Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...................................................................................................2 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................3 LITERATURE REVIEW......................................................................................................6 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES................................................................................................10 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY........................................................................................11 Target Population.............................................................................................................12 Sampling Technique........................................................................................................14 ........................................................................................................................................14 DATA COLLECTION........................................................................................................15 DATA ANALYSIS.............................................................................................................18 Analysis of Appeal Methods in the Advertisements:......................................................18 Audio-Visual Appeal Methods....................................................................................18 Rewards.......................................................................................................................19 Product Attribute Themes............................................................................................19 Narrative Themes.........................................................................................................19 Analysis of Responses of Children to these Advertisements:.........................................20 RESULTS AND FINDINGS...............................................................................................21 Results of the analysis of contents of the ads..................................................................21 Results of the primary survey..........................................................................................28 LIMITATIONS...................................................................................................................36 CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS...................................................................38 ANNEXURES ....................................................................................................................40 Questionnaire...................................................................................................................43 List of Products................................................................................................................47 REFERENCES....................................................................................................................48 Articles:............................................................................................................................48 Books:..............................................................................................................................49 Websites:..........................................................................................................................49

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Advertising of food products to children on TV is a very popular phenomenon. More than 50% of all the ads shown on Kids Television Channels are food advertisements. This study is conducted in order to find out the recent trends in the appeal methods used in advertising food to children. By appeal methods here we mean the use of various techniques in order to get target audience, in this case, children, to act in accordance with the desires of the advertisers. The appeal methods can be use of animation, celebrity, slogans, jingles, etc. The study is conducted in two parts: 1. the analysis of the contents of the contemporary food ads on television and; 2. the analysis of responses of children towards these ads. From this study, a number of insights were generated such as - which are the most popular appeal methods used by the advertisers and which appeal methods are extracting favourable responses from the children. The geographical area that was taken for the purpose of the study was Dwarka, New Delhi.

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INTRODUCTION
In todays world, children have become major influencers in product purchase decisions of a family. According to a survey conducted in the United States of America, American children 12 years or younger spent $28 billion of their own money and influenced $250 billion of family spending in 2000 (Gunter, Oates & Blades, 2005). Given these figures, it is not surprising that it is estimated that children in the United States view as many as 40,000 advertisements each year (Kunkel, 2001). Marketers see children as a lucrative market, and advertising to this segment is increasing (Gunter et al., 2005). This onslaught of advertising to children has motivated many to question whether advertising unfairly manipulates children. In particular, there are concerns about the promotion of food products and fast food restaurants. In recent years, the incidence of childhood obesity has increased dramatically in the United States, and many critics point to food advertising as a possible cause. Existing theory lends support to those that are concerned that advertising affects children. In particular, Banduras Social Learning Theory posits that we often learn by observing the behavior of others. We learn consequences of a new behavior when we see what happens when others try it. Also, we learn not just from live models, but also from those that we see or read about in media (Crain, 2005). According to Bandura (2001) Much social learning occurs either designedly or unintentionally from models in ones immediate environment. However, a vast amount of information about human values, styles of thinking, and behavior patterns is gained from the extensive modeling in the symbolic environment of the mass media. When applied to food advertising in particular, Social Learning Theory would suggest that observing eating and purchasing behavior in commercials would serve to teach children what is appropriate behavior when it comes to eating. Indeed, empirical research on childrens food advertising has shown that food advertising affects childrens knowledge,

