Effect of Television Advertisements on Children susceptibility towards advertised brands by Rabia Khan and Aamir Khan

  Abstract

The paper analyzes the effects of television advertisements on susceptibility of children toward advertised brands. It is concerned about their ability to understand the advertising messages that in turn influence their behavior. These messages induce the intended (by marketers) behavior in the children i.e. influencing their parents. Samples of 300 students from different schools in Islamabad were selected using stratified random sampling to assess behavior of children towards four brands of candies. In this trial, preschool children were examined by offering them four brands of candies to choose from, according to their preferences. Then they were offered to view a videotape of a popular children’s cartoon with commercials. Children were then asked to identify their preferences from pairs of similar products, one of which was advertised in the videotape with embedded commercials. The behavior of children was examined by offering them these brands firstly without seeing that videotape and than after their exposure to that videotape. The children were exposed to the said advertisement for three consecutive weeks to asses the impact of specific advertisement on their susceptibility towards advertised brands. This study concluded that children, as susceptible audience, have the ability to learn and retain advertising information which strongly influences their behavior to choose a particular product. Young children with their limited ability to know about particular use of product are strongly influenced by bright colors, graphics, music and humor of television ads to buy these products.