Children's Attitudes to Television Advertisements: A Factorial Perspective

Summary This study assesses children's attitudes to television advertisements. Five hundred and forty-five middle-class white boys and girls (average age = 10.67 years) completed a 28-item scale after viewing a TV commercial; initial analysis resulted in one item being omitted. Factor analysis of the remaining 27 items yielded two interpretable factors, labelled Entertainment and Irritation-Boredom. Two issues emerge: First, children's and adult's attitudes to TV advertisements differ somewhat. Second, children view television advertisements almost entirely in terms of their entertainment function. This has important ethical implications. Children's purchase behavior may not be manipulated by such advertisements because (a) their perception of these advertisements may not be consistent with the advertisers' primary intentions and (b) children are less entertained and more irritated and bored with such advertisements as they grow older.