood that television stations carried advertising for m oney. Like children in the West, the m ain reason for liking and disliking com m ercials depended on their entertainm ent elem ent. An understanding of television advertising, recall of brands from slogans and com prehension of advertising content were consistently related to the cognitive developm ent of children. Brand recognition from liked and disliked com m ercials was strong. Com prehension of the key m essages of advertising content varied greatly by children’s cognitive developm ent and the style of presentation. Ethical issues and public opinions of Hong Kong consum ers regarding advertising to children were discussed.
KEYWOR DS: Children; television advertising; cognitive development
INTRODUCTION
Today advertising penetrates into the life of every person, including children. The children’s market is important to advertisers because of the enormous purchasing power of the children and their parents. A survey of 2400 children aged 7– 12 years in six countries, including China, Japan, France, the UK, Germany and the USA, indicated that their estimated annual spending power ranged from US$1.7 billion in Germany to US$11.3 billion in the USA. The survey results also indicated active participation of children in making family purchase decisions in a number of product categories (Carey et al., 1997). The newly emerging middle classes, high populations and one-child policies in some Asian countries mean that these ‘little emperors’ are obtaining more and more in�uence over where the family money is spent. R esearch has suggested that children in China have been quick to make demands and exercise pester power. They are often the �rst to learn of new products from the mass media, retail outlets and parents. Chinese children considered television to be the most important information sources for new products (McNeal and Ji, 1999).
Children in Hong Kong are exposed to a large amount of advertising, particularly through
JOURNAL OF MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS 6 37–52 (2000)
Journal of Marketing Communications ISSN 1352-7266 print/ ISSN 1466-4445 online # 2000 Taylor & Francis Ltd
television advertising. According to a weekly AC Nielsen television rating report, the average rating of TVB-Jade, the dominant Chinese channel, from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. on a school day in March 1998 for children of 4– 14 years was 12 rating points (equivalent to an audience size of 103 000). Children watched a lot more television during school holidays. The average rating of TVB-Jade on an Easter holiday was 17 rating points (a 40% larger audience than a typical school day). A child spending 4 h per day watching television may be exposed to 15 000 commercials every year. What do children in Hong Kong know about television advertising and what do they learn from it? This study attempts to examine children’s response to television advertising for aspects relating to the communication process. The study adopts Piaget’s (1970) theory of cognitive development. The theory identi�es distinct stages of cognitive development and postulates that children will manifest differences in the ways they select, evaluate and use information. Children’s responses to television advertising will therefore be analysed by school year.
The study is of major interest to both marketers and public policy of�cials. Marketers are keen to know if their advertising is effective while policy makers are concerned with protecting the interests of the child. The study is particularly important as there is a paucity of empirical evidence on the topic within the context of children from Asian cultures. This is surprising at a time when marketing academics make continuous pleas for international studies on marketing concepts and consumer behaviours (Bradley, 1987; Lee and Green, 1991). Because mainland China is adopting a ‘one- child’ family planning policy, children have become the focus of attention of parents and grandparents. Children are believed to exert an even greater in�uence on the family’s purchase decisions. The study will serve as a benchmark study for Hong Kong as well as a protocol for future studies in China.
The objectives of this study were as follows.
(1) To study children’s ability to understand the purpose of television advertising. (2) To examine children’s attention, recall and comprehension of television advertising. (3) To investigate children’s liking and disliking of television advertising. (4) To investigate whether the above are related to stages of cognitive development.
The preceding literature review indicates that children’s responses to television advertising in Western societies consistently depend on the age or school year of the respondents. This study will provide empirical data for comparison with an Eastern society.
LITERATURE REVIEW
In the Western perspectives of child development, Piaget’s (1970) theory of cognitive development has had a great impact on research related to the communication process of advertising to children. The theory proposes that a child’s ability to think and reason progresses through a series of distinct stages. Each stage has its own unique characterization, yet could vary considerably depending on intelligence, cultural background and socio- economic factors. Piaget (1970) proposed four stages of cognitive development that can be summarized as follows.
