Advertising effects on children's buying habits in the U.S.

Gregg, Janie R. ; Gordon, Peter J.

INTRODUCTION

Today's Americans spend in excess of $150 billion dollars every year on babies and children (Cardona & Cueno, 2000). Children age 4 to 12 control some $9 billion dollars of their own money and have a vote in how parents spend their disposable income on hundreds of products such as cars, computer and video equipment, and vacations (Moore, 1990). The juvenile furniture business alone, grew from $2 billion in 1995 to $4.5 billion in 1999 (Cardona & Cueno, 2000), so it is no wonder that advertisers are racing to attract children to their corner and keep them buying their brands. In this paper the child as a consumer is first analyzed, along with their buying habits, likes and dislikes. Then the discussion turns toward the ways marketing firms have geared-up to capture their attention. Finally, the effects (mostly negative) of television advertising on children are explored and some strategies that parents might use to derail them are offered.

THE BUYING FADS OF CHILDREN IN THE U.S.

Researchers at the Child and Family Lab at the University of Texas at Austin have determined that children begin showing brand preferences around 23 months (Pope, 1993). Moore and Lutz (2000) found that younger children are more actively involved in advertisements and their recall of ad content is significantly higher than older children. Children are exposed almost from birth to advertising to the degree that before they can form a complete sentence, they can recognize a McDonald's when they pass by one, or see an advertisement on television. The brand-conscious children of today no longer wear hand-me down clothes and ask for a bicycle for Christmas. They want their own cellular phones and pagers, designer jeans (preferably from Gap or by Levi), costly kid-club t-shirts, hot video games (Sony's Playstation 2, Sega and Nintendo), shoes that pump up their image (Reebok pumps), and flashy Rayban sunglasses, all to help them fit in with the "cool" crowd at school.

The Importance of "Fitting In"

For children age six to 13, "fitting in" is of utmost importance to their mental growth and "at this level, peer pressure is so intense it's stronger than family, stronger even than their own internal smarts" (Pope, A5). Children pay particular attention to what their friends are wearing, what products their friends and their family consume, where friends spend their leisure and vacation time, and even what kind of car their peers arrive at school in. At the ripe old age of eight, children begin to place specific demands on family purchases of all kinds, influenced by what they think is cool and through peer pressure (Cardona & Cueno, 2000). Many children would not think of wearing a pair of jeans, or buying a video game that was not endorsed by their peers. The Wall Street Journal cited a study which indicated that around 70% of adults buy private-label store brands, but only 7% of their children would consider the stuff. Children also do not want sale items because they are viewed as unpopular products that stores just want to get rid of. Brands give children a form of identity that allows them to be part of the group, and non-brands are suspect. (Pope, 1993)

The Costs of "Fitting In"

These high-demand products do not come without a huge price tag. US toy retailers posted a record, $28 billion sales year in 1997, not counting an extra $5 billion spent on video games, which are accounted for separately (Hinger, 2000). This industry has grown significantly since 1993 when spending on toys for the six to thirteen age group for the1993 Christmas season was projected to hit $10 billion. That was another record-setting year for an industry that had not hit a slump in 30 years (Pope, 1993). Children fund part of their purchases through allowances, which are four times higher than they were ten years ago (Cardona & Cueno, 2000), but parents and grandparents foot the major portion of the bill. Even though household income had somewhat stagnated from 1983 to 1993, spending on children had grown some 20% per year over the same period (Pope, 1993), reaching nearly 2% of the entire U.S. economy (Newcomb, 1990).

Many parents openly admit that they over-extend their budgets to purchase the "cool" toys that their children are demanding, especially around the Christmas holidays and on their birthdays. This trend toward overspending may have been brought about by three different yet sometimes overlapping types of parents: (1) parents who feel that they do not spend the quantity of time needed to properly raise their children, so they lavish their children with expensive gifts to dull their own guilt; (2) by the old "race-with-the-Joneses" type parents who do not want the children of their own peers to have more "gadgets" than their own children; and (3) those parents who just want their children to have much more of everything life has to offer than they had as children. Older parents and younger professionals are getting their finances in order and waiting longer to have children. This has led to their ability to spend more on their children (Cardona & Cuneo, 2000). Whatever the cause, the spending on these high-cost, highly demanded products is not slowing down and marketers are taking advantage of the chance to rake in the profits.