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beliefs, and behaviors regarding food choice and nutrition (Gorn & Goldberg, 1978; Haefner et al., 1975; Halford et al., 2004, for example). Furthermore, advertisers use a myriad of techniques to increase the effectiveness of their ads and enhance their brands in order to reach the child audience. According to Bandura (1977), People cannot learn much by observation unless they attend to, and perceive accurately, the significant features of the modeled behavior. Also, Social Learning Theory states that people are more likely to adopt a modeled behavior if the behavior is shown to have valuable, positive consequence (Bandura, 1977). Hence, it can be expected that food commercials are more likely to be effective if they are successful in gaining a childs attention and show appealing consequences. In this study, the term appeal methods is used to describe the techniques that advertisers use to appeal to children. Several content analyses have examined appeal methods (Barcus, 1972, 1975a, 1975b; Kunkel, 1992). Furthermore, a handful of these studies focus specifically on the appeal methods used in advertisements for food products (Rajecki, 1994; Atkin & Heald, 1977; Winick; Leslie R. Williams, 2002 et al.). Many argue that some of these techniques fail to provide useful information about the quality of the product being advertised (Committee on Consumer Policy, 1982), and that they often mislead children (Gunter, Oates & Blades 2005). A limited number of studies have assessed the impact of these appeal methods on childrens knowledge, belief, and behavioral responses to food ads (Atkin & Gibson, 1978; Rubin, 1972; Shrimp et al., 1975). Most of these studies were undertaken in the 1970s, so the research should be updated. More experimental research is needed to address the possible unfair or misleading aspects of such techniques. However, since it would be virtually impossible to conduct an experiment examining the effects and possible misleading nature of all of the appeal techniques utilized by advertisers, a comprehensive content analysis of the appeal methods utilized during childrens programming should be undertaken in order to determine which techniques are used most often. Practically speaking, resources should be focused on studying those techniques that are utilized most

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often by advertisers. The purpose of this study is to determine those appeal methods which appear most frequently in childrens television food advertising. With India heading towards globalization and its per capita income rising rapidly, the trends are quite similar in India today. This brings in the need for conduction of such a study in India that will help the advertisers better understand the appeals which can be used while advertising products to children. Studies of this kind have been much popular in the west where child advertising is quite developed. In India, advertising to children is still in its nascent stages and not much work is there in this line. Whatever little is done, is from the industry perspective and the academic perspective is missing. The primary reason why child advertising has been such an unexplored area is the lack of purchasing power in the hands of children in India in the past. With the rising purchasing power in the Indian households and budding of double income households in India, the amount of spending influenced by children is steadily on the rise. As such, much work is to be done in the field of child advertising in India The objective of the study is to find the appeals methods that have been quite popular with the advertisers while advertising food products to children and how the children react to this kind of advertising. This opens up the gates to further studies in the field of child advertising both for the marketers as well as those who oppose advertising to children.

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LITERATURE REVIEW
Moschis (1978) observed Children and adolescents appear to be influenced by vastly different socialization processes when it comes to consumer learning from television/advertising. Children are primarily affected by mere exposure to the medium, implying that increased levels of exposure will lead to increased skill levels. Adolescents are more affected by the use they make of television/advertising, much of which has been found to be social in nature (Moschis 1978). Social processes such as communication with peers may condition adolescents perceptions and interest in goods and services, which in turn lead to their paying more attention to television programs and commercials to learn about the social uses of products (Bandura 1971; Moschis 1978). This implies a transactional model of communication effects (as proposed by McLeod and Becker 1974). Goldstein (1998) found that television is considered a major influence on the consumer socialization of children, as it is the primary medium through which children are exposed to product advertising (Ward et al. 1977). The relative degree of such influence (compared to parents and peers) is a contentious one, however. Critics of advertising suggest that it has the primary socializing influence on youthan influence so strong that it is both unfair (i.e. takes advantage of the lower levels of development in younger children) and undesirable (i.e. helps in acquiring irrational motives for consumption and a strong desire for brands and products) (John 1999; Moschis 1978). Others argue that parents and peers are the main sources of learning of consumer skills (Goldstein 1998; Moschis and Churchill 1978). This can be further supported by the fact that youth fads (e.g. roller skates and mens earrings) are perpetuated by word of mouth and imitation, rather than advertising. Advertising, in fact, often cashes in on what children and adolescents consider popular products and trends rather than creating such trends (Goldstein 1998). Research suggests however that the consumer socializing influence of television is strong enough for it to play a mediating role on the influence of other consumer socialization agents such as parents and peers (Churchill and Moschis 1979; Moschis 1978), though they may also in turn mediate advertisings influence (Moschis 1978). While in the case of both children and adolescents, television provides opportunities for increased consumption-oriented interaction with their parents (Churchill and Moschis 1979; Moschis 1978); in the case of adolescents it may actually decrease such interaction with peers (Churchill and Moschis 1979). Uusitalo and Takala (1993) further suggest that the impact of television/advertising on children and adolescents seems limited by their developing cognitive abilities. It will have a differential impact on children in different stages of development (Uusitalo and Takala 1993; Ward et al. 1977) because, as children mature, they make a transition from viewers who see advertising as purely informative, entertaining, and trustworthy to ones who view advertising in a more skeptical, analytical, and discerning fashion (John 1999 p. 191). Children are more perceptually bound in early childhood (Ward et al. 1977) and hence their learning from television commercials may be influenced primarily by perceptual characteristics. This implies that recall of advertising is poor among younger children and becomes complex, multi-dimensional and complete only as they grow older (Ward et al. Page | 6