(1) The sensorimotor stage (0– 2 years): behaviour is primarily motor and the child does not manifest conceptual thinking.
(2) The pre-operational stage (2– 7 years): the child’s thinking about objects and ideas is poorly organized and only dominant features are used for making judgements.
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(3) The concrete operations stage (7– 11 years): the child can think conceptually and organize ideas in a coherent and stable manner.
(4) The formal operations stage (11‡ years): the child can think in abstract terms.
Many studies on children’s communication processing of television advertising have been based on Piaget’s (1970) cognitive development theory. Other approaches have also emerged to provide detailed explanations of Piaget’s (1970) theory using concepts about information processing of short- and long-term memory of commercial information (R oedder, 1981).
Studies have generally indicated that children’s ability to distinguish programmes from commercials increased with age (R obertson and Rossiter, 1974; Meringoff and Lesser, 1980) and location of the commercial relative to the programme (Hoy et al., 1986). Children’s comprehension of television advertising and its persuasive intent also increased with age (Ward, 1972; Rubin, 1974; Wackman et al., 1977; Levin et al., 1982; Blosser and Roberts, 1985). In a British survey, 80% of the children replied that the main reason for television advertising was because the advertisers want to sell them something. Responses did not differ by age or social class, but they differed by sex. Girls were more likely to know the purpose of advertising than boys (Greenberg et al., 1986). Research has also suggested that, by the age of 9 years, children show a marked improvement in understanding the ambiguous wordings, humour and imagery found in advertisements (Brown and Bryant, 1983; Belk et al., 1984; Nippold et al., 1988).
Decreased attention during commercials and selective viewing of commercials with age has been found in many studies (Ward, 1972; Ward et al., 1972; Sheikh et al., 1974; Zuckerman et al., 1978). Attention to television commercials depended on personal factors and stimulus factors. Personal factors include parental and peer in�uence, level of motivation and attitudes towards commercials. Stimulus factors include the nature of the television programme, the content of the commercial and the product advertised (McNeal, 1987).
Older children also believed that advertising was less truthful (R obertson and R ossiter, 1974; Ward et al., 1977; Gaines and Esserman, 1981). All these observations are generally attributed to greater cognitive maturity and increased experience with the medium. Van Evra (1995) argued that children become less likely to be persuaded with age because they use other sources for the information they need and depend less on television advertising. The commercials therefore become less personally relevant to the child.
Several studies have reported that children, even younger ones, were able to encode and subsequently remember commercials in terms of their component attributes such as premiums, product symbols and brand names (Rubin, 1974; Shrimp et al., 1976; L.J. Gianinno and P.A. Zuckerman, unpublished). Children recalled premium offers more than the attributes of a product and premium played an important role with younger children in choosing a product (Comstock and Paik, 1991).
From the advertisers’ perspective, a successful marketing communication campaign has to be a memorable one because the opportunity to buy a product following its appearance in mass media is usually delayed. Therefore, it is important to know whether the viewers understand the message communicated through the advertising and what information is stored and subsequently retrieved from the memory about the brands advertised (Gunter and McAleer, 1997).
Most of the research literature on advertising and children is based on research conducted in Western societies and there are very few comparable studies from Asian countries. When referring to Chinese perspectives towards child development, Confucianism is one Chinese ideology that has been widely investigated by Chinese and Western researchers. Some
ADVERTISING AND CHILDREN 39
important characteristics include an emphasis on moralistic orientation towards children (Ekblad, 1986); �lial piety (Hsu, 1981; Kelly and Tseng, 1992), self-ful�lment (Suzuki, 1980; Kelly and Tseng, 1992), good manners and the importance of education (Ekblad, 1986; Chiu, 1987; Ho, 1989). The implications of all these studies suggest that Chinese parents tend to be more concerned about moral behaviours in commercials and they will exert more control over their children’s behaviours.
To conclude, the review of the literature shows that understanding the purpose of television advertising and comprehension of advertising content depend on the age or school year of children. Children in Asian societies are more likely to pay attention to moral behaviours in the advertising content.