GOODS AIMED AT KIDS

Parents can remember advertisements for decoder rings, Keds, and Mickey Mouse Club ears, but children today have more sophisticated merchandise and advertisements aimed at them. Kids in the U.S. without a TV in their bedroom with DVD/VCR, a computer with internet access from home and school, and a video game player with several games just cannot make it to the top of the peer chart. Products that were originally marketed to adults are now being directed toward children through flashy advertisements and kid-style, eye-catching packaging. Some of the most popular goods directed at children are toiletries, clothing, food , electronics, movies and music, and they all use cross-marketing efforts to increase their impact (Hinger, 2000).

Toiletries

Although children under 12 rarely need deodorant, it and similar "grown-up" products form a big business because advertisers have attached kids' self-esteem to their products. Bert Sherm Products, Inc. has a deodorant for kids called "Fun'n Fresh" that comes in cool-spice scent for boys and rose petal for girls, and is directed towards children as young as seven years. Firms such as Revlon, Crabtree and Evelyn, Avon and William & Clarissa have lines with milk baths, hair mousse, herbal lotions, and perfumes for boys and girls from infants to teens. Many of these products are cross-marketing with characters from their favorite cartoons or movies. Retailers are also getting in on the action by installing health and beauty aids sections for children with the plan to keep them as customers when they are over 12. They also utilize the lower sections of many other isles to push products right into kids' faces and Mom and Dad's pockets. Children tend to think of the products as a necessity since all the cool kids have them, and are rarely found at school without their sweet or spicy smells lingering through a ginger game of kickball (Moore, 1990)!

Clothing

As mentioned earlier, children identify with clothing and seek out the most expensive brands to give them bragging rights. Companies such as L. L. Bean, Gap, Espirit, Land's End, and Eddie Bauer (to name a few) have "miniversions" of their fashion lines. Land's End's kids-only catalog has Oxford shirts for the four-year-old crowd that compare to the ones that Dad wears, and run around the same price. Any parent who has purchased a pair of designer jeans lately knows that children's jeans cost roughly as much as adults, even if they are only a size 2 toddler. High-top Reeboks that pump air around the ankles "for more support", Air Nikes, Mitre and Adidas are popular brands among children involved in sport activities.

Today, at the turn of the new millennium, clothing companies, such as Eddie Bauer, Fubu, Tommy Hilfiger and Nautica launched lines aimed only a children and not scaled versions of adult clothing via new e-commerce stores. Eddie Bauer tried the scaled version of Mom and Dad's clothing but found it to be unsuccessful. Their new line offered to children includes clothing that kids think is cooler, such as flare jeans with fringe, velvet trim and embroidery; and backpacks, baseball caps and redesigned footwear. EddiebauerKids.com will be marketed via a 2-page spread in Disney Magazine, Family PC, Family Fun, and Working Mother. The site will also be promoted in Eddie Bauer's catalog, in-store, and via online banner ads. (Cardona & Cuneo, 2000)

With all their fashion garb in tact, it is not unusual for a child to go off to school on a cold morning wearing hundreds of dollars worth of clothing, counting the designer/superhero underwear and other accessories. This trend toward dressing children on the expensive side led to the release of a national commercial in 1992 launched at parents. This commercial showed a child dressed in very expensive clothing listening to a CD player. The child was shown to be a potential target of drug dealers who would steal the child's clothes and sell them for drug money. It ended with a warning not to dress your child so as to become a target for a ripoff or a possible life-threatening attack. Certainly what was true in 1992 is even more true today.