1977). Sanft (1986) found that children recall information that is peripheral to the product, and young children in particular, recall very little product relevant information. Children towards the end of early childhood play with the content of commercials rather than take them as providing serious product information. Those who are about to reach adolescence however have considerably developed cognitive skills and develop a slightly more critical attitude towards advertising, especially towards its untruthful rhetoric (Uusitalo and Takala 1993). Research has found that elementary school children cannot identify stores from their advertising slogans. Given young childrens frequent exposure to television, the only likely reason for this may be that the socializing influence of advertising does not extend to the kind of processing that would put brand names and advertising slogans in the long-term memory of young children (Reece 1984). As in the case of children, cognitive development has a role to play in adolescents interactions with television. The increasingly complex content and structure of adolescents cognitive capabilities and mental models have been shown to precipitate epistemic doubt (as defined by Boyes and Chandler 1992), and hence adolescents may become extremely skeptical due to their own changing beliefs and the realization of the relativeness of truth (Boush, Friestad, and Rose 1994). This cognitive dynamism of adolescence extends to beliefs and attitudes about consumer behaviour (Boush et al. 1994), as evidenced by the fact that older adolescents have greater consumer affairs knowledge, are better able to differentiate product attribute information in advertisements, and have less favorable attitudes toward advertising than do younger adolescents (Churchill and Moschis 1979; Moschis and Moore 1979a). Cognitive development may predict the acquisition of cognitive defenses towards commercials in adolescents (Moschis 1978). Jacquelyn Massey (2008) The advertising industry itself has funded dozens of studies on children designed to enhance marketing effectiveness. According to the industry newsletter, Selling to Kids, Saatchi & Saatchi hired clinical psychologists and cultural anthropologists to record more than 500 hours of interviews and observations of children between the ages of six and 20. Increasingly, such research is taking place in schools. (Linn 2) And according to USA TODAY, grade schools in Connecticut accepted $5,000 from a company in exchange for permission to interview 10- to 12-year-old students in classrooms after school. The Gepetto Group conducts focus groups and consults with psychologists to help businesses better understand how to market to teens by exploiting their vulnerabilities. Teens are ... an oppositional subculture, interested in shutting out the adult world, the firm's chief strategic officer explained in a Selling to Kids interview. There are enormous opportunities for the marketer who is able to understand both the reality and fantasy of teen life. (Linn 2) It has been documented that the average teenager spends about 6 hours a day (38+ hours/week) using mediatelevision, movies, magazines, newspapers, playing video games and using the computer. The average child sees approximately 20,000 commercials a year. About 57% of viewers surveyed in 1996 enjoy commercials as much as television programs. Advertisers spend over $40 billion each year on television commercials. By the time a child is 18, he or she will have seen about 20,000 food commercials advertising food low in nutrition. It is estimated that teenagers between the ages of 13 and 19 spend $100 a week or $144 billion per year on clothing, entertainment, and fast food. Advertisers now realize that children not only influence the purchases of the goods and services that Page | 7

