Week 5: Children and advertisements

Week 5

Children and advertising

Kenway and Bullen (2001) imply that adverts interact with children’s emotions, their desires, their fantasies and most importantly their identities. They argue that commercial advertisements are design for pleasure as well as a way of developing identities and peer communities; perhaps creating a generation of consumers. This viewpoint is supported by Beder (2009) who insists that advertiser’s actively encourage children to seek happiness and self esteem by purchasing products.

Packard (1957) referred to advertisements as ‘hidden Persuaders’as argued, allegedly they tap into our subconscious habits without us our recognition. Furthermore many claim that advertisements aimed at children are not for their interest however a direct result of the efforts of corporations to make profits from children and to shape and socialise them to suit business interests (Beder, 2009).

It is clear that advertisements are all around us, advertisements online are abundant and there are many issues surrounding their exposure to children. The Bryon Review indicates how adverts online could be ‘potentially harmful’ if they are not age appropriate. The review also highlights the difficulty of tracking what your child could be exposed to on the internet (Bryon, 2008: 16). During ICT lessons on placement many sites had been restricted due to inappropriate material or advertisements; I felt that this made the research on our topic more strenuous then need be. Perhaps we are protecting our children against forms of media that they are already exposed to outside the classroom.

During the seminar we had discussed how teachers could implement advertisements into the literacy planning with awareness of the controversy surrounding them. One particular viewpoint provoked me to reflect on how we as teachers can protect children against the ‘hidden persuaders’ when we ourselves are mass consumers and are actively impacted by advertisements? Chester et al (2007) raises the important fact that the creators of adverts are ‘experts of an increasingly diverse array of specialists in sociology, psychology and anthropology to explore youth subcultures and conduct motivational research’ (Chester and Montgomery 2007:22). Do teachers have the skills to decipher the subconscious messages that could be potentially harmful to their pupils?

There are questions relating to children’s vulnerability to persuasion or exploitation from advertising. There is evidence to suggest that children are more cynical about what they are exposed to, and not merely passive consumers due to advertisements (Buckingham, 1993). (Chester and Montgomery, 2007) supported this with their findings which conveyed that young people seem very good at ignoring advertising. On the other hand The Byron states that brain development research proves how pre-adolescents are not equipped with the skills to interpret some materials (Byron, 2008:52). With this in mind, advertisement can offer materials that enable analysis and develop critical thinking, and most importantly prepare children with the skills to think of purpose (Evans, 2004). Perhaps skills needed to protect themselves from the ever increasing commercial world.


Beder, S. (2009) This Little Kiddy went to Market. New York: Pluto Press

Bryron, T (2008) Safer Children in a Digital World. The Report of the Byron Review. Nottingham: DCSF Publications [Online] http://www.ict.norfolk.gov.uk/content/655/files/safer%20children%20in%20a%20digital%20world.pdf(Accessed 10.02.14)

Buckingham, D. (1993) Children Talking Television: The Making of Television Literacy. London: Falmer

Chester, J. and Montgomery, K. (2007) Interactive Food and Beverage Marketing: Targeting Children and Youth in the Digital Age. Berkeley Media Studies Group. [Online] http://digitalads.org/documents/digiMarketingFull.pdf(Accessed 9.02.14)

Evans, J (2004) Literacy Moves On. Using popular culture, new technologies and critical literacy in the Primary Classroom. London: David Fulton Publishers

Kenway, J. & Bullen, E. (2001) Consuming Children Buckingham: Open University Press

Packard (1957) Packard, Vance ([1957] 1960), The Hidden Persuaders. London: Penguin Books

In had found The Byron Review very beneficial and will most likely use this document to inform my practice in ICT, I highly recommend it. The link is just below:

http://www.ict.norfolk.gov.uk/content/655/files/safer%20children%20in%20a%20digital%20world.pdf