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Advertising and children 1
Hong Kong children’s understanding of television advertising
Keywords: television advertising--Hong Kong--children
Dr. Kara Chan
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication Studies
Hong Kong Baptist University
Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
Fax: (852) 2339-7890
Telephone: (852) 2339-7836
E-mail: karachan@hkbu.edu.hk
Paper being accepted by Journal of Marketing Communications
Dr. Kara K.W. Chan is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies,
Hong Kong Baptist University. She worked in the advertising and public relations profession
and as a statistician for the Hong Kong Government. She now actively involves in research
on Hong Kong and China’s mass communication, advertising, consumer behaviour and
environmental studies. She has published at the International Journal of Advertising, Asian
Journal of Communication, Gazette and the Environmentalist.
This project is funded by the Faculty research grant of Hong Kong Baptist University.
Running head: Advertising and children
October 30, 1998
R05child\jpaper1.doc
Advertising and children 2
Hong Kong children’s
understanding of television advertising
keywords: children, television advertising, cognitive development
Abstract
This study examines Chinese children’s understanding and comprehension of television
advertising. A quota sample of four hundred and forty-eight children, 32 girls and 32 boys
from kindergartens, grade 1 to six, were personal-interviewed in May 1998. Results indicated
that children from grade two (aged seven to eight) began to know what advertising was and
were aware of the persuasive intention of television advertising. Over one third of older
children from grade four understood that television stations carried advertising for money.
Like children in the West, the main reason for liking and disliking of commercial depended on
its entertainment element. Understanding of television advertising, recall of brands from
slogans and comprehension of advertising content were consistently related to cognitive
development of children. Brand recognition from liked and disliked commercials was strong.
Comprehension of key messages of advertising content varied greatly by children’s cognitive
development and the style of presentation. Ethical issue and public opinion of Hong Kong
consumers regarding to advertising to children were discussed.
(166 words)
Advertising and children 3
INTRODUCTION
Advertising today penetrates into the life of every person, including children. The
children’s market is important to advertisers because of the enormous purchasing power of
the children and their parents. A survey of 2,400 children aged 7 to 12 in six countries,
including China, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States,
indicated that their estimated annual spending power ranged from 1.7 billion US dollars for
Germany to 11.3 billion US dollars for United States. Survey results also indicated active
participation from children in making family purchase decisions in a number of product
categories (Carey, Zhao, Chiaramonte and Eden, 1997). The newly emerging middle classes,
high populations and one-child policies in some Asian countries mean that these ‘little
emperors’ are giving more and more influence over where the family dollar is spent. Research
has suggested that children in China have been quick to make demands and exercise pester
power. They are often the first to learn of new products from friends or from television and
introduce these products to the household (AC Nielsen, 1997).
Children in Hong Kong are exposed to a large amount of advertising, especially
through television advertising. According to a weekly AC Nielsen’s television rating report,
the average rating of TVB-Jade, the dominant Chinese channel, from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. on a
school day in March 1998 for children 4 to 14 was 12 rating points (equivalent to an audience
size of 103,000). Children watched a lot more television during school holidays. The average
rating of TVB-Jade on an Easter holiday was 17 rating points (40 percent more audience than
a typical school day). A child spending four hours per day watching television may be
exposed to 15,000 commercials every year. What do children in Hong Kong know about
television advertising and what do they learn from it? This study attempts to examine
children’s response to television advertising on aspects relating to the communication process.
The study adopts Piaget’s (1970) theory of cognitive development. The theory identifies
Advertising and children 4
distinct stages of cognitive development and postulates that children would manifest
differences in the ways they select, evaluate, and use information. Children’s responses to
television advertising will therefore be analyzed by school year.
The study is of major interest to both marketers and to public policy officials.
Marketers are keen to know if their advertising is effective while policy makers are concerned
with protecting the interests of the child. The study is particularly important as there is a
paucity of empirical evidence on the topic within the context of children from Asian cultures.
This is surprising at a time when marketing academics make continuous pleas for international
studies on marketing concepts and consumer behaviors (Bradley, 1987; Lee and Green,
1991). As Mainland China is adopting a ‘one-child’ family planning policy, the children have
become the focus of the attention of the parents and grandparents. Children are believed to
exert an even greater influence on the family’s purchase decisions. The study will serve as a
benchmark study for Hong Kong as well as a protocol for future studies in China.