Food

With children helping make more decisions on the foods that are purchased at the supermarket, food manufacturers are vying for a portion of the economic action. They are particularly interested in brand recognition by latchkey children, with product lines such as Banquet's Kid Cuisine, Tyson's Looney Tunes, and Healthy Choice for Kids in easy to microwave packaging. McCain Ellio simply repackaged its failing line of frozen pizza into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles boxes and doubled its sales. They are pushed as being more nutritionally balanced and filling than hotdogs and chips. (Moore, 1990)

Pasta is another big hit with kids and can now be purchased in all sorts of shapes and sizes to fit a child's taste, be it monsters, teddy bears, dinosaurs, o's, sharks, or whatever current cartoon or movie character is most popular. Candy, which has always been a favorite of children, is given catchy names and loud colors to attract their attention, such as neon-colored "Nerds". Critics of such marketing to kids argue that advertising these food and candy products, as well as fast-food industry products, has led to the overwhelming and alarming rate of obesity in children (Linnett, 2000).

There is an observable trend among adults to eat in a more healthy manner. As parents become more health-conscious, so should their children. In addition, scrutiny by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) may encourage food manufacturers to promote "healthy" products to children. The trend toward consuming more fat-free products has caused children to accept these items, and they carry them to school for snacks and to share with their friends. Changing the packaging to appeal to children could boost sales and help children become more health-conscious. To some extent, the dry breakfast cereal industry has already taken the lead toward health-conscious kids. Many cereals which are advertised to kids already brag of having low or no fat, being low in cholesterol, low in sugar or carry claims of reduced salt, and high natural fiber.

Electronics

Children are not that intrigued by radio/cassette player Walkmans, tape recorders, and clock radios any more, not even the kindergarten set. Computers, radio/CD players, DVD's and video games are the essential electronic wonders. And, portable telephones and pagers are catching on with children of all ages in many areas of the world. Electronic gadget makers have turned out some new toys that are taking the top of the want list for children this Christmas. They include such interesting things as: PooChi, a robotic dog; Interactive Pikachu, the Pokemon character, which remembers your child's voice and only responds to it; M'E mail, an electronic address book with horoscope, a to-do-list function and secret messaging powers; e-fortunes, an electronic fortune cookie that comes in three 'flavors': fortune, horoscope and psychic; and Talkin'acha, a communication tool that allows children to write a message and zap it to a friend through the air or via a coded disk (AOL.com, 2000). According to several teachers, these new forms of communication are very desirable to children because they have created a new edge in the world of cheating in class. A local third-grade teacher declares that she has to clean out the pockets of all the students and pile up the gadgets on her desk each morning before class. So many children had the same wrong answers on tests that it triggered her curiosity. What she found was astonishing: several of these 9-year-old students were sending electronic messages during class (Strong, 2000).

Computers and the internet have become a necessity for every home that can possibly afford it over the past 5 years. "Some 12 million children, about 25% of kids ages 2 to 12, already are online" and this number is expected to grow by 20 million in the next two years (Thompson, 2000). This upsurge in internet use by children has caused a "feeding frenzy" for cereal marketing companies because of their recent sagging sales. Some cereal retailers believe that kids are more actively engaged in internet activity today than in any other media form, and these companies have gone headstrong into website creation business to capture the kid market. However, cereal makers are not the only industry to create websites geared at children. There seems to be a website for every imaginable thing that a child's heart could desire. Even computer companies are jumping in on the action. Gateway has created computers to target all ages, including the very young. Gateway's Blue's Clues computer is a take-off from the popular Fox channel Blues Clues cartoon that has reached enormous popularity among children 8 and under.

