Session 5.

Over the last three decades, a substantial body of research has accumulated seeking to address how advertising influences children (Lawlor & Prothero, 2012). It is noted by Cooke (2002) that children in the United Kingdom and the United States spend on average between four or five hours a day watching some form of electronic media, therefore exposed to a large amount of advertisements. As Gunter et al (2005) states, there are concerns about the way that products are presented to children, such as using celebrities to endorse their product. As found by Gunter et al (2005), there appears to be little room in advertisements for children who do not conform to their particular gender stereotype. Therefore, it is suggested that advertising has the possibility of having a huge influence on a child’s perception of themselves.

There is an underlying concern about television advertising; whether it exploits children. Gunter et al (2005) describes children within this exploitation as ‘innocents’, suggesting advertising is criticised for persuading children to buy products they do not need. This desire is said to lead to ‘pester power’, meaning that children pester their parents or other adults to buy things for them. On the one hand it is argued children are becoming ‘empowered’ in a commercial environment: the market is seen to be responding to the needs and desires on the part of children. However, there is a growing concern about the ‘commercialisation’ of childhood which is said to cause harm to many aspects of children’s physical and mental health (Buckingham, 2011).

While advertisement is part of everyday life, children’s exposure to these types of texts is likely to be through reading and listening (Burrel & Beard, 2010). Engaging with these types of texts requires children to make connections between their out of school reading and the writing that they do in school (Burrel & Beard, 2010). Therefore, it is important that both teachers and parents educate children about advertisement.

The distinctive features of advertisement writing has been analysed over many years by distinguished linguists, such as Leech (1966). It is shown within Burrel & Beard’s (2010) findings that by including advertisement writing in the classroom, it provides opportunities to develop communicative power. These opportunities also foster critical reading, persuasive writing, therefore contributing to consumer, as well as literacy education.  Persuasive writing in general has been given a more prominent place in the curriculum provision and supporting guidelines in England, although specific attention to advertisement writing has received only minimal attention (Burrel & Beard, 2010).

For advertisement writing to be most efficacious in giving children a sense of empowerment, the writing needs to involve tasks and content that engage with the interests and needs of real relevance to young learners (Burrel & Beard, 2010). Therefore, teachers need to understand the interests of their pupils in order to educate their class about the intentions and features of advertisement writing. In addition, as teachers we need to fully understand their roles as consumers both in terms of ensuring that they are adequately equipped to deal with the market, addressing their specific needs and vulnerabilities (Marshall, 2010).

Bibliography

Burrel, A. & Beard, R. (2010) Children’s advertisement writing UKLA,  44:2, pp.83-90

Gunter, B., Oates, C. & Blades, M. (2005) Advertising to children on TV New Jersey: Erlbaum Associates

Lawlor, M.A, & Prothero, A. (2012) Children’s Understanding of Television Advertising Intent Journal of Marketing Management, 19:3-4, pp.411-431

 

Marshall, D. (2010) Understanding Children as Consumers London: SAGE Publications Ltd

 

Buckingham, D. (2011) The Material Child Malden: Polity Press