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What parent hasn't worried at some time or another about how much TV her child watches? Such worries may come to the fore when "pester power" is exerted. Pester power is when your threeyear-old throws a tantrum in the supermarket because you won't buy the breakfast cereal (that comes with a free gift) that your kid saw advertised on TV. Or your teenager will only wear the brand of celebrity-endorsed trainers, which happen to cost twice as much as all the others. Children are taught to be consumers from a very early age and our research has looked at how advertisers find their way into the minds of children.
An enduring challenge for psychologists has always been how to measure the effects of advertising on children. We found a novel way around this that has uncovered some interesting findings. In our research we have looked closely at what children ask for in their letters to Santa and how many request toys advertised on TV.
We've also monitored toy advertising on TV in the six weeks prior to Christmas to see what is advertised. And we've interviewed the children in our studies about how much TV they watch, and which TV channels (the BBC channels in the UK still do not carry advertising though there are many commercial channels). Then we've looked at the links between these elements.
Our studies show that the more TV children watch, the more toys they ask for in their letters to Santa. Children age four or five ask for more toys but don't usually mention "brand" names. So they'll ask for a "baby doll" but not "Baby Annabel" by name. By the time kids are six to eight years old, though, they not only ask for the advertised toys by brand name,...