The objectives of this study are:
a) to study children’s ability to understand the purpose of television advertising;
b) to examine children’s attention, recall and comprehension of television advertising;
c) to investigate children’s liking and disliking of television advertising, and
d) to investigate whether the above are related to stages of cognitive development.
The preceding literature review indicates that children’s responses to television
advertising in Western societies consistently depend on age or school year of the respondents.
This study will provide empirical data for comparison with an Eastern society.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Advertising and children 5
In the Western perspectives of child development, Piaget’s (1970) theory of cognitive
development has had great impact on research related to the communication process of
advertising to children. The theory proposes that a child’s ability to think and to reason
progresses through a series of distinct stages. Each stage has its own unique characterization,
yet could vary considerably depending on intelligence, cultural background and social
economic factors. Piaget’s (1970) proposes four stages of cognitive development that can be
summarized as follows:
•the sensori-motor stage (0 to 2 years): the behaviour is primarily motor and the child does
not manifest conceptual thinking.
•the pre-operational stage (2 to 7 years): the child’s thinking about objects and ideas is
poorly organized and only dominant features are used for making judgements.
•the concrete operations stage (7 to 11 years): the child can think conceptually and
organize ideas in a coherent and stable manner.
•the formal operations stage (11+ years): the child can think in abstract terms.
Many studies on children’s communication process of television advertising have been
based on Piaget’s cognitive development theory. Other approaches have also emerged to
provide detailed explanation of Piaget’s theory using concepts about information processing
of short-term and long-term memory of commercial information (Roedder, 1981).
Studies generally have indicated that children’s ability to distinguish programs from
commercials increased with age (Meringoff and Lesser, 1980; Robertson and Rossiter, 1974)
and location of the commercial relative to the program (Hoy, Young and Mowen, 1986).
Children’s comprehension of television advertising and its persuasive intent also increased
with age (Blosser and Roberts, 1985; Levin, Petros and Petrella, 1982; Rubin, 1974;
Advertising and children 6
Wackman, Wartella and Ward, 1977; Ward, 1972;). In a British survey, 80 percent of the
children replied that the main reason for television advertising was because ‘the advertisers
want to sell you something’. The response did not differ by age or by social class, but they
differed by sex. Girls were more likely to know the purpose of advertising than boys
(Greenberg, Fazal and Wober, 1986). Research also suggests that by the age of nine, children
showed marked improvement in understanding ambiguous wording, humour and imagery
found in advertisements (Belk, Mayer and Driscoll, 1984; Brown and Bryant, 1983; Nippold,
Cuyler and Braunbeck-Price, 1988).
Decreased attention during commercials and selective viewing of commercials with
age has been found in many studies (Sheikh, Prasad and Rao, 1974; Ward, 1972; Ward,
Levingson and Wackman, 1972; Zuckerman, Ziegler and Stevenson, 1978). Attention to TV
commercials depended on personal factors and stimulus factors. Personal factors include
parental and peer influence, the level of motivation and attitudes toward commercials.
Stimulus factors include the nature of the TV program, the content of the commercial and the
product advertised (McNeal, 1987).
Other children also believed that advertising was less truthful (Gaineo and Easserman,
1981; Robertson and Rossiter, 1974; Ward, Wackman and Wartella, 1977). All these
observations are generally attributed to greater cognitive maturity and increased experience
with the medium. Van Evra (1995) argued that children become less likely to be persuaded
with age because they use other sources for the information they need and depend less on
television advertising. The commercials therefore become less personally relevant to the
child.
Several studies have reported that children, even the younger ones, were able to encode
and subsequently remember commercials in terms of their component attributes such as
premiums, product symbols and brand names (Gianinno and Zuckerman, 1977; Rubin, 1972;
Advertising and children 7
Shrimp, Dyer and Divita, 1976). Children recalled premium offers more than attributes of a
product, and premium played an important role with younger children in choosing a product
(Comstock and Paik, 1991).
