Young children who watch more commercials on television ask for more toys, says a British team.
Karen Pine and Avril Nash at Hertfordshire University found a direct correlation between the number of adverts viewed by children aged three to six in the run-up to Christmas, and the number of presents requested in letters to Father Christmas.
鈥淭he more TV they watch, the more they want,鈥� says Pine.
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However, they also found that children do not recall brand names. Pine says: 鈥淣early 90 per cent of toys advertised during this time were not asked for by name once.鈥� Barbie and Action Man were the only exceptions.
Hidden meaning
Pine thinks children under eight do not understand the purpose of advertising. 鈥淭hey think adverts are public information messages 鈥� or there as entertainment between the programmes,鈥� she says.
Half of all primary age children in the UK have their own TVs, says Pine. She thinks young children should be educated to understand the purpose of adverts. 鈥淲hen they know the motivation behind the advertising 鈥� to make profits for the company 鈥� they can watch adverts more critically,鈥� she says.
Pine and Nash looked at letters to Father Christmas written by 99 children in Britain, and 19 in Sweden, where TV adverts aimed at children under 12 are banned. They also interviewed the British children to estimate how many adverts they viewed between mid-October and the end of November 1999.
The Swedish children asked for the least number of presents. And the number of requests in the letters written by British children was linked to the number of hours of commercial TV they watched. On average, children asked for three or four gifts.
Mummy鈥檚 watching
鈥淭he fact that brand names weren鈥檛 recalled is reassuring,鈥� says Pine. 鈥淚t suggests that guidelines in place in the UK that restrict claims in adverts aimed at children, and the number of adverts, may be effective.
鈥淏ut because children under seven do not remember the brand names of products on TV doesn鈥檛 mean they aren鈥檛 influenced by adverts.鈥�
It also appears that the presence of an adult plays a crucial role in the effect of adverts on young children. Children who watched TV with a grown-up asked for significantly fewer presents.
This research was presented at the British Psychological Society鈥檚 Centenary Conference in Glasgow, UK.
