PROPOSAL ON THE EFFECT OF TV ADVERT ON CHILDREN

INTRODUCTION

Television advertisement represents one of the several stimuli to which children are exposed, like other kinds of stimuli existing within their environment. Television advertisement has a powerful tendency to influence children’s behaviour and general way of life, thus study examines the kind of influences or effects advertising on television can have on children.

Seventy-six years ago, in 1928 to be precise, a new dimension in communication and publicity was introduced into the Nigerian commercial and social life by the United African Company [UAC]. This new dimension was advertising. Through its West African publicity, the company was able to execute and implement its advertising objectives in the whole of West Africa with Nigeria as its headquarters.

During this period however, little attention was paid to the impact which advertising had on children, instead emphasis were laid on the eradication of the monopoly posed by foreign advertisement, creation of awareness among the people of the new service and the winning and retention of clientele (Nwosu 1.1987).

Nigeria was not alone in this struggle; even the United States of America has its own share of society of research in this area of study. In this regard, Brown (1976) had noted the in-availability of studies in this field when he pointed out: “surprisingly, little published research exists in this area”. Investigators in America have examined the effects of television programs on children, but they have not been concerned with television advertisement. However, much research in the united state of America has examined the effect of television adverts, but the focus has been on adults rather than children.

Palmer (1980) remarks that the concern over the effects of television advertisement on children can be traced back at least to 1969, when the National Association of Broadcasters in Britain adopted guidelines regulating toy advertisement on television to children. However, only within the past few years has children television emerged as a major national policy issue. Today, the principle that children are a special television audience deserving special protection in terms of advertising has been widely accepted by both industry and government policy makers.

One reason why advertising aimed at children did not emerged as an issue until relatively recently is that for many years, broadcasters did not consider their audience of children viewers as a particularly valuable market for advertisers. For instance, the first major study on American children and television makes only passing mention of advertising.

Other surveys of audience attitudes about effects reported that listeners disliked commercial which used “hard sell” techniques, commercials which interrupted programmes (lazarsfeld and Kendall, 1948). The possible adverse effect of TV advertisement on children was not mentioned as an issue at all. Infact, nowhere in the surveys were children mentioned as a subject of special concern in terms TV advert.

It was only recently that concern over the effects of TV advert on children began to draw the attention of some consumer groups in America, Britain and other advanced countries. Planner (1980) acknowledges that concern over the effects of TV advert on children started as a result of effects by consumer groups, such as Action for children TV (ACT) in 1971 and the council on children, media and merchandising with assistance from the accumulated research evidence on the effects of TV adverts on children

SOURCES OF LITERATURE

Review of relevant will cover two broad areas. First, the review will treat the theoretical framework for this study. Every design or structure must have a base. In this study the base on which other ligaments are tied as the theoretical framework. Its review will show its relevance to the study. In other words, it is the framework on which the work is anchored.

Three theories are selected for this study. One is the social category, two is the individual differences theory and three is the piglet cognitive theory. Their uses and justifications will accompany their review of various concepts that add to make our review of literature a plausible whole. The review of these general concepts are essential in that they help put our study in a current perspective from what has been the dominant view in the mass communication literature.

Some concepts like Advertisements, television media exposure and media effects will be retreated. Others includes stereotype, stimuli, children, the role of the advertising copy writer and the creative director in the making of advert appeals will be briefly discussed. Like most of the social science research, the sources of the literature review for this study ranges from classroom lecture notes to texts in social science generally. However, emphasis has been laid on texts and journals dealing on advert, children and additionally, references are made to ideas gotten from symposia, workshops and other public lecture materials.

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

Early findings and studies in psychology and sociology influenced the development of theories in mass communication, the same is true today. The bullet theory of mass communication was a presupposition based on the mechanistic stimulus response theory, which according to Defleur and Denis 1988 “assumed that a given message reached every eye or ear in the same way and provoke essentially uniform responses”.

Casseta and Asante cussed by the development of the individual differences perspective in analyzing the effect of media messages on the audience. The individual differences perspective was responsible for the death of the bullet theory. The individual theory is predicated on the fact that “individual differences in needs, attitude values, intelligence and other personal factors played key role in shaping peoples behaviour.