appeal to them, but they also influence many of the purchases in the entire household. For example, it is estimated that 78% of children influence what their parents buy (McDougal Littell, 2001). These purchases can be small to large ticket items. It is no longer up to the parents alone to decide what the family needs. With our fast-paced society, teenagers are being left more on their own to make decisions that have a direct impact on families, and these decisions are often influenced by what advertising they seethrough print, television, radio, and the internet. Roy L Moore and George P Moschis (2000) suggest that learning of various kinds of orientations toward advertising and consumer behavior may be mainly a social process, with significant others serving as important sources of consumer information. From the short-term perspective these findings provide little support for the idea that the mass media creates desires, which in turn cause people to work harder to earn the necessary money to satisfy these desires (2, p. 158). Instead, the data tend to suggest that the material value system arises ' 'out of basic socialization processes that go far deeper than the current mediated influence through the mass media. Critics of advertising directed at young people argue that advertising is powerful in shaping consumer behavior. Taken as a whole, this study provideslittle support for this contention. The amount of advertisingthe adolescent is exposed to in television correlated rather weakly with only one of the several types of advertising reaction measures; and it did not correlate significantly with any one of the consumption measures. Instead, interpersonal communication variables were better correlated with our criterion variables. For example, while the amount of television viewing was not positively related to the child's propensity to work in order to satisfy consumption needs, the extent of parent-to-adolescent communication about consumption matters was associated with the child's propensity to work for long-term consumption goals. Apparently, parents teach their children budgeting skills and the importance of work as a means of gratifying long-term consumption desires. We also used various cognitive orientations to advertising as more direct measures of advertising influence. Again the relationship between these variables and our consumption behavior variables were rather weak, and even of negative magnitude. Otily the child's ability to retain advertising information was positively associated with a few of the criterion measures (available spending money and work motives for immediate consumption). Given the nature of this cognitive variable, however, one might infer from this association that young people retain advertising information when they are likely to make consumption decisions (because they have money to spend or work to satisfy consumption needs). Thus opportunities for consumption may condition the child's perception of the importance of various types of information in television advertisements, making such information important for the child. Although previous writers speculated that media advertising may shape the content and form of interpersonal communications, this study found that mere exposure to advertising did not set the scene for interpersonal communication about consumption(l3). For example, the correlations between the amount of television use and intrafamily communications were minimal, and the amount of television viewing was negatively related to the adolescent's frequency of communication with his peers (Table 3). Instead, interpersonal communication with parents and peers about consumer goods and services appears to contribute to the child's awareness of the relevance of goods and service, which is shown by his increasing interest in advertisements (attention to, interest in. and desire for advertised products). This is consistent with findings of a recent study of consumer Page | 8

socialization. Finally, the child's age was linked to some aspects of his consumer leaming, suggesting that a cognitive developmental approach may not accurately explain adolescent consumer socialization. The data suggest that the formation of advertising attitudes and advertising credibility may take place during childhood; and that ability to recall advertising information as well as susceptibility to advertising may be developing during the person's adolescent years.

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RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The topic undertaken to study here is Analysis of Appeal Methods used in Childrens Television Food Advertising. Hence, the objective of the study can be broken down into the following parts: Which are the popular television channels that children watch? What all food products are advertised on these channels? What is the content of these advertisements? What is most liked by the children in these advertisements?

All these research questions can be clubbed into two broad categories:
RQ 1.

Of all the appeal methods utilized in childrens television food advertising, How these appeals affect childrens consumption pattern/buying behavior?

which are the most relevant and important for future research?
RQ 2.

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The study undertaken is exploratory in nature. For the purpose of simplicity, the study is broken down into two parts: 1. Analysis of the food advertisements aired during the childrens TV programmes and on the TV channels catering to children. 2. Study of how these appeals affect the childrens consumption patterns. The first part of the study where the contents of the food advertisements are analyzed is conducted as follows: I. First of all, television channels specially targeting children are identified For this purpose, a focused group study of 20 children and their mothers was conducted. In this process, answers to the following questions were sought:
a) Which all channels do the children usually watch? b) Which programmes were most popular among the children? c) Which of them were preferred by girls and which of them are preferred by

the boys?
d) What do the children do during the airing of commercials?

II. After identifying the channels, the ads on these channels are observed

In this step, a census of all the ads aired on the identified channels was done. This was done in the following manner: a) From the previous step, five television channels were identified b) Five consecutive days were picked in a particular week for the collection of ads
c) Each day a particular channel was picked and the ads aired on that particular

channel for that particular day from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm were observed Page | 11

III. From all the ads observed, the food advertisements are segregated and studied

For this purpose, a set of questions were prepared. The details of this step are provided in the annexure section of this report The second part of the study was the collection of the responses of children to these ads. Thus this part comprised of a primary survey of the children. The details of this part are as follows:
I.

A questionnaire is developed to gauge the responses of children

The questionnaire developed is provided in the annexure to this report.