RESEARCH METHOD
Six advertising and public relations undergraduate students of Hong Kong Baptist University were recruited and, through personal sources, interviewed 448 Chinese children of 5– 12 years in Hong Kong. The children were from a quota sample of equal numbers of boys and girls for each school year from kindergarten and grades 1– 6. The interviewers were trained in the purpose of the study, the structure of the interview and skills in soliciting responses. Interviews were conducted at public libraries, churches, restaurants and parks near school areas in May 1998. Each interview took approximately 20 min. Efforts were made to minimize interruptions and intrusions by other family members or friends present. The interviews started with open-ended questions about what advertising is, the purpose of television advertising, which commercials they liked and disliked and their reasons. The respondents were asked to recall the brands that used speci�c slogans. Three slogans were taken from three food commercials. The interviewers then presented storyboards of four commercials that were telecast at prime times (7 p.m. to 10 p.m.) during the month before the interviews were conducted. The four commercials were selected to represent products that could be easily understood by children (such as chocolate and tea), products that were dif�cult to understand (taxis using gas fuel) and the government’s pro- social messages (a public service announce- ment about equal rights among females and males). These commercials were selected from a pool of approximately 100 commercials broadcast in prime time programmes on two Chinese channels 1 month before conducting the interviews. The author and one faculty member of the Department of Communication Studies selected eight commercials of different product categories. They were then tested by a personal interview with �ve children on their understanding using open-ended questions. The most and least easily understood ones were selected. Two other commercials with medium comprehension responses were selected. The respondents were required to say what was being said in the commercials. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. The interviews were coded by a research assistant and were cross-checked by the author. A coding menu was prepared for closed-ended questions. For open- ended questions, a coding menu was developed after reviewing all the responses.
FINDINGS
Understanding of television advertising
Children were prompted about their awareness and knowledge of television advertising. The interviewer mentioned that ‘when we are watching television, sometimes the programme
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stops and there are other messages coming up’. The children were asked what these are, what are their purpose and why the television stations carry such messages. Tables 1– 3 summarize their responses. The results of the three tables consistently show a sharp increase in awareness of advertising, understanding of the selling intent and programme sponsorship from grade 2 onward. The second grade (or equivalent to age 8 years) was found to be an important watershed. Younger children below the second grade had dif�culty verbalizing what constituted a commercial. Starting from the second grade, over half of the children knew that commercials helped to promote products. A small percentage of the respondents could spontaneously recognize the selling intent of the commercials. In response to the question ‘What do commercials want you to do?’, a much higher number of younger children showed recognition of the selling intent of commercials. In response to the question ‘Why do television stations carry such messages?’, less than one- quarter of the respondents were able to identify the fact that advertising paid for free programming. A higher proportion of children from grade 4 knew the institutional function of television advertising. Close to half of the children at grade 6 (aged 11– 12 years) understood that the television station broadcast commercials for money. Some children viewed television advertising as part of the entertainment offered by the television station. They thought that television stations broadcast commercials in order to test whether the commercials were funny and to attract audiences. While understanding the purpose of advertising generally increased with school year (or age), children in grades 5 and 6 were no better than the children in grades 3 and 4 on all three questions.
Liked and disliked com m ercials
Children were asked to recall their favourite television commercials and the commercial they disliked the most. Not all children were able to mention commercials that they liked or disliked. Older children were more likely to talk about commercials they liked and disliked. Altogether 222 and 115 commercials were mentioned as the most favourite and the most disliked commercials, respectively. Children were more ready to recall liked than disliked commercials. This may indicate that children are less critical of television advertising. Table 4 summarizes the product categories of the commercials cited as most liked by children.
TABLE 1. Understanding what television advertising is by school year
School year (%)
Total Kindergarten G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 (n ˆ 448)
Low 3 14 14 3 0 11 9 8 Medium 6 14 53 55 67 63 67 46 High 3 13 3 8 13 6 3 7 Do not know 88 59 30 34 20 20 20 39
Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
Low: name speci� c products, part of programmes, interrupts programmes. Medium: advertise things, inform people about things to buy. High: get people to buy, sponsor programmes. n ˆ 64 for each school year.