From the advertisers’ perspective, a successful marketing communication campaign has
to be a memorable one because the opportunity to buy a product following its appearance in
mass media is usually delayed. Therefore, it is important to know whether the viewers
understand the message communication through the advertising and what information is
stored and subsequently retrieved from the memory about the advertised brands (Gunter and
McAleer, 1997).
Most of the research literature on advertising and children is based on research
conducted in Western societies, and there are very few comparable studies from Asian
countries. When referring to Chinese perspectives toward child development, Confucianism is
one Chinese ideology that has been widely investigated by Chinese and Western researchers.
Some important characteristics include an emphasis on moralistic orientation toward children
(Ekblad, 1986); filial piety (Hsu, 1981; Kelly and Tseng, 1992); self-fulfillment (Kelly and
Tseng, 1992; Suzuki, 1980); good manners, and the importance of education (Chiu, 1987;
Ekblad, 1986; Ho, 1989). The implications of all these studies suggests that Chinese parents
tend to be more concerned about the moral behaviours in the commercials, and they will exert
more control over their children’s behaviours.
To conclude, the review of literature shows that understanding the purpose of television
advertising and comprehension of advertising content depend on age or school year of the
children. Children in Asian societies are more likely to pay attention to the moral behaviours
in the advertising content.
RESEARCH METHOD
Advertising and children 8
Six advertising and public relations undergraduate students of Hong Kong Baptist
University were recruited and, through personal sources, interviewed four hundred and forty-
eight Chinese children from five to twelve years old in Hong Kong. The children were from a
quota sample of equal number of boys and girls for each school year from kindergarten and
grade one to grade six. Interviewers were trained on the purpose of the study, the structure
of the interview and the skills in soliciting responses. Interviews were conducted at public
libraries, churches, restaurants and parks near school areas in May 1998. Each interview took
about twenty minutes. Efforts were made to minimize interruptions and intrusions by other
family members or friends present. The interviews started with open-ended questions about
what advertising is, the purpose of television advertising, which commercials they like and
dislike and their reasons. Respondents were asked to recall the brands that used specific
slogans. Three slogans were taken from three food commercials. The interviewers then
presented storyboards of four commercials that were telecast in prime times (7 to 10 p.m.)
during the month before the interviews were conducted. The four commercials were selected
to represent products that could be easily understood by children (such as chocolate and tea),
products that were difficult to understand (taxi using gas fuel) and government’s pro-social
messages (a public service announcement about equal right among females and males). These
commercials were selected from a pool of about 100 commercials broadcast in prime time
programmes on two Chinese channels a month before the conduction of the interviews. The
author and one faculty member of the Department of Communication Studies selected eight
commercials of different product categories. They were then tested by personal interview
with five children on their understanding using open-ended questions. The most and the least
easily understood ones were selected. Two other commercials with medium comprehension
responses were selected. Respondents were required to tell what were being said in the
commercials. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. The interviews were coded by a
research assistant and were cross checked by the author. A coding menu was prepared for
Advertising and children 9
closed-ended questions. For open-ended questions, a coding menu was developed after
reviewing all the responses.
FINDINGS
Understanding of television advertising
Children were prompted about their awareness and knowledge about television
advertising. The interviewer mentioned that ‘when we are watching television, sometimes the
program stops and there are other messages coming up’. Children were asked what these are,
what are their purposes and why the television stations carry such messages. Table 1 to Table
3 summarize their responses. Results of the three tables consistently showed a sharp increase
in awareness of advertising, understanding of the selling intent, and programme sponsorship
from grade two onward. The second grade (or equivalent to age eight) was found to be an
important watershed. Younger children below the second grade had difficulty verbalizing
what constituted a commercial. Starting from the second grade, over half of the children
knew that commercials helped to promote products. A small percentage of the respondents
could spontaneously recognize the selling intent of the commercials. In response to the
question ‘what do commercials want you to do’, a much higher number of younger children
showed recognition of the selling intent of commercials. In response to the question ‘why
television stations carry such messages’, less than one quarter of the respondents were able to
identify the fact that advertising paid for free programming. A higher proportion of children
from grade four knew the institutional function of television advertising. Close to half of the
children at grade six (aged eleven to twelve) understood that the television station broadcast
commercials for money. Some children viewed television advertising as part of the
entertainment offered by the television station. They thought that TV stations broadcast
commercials in order to test whether the commercials were funny and to attract audiences.