II. A primary survey of 100 children from 10 schools of Dwarka is conducted

For the purpose of the primary sample survey, the sample design is as follows:

Target Population
The target population in this case is a child in the group age of 9-12 years with access to television. Thus the population can be defined as follows:

All the children enrolled in the schools of Dwarka in classes 6th, 7th and 8th Dwarka has a total of 42 schools Each school has approximately an average of 3 sections of each class with around 60 students in each section Thus, each school has approximately 540 students of the target population for this study The Sample Frame for this study is the list of students enrolled in all the schools of Dwarka in the classes 6th, 7th and 8th

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Sampling Technique
The sampling technique used for the purpose of this survey is Convenience Sampling.

10 schools were visited during the lunch break and at end of day, and the target group of students were interviewed

Out of these 10 schools, 10 schools are picked at random

Sample size: 100 Area of Study: Dwarka, New Delhi

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DATA COLLECTION
Analysis of Appeal Methods in the Advertisements: The data collection for this part was done as stated in the previous section of the report. First of all, a focused group interview of 20 children within the age group of 9-12 years and their mothers was conducted. The interview was conducted for only those who were willing to participate. In order to keep a balance in the views expressed, 9 out of 20 were boys while the rest 11 were girls. From this interview, it was found that the children watch a variety of channels and a very wide range of programmes. These include cartoon channels, Disney Channel airing programmes targeting kids and teenagers, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, National Geographic, Sports Channels, Soap Operas, etc. Out of these only five majorly watched channels were targeting their programmes to kids while the rest of them, though have viewership in kids but do not focus on them. The five channels that came out were as follows: Cartoon Network Disney Channel Hangama TV POGO Jetix

A five days starting from 6th Jan 2012 to 10th Jan 2012 were picked in order to record the ads flashed on these channels. Each day a single channel was chosen. All ads flashed on it from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm were recorded. A set of questions were prepared and answered after every unique food ad was flashed. This was done as follows: Page | 15

In each commercial break, the name of every product that was being advertised was written down. At the end of the day, when the list was filtered, all the different food advertisements found were gathered. Now, the recorder had to answer the questions for each individual food advertisement. The questions asked were as follows: 1. Was the ad an animated one? 2. Was there a jingle in the background? 3. Was there a particular slogan in the ad? 4. Were there any celebrities featuring in the ad? 5. Were there any freebies advertised with the product? 6. A short note about what was there in the ads. This data was collected in a well designed form. A sample of the form is provided in the annexure.

Response of children to these ads: This part of the research was a primary survey. As previously mentioned, a questionnaire was developed for the purpose of data collection. Then a list of all the schools was collected. In all there are 42 schools in Dwarka Region. Ten schools were picked for the purpose of the survey. The chosen school was visited, it was always tried to procure a list of all the students enrolled in classes 6th, 7th and 8th so that a real random sampling could be done. However, in most cases the school authorities were asked to send any three students from the above mentioned classes and one student from any of the three classes. Page | 16

Once the students were available, they were given a list of the advertised products. Then, they were verbally asked the questions from the questionnaire. Their responses were entered into the questionnaire by the person administering the questionnaire. Both the questionnaire and the list of products are given in the annexure.

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DATA ANALYSIS

Analysis of Appeal Methods in the Advertisements:

Bandura argues that observational learning is governed by four processes or subfunctions: attention, retention, production, and motivational processes (2001). First, attention processes determine what an individual observes from the plethora of modeling influences. Furthermore, people have to remember observed events in order to be influenced by them. According to Bandura (2001), Retention involves an active process of transforming and restructuring information conveyed by modeled events into rules and conceptions for memory representation. The third sub-function, production, is the behavioral production process. This is the process where symbolic conceptions are translated into suitable courses of action. Thus the appeals methods have been categorized into four groups: 1. Audio-visual techniques 2. Premium offers 3. Product attribute themes 4. Narrative themes.

Audio-Visual Appeal Methods

First, the different audio-visual techniques that advertisers use will be examined. In particular, the presence or absence of a slogan or jingle, types of animation, celebrities, characters, and tie-ins with movies, websites, and television shows will be coded. According to Bandura (2001), Retention is greatly aided by the symbolic transformations of modeled information into memory codes and cognitive rehearsal of the information. It is likely that these audio-visual appeal methods assist children in retention of the information in a commercial and also induce attention among children because of the increased salience that they bring to the food advertisement.