ADVERTISING AND CHILDREN 41
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T o
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K in
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1 G
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3 G
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5 G
6 (n
ˆ 44
8)
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6 17
5 5
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pr o m
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pr o du
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31 44
61 78
78 66
61 60
Sp o ns
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0 0
0 0
2 0
0 0
D o
no t
kn o w
58 50
22 17
16 30
34 32
T o ta
l 10
0 10
0 10
0 10
0 10
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0
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ˆ 44
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36 36
47 22
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.
ADVERTISING AND CHILDREN 43
The results indicated that food and drink, toys and mobile phone commercials were most frequently cited as commercials they liked. These three product categories accounted for nearly 80% of the total number of recalls. Older children (grades 5 and 6) had lost interest in toy commercials and developed a marked appreciation for mobile phone and sports goods commercials. Table 5 summarizes the reasons for liking commercials. The children said they liked these commercials because the commercials were interesting and funny, they liked the products or they liked the celebrities used. Older children liked commercials using celebrities. This accounted for their high appreciation of mobile phone commercials that used �lm stars
TABLE 4. Product categories of commercials liked by school year (total = 222)
School year (%)
Kindergarten and GI G2 – G3 G4– G6 Total (n ˆ 42) (n ˆ 81) (n ˆ 99) (n ˆ 222)
Food and drink 57 63 52 57 Toys 14 15 8 12 Mobile phones 7 3 12 8 Restaurants and fast food shops 2 12 3 6 Supermarkets 0 2 6 4 Programme announcements 7 1 3 3 Electrical appliances 5 1 3 3 Sports goods 2 0 6 3 Films and entertainment 0 0 2 1 Public transportation 0 0 3 1 Public services announcements 3 0 0 1 Property 0 0 1 1 Bank 0 0 1 0 Car and related 2 0 0 0 Like all 0 1 0 0
100 100 100 100
TABLE 5. Reasons for liking commercials by school year (total = 212)
School year (%)
Kindergarten and G1 G2– G3 G4– G6 Total (n ˆ 39) (n ˆ 76) (n ˆ 97) (n ˆ 212)
Entertainment 62 55 56 57 Beauty 0 0 4 2 Product 18 34 16 23 Celebrity=Character 18 11 24 18 Others 3 0 0 0
Total 100 100 100 100
Note: Totals in Tables 4 and 5 may not tally due to missing response to one of the questions.
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and pop singers as endorsers. Over half of the respondents in all school years mentioned funny and interesting as their reasons for liking those commercials. Many children cited McDonalds, Kinder chocolate and Yakult drink commercials as their favourite commercials because the story lines were cute and entertaining. The children liked commercials with cartoon �gures, a funny story or their favourite �lm=television stars. In responding to this question, younger children were particularly prone to confuse these commercials with the products. For example, children said they liked programme announcement because they liked to watch that particular programme.
Table 6 summarizes the product categories of the 116 most disliked commercials. Mobile phones, food and drink commercials, public service announcements and supermarket commercials were most frequently cited. These four categories accounted for 55% of the total number of recalls. Table 7 summarizes the reasons for disliking these commercials. The children disliked these commercials because they did not understand them, they found them boring or horrifying or they disliked the products (particularly for liquor and female personal products). The respondents found some public service announcement advertisements terrifying. For example, an anti- drug commercial featuring distorted images of a young man after taking drugs, a commercial featuring a television set dropped from a high level that
TABLE 6. Product categories of commercials disliked by school year (total = 115)
School year (%)
Kindergarten and G1 G2– G3 G4– G6 Total (n ˆ 17) (n ˆ 40) (n ˆ 58) (n ˆ 115)
Mobile phones 0 18 24 18 Food and drink 47 13 12 17 Public services announcements 6 13 9 10 Supermarkets 6 15 7 10 Toys 6 13 3 7 Property 0 8 5 5 Programme announcements 12 0 5 4 Alcohol and cigarettes 0 8 3 4 Restaurants and fast-food shops 6 0 3 3 Clothing 0 3 5 3 Female personal products 0 3 3 3 Medicine 0 0 7 3 Bank 0 0 7 3 Electrical appliances 12 0 0 2 Public transportation 0 5 0 2 Films and entertainment 0 0 2 1 Insurance 0 3 0 1 Sports goods 6 0 0 1 Hotel 0 0 2 1 Car and related 0 0 2 1 Dislike all 0 3 0 1
Total 100 100 100 100
ADVERTISING AND CHILDREN 45
landed on and hurt a group of children playing and a commercial about a �re in the household.