Each electronic gadget has its place in every kid's life, but without a doubt, video games are one of the hottest. In 1997, over $5 billion worth of games were sold, and that does not include the costs of the machines that play them (Hinger, 2000). Whether kids play them at home on their own personal machines or at the arcade while Mom shops or gambles at the casino, these manufacturers are gobbling up the profits. Sheff (1993) traces the incredible penetration of Japanese-made video gaming industry right into the American homes. Sheff refers to Nintendo as the "Trojan Horse" that has been smuggled into American living rooms by our children. Even though the original Japanese version of Nintendo bombed on its introduction, the company quickly revamped a "simpler" version that was accepted by the U.S. market, the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). Next came their Super NES. As competition heats up with Sega, Sony Playstation 2, and with the Phillips CDI machine all competing with Nintendo for video-game dominance, more advanced games, which render previous versions "obsolete", are imminent. This year, AOL's comparison of video games most wanted for this Christmas 2000 season indicated that Sony's Playstation 2 was the preferred unit because of its incredible 3-D effects and wrap-around sound (AOL.com, 2000).

Children are not necessarily tied to the home or arcade to play video games. Game makers have portable models such as Nintendo's Gameboy, and Sega's GameGear, that children can carry along on trips, or just down to the soccer field. Many of the same games offered for the home and arcade models are also offered for these hand-held models, and children have the same game for both machines. Advertisements for Gameboy are not directed only at children, either. Businessmen who travel extensively are also being targeted. Nintendo is running commercials that show businessmen playing Gameboy at the airport and on the airplane, and they are also selling travel guide programs run on the Gameboy of major cities in the U.S., and programs that translate Spanish, Italian, and French.

Companies other than video game manufacturers want in on the profits. Pepsi is one company that has tried to hone in on some of the video game action by buying an advertisement on the video game "Magic Johnson's Fast Break." Licensing and cross-selling have also become big business, and have made Nintendo one of the three biggest licensors of children's products in the U.S. (Consumer Reports, 1990).

Movies and Music

Home movies are a hit with children and parents, as well as marketers. Parents will purchase movies for children (especially the younger ones) rather than for themselves, because children will watch them as many as 100 times and never get tired of them (Newcomb, 130). Most often, these movies are filled with advertisements for other products that children collect, or food and beverage products, and sometimes alcohol and cigarettes. As Hinger (2000) notes, "..the key to a child's heart is-let's face it-cross marketing. Toy production and marketing are regularly integrated with Hollywood movies and TV programs such as Batman, Star Wars ..and any Walt Disney flick" (p2). Toy makers are not the only companies vying for part of the profits. Kellogg's designed a new box, created two kid-friendly websites which have their addresses printed on the inside and outside of the cereal box, set up a sweepstakes worth around $50,000, and developed an new green colored Cheerios to help market the new movie, The Grinch. This is not new. Burger King and Pepsi advertised in "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"; Phillip Morris paid $42,500 to place Marlboro cigarettes in "Superman II", and they also showed up in "Crocodile Dundee" and Miller beer was in "Back To the Future II" (Consumer Reports, 1990). Any viewer will remember what candy "ET" preferred, one of the most successful product placements. So, no doubt, will the executives of M&M Mars, who rejected the opportunity, which Reese's later accepted.

Music is popular with children of all ages and cross-marketing has greatly infiltrated this industry to incorporate music, videos and toys. Manufacturers of music for very young children have found that children do not require the highest quality sound nor the big-name musicians. They just want the music from their kid movies such as Snow White, a very old Walt Disney movie which has been popular with younger children for more than 30 years. This reduces the cost to about one-tenth of what a major rock'n'roll artist would demand to make a recording. Such cassettes and CD's sell very rapidly, leaving a wide margin for profits. (Newcomb, 1990)

However, the trend in music costs for older children (12 and older) is greatly reversed, since they are looking for music with more of a grown-up overtone. An example of the advantages of cross-marketing music and clothing came in 1993. A group called KrissKross, two very young rappers from Atlanta, caught the imagination of the under-12 music supporters. KrissKross also started a fad called "sagging," wearing your pants backwards and pushing the waist down to about three inches above the top of the thigh. Kids all over the U.S. were rushing to buy their recordings, and to buy the kind of clothes to dress in their hip, inner-city-looking styles--wildly colored baggy pants, T-shirts, and caps--much like those sold by "Threads 4 Life", a Los Angeles-based firm that sells about 40% of its clothing to blacks. The rest are sold mostly to younger teens who thought it is cool to mimic the black culture (Dumaine, 1994).