The implication of this assumption is that the individual is an active and selective member of the mass media climate in relation to our study. Each human being is a unique pattern of predisposition to mass communication. An individual’s needs, attitude, values, prior beliefs and other connective and emotional states play an important part in screening and selecting media exposure and interpretation. Therefore, the implication of this theory to this study is that there is no collectivist view of the effects of TV advert on children. Every individual’s perception and reactions to TV appeals in relation to children is a function of the experience and predisposition of the individual

                        SOCIAL CATEORY THEORY

The results of scientific on media influence have helped us to understand the various indices responsible for the way people perceive stimulus. One of such result is the social categories theory, this theory further stressed that many kinds of behavior are learned through observation, seeing or having someone else act or behave in a certain way, either in a TV or real life situation can be a very effective form of learning for both children and adults. Thus, the concept of imitation pause key role in most social learning accounts of children/human development.

The effects of TV advert or commercials on children gives more concern when we realize many kinds of behaviour exhibited by children are learned by observation. Bendura (1969) has pointed out the increasing resemblance of children’s social behaviour to that of adult model, parents and TV stars. According to him, “if the child sees that the model is rewarded for his/her actions the child will tend to copy the rewarded behavior”.

In their analysis of the role and importance of imitation, Millers and Dolland (1941) proposed that nurturance from parents become the motivating force for he child’s imitation.

That is, as parents satisfy the need for food, warmth and affection, the parents become associated with the satisfaction of these needs and take on reinforcing properties. Because the parent’s behaviour has become reinforcing the child imitates them.

What is significant in social learning theory however is those theorists give human and knowledge acquired through exposition of stimulus. Such as television and realize situation, central importance in explaining the development of human behaviour. This shows that children who watch adverts on television acquire behaviors associated with such commercials. Wrightet al (1978) have found out that children who devote most of their time watching TV exhibit such characters as reciting off hand jingles associated with adverts and at times acting in synchronization with the adverts actors as they are relayed on television.

OTHER SOURCES

According to Palmer (1980) concerns over the effects of television advert on children can be traced to 1969 when the National Association of Broadcasters adopted guidelines regulating toy advert on TV. Though, advert was introduced into Nigeria in 1928 by the United African Company, (UAC), little attention was paid to the effects of advert on children, instead emphasis was laid on the eradication of monopoly among people and the retention of clientele (Nwosu 1981).

Brown (1976) pointed out that little published research exists in the are of children’s advert because investigators have only examined the effects of TV programmes on children instead of TV advert. Although much researcher has examined the effects of TV advert, the focus has been on adults rather than on children.

Palmer further points out the reason why advert to children did not emerge as an issue until relatively recently is that for many years, broadcasters did not consider the audience of children viewers as a particularly valuable market for advertisers.

However, the trend has changed. Today a lot of TV adverts are focused on children as the target audience. Generally, there are different kinds of adverts such as national, mail order, co-operative, institutional, industrial, professional adverts. There are also other special forms of advert, which are often sponsored by interest groups such as political, religious, educational and cultural adverts. There is a clear understanding that any of these adverts has the ability to address and influence children who watch them on TV.

Individual s, groups of people, countries of the world and international organizations have through advert addressed the needs of children.

Religious groups have been known to make use of adverts and sponsored programmes to fully arouse, develop and maintain the religious inclination of their children.

Thus, in Enugu alone, children’s sponsored religious programmes such as “Tales by moon light” “Children’s Bible club”, “oge umuaka”, etc are aired on weekly basis. Most often, adverts are inserted in between the programmes. Rev. S.K. Uche² of the Baptist church Enugu maintains that “most children’s belief in God. Since the television seems to be him major information medium children get exposed to most often appealing to them through this medium becomes necessary and fruitful.