Some children disliked commercials that were exaggerated and false. Some children did not like certain commercials because of ‘incorrect’ behaviours. For example, a 9-year old girl said she did not like any beer commercials because they contained pornography. An 11-year old girl did not like a Yakult drink commercial featuring a young boy showing passion for a little girl because ‘love affairs is no good at that age’. Children also learned that antisocial behaviour, such as shoplifting and driving under the in�uence of alcohol, were not acceptable from the public service announcements. This indicates that children are able to evaluate television advertising in the light of normative lessons learned elsewhere. Older children criticized certain commercials for the use of celebrities that they did not like. An interesting observation was that celebrities polarized reactions from fans and non- fans. For example, many children who liked the mobile phone commercial featuring pop singer Leon Lai disliked another mobile phone commercial featuring singer Aaron Kwok.
For the 222 most liked commercials, the majority of respondents (85%) spontaneously recalled the brand names. However, for the 115 most disliked commercials, nearly 60% mentioned the brand names. The results indicated that brand recognition was much stronger for liked brands than disliked brands.
Recall of brand nam es from slogans
The children were prompted to recall brand names for three slogans and the results are summarized in Table 8. The �rst slogan was for the Kinder chocolate commercials which is targeted at mothers with young children. The second slogan was for the Nestlé milk powder commercial which is targeted at children aged 7– 12 years. The slogan has been used for nearly 14 years. The third slogan was for the Maltesers chocolate commercial which is targeted at youngsters. The results indicated that overall brand recall ranged from 18 to 32%. A v 2 analysis examined whether recall and comprehension of television advertising related to school year. All v 2 values were signi�cant, indicating that comprehension was consistently
TABLE 7. Reasons for disliking commercials by school year (total = 116)
School year (%)
Kindergarten and G1 G2– G3 G4– G6 Total (n ˆ 20) (n ˆ 38) (n ˆ 58) (n ˆ 116)
Entertainment 35 34 47 41 Beauty 20 11 19 16 Product 20 34 14 22 Celebrity=Character 20 5 10 10 Not true 0 5 7 5 Just do not like 0 3 0 1 Incorrect behaviour 5 8 3 5
Total 100 100 100 100
Note: Totals in Tables 6 and 7 may not tally due to missing response to one of the questions.
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related to school year or age. Children in kindergartens and grade 1 performed poorly while those in grades 2 and 3 performed very well. A small proportion of the respondents recalled either an alternate brand or a different product category. The target audiences of the commercials performed better than other groups. This suggests that children learn more from commercials that use models from their age groups.
Com prehension of television advertising
The children were presented with story boards of four selected commercials and they were asked to explain what the commercials said. The results in Table 9 indicate that there was a signi�cant difference in the respondents’ comprehension of television advertising. The overall proportion of children who could give the key messages ranged from 27 to 63%. All v 2
values were signi�cant, indicating that comprehension was consistently related to school year or age. Children in kindergartens and grade 1 had dif�culty in identifying key messages. They seemed to be preoccupied with what a commercial should say or what they were interested in knowing. In both the chocolate and tea commercials, a lot of children mentioned that the commercial was about the good taste (coded as partial=wrong understanding). They failed to recognize that there were a variety of selling points for food. The children’s comprehension was clearly limited by personal experience. The commercial about taxis using gas fuel caused the most confusion, because driving was unfamiliar to them. Many children mixed up public service announcements advocating similar issues, including the use of unleaded fuel or turning off the engine when the car stopped. Surprisingly, pro- social messages communicated well even to younger children when they were presented in a ‘children-friendly’ way. The public
TABLE 8. Recall of brand names from slogans by school year
School year (%)
Kindergarten and G1 G2 – G3 G4– G6 Total
Slogan 1: No more worry for mother (Kinder chocolate) Correct brand recall 15 44 35 32 Wrong recall 5 5 7 6 Do not know 80 52 58 62 v 2 ˆ 28a
Slogan 2: A cow reared on the 15th � oor (Nestlé milk powder) Correct brand recall 9 30 40 28 Wrong recall 2 6 1 3 Do not know 89 64 59 69 v 2 ˆ 44a
Slogan 3: More than one way of enjoyment (Maltesers chocolate) Correct brand recall 4 21 26 18 Wrong recall 13 12 8 10 Do not know 84 67 66 71 v 2 ˆ 27a
aSigni� cant at 0.0001.