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Rewards
Rewards are another group of appeal methods that are examined. I define rewards as any kind of incentive for purchasing the product other than the product itself. Rewards and collecting serve as motivating incentives to consume and request the advertised product. Arguably, children will be more likely to perform the modeled behavior if obtaining some type of toy or other reward is shown as a consequence of the behavior. According to Bandura (1977), By representing foreseeable outcomes symbolically, people can convert future consequences into current motivators of behavior.

Product Attribute Themes

Third, various types of product attribute themes used are examined. Attribute themes are defined as tangible claims made about the actual product advertised. Specifically, newness, taste, texture, and nutritional claims were coded. In terms of Social Learning Theory, it is likely that these product attribute themes would be viewed as positive consequences by children, and hence, children would be more motivated to request or consume the product if such themes were included in a commercial.

Narrative Themes
The fourth group of variables is narrative themes. Commercials typically tell one, unified story. Specifically, 5 major themes: action/sports performance, popularity, change in mood, competition and family togetherness were identified. The presence of humor and violence were also identified. In terms of Social Learning Theory, themes that were just part of the setting and themes that were shown to result from consumption of the product were differentiated in order to determine if the themes were more likely to be operating as attention or motivational processes. For example, if children are shown laughing and playing throughout an advertisement, then it is likely that this type of appeal is most likely to affect a childs attention processes. A child might find such a portrayal salient, and thus pay attention to the modeled event. On the other hand, if an advertisement shows a character becoming

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happy right after eating candy, then it is more likely that this appeal would function as a motivation for the child.

Analysis of Responses of Children to these Advertisements:

The analysis of responses was more focused on what the child could retain from all the ads that he/she was being exposed to. The analysis was done in order to locate any pattern in the responses. The probable pattern that the study was looking for was that if a particular set of themes was being more easily recalled by the children, or if children could hardly recall any particular theme. Also, I tried to locate if there was any similarity in the responses of the same gender and how the responses of one gender were different. It is usually, seen that girls and boys grow differently at this age and their likings and disliking towards different programmes and TV channels are different. Girls are more likely to be affected by the emotional contents of the programmes while boys are likely to get attracted towards violence, action and sports. A similar kind of pattern is expected from the responses of these children.

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RESULTS AND FINDINGS

The results of the study can again be divided into two parts: 1. Results of the analysis of contents of the ads 2. Results of the primary survey Results of the analysis of contents of the ads No. of commercial Channel Ads Cartoon Network 426 Disney Channel 318 Hangama TV 230 POGO 149 Jetix 132 TOTAL 1255

No. of Food Ads 254 189 156 98 69 766

Percentage 59.62 59.43 67.83 65.77 52.27 61.04

The total number of commercial advertisements shown on all kids television channels together came out to be 1,255 out of which 766 were food advertisements. Thus, approximately 61% of the commercials on kids television are food ads. This percentage is different for different channels. There were 24 food brands that were advertising on the kids television channels. These could be classified into 6 broad categories: Frequency Frequency Percentage Percentage (with (without (with (with repetition) repetition) repetition) repetition) 22.715 3 174 12.5 1.5666 2 12 8.33 29.112 7 223 29.17 3.6554 3 28 12.5 34.856 7 267 29.17 2 62 8.33 8.094 Page | 21

FOOD PRODUCT CATEGORY Health Drink Fruit Drink Snacks Restaurants Chocolates and Candies (C&C) Biscuit

The categories Snacks and; Chocolates and Candies had had maximum no. brands that were advertising. When taken into consideration the frequency of each ad, the category, Chocolates and Candies had maximum no. of ads aired equal to 267 followed by the Snacks category airing 223 ads in total. The snacks category is a vast category including a variety of products such as instant noodles like Maggie, breakfast cereals, ketchup, jam etc. Page | 22

The Various Brands advertising are as follows: NO. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 BRAND Horlicks Boost Bornvita Fruity Real Fruit Juice Kelloggs Cornflakes Kissan Jam Maggie Kelloggs Chocos Snack Break Pudding Maggie Cuppa Mania Maggie Tomato Ketchup Mc. Donalds Dominos Pizza Hut Boomer Dairymilk Shots Candyman Babbaloo Bubble-gum Munch Pop-chocs Nestle Munch Mentos Parle G Britannia Sunfeast PRODUCT TYPE Health Drink Health Drink Health Drink Fruit Drink Fruit Drink Snacks Snacks Snacks Snacks Snacks Snacks Snacks Restaurants Restaurants Restaurants C&C C&C C&C C&C C&C C&C C&C Biscuit Biscuit FREQUENCY 72 35 67 5 7 33 12 21 69 24 8 56 4 10 14 35 36 48 71 39 28 10 60 2