Some of the music directed at children 12 and older is more likely to contain violent content and has come under great scrutiny in the last ten years. Also under scrutiny are violent video games and movies, and internet advertising (Gilbert, 2000) and pornography (Garrett, 2000).

Although marketing to children encompasses all forms of media, television remains the most influential way to promote products to children. It is through television advertising that children are often directed to the other promotional forms. Television remains the major source of product information for children.

TELEVISION AND ITS IMPACT ON CHILDREN'S BUYING HABITS

How do manufacturers get their messages out to children about current and new products? Television advertising is the number one source of information about new products; and most children would not consider purchasing a product that was not highly advertised on television (Pope, 1993). Because of the large number of children and the amount of money they control, advertising for children's TV has become big business. Advance sales of ad time for children's TV was nearly $450 million in 1990, up almost 15% from 1989. The marketing mantra for the 90's has been "You gotta get 'em young." (Moore, 1990, p.73), and that way of thinking will no doubt continue in the 21st century since U.S. birth rates are now nearly 4 million annually, which compares to the yearly growth rate at the height of the baby boom after World War II (Cardona & Cuneo, 2000). Marketing agencies for all types of products are targeting children through TV advertisements in hopes that the brand decisions children make today will be carried into adulthood (Cardone & Cuneo, 2000).

Since television has such a massive presence, public concern has understandably focused on the possible negative impact of television advertising on children. Equal focus has been given to the violent content of many of the video games, movies, and explicit internet advertisements. With a general awareness that juvenile crime has increased (Rosenblatt et. al., 2000), there exists the question of whether these media forms have added to violent crimes in youth. In the last year this awareness has heightened in the aftermath of the massacre at Columbine and other high schools around the country. President Clinton called for an investigation into the violent content of these media forms which many believe have caused an increase in violent crimes among teenagers. In response to Clinton's mandate, on September 11, 2000 the FTC issued a report stating that the film, music and video game industries are "..inappropriately advertising R- and PG-13 rated movies, games and CD's to children" (Bachman, 2000, p. 7). A Senate Commerce Committee conducted a hearing on the FTC's report, and the FCC followed with a "flurry of complicated actions and proposals aimed at extending the children's programming obligations of TV broadcasters" (Bachman, 2000, p.7). Once again television advertising, its various potentially negative effects on children, and rules and regulations in place to combat these problems have been placed in the limelight. To place television's impact on children in perspective, children's viewing habits must first be examined.

Children's Viewing Habits

How much. The average child under 12 spends approximately 25-27 hours per week watching television and viewing some 20,000 commercials in a single year (Moore & Lutz, 2000). By the time a child is 18 years old, he/she has seen an average of 15,000 to 22,000 hours of TV and may have been exposed to as many as 350,000 commercial messages (Adler et. al., 1980). These commercials may be directed either toward children or adults, but their ultimate intent is to sell a product. Many of those hours spent in front of the TV are filled with the adventures of animated merchandise - Gummi Bears, Pokemon, Power Rangers, and DinoZaurs. Many are little more than program-length commercials. (Zoglin, 1992)

When. The after-school hours and weekend mornings, especially Saturday mornings, are the major viewing times for children, referred to as the "children's television hours." However, the weekend daytime hours from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. account for only 13 % of the total weekly television viewing time for children ages 2 to 11 (Adler et .al., 1980). Another way to measure children's viewing is in terms of the average number of children in the television audience over the course of a day. In general, the number of children watching television increases rapidly during the course of the early hours, then decreases during the late morning and early afternoon (Adler et. al., 1980). The number begins to increase again in mid-afternoon until about 5:30 p.m., when it falls off temporarily and the child audience then continues to rise to a peak at about 8:00 p.m. (Adler et al., 1980).

