Parents’ Attitudes Toward Television Advertising to Children: An Applied Study in Riyadh city

2002 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-40
Author(s):  
AHMED AL-MUTAWA
Keyword(s):  
Television Advertising ◽  
Riyadh City ◽  
Applied Study ◽  
Advertising To Children

Marketing Cardiovascular Mortality? Healthy vs. Unhealthy Food in Television Advertising

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mashaal Ikram ◽  
Kim A Williams ◽  
Khari Hill
Keyword(s):  
Fast Food ◽  
Television Advertising ◽  
Home Delivery ◽  
Food Chains ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Spanish Flu ◽  
Advertising To Children ◽  
Tv Commercials ◽  
Tv Watching ◽  
Quick Service

Background:Cardiovascular disease has been the leading killer of Americans since the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918.  During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, social distancing and stay-at-home requests, there has been increased television (TV) engagement, and marketing has become more impactful in modifying consumer behaviors. Objective:  We evaluated the healthfulness of food marketing, based on commercials most frequently aired on American primetime networks during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Methods:We reviewed a total of 104 TV commercials, 89 chosen randomly during TV watching and 14 targeted to enrich the sample with the leading quick service restaurants (“fast-food chains”).  The commercials fell into 4 categories: 1) fast-food chains, 2) brand-recognized individual items, 3) grocery chains, and 4) home-delivery meals. The food items displayed in each commercial were recorded and scored based on the previously validated healthful versus unhealthful nutrition scoring system, assigning either positive or negative values for each food item in the commercial. Results:We found that 58% of the commercials advertised fast-food chains (mean score = -3.1, i.e., 3.1 more unhealthy than healthy items per commercial), while 27% were brand-recognized individual items (-0.82), 9% were grocery chains (-0.4), and 6% were for home-delivery meals (0.83); each was less unhealthy than fast-food (p< 0.0001). Conclusions:Commercial TV in the US routinely promotes the consumption of foods that are known to be unhealthy, particularly those underpinning cardiovascular disease and its risk factors. Regulation and/or legislation to curtail the frequency and/or content of these commercials, and consider a ban on such advertising to children, similar to that previously employed in Canada and the European Union.

scholarly journals Dear Santa: The effects of television advertising on young children

2002 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 529-539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen J. Pine ◽  
Avril Nash
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Television Viewing ◽  
Comparison Group ◽  
Nursery School ◽  
Television Advertising ◽  
Brand Names ◽  
Similar Data ◽  
Commercial Television ◽  
Advertising To Children ◽  
Methodological Difficulties

Every day children are exposed to the selling messages of advertisers via the television. There is some debate in the literature over the age at which young children can distinguish television advertisements from programmes, when they can remember and want what they see and when they are able to understand that the advertiser’s motive is to sell a product. Resolution of the debate has been hampered by methodological difficulties and paradigms which fail to fully capture and explain children’s responses to advertisements. This study uses a novel and ecologically valid method of exploring how toy advertising affects children by studying their requests to Father Christmas, monitoring toy commercials and collecting television viewing data. Eighty-three children aged from 4.8 to 6.5 years, who had written letters to Father Christmas, were interviewed regarding the extent and nature of their television viewing. Letters and similar data were also analysed for 16 nursery school children, aged 3.8 to 4.8 years, using questionnaire responses from their parents. Overall, children who watched more commercial television were found to request a greater number of items from Father Christmas. These children also requested more branded items than children who watched less. However, the children’s requests did not correlate significantly with the most frequently advertised toy products on television in the build-up to Christmas. Almost 90% of the toys advertised did not feature once in the children’s letters, suggesting that recall for specific brand names is poor in the under-7s. A positive correlation was found between watching television alone and number of requests. One interpretation of this may be that lone viewing renders children more susceptible to advertising. A comparison group of children from Sweden, where advertising to children is not permitted, asked for significantly fewer items. It is argued that English children who watch more TV, and especially those who watch alone, may be socialised to become consumers from a very early age.

TV update

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1978 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 428-431
Author(s):  
Richard I. Feinbloom
Keyword(s):  
Family Life ◽  
Federal Trade Commission ◽  
Television Advertising ◽  
Anecdotal Evidence ◽  
The Public ◽  
Sugar Intake ◽  
Developmental Capacity ◽  
Advertising To Children ◽  
Tv Commercials ◽  
Heating Up

The public debate over television and its impact on children is heating up. Two highly visible skirmishes of 1978 are the investigation into television advertising to children by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the trial in California of a bizarre rape claimed to have been perpetrated in imitation of a crime which appeared on a television drama. The FTC has scheduled nile-making hearings in the fall of 1978 to consider whether television advertising to young children is inherently "unfair and deceptive" and whether restrictions should be placed specifically on the advertising to children of sugared products. Entering into these deliberations will be research and anecdotal evidence and authoritative opinions about the developmental capacity of children to make discerning judgments regarding advertising; the relation between sugar intake and dental caries and obesity; and the potentially disruptive effects of TV commercials on family life.

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