While understanding the purpose of advertising generally increased with school year (or age),
Advertising and children 10
children in grade five and six were no better than the children in grade three and four on all
three questions.
[TABLE ONE ABOUT HERE ]
[TABLE TWO ABOUT HERE ]
[TABLE THREE ABOUT HERE ]
Liked and disliked commercials
Children were asked to recall their favourite TV commercials and the commercial they
disliked the most. Not all children were able to mention commercials that they liked or
disliked. Older children were more likely to talk about commercials they liked and disliked.
Altogether 222 and 115 commercials were mentioned as the most favourite and the most
disliked commercials respectively. Children were more ready to recall liked than disliked
commercials. This may indicate that children are less critical about television advertising.
Table 4 summarizes product categories of commercials cited as most liked by children.
[TABLE FOUR ABOUT HERE ]
Results indicated that food and drink, toys and mobile phone commercials were most
frequently cited as commercials they liked. These three product categories accounted for
nearly eighty percent of the total number of recalls. Older children (fifth and sixth graders)
lost interest in toy commercials and developed a marked appreciation for mobile phone and
sports goods commercials. Table 5 summarizes the reasons for liking of commercials.
Children said they liked these commercials because the commercials were interesting and
funny, they liked the products, or they liked the celebrities used. Older children liked
commercials using celebrities. This accounted for their high appreciation of mobile phone
commercials that used movie stars and pop singers as endorsers. Over half of the respondents
Advertising and children 11
at all school years mentioned funny and interesting as their reasons for liking those
commercials. Many children cited McDonalds, Kinder chocolate and Yakult drink
commercials as their favourite commercials because the story lines were cute and entertaining.
Children liked commercials with cartoon figures, funny story or their favourite movie/TV
stars. In responding to this question, younger children were particularly prone to confuse
these commercials with the products. For example, children said they liked programme
announcement because they liked to watch that particular programme.
[TABLE FIVE ABOUT HERE ]
Table 6 summarizes product categories of 116 most disliked commercials. Mobile
phones, food and drink commercials, public service announcements, and supermarket
commercials were most frequently cited. These four categories accounted for fifty-five
percent of the total number of recalls. Table 7 summarizes the reasons for disliking these
commercials. The children disliked these commercials because they did not understand them,
they found them boring or horrifying, or they disliked the products (especially for liquor and
female personal products). Respondents found some public service announcement
advertisements terrifying. For example, an anti-drug commercial featuring distorted images
after a young man taking drugs, a commercial featuring a television set dropped from a high
level that landed on and hurt a group of children playing, and a commercial about a fire in the
household.
Some children disliked commercials that were exaggerated and false. Some children
did not like certain commercials because of ‘incorrect’ behaviours. For example, a nine-year
old girl said she did not like any beer commercials because they contained pornography. An
eleven years old girl did not like a Yakult drink commercial featuring a young boy showing
passion for a little girl because ‘love affairs is no good at that age’. Children also learned that
anti-social behaviours, such as shoplifting and driving under the influence of alcohol, were not
Advertising and children 12
acceptable from the public service announcements. This indicates that children are able to
evaluate television advertising in the light of normative lessons learned elsewhere. Older
children criticized certain commercials for the use of celebrities that they did not like. An
interesting observation was that celebrities polarized reactions from fans and non-fans. For
example, many children who liked the mobile phone commercial featuring pop singer Leon
Lai disliked another mobile phone commercial featuring singer Aaron Kwok.
[TABLE SIX ABOUT HERE ]
[TABLE SEVEN ABOUT HERE ]
For the 222 most liked commercials, a majority of respondents (85 percent)
spontaneously recalled the brand names. But for the 115 most disliked commercials, nearly
sixty percent mentioned the brand names. Results indicated that brand recognition was much
stronger for brands liked, than disliked.