Potentially, television can have a major influence on children's development, and because of their innocence, young children are susceptible to TV advertising (Seligman, 1990; Moore & Lutz, 2000). Thus, the content of the messages, the possibly deceptive nature of messages and the people that determine what the messages entail are all areas of interest to parents and educators.

Content of the Message

The language is utilized, the people chosen for commercials, and how commercials geared toward children are constructed in total are subjects of much controversy. Advertisers know the best way to convince children to purchase their products is to hire someone the children like and want to emulate to be a spokesperson for their product; CocaCola had New Kids On The Block, Pepsi had Kirk Cameron and Fred Savage, and Nike had Bo Jackson, "Magic" Johnson, and more recently, Michael Jordan. The use of celebrities in advertisements, which generally appear on shows with large children's audiences, encourage children to want a product for the status appeal. Nike and Reebok advertise more during cartoons and music videos than sporting events. (Consumer Reports, 1990)

The shortage of funding for education makes the classroom a target for advertisers via school-based TV programming, and teachers looking for supplemental materials generally welcome free materials from them. Educational materials may be provided by McDonald's, Nutrasweet, Polaroid, Chef Boyardee, and even Philip Morris (Tsui, 2000) and the Army (Witt, 2000). The content of their messages have come under scrutiny. Because children have been taught to trust educational materials, the advertising messages entrenched in the lessons are considered by them to be fact. Nutrasweet, for example, encourages the use of its artificial sweetener for weight control, but fails to warn of the dangers it poses to some people, particularly to children (Consumer Reports, 1990). Philip Morris is supposedly promoting anti-smoking efforts with the line "Reflect confidence--think, don't smoke," but critics see the company as a wolf in sheep's clothing, using this sort of advertising to reach an even younger market (Tsui, 2000).

A major problem with content of messages results because the majority of children watch TV during prime time when advertisements are primarily targeted toward adults. While watching a typical 7:00 p.m. program aimed at families, children may be subjected to commercials about R-rated films containing sex and violence, or to commercials about products such as tampons and condoms that are directed at adults. The practice of combining family viewing with these type advertisements is perfectly legal since federal law is silent on the matter as long as the ad is not "'indecent', meaning it contains obscene language or 'patently offensive' sexual or excretory content" (Silver, 1993, p. 65). The commercials can actually be more damaging than the programming in which they are imbedded, because in the programs, the good guys usually win, but on the movie promo's, for example, the violence is shown without the resolution (Silver, 1993).

Deception in the Message

"Advertisers, regulators, and critics are agreed in principle that children are special and that those who approach them as potential customers must seek to be honest and fair" (McNeal, 1987, p. 72). Young children, in particular, are very open-minded and gullible and tend to believe whatever they see on television. For example, a recent commercial advertising underwear to children showed a small boy pulling on a pair of super-hero briefs. As they came up his body, he turned into the super-hero, which gave small children the idea that they, too, would become a superhero if they put them on. In one area of the country, mothers demanded that the local station remove the advertisement because it was so deceptive.

Advertising which is neither unfair or deceptive when viewed by adults, may be both in the case of young children, who are more naive and less capable of comprehending the influence which advertising can have over them. This makes commercials shown during mixed audience viewing times particularly difficult to evaluate and even more difficult to fairly regulate.

There are at least five ways that advertisements targeted to children have the potential to be deceptive:

1. They may use celebrity presenters, which can exploit the children's trust in authority figures.

2. They may present products such as candy bars, toys, and hamburgers, without reference to a quality scale which may exploit children's limited perception skills.

3. They may focus on premiums rather than the product, which may cause children to use the wrong standards for assessing the product.