ADVERTISING AND CHILDREN 47
service announcement on ‘human rights’ gave some speci�city to the idea of equal rights in an animated form featuring animated boy and girl characters. After a voice-over that everyone had the right to choose his or her occupation, the girl said that she wanted to be a doctor. The boy rejected her idea and the voice-over asserted equal rights. The commercial provided a concrete example of what a violation of right represents.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
The results on children’s cognitive responses to television advertising obtained in this study were similar to previous studies. Grade- related or age- related changes in understanding were consistently found. A remarkable increase in understanding what advertising is and the purpose of television advertising at grade 2 (aged 7– 8 years) was also consistent with Piaget’s (1970) proposed stage on concrete operations. The children entering this stage of cognitive development were able to think conceptually and organized the selling idea in a more coherent manner. This indicates that Piaget’s (1970) theory of cognitive development �nds empirical support in Chinese society. However, the apparent growth in understanding of
TABLE 9. Comprehension of television advertising by school year
School year (%)
Kindergarten and G1 G2 – G3 G4– G6 Total
Kinder chocolate Full understanding 45 72 70 63 Partial=Wrong understanding 37 24 29 30 Do not know 19 4 1 7 v 2 ˆ 51a
Lipton 3 in 1 tea Full understanding 14 41 57 40 Partial=Wrong understanding 50 39 32 39 Do not know 36 20 10 20 v 2 ˆ 66a
Taxi using gas fuel Full understanding 13 17 44 27 Partial=Wrong understanding 32 55 34 40 Do not know 55 28 22 33 v 2 ˆ 72a
Equal rights Full understanding 27 70 84 63 Partial=Wrong understanding 34 12 5 15 Do not know 40 19 11 22 v 2 ˆ 114a
aSigni� cant at 0.0001. Responses were coded as full understanding if they contained the key messages (Kinder chocolate, cat wants to get the chocolate; Lipton tea, refreshing or relief from pressure; taxi using gas fuel, the fuel produces less smoke; equal right, girls can do the job that they like).
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television advertising has to be weighted against the relative abilities of younger and older children to express themselves verbally, as well as their ability to articulate the difference between programmes and commercials. Answers to the three questions ‘What is television advertising?’, ‘What is its purpose?’ and ‘Why do television stations carry these messages?’ revealed a range of responses to different levels of understanding of television advertising. Many younger children who found dif�culty expressing what a commercial is could still identify that the commercials wanted them to try to buy things. A higher proportion of children from grade 4 (aged 9– 10 years) could recognize the institutional function of television advertising. According to Piaget’s (1970) classi�cation system, children at these ages begin to enter the formal operations stage where they can think in more abstract terms. The �ndings have public policy implications that younger children need greater protection against persuasive marketing communication in the mass media. Children over 8 years have probably developed a cognitive defence and understand the selling intent of television advertising.