[TABLE SEVEN ABOUT HERE ]
Recall of brand names from slogans
Children were prompted to recall brand names for three slogans and the results were
summarized in Table 8. The first slogan was for the Kinder chocolate commercials targeted at
mothers with young children. The second slogan was for the Nestle milk powder commercials
targeted at children aged seven to twelve. The slogan has been used for nearly fourteen years.
The third slogan was for the Maltesers chocolate commercial targeted at youngsters. Results
indicated that the overall brand recall ranged from 18 to 32 percent. Chi-square analysis
examined whether recall and comprehension of television advertising relate to school year.
All chi-square values were significant, indicating that comprehension was consistently related
to school year or age. Children in kindergartens and first graders performed poorly while
second and third graders performed very well. A small proportion of respondents recalled
Advertising and children 13
either an alternate brand or a different product category. The target audiences of the
commercials performed better than other groups. This suggests that children learn more from
commercials that use models from their age groups.
[TABLE EIGHT ABOUT HERE ]
Comprehension of television advertising
Children were presented with storyboards of four selected commercials and they were
asked to explain what the commercials said. Results in Table 9 indicated that there was a
significant difference in respondents’ comprehension of television advertising. The overall
proportion of children who could give the key messages ranged from 27 percent to 63
percent. All chi-square values were found significant, indicating that comprehension was
consistently related to school year or age. Children in kindergartens and grade one found
difficulty in identifying key messages. They seemed to be preoccupied with what a
commercial should tell or what they were interested to know. In both the chocolate and tea
commercials, a lot of children mentioned that the commercial was about the good taste (coded
as partial/wrong understanding). They failed to recognize that there were a variety of selling
points for food. Children’s comprehension was clearly limited by personal experience. The
commercial about taxi using gas fuel caused the most confusion, because driving was
unfamiliar to them. Many children mixed up public service announcements advocating similar
issues, including the use of unleaded fuel or turning off the engine when the car stopped.
Surprisingly, pro-social messages communicated well even to younger children when they
were presented in a ‘children-friendly’ way. The public service announcement on ‘human
right’ gave some specificity to the idea of equal rights in an animated form featuring animated
boy and girl characters. After a voice-over that everyone had the right to choose his or her
occupation, the girl said that she wanted to be a doctor. The boy rejected her idea and the
voice over asserted equal rights. The commercial provided a concrete example of what a
violation of right represents.
Advertising and children 14
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
The result on children’s cognitive response to television advertising obtained in this
study was similar to previous studies. Grade-related or age-related changes in understanding
were consistently found. A remarkable increase in understanding what advertising is, and the
purpose of television advertising at grade two (aged seven to eight) was also consistent with
Piaget’s (1970) proposed stage on concrete operations. The children entering this stage of
cognitive development were able to think conceptually, and organized the selling idea in a
more coherent manner. This indicates that Piaget’s (1970) theory of cognitive development
finds empirical support in the Chinese society. However, the apparent growth in
understanding of television advertising has to be weighted against the relative abilities of
younger and older children to verbally express themselves, as well as their abilities to
articulate the difference between programmes and commercials. Answers to three questions
‘what television advertising is’, ‘what is its purpose’ and ‘why TV stations carry these
messages’ revealed a range of responses to different levels of understanding of television
advertising. Many younger children who found difficulty expressing what a commercial is
could still identify that the commercials wanted them to try or to buy things. A higher
proportion of children from grade four (aged nine to ten) could recognize the institutional
function of television advertising. According to Piaget’s (1970) classification system, children
at these ages begin to enter the formal operations stage where they can think in more abstract
terms. The findings have public policy implication that younger children need greater
protection against persuasive marketing communication in the mass media. For children over
eight, they have probably developed a cognitive defense and understand the selling intent of
television advertising.
The findings that children liked food and beverages commercials were similar to that
obtained by Ward (1972) and Yavas and Abdul-Gader (1993). This is probably because
Advertising and children 15
children are more familiar and experienced with the product category. Fun and enjoyment
was the main reason for liking a commercial. However, there were great differences in the
reasons for disliking commercials. Hong Kong children frequently mentioned ‘product’ and
‘incorrect behaviours’ as reasons. This indicated that Chinese children placed more emphasis
on the moralistic orientation of commercials than Western children. They held stronger good
and bad beliefs about product nature as well as social behaviours. Compared with findings of
Ward (1972) and Yavas and Abdul-Gader (1993), Hong Kong children more frequently
mentioned ‘celebrity/personality’ as a reason for both liking and disliking. This suggested that
use of ‘personal’ or ‘social’ influence appealed more to Chinese children than Western
children. This may also be due to the heavy use of celebrity commercials in Hong Kong.
