Marketing Communications

UNETHICAL MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS PRACTICES 569

Disguising promotions as entertainment makes it harder for children to deploy defence

mechanisms. Th is new evolution is an ethical issue because it is potentially misleading by

concealing the true nature of the materials and omitting to disclose its commercial intent.^70

Children have not yet developed sensitivity to this type of promotional tool and they are

more susceptible to placements than adults. A study in Canada and the USA revealed that

parents in both countries consider the explicit plot-connected placement of ethically charged

products such as alcohol, tobacco and fast food as the most unethical, and believe it should

be subject to more regulation.^71

Advertising to children has long had a bad reputation and parents are concerned about it.^72 Burr and Burr^73

have already reported that parents had strong doubts about the honesty of advertising to children and that they

displayed a strong degree of cynicism about TV advertising to children and its apparently misleading aspects.

TV advertising has been described as manipulative, promoting materialism, stifling creativity and disrupting

parent–child relationships.^74 Burr and Burr^75 state that some abuses of advertising are perceived to be unique to

child-centred advertising: it manipulates the child, imposes stress and strain on low-income parents, and arouses

desires which would not otherwise be salient. A particularly negative potential effect of children’s advertising is the

‘pester power’ or ‘nag factor’.^76 This means that ‘advertising encourages children to nag their parents into some-

thing that is not good for them, they don’t need or the parent cannot afford’.^77 Although in one study 86% of parents

say they do not concede to children’s demands,^78 it may be a major factor in conflicts between parents and children

caused by advertising.

Many food ads in children’s programmes are perceived to promote unhealthy products (containing too much

sugar, fat or salt). The amount of advertising to which children are exposed has the potential to influence children’s

health attitudes and behaviours.^79 Therefore, besides children’s advertising in general, many parents also have

negative attitudes towards food advertising in particular. Positive nutritional tendencies lead to objections to TV

food advertising aimed at children and, for instance, Chan and McNeal^80 concluded that Chinese parents held

negative attitudes towards TV advertising in general and children’s advertising, and food advertising to children in

particular, because, according to them, it encourages bad eating habits.

A particular reason for parental concern is that children are regarded as vulnerable and as not having the cogni-

tive abilities to understand advertising, as well as not being mature enough to make choices that affect them or their

health.^81 Although it is widely accepted that children of five can understand the difference between a programme

and an ad and that, from eight years onwards, they also understand the commercial intent of advertising,^82 this does

not mean they are not influenced by advertising, just like anyone else, and it certainly does not mean that parents

feel the same way.

These perceived negative characteristics of children’s (food) advertising may only worry parents in so far as they

perceive that this advertising has an influence on children. In one study, obese children recognised more of the food

ads, and there was also a correlation with the amount of food eaten after exposure to ads. The author concluded

that exposure to food ads promoted consumption.^83 Others claim that advertising is aimed at brand sales, not

category sales, and category sales are mostly established long before exposure to ads.^84 Furthermore, 90% of the

food is bought by parents, so they control the diet.^85 This leads Young to conclude that ‘the route from advertising

to obesity is a long and tortuous one’.^86 Although the link between food advertising, eating habits and obesity is

unclear, a lot of it promotes (unhealthy) food products, is claimed to blur the line between diet and nutrition,^87 and

is perceived to have the potential to influence children’s health attitudes and behaviours.^88 To what extent does this

worry parents? Grossbart and Crosby^89 found conflicting evidence on parents’ perception of the influence of TV

advertising on their children. And 20 years later, a UK study involving 1530 parents also concluded that parents

RESEARCH INSIGHT

Parental views about advertising to children

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