The �ndings that children liked food and beverage commercials were similar to those obtained by Ward (1972) and Yavas and Abdul-Gader (1993). This is probably because children are more familiar and experienced with the product category. Fun and enjoyment was the main reason for liking a commercial. However, there were great differences in the reasons for disliking commercials. Hong Kong children frequently mentioned ‘product’ and ‘incorrect behaviours’ as reasons. This indicated that Chinese children place more emphasis on the moralistic orientation of commercials than Western children. They held stronger good and bad beliefs about product nature as well as social behaviour. Compared with �ndings of Ward (1972) and Yavas and Abdul- Gader (1993), Hong Kong children more frequently mentioned ‘celebrity=personality’ as a reason for both liking and disliking. This suggested that the use of ‘personal’ or ‘social’ in�uence appealed more to Chinese children than Western children. This may also be due to the heavy use of celebrity commercials in Hong Kong.
Brand recognition for liked and disliked commercials was strong among children. Commercials enjoyed and disliked by children are more likely to be remembered. However, the in�uence of the brand information on purchase intention and purchase behaviour needs further investigation. Advertisers also need to recognize the trade- offs for using a celebrity. What appeals to one group likely drives away another group.
The overall brand recall from slogans was low, con�rming previous �ndings that brand names were dif�cult to remember. Slogans help little in brand recognition. Advertisers should consider other strategies to enhance brand recognition such as incorporating brand names in slogans and package recognition.
There has been little research into how well children understand the key messages of television advertising. The �ndings of this study revealed that comprehension of advertising content varied greatly by children’s cognitive development and the style of presentation. Using simple dialogue, concrete examples and animated �gures, the children demonstrated a fairly good understanding of pro- social messages. This �nding should be encouraging for government of�cials and educators. The government should produce more campaigns to cultivate pro-social behaviours and to protect children’s interests, in a children- friendly way of course. For example, younger children could learn how to respond to sexual harassment through a government publicity campaign.
Many critics and parents fear that children are particularly susceptible to commercial appeals because young viewers lack the necessary cognitive skills to defend themselves against what are often highly attractive and persuasive messages (Choate, 1975). Other undesirable consequences listed by the critics are the creation of parent– child con�ict (Atkin, 1975) and
ADVERTISING AND CHILDREN 49
disappointment when children are denied their requests (Robertson and R ossiter, 1974). The Broadcasting Authority regulates television advertising in Hong Kong. As a former colony of the UK, the code of practice on advertising standards in Hong Kong resembles that of the UK. It requires that no product or service may be advertised in association with a program intended for children or which large numbers of children are likely to see, which might result in harm to them physically, mentally or morally, and no method of advertising may be employed which takes advantage of the natural credulity and sense of loyalty of children (Broadcasting Authority, 1993). Hong Kong consumers seem to be quite satis�ed with overall television advertising standards, as the number of complaints is extremely small. The 6.6 million population made only an average of 682 complaints about television advertising each year in the past 5 years (Broadcasting Authority, personal communication). Consumers’ reaction did in�uence advertisers’ decision. A McDonalds commercial received 46 complaints shortly after its debut, after it seemed to encourage children to tell lies. As a result, the client pulled out the commercial in question before the Broadcasting Authority investigated the complaints. In a quota sampling survey of 691 Hong Kong consumers, Chan and Ruidl (1996) found that 47% of the respondents did not agree that television advertising should be banned on children’s programmes (versus 32% who held a neutral position and 21% who agreed). In the same survey, 61% of the respondents agreed that the content of television advertising should be more closely regulated by the government (Chan and Ruidl, 1996). This indicates that Hong Kong consumers prefer tighter control of advertising messages than complete banning of advertising to children.
To conclude, the majority of Hong Kong children from grade 2 knew what advertising was and had developed an appreciation of television commercials. Older children were aware of the selling intention as well as the institutional function of television advertising. Understanding of television advertising, recall of brands from slogans and comprehension of advertising content were clearly related to the cognitive development of children. Advertisers targeting at children should make the commercials funny and interesting so that children will like them and remember their brands.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This project was funded by a faculty research grant of Hong Kong Baptist University.
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BIOGRAPHY
Dr Kara K.W. Chan is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University. She has worked in the advertising and public relations professions and as a statistician for the Hong Kong Government. She is now actively involved in research on Hong Kong and China’s mass communication, advertising, consumer behaviour and environmental studies. She has published in the International Journal of Advertising, Asian Journal of Communication, Gazette and The Environmentalist.
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