Brand recognition for liked and disliked commercials were strong among children.
Commercials enjoyed and disliked by children are more likely to be remembered. However,
the influence of the brand information on purchase intention and purchase behaviour needs
further investigation. Advertisers also need to recognize the trade-offs for using a celebrity.
What appeals to one group likely drives away another group.
Overall brand recall from slogans was low, reconfirming previous findings that brand
names were difficult to remember. Slogans help little in brand recognition. Advertisers
should consider other strategies to enhance brand recognition such as incorporating brand
name in slogans and package recognition.
There has been little research on how well children understand the key messages of
television advertising. Findings of this study revealed that comprehension of advertising
content varied greatly by children’s cognitive development and the style of presentation.
Using simple dialogue, concrete examples and animated figures, children demonstrated fairly
good understanding of pro-social messages. This finding should be encouraging for
government officials and educators. The government should produce more campaigns to
Advertising and children 16
cultivate pro-social behaviours and to protect children’s interest, of course in a children-
friendly way. For example, younger children can learn how to respond to sexual harassment
through a government publicity campaign.
Many critics and parents fear that children are particularly susceptible to commercial
appeals because young viewers lack the necessary cognitive skills to defend themselves
against what are often highly attractive and persuasive messages (Choate, 1975). Other
undesirable consequences listed by the critics are the creation of parent-child conflict (Atkin,
1975) and disappointment when children are denied their requests (Robertson and Rossiter,
1974). The Broadcasting Authority regulates television advertising in Hong Kong. As a
former colony of the United Kingdom, the code of practice on advertising standards in Hong
Kong resembles that of the United Kingdom. It states that ‘no product or service may be
advertised in association with a program intended for children or which large numbers of
children are likely to see, which might result in harm to them physically, mentally or morally,
and no method of advertising may be employed which takes advantage of the natural credulity
and sense of loyalty of children’ (Broadcasting Authority, 1993). Hong Kong consumers
seem to be quite satisfied with the overall television advertising standard, as the number of
complaints is extremely small. The 6.6 million population only made an average of 378
complaints every year on television advertising in the past five years (Broadcasting Authority,
1998). Consumers’ reaction did influence advertisers’ decision. A McDonalds commercial
received 46 complaints shortly after its debut, after it seemed to encourage children telling
lies. As a result, the client pulled out the commercial in question before the Broadcasting
Authority investigated the complaints. In a quota sampling survey of 691 Hong Kong
consumers, Chan and Ruidl (1996) found that 47 percent of the respondents did not agree that
television advertising should be banned on children’s programme (vs. 32 percent held neutral
position and 21 percent agreed). In the same survey, 61 percent of the respondents agreed
that the content of television advertising should be more closely regulated by the government
Advertising and children 17
(Chan and Ruidl, 1996). This indicates that Hong Kong consumers prefer a tighter control of
advertising messages than complete banning to advertising to children.
To conclude, a majority of Hong Kong children from grade two knew what advertising
was and developed appreciation of television commercials. Older children were aware of the
selling intention as well as the institutional function of television advertising. Understanding
of television advertising, recall of brands from slogans and comprehension of advertising
content were clearly related to cognitive development of children. Advertisers targeting at
children should make the commercials funny and interesting so that children will like them and
remember their brands.