4. They may use adult terminology and contrived terms, which take advantage of children's limited knowledge.

5. They may make use of emotional terms and/or intense sounds or colors, which may exploit children's gullibility. (McNeal, 1987, p. 73)

Some advertisers and consumers feel that it is feasible to ignore deception because advertising is a First Amendment right. Pretests of advertisements against an ethical set of standards have been suggested as a remedy. These could determine the impact the commercial will have before it actually occurs, and thus prevent it. (McNeal, 1987, Advertising Age, 2000) However, the impact is likely to be different on children in different stages of development. What may be determined to have an adverse impact on a five year old, may have no negative impact on a 10 year old. This makes the proposed remedy of pretests difficult to administer.

Who Determines the Message

Today, the most powerful regulator of television advertising is the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), but until the last few years they have not promulgated much in the way of restrictions. What the messages say and how they say them usually depends on the motives and ethics of the advertisers. The amount of time for advertising on children's programs and the number and length of time the advertisements ultimately falls upon the broadcasters. The major television networks such as ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC are definitely in a position to decide if a children's advertisement is appropriate enough to air, but they rarely exercise this responsibility (Tsui, 2000; Durchslag, 2000; Bachman, 2000; Teinowitz, 2000; Advertising Age, 2000; McNeal, 1987).

REGULATION OF CHILDREN'S TELEVISION ADVERTISING

As young children may not have the capacity to make informed decisions about products, and often their minds are made up as soon as they see a commercial, critics argue that stiffer regulations need to be placed on advertisements directed at children. Parents are constantly bombarded with tremendous pressure from their children to purchase products that they have seen on television, and often face tremendous tension that are detrimental to family harmony (Linnett, 2000; Moore & Lutz, 2000; Carlsson-Paige & Levin, 1989). This pressure can be greatly enhanced in lower income and some middle income families who carry a large financial burden. Children who are faced with peers chiding them for not having particular popular items and television advertising can only accelerate these tensions.

Because of the efforts of Peggy Charren, the founder and head of an activist group called Action for Children's Television, commercials are not as manipulative as before, and the hosts of kids shows cannot push products to young viewers. Charren is also responsible for helping to lobby for the passage of the 1990 Children's Television Act. The act sets limits on advertising on children's programming and requires stations to offer some educational programs for kids. The limits are twelve minutes an hour on weekdays and 10 1/2 minutes an hour on weekends (Zoglin, 1992). Time Magazine (June 20, 1992) reported that these ceilings on advertising directed toward children are higher than what the networks currently run, and probably won't solve all the problems with children's advertising (Zoglin, 1992). Under the act, the FCC is also required to evaluate the quality of children's programs when deciding whether to renew a station's license (Seligman, 1990). The new release by the FTC, as mentioned above, has brought their media regulating power to the forefront, and has called for revamping of these FCC regulations, and for TV to follow these regulations more closely (Bachman, 2000).

The potential for "abuse" by advertisers was perceived to be so great that the British government's Parliamentary Committee on the Future of Broadcasting recommended that "no advertisements should be shown in children's programs". Similar proposals have emerged in Canada and Australia. This presents some real dilemmas in the U.S. context. Since U.S. television, unlike the British BBC, is virtually totally supported by advertising revenues, it is difficult to see how networks can be expected to produce quality children's programming when it will generate no revenue. Eliminating advertising during children's programming may see a significant reduction in quality and selection. An alternative to prohibition, is to impose standards and limitations.

Should limitations apply by time or audience? Should all advertisements shown before, say 8:00 p.m., be subject to review and possibly regulation, or should it only apply to advertisements shown during programs which have a majority children audience? If there is restricted revenue from showing children's programming, then adult programming during these times may make better financial sense for the networks. Are these networks going to be allowed to abandon children's programming or are they going to be forced to show programs directed at children?

Another problem is caused by substantial overlapping viewer ship periods, when both adults and children may be watching the same programming. Early evening, for example, is not a time of exclusively child viewing. Should advertising shown at any time a large number of children may be watching come under some special guidelines? This would then infringe upon the "free speech" rights of adults who are watching at the same time.