Whether political, religious, economic or cultural, the area of advert, which has drawn the greatest criticism, according to Libert (1973), is commercial aimed at children. This is because of the negative effects which TV advert does have on children. For instance, Choate (1972) observed “TV today has produced an accelerated deterioration in eating practice in the worlds most wealthy nations. Nutrition is human ecology and TV is a master polluter”. However, Libert et al (1973) in a study conducted in Britain see the effect s of TV commercials on children as a function of attention the child paid to the commercial, how much credence the advertisers in the  message and whether the commercials leads the  children (who have little money to press on their  parents to buy advertised products.

A country-by-country analysis of the studies conducted so far on the effects of the TN on children will throw more light in our understanding of this study. Research has shown that so far studies on the effects of advert in Nigeria are scanty. However, related studies have been found and reviewed, such studies are those that deals with the effects of adverts and children perspective ability.

Of particular importance is the study conducted by Omatayo et al³ (1976). Their study was based on a survey in Ibadan school distinct. Like most other already conducted in the field, theirs centered on the following area of research: child characteristics, interpersonal variables, and characteristics of TV stimuli, the viewing situation and cognitive development. They discovered that to a large extent, all these factors play a role in shaping a child’s understanding and interpretation of a TV advert.

In the US, a number of researches have been conducted into the likely effects of TV commercials on children. Ward et al (1976) at the Harvard Graduate School of business administration have done a number of such studies. Mothers’ serves as observers, recording whether the child attended to the adverts (had his eyes consistently on the screen); whether he liked the adverts and information about the advert itself.

Each mother observed her child’s behaviour during at least 6 and not more than 1 0 one-hour periods spread over 10 days. They found out the following:

1. That most often-watched adverts occurred during children’s TV programmes. They further observed that the toning of adverts should be appropriate if children are to benefit form the adverts. Libert, writing about the effects of TV adverts on children asserts that in 1929, the National Association of Broadcasting (in USA) published a code insisting “commercial announcements, as the term is generally understood, shall not broadcast between 7 and 11 pm”.
2. That “the types of adverts naturally varied with the type of programme so that younger children were more likely to see commercials for food, toys and games while other viewers were more likely to be exposed to advert for personal products”.
3. That “for all children, the advert at the beginning of the programme hells attention best, although children paid less attention to all adverts than to the programme itself.
4. That children’s attention “often falls off when the advert comes in. Among the older children who were engrossed in the programme, which preceded the commercial, barely more than 57% continued to devote their full attention to TV when the advert appeared.

Many researchers believe that children who watch a lot of TV advert learn to rely more on stereotypes of the various groups presented by the media. Libert (1980) maintains that advert aimed particularly at children foster stereotypes, both sexual and racial:  one investigator for example monitored Saturday children’s TV on the advert station in Boston. He found that adverts certainly only male’s out-numbered adverts containing only females by three to one.

Jorgenson (1988) in a study conducted among youths in Enugu went ahead to give support to Libert by pointing out that children who watch a lot of TV adverts not only learn to rely on stereotypes but go ahead to transfer what they have learnt from television having behaviour presented in a TV advert which is watched by a child favours behaviour like drug taking, the child tends to imbibe by the culture of drug taking (Jorgenson 1988).

STATEMENT OF RESEARCH PROBLEM

The problem associated with the effects of TV adverts on children can be social, economic, and psychological. According to Earl and Martins (1977), the social problems associated with it includes, tendency towards drug and violence, imitation of stereotypes seen on TV and a general tendency towards crime. In terms of economic costs, it involves the more money required to deal with its undesirable effects.

Studying the “Incidence of drug abuse among Nigerian youths”, Jorgenson ¹ (1988) found that other long-term problems which TV adverts might have on children and the family at large include shattered homes, wreckage on the child and increased societal lawlessness and crime. Jorgenson further pointed out that such adverts give the child the feeling that whatever is presented in a TV advert is the absolute truth.

OB JECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The study will focus on selected TV adverts with a view to ascertaining the followings:

1. To find out the various reasons why children watch TV adverts.
2. To determine the extent to which the child’s response or practices behaviors acquired from viewing TV adverts.
3. The study also aims at determining the role of TV adverts in the child’s socialization.
4. To know the particular advert that interests the children most in television.
5. To know if children like other adverts apart from TV adverts.