Advertising and children 18
Table 1. Understanding what television advertising is by school year
School Year (%)
Kind G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 Total
n=64 64 64 64 64 64 64 448
Low 3 14 14 3 0 11 9 8
Medium 6 14 53 55 67 63 67 46
High 3 13 3 8 13 6 3 7
Don’t know 88 59 30 34 20 20 20 39
Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
Notes: Low: name specific products, part of programmes, interrupts programmes; Medium:
advertise things, inform people about things to buy; High: get people to buy, sponsor
programmes
Table 2. Understanding the purpose of television advertising by school year
School Year (%)
Kind G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 Total
n=64 64 64 64 64 64 64 448
Introduce product,
entertainment
11 6 17 5 5 5 5 8
Make people buy
things, promote
products
31 44 61 78 78 66 61 60
Sponsor programmes 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0
Don’t know 58 50 22 17 16 30 34 32
Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
Table 3. Understanding why television stations carry advertising by school year
Year (%)
Kind P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 Total
n=64 64 64 64 64 64 64 448
Introduce product,
entertainment
9 3 13 3 9 11 0 7
Make people buy
things, promote
products
13 13 25 27 20 23 16 19
Sponsor programs 0 6 9 19 36 36 47 22
Don’t know/others* 78 78 53 52 34 30 38 52
Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
‘Others’ include to attract audience (n=4), to test products (3), to test commercials (3), to
educate (3), to give audience a break (1)
Advertising and children 19
Table 4. Product categories of commercials liked by school class (total mentions=222)
Year (%)
Kind,G1 G2-3 G4-6 Total
total mention 42 81 99 222
Food and drink 57 63 52 57
Toys 14 15 8 12
Mobile phones 7 3 12 8
Restaurants and fast food shops 2 12 3 6
Supermarkets 0 2 6 4
Programme announcements 7 1 3 3
Electrical appliances 5 1 3 3
Sports goods 2 0 6 3
Movie and entertainment 0 0 2 1
Public Transportation 0 0 3 1
Public services announcements 3 0 0 1
Property 0 0 1 1
Bank 0 0 1 0
Car and related 2 0 0 0
Like all 0 1 0 0
100 100 100 100
Table 5. Reasons for liking commercials by school class (total mentions=212)
Year (%)
Kind,G1 G2-3 G4-6 Total
total mention 39 76 97 212
Entertainment 62 55 56 57
Beauty 0 0 4 2
Product 18 34 16 23
Celebrity/character 18 11 24 18
Others 3 0 0 0
Total mentions 100 100 100 100
Advertising and children 20
Table 6. Product categories of commercials disliked by school class (total mentions=115)
Year (%)
Kind,G1 G2-3 G4-6 Total
total mention 17 40 58 115
Mobile phones 0 18 24 18
Food and drink 47 13 12 17
Public services announcements 6 13 9 10
Supermarkets 6 15 7 10
Toys 6 13 3 7
Property 0 8 5 5
Programme announcements 12 0 5 4
Alcohol & cigarette 0 8 3 4
Restaurants and fast food shops 6 0 3 3
Clothing 0 3 5 3
Female personal products 0 3 3 3
Medicine 0 0 7 3
Bank 0 0 7 3
Electrical appliances 12 0 0 2
Public Transportation 0 5 0 2
Movie and entertainment 0 0 2 1
Insurance 0 3 0 1
Sports goods 6 0 0 1
Hotel 0 0 2 1
Car and related 0 0 2 1
Dislike all 0 3 0 1
Total mentions 100 100 100 100
Table 7. Reasons for disliking commercials by school class (total mentions=116)
Year (%)
Kind,G1 G2-3 G4-6 Total
20 38 58 116
Entertainment 35 34 47 41
Beauty 20 11 19 16
Product 20 34 14 22
Celebrity/character 20 5 10 10
Not true 0 5 7 5
Just don't like 0 3 0 1
Incorrect behaviour 5 8 3 5
Total mentions 100 100 100 100
Advertising and children 21
Table 8. Recall of brand names from slogans by school year
Year (%)
Kind,G1 G2-3 G4-6 Total
Slogan 1: No more worry for mother (Kinder
chocolate)
Correct brand recall 15 44 35 32
Wrong recall 5 5 7 6
Don't know 80 52 58 62
Chi-square=28 (sign. At 0.0001)
Slogan 2: A cow reared on the 15th floor (Nestle milk
powder)
Correct brand recall 9 30 40 28
Wrong recall 2 6 1 3
Don't know 89 64 59 69
Chi-square=44 (sign. At 0.0001)
Slogan 3: More than one way of enjoyment
(Maltesers chocolate)
Correct brand recall 4 21 26 18
Wrong recall 13 12 8 10
Don't know 84 67 66 71
