• Quiz
• This topic is "Unplug Your Kids," a video tool to help parent educators and community groups teach parents, caregivers and educators about responsible media habits. This activity focuses on the teaching power of television advertising. Click here for more information about "Unplug Your Kids®."
• For further information, also see our Fact Sheets: Children and Advertising and Children Advertising and Gender Roles.

The goal of this activity is to help facilitators raise the awareness of parents and other caregivers about the messages taught through television advertising, and the impact of those messages on our attitudes, values and behaviors. The activity provides parents and caregivers an opportunity to identify the messages relayed through advertising and compare them to the messages they want relayed to their children. The group will also explore methods advertisers use to "get our attention." The group then watches videotaped prime-time television advertising, examining specific ads and learning how to become more critical viewers.

1 1/2 to 2 hours

Flip chart
Marker
TV
VCR
Handout - What Ads Say, What They Mean

Even though only one in three American households has children living in it, they are the most sought after consumer segment in the United States. As a result, children have become a primary target of efforts by marketers and advertisers to sell products.

Why? Because the children's purchasing power is increasingly influential. U.S. youth, ages 3-17, actually spend more than $50 billion a year on items for their personal use and entertainment. In fact, advertisers believe that children become consumers at age 3.

Children today spend more time on their own. Consequently, they make more and more of their own purchasing decisions. Parents are also increasingly likely to give their children money to buy things, both because they have less time to supervise their choices, and because they want their children to have activities to keep them occupied during the unsupervised hours. As a result, kids control a larger portion of the family's finances than ever before.

While children's purchases are still mainly for personal entertainment items, their purchasing influence is also extending into products and services not traditionally considered in children's domain. Children are exerting a greater influence on household buying decisions; the purchasing influence of children ages 3-17 is estimated to be $340 billion each year.

As parents become busier, more decisions about the purchase of household goods are being formally and informally delegated to their children. Children are asked to pick up items for meals or other household needs, and children are accompanying parents on quick stops at the store on the way home from childcare or school.

Children have more money and consumer goods at their disposal than ever before in large part because they have been taught by advertising that they "need more" and must "demand more." Television is one key reason for this attitude. Nearly all, 99%, of American families have televison sets. The average family owns 2 to 3 sets. In fact, 56% of children in this country have a television in their bedroom.

Not surprisingly, television occupies the biggest piece of an American child's waking life. Per week, the average child spends 2 hours reading, 4 hours on homework-- and 28 hours watching television. Consider the impact of advertising when each 30-minute television program can include as many as 25 advertisements!

Advertisers often link their products with positive emotions like happiness. When children watch advertising, they tend to associate their own happiness with the product being sold. Since the people seen in advertising are usually placed in settings that indicate wealth and material success, it is easy to imagine how children develop the idea that having money is extremely important to their happiness.

It is not the responsibility of kids to set boundaries and limits for themselves.  That's our role as adults. Kids hear many messages telling them to buy more, do it earlier and enjoy it all now. Because of their natural impatience, kids heed those voices. That's why it's so vital for parents and other caregivers to be aware of the messages and values promoted by television ads, and to then work to change the television-oriented behavior in their homes.

Prepare for the session by videotaping 30 minutes of prime-time, major network programming (either during a half-hour sitcom, or during one part of an hour-long program). If possible, videotape only the advertisements, excluding the actual programming. One half-hour of programming will contain 16-19 product advertisements, plus promotions for other television programming; this will provide you with 9-10 minutes of advertisements.

1. Review the Background section of the activity.
2. Lead a discussion of the kinds of messages and values the group members are working to instill in their homes and families. Record the list down one side of a flip-chart page. The list may include:
   • Fairness
   • Self-respect, self-esteem
   • Respect for others
   • Self-discipline
   • Generosity
   • Security, personal safety
   • Moderation
   • Tolerance
   • Understanding
   • Education
   • Strong work ethic
   • Good physical health
3. Ask the group to brainstorm the messages they've seen in television advertising.  Down the other side of the page, record what the group calls out. The list may include:
   • Personal happiness is the most important thing, or, Look out for "number one."
   • Happiness means owning a lot of stuff.
   • Being rich means being happy/popular/interesting/exciting/successful.
   • You are what you buy.
   • Anything that's expensive must be valuable.
   • Everyone is doing it.
   • Everyone has one.
   • Perfection is possible.
   • We should get what we want when we want it (immediate gratification).
   • Get all you can for yourself.
   • Anything worth having costs money.
   • Win at all costs.
   • More is better.
   • New is better.
4. Point out the differences in the two lists and post them on the wall.
5. Explain that advertisements use our emotions to get our attention. How we feel about a product directly impacts what we buy and why. Ask the class for some emotional triggers that advertisers use to get consumers to buy their products. Record them on a flip chart and post on a wall. The list may include:
   • Humor
   • Fear
   • Envy
   • Loneliness
   • Happiness
   • Longing
   • Violence
   • Excitement
   • Speed
   • Luxury
   • Selfishness
   • Worry
   • Greed
   • Thrift
6. As an introduction to the videotape you prepared, hand out the What Ads Say, What They Mean handout. Have parents complete the worksheet individually or in small groups.
7. Briefly discuss parents' expectations of prime-time advertising. What kinds of products do they think are advertised? Then, if parents haven't already mentioned it, note that during the three hours of prime-time programming, advertising tends to promote primarily one product: media! This includes previews of other television shows and of upcoming movie releases (both big-screen and video), as well as local radio stations.
8. Divide the class into three groups. Explain that you are going to play about 10 minutes of videotaped ads. Ask parents in Group 1 to document the products, brands and other media advertised, as well as any obvious slogans or phrases. Ask Group 2 to note at least one emotion each ad appeals to.  Ask Group 3 to document one message each ad sends to children and families.
9. Play the ads. You may want to stop the VCR after each ad to allow a moment for the groups to record their impressions.
10. After the tape is done, ask for the groups to volunteer a handful of ads that had the greatest impact on them. Review each of the key components of the ad as recorded by the groups. Make sure participants are thinking critically about how these ads might be perceived by children, as well as by adult family members. Was it hard or easy to find the messages? The emotions? Were they particularly impressed with a certain ad, and why? Were any of the ads likely to be particularly appealing to children, and why?

Prepared by Education Strategies for the
National Institute on Media and the Family