Finally, the question of who should be regulated would have to be asked of any proposed action. Should "rules" apply to only "over the air" broadcasters? Should it also apply to advertising revenue based cable and satellite channels? Would this mean that adult oriented channels, such as the Playboy channel would now have to regulate their advertising during specified hours? Or maybe even force the Playboy channel to produce children's show? As can be seen, it is very easy to see problems that ensue from regulatory relief.

TELEVISION VIEWING STRATEGIES FOR PARENTS

Various advocacy groups have identified ways in which parents may mitigate the potentially adverse effects of exposure to television advertising. It has been suggested that there are three effective strategies that parents can utilize when taking control of television advertising to their children. First, parents can talk to their children about what they view on television. Parents can watch television with their children and answer questions about items their children are interested in, and help them to see through the marketing hype behind many products. Even young children can be taught to see beyond the camera trickery that often leads them to desire many of the products that are let-downs when they get their hands on them. Kids can also be taught that phrases like "parts sold separately", batteries not included", or "some assembly required" means what you see is not what you get. Often a trip to the toy store to examine products in their unassembled state can change the opinions of children (Sussman, 1990). Talking with children about the hazards of always following the crowd can also change more than their consuming habits.

There is a video offered by Consumer's Union available in most libraries, "Buy Me That: A Kids' Survival Guide to TV Advertising" that exposes many of the TV commercial tricks of advertising in terms that kids can understand. This video can open their eyes to possible deceptive advertising, and teach them to be wary of products that do not carry quality measures. Consumer's Union also has a bi-monthly magazine for kids, Zillions, that can boost their consumer awareness. Kids rate a wide variety of products and comment on issues including brand loyalty, environmental protection and personal hygiene. It is all written in "kid-lingo" and gives them straight-talk to which are more likely to listen. (Sussman, 1990)

The second strategy is for parents to limit the amount of time that children watch the television each day (and/or stay connected to the internet). They can provide other sources of entertainment and more family outings that take them away from areas where television and other type advertising are available. A daily trip to the park for family exercise after school and involvement in sports such as soccer work can eliminate stress, bring parents and children closer together, and lessen the exposure to television. Unfortunately in today's two income families, daily park time is not a very realistic alternative. Sporting involvement can be useful, but only to the extent that the child derives enjoyment from such pursuits. A child "forced" to play sport may be more harmed by the experience than they would have been from watching TV.

The third strategy is for parents to get involved in the removal of television advertisements that they feel are not suitable for children. Parents concerned with particular advertisements messages, their content, length and/or duration should contact their local station or the FCC for more information. Sometimes one disgruntled parent can change what a local station runs and when it is aired. Parents can help the FCC better enforce the rules of the 1990 Children's Television Act by serving as a watchdog over the television stations in their viewing area. They can write to their representatives at the local, state and national level and ask for legislation to help protect children from deceptive, or overly aggressive advertisers. And they can monitor the free advertisement materials that educators give to their children, and explain possible negative/positive connotations. Unfortunately, what one parent may consider "inappropriate", another parent may see as an infringement of their children's rights. Overzealous parents registering a multitude of complaints with the FCC could lead to a many undesirable consequences.

CONCLUSION

Children age 4 to 12 comprise a major market for a wide variety of products, and marketers are out to grasp their share of the action. These kids may very well be over-informed by peers, television, and other forms of advertisement. They know what they "want", but are not always able to make quality decisions about products, especially when aggressive advertisers are involved.

Parents should help children make good buying decisions that fit into the family budget, and allow the kids to "fit in" with their peers. Somewhat simplistically, what parents need to do is get involved, mostly with their children. They need to be observant of what they are watching on television, spend time with them watching television, limit their viewing time, get them out of the house more often on family outings, and get involved in making television better entertainment for children. However, such an active role may be difficult in many cases. This then leads to the option for legislative intervention. While almost everyone may agree that some rules are appropriate, agreeing on what these rules should be a far more difficult task.

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Janie R. Gregg, Mississippi University for Women

Peter J. Gordon, Southeast Missouri State University