Chi-square=27 (sign. At 0.0001)
Advertising and children 22
Table 9. Comprehension of television advertising by school year
Year (%)
Kind,P1 P2-3 P4-6 Total
Kinder chocolate
Full understanding 45 72 70 63
Partial/wrong understanding 37 24 29 30
Don't know 19 4 1 7
Chi-square=51 (sign. At 0.0001)
Lipton 3 in 1 tea
Full understanding 14 41 57 40
Partial/wrong understanding 50 39 32 39
Don't know 36 20 10 20
Chi-square=66 (sign. At 0.0001)
Taxi using gas fuel
Full understanding 13 17 44 27
Partial/wrong understanding 32 55 34 40
Don't know 55 28 22 33
Chi-square=72 (sign. At 0.0001)
Equal right
Full understanding 27 70 84 63
Partial/wrong understanding 34 12 5 15
Don't know 40 19 11 22
Chi-square=114 (sign. At 0.0001)
Note: Responses were coded as full understanding if they contained the key messages
(Kinder chocolate: cat wants to get the chocolate; Lipton tea: refresh or relief from pressure;
taxi using gas fuel: the fuel produces less smoke; equal right: girls can do the job that she
like).
Advertising and children 23
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Advertising and children 26
Professor Philip J. Kitchen
Editor, Journal of Marketing Communications
Chapman and Hall
2-6 Boundary Row,
London SE1 8HN, UK
October 30, 1998
Dear Professor Kitchen,
Re-submission of Manuscript
Thank you for your letter on 15 September, 1998 with valuable comments on the
manuscript titled ‘Hong Kong children’s understanding of television advertising’. The
manuscript has been revised with the following changes:
Comment Changes
Literature review Updated references are added
Discussion of objectives Elaborated in more details
Ethical issue on advertising to
children
Added in the discussion section
Please kindly reconsider it to be published in the Journal of Marketing Communications.
Please acknowledge when you received it and do not hesitate to contact me for any inquiries.
Thank you.
Yours truly,
Kara Chan
Associate Professor
Advertising and children 27
Journal of Marketing Communications
Chapman and Hall
2-6 Boundary Row,
London SE1 8HN, UK
June 23, 1998
Dear editor,
Re: Submission of Manuscript
Please find attached four copies of the manuscript titled ‘Hong Kong children’s understanding
of television advertising’ for your consideration of publication. Please acknowledge when you
received it and do not hesitate to contact me for any inquiries. Thank you.
Yours truly,
Kara Chan
Assistant Professor
Advertising and children 28
Prof. Herbert H. Tsang
Chairman
Research Committee
3 March 1999
Dear Prof. Tsang
Re: FRG Research Project entitled “Benchmark study on communication process and
effects of television advertising on children in Hong Kong” (FRG/97-98/II-24)
Thank you for your support to carry out the above project. The research has been
successfully completed and a copy of the final report is now enclosed for your consideration.
One journal paper has been accepted by the Journal of Marketing Communications
for publication. The paper received good comments from the journal reviewers. Another
journal paper and a conference paper are being prepared. The current study provides us an
important benchmark for the understanding of the impact of television advertising on
children.
Yours sincerely,
_____________________
Dr. Kara Chan
Associate Professor
Dept. of Communication Studies
c.c. Dean, School of Communication
Head, Department of Communication Studies
List of Publication
1999 Hong Kong children’s understanding of television advertising, accepted by Journal
of Marketing Communications, forthcoming
Advertising and children 29
Benchmark study on communication process and effects
of television advertising on children in Hong Kong
Dr. Kara Chan
Associate Professor
Department of Communication Studies
Hong Kong Baptist University
Kowloon Tong
Hong Kong
Fax: (582) 2339-7890
Telephone: (582) 2339-7836
E-mail: karachan@hkbu.edu.hk
Keyword: Television advertising – children – Hong Kong
This study is supported by Faculty Research Grant of the Hong Kong Baptist University.
Running head: Advertising and children
March 3, 1999
\r05child\jpaper1.doc
