Child Psychology - The Impact of Advertising on Children (Social) - Asked in 2022 Flashcards
Background;
More varied camerawork was found in adverts aimed at boys compared to those aimed at girls
The boys ads used more over head shots and blurred focus, possibly to make them feel as if they were there in the scene
The ’tilt up’ action was used exclusively in the girls ads: this seems to mimic the action of looking from a subservient position – e.g. looking up to a superior. ‘Tilt down’ shots occurred only in boys ads.
The duration of shots in boy ads were much shorter compared to girl ads.The rapid pace for boy ads echoed masculinity and action.
There are more fades and dissolves in advertisements for girls which fits into the stereotype of girls being gentle.
The boys ads had more sound effects compared to girls. The music in boys were more strident and more instances of rock music. Slap stick music was exclusively used in the ads for mixed audiences.
There were no female voice overs what so ever in ads aimed at boys. There were also more male voice overs on mixed gender ads. There were more female voice overs on ads aimed at girls.
Key Research;
The Key Research by Johnson and Young aimed to investigate whether advertisers script differently for boys and girls. They have used Sample Adverts from children’s networks, cartoons on commercial networks, an independent New England station and Nickelodeon used in 1996, 1997 and 1999 (478 adverts). The procedure went like this: The adverts were classified in one of five product categories (Food, Toys, Educational, Recreation, Video/film promotion, other). Ads for toys
chosen for analysis and used three categories; 1. targeted for boys, 2. targeted for girls and 3. Adverts targeted to both. Analysed to see emphasis placed on gendered voice e.g. voiceovers, verb elements, amount of speaking lines and use of the word power.Results show that Boy- oriented adverts used ‘deep, loud and
aggressive voices’ (80%); girl-oriented adverts used ‘high pitched sing-song voices’. The conclusions that can be drawn from this study are that Gendered language is promoted through ads - children learn stereotypical behaviours promoted by ads and imitate these. Ads use gender stereotypes because previous marketing like this had been successful and more profit made with gender targeted toys.
Applications;
Children should not be seen as consumers, and research has linked the commercialisation of childhood with low self-esteem, unhappiness, bullying and premature sexualisation. Sweden has taken the step of banning all advertising to children. This method assumes by removing the influence, children will then not have the opportunity to be influenced by advertising. But is it realistic to ban children from advertising completely?
Media Smart and Be AdWise:
Programmes that educate children on the effects of advertising. The materials are written and reviewed by a group of experts who are academics and specialists in media literacy. This way children are being educated on the risks that come with false advertising as well as the untruthfulness of it.