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The contents of the ads were analyzed on the basis of presence of a certain characteristics in the ads. These characteristics are classified into following four categories:
1. Audio Visuals: Presence of Animation, Jingle, Slogan and Celebrity 2. Rewards: Presence of any sales promotion in the advertisement, like some

freebies.
3. Product Attributes: If the product attributes were the basis of the ads. 4. Dramatization: If the ads were telling some unified story

The results are as follows: No. of Ads Percentage No. of Ads Percentage (without (without (with (with repetition) repetition) repetition) repetition) 7 29.17 217 28.33 13 54.17 418 54.57 10 41.67 357 46.61 7 29.17 237 30.94 6 25 175 22.85 12 10 50 41.67 304 373 39.69 48.69

Attribute Animation Jingle Slogan Celebrity Rewards Product Attribute Dramatization

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Though the number of brands using product attributes for advertising the product is more than those using dramatization, yet the exposure of the audience is more to the ads that are dramatized. This is primarily because it is seen that dramatization is more used by the C&C and the Snacks categories.

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A very interesting thing was found that when the snacks category was further broken into those foodstuffs that claimed nutritional value and those that didnt and the nutritional food were clubbed with health drinks and juices, there was a high chance that the product was using product attributes to advertise. The correlation between a food-product having nutritional value and product using product attribute theme came out to be 0.91.

Appeal Methods Used Animation Jingle Slogan Celebrity Rewards Product Attribute Dramatization

Frequency Distribution (without repetition) Total Health Drink 0 1 2 2 1 3 0 Fruit Drink 0 1 1 0 0 2 0 Snacks 1 2 2 1 3 3 3 Restauran ts 0 3 1 1 1 1 1 C&C 5 5 3 2 0 3 4 Biscuit s 1 1 1 1 1 0 2

7 13 10 7 6 12 10

When the appeals used in the advertisements are studied following is the frequency distribution which is found. Majority of the ads are focused Action/Sports Performance Frequency (without repetition) 7 2 4 4 3 4 24

Type of Appeal Action/ Sports Performance Popularity Change in Mood Competition Family Togetherness Humor TOTAL

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Change in mood is an appeal which is popular with almost all types of food products. Action/Sport s Performance Health Drink Fruit Drink Snacks Restaurant s C&C Biscuits 2 0 0 0 5 0 Popularit y 0 1 1 0 0 0 Chang e in Mood 0 1 0 1 1 1 Competitio n 1 0 1 0 1 1 Family Togethernes s 0 0 2 1 0 0 Humo r 0 0 3 1 0 0

Health drinks use either Action/Sports performance or competition. This is very logical as these products are positioned as giving nutrition for growth and energy. Action/Sports Performance appeal is also very popular with the C&C category. Thus it can be safely concluded that Action/Sports Performance appeal is the most commonly used appeal in advertising food to children.

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Results of the primary survey

In order to have less of gender biases, as far as possible equal no. of boys and girls were chosen for the survey. The breakup of the sample into the two genders is as follows:

When asked if the children almost all of them mentioned that they were aware of almost all the products given in the list. Also most of them mentioned that at one time in their life or the other they had used almost all these products and if not, they were willing to use these products.

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When asked if they recalled the ads of the products mentioned, following is table of the response of the children in the survey: No. of Children who could remember the ads without any aid Total 76 68 64 28 1 45 16 10 71 0 12 16 67 44 23 44 23 56 74 19 32 79 43 14 Girls 32 24 23 18 0 21 10 2 35 0 4 11 35 19 12 16 8 27 41 7 18 41 23 6 Boys 44 44 41 10 1 24 6 8 36 0 8 5 32 25 11 28 15 29 33 12 14 38 20 8 No. of Children who could remember the ads after given some hint 85 72 83 43 23 58 16 44 87 22 26 18 79 47 38 64 30 59 87 23 37 95 58 24

Product

No. of children who believed that they had seen the ad on TV 95 93 94 72 46 96 16 77 95 0 31 79 86 75 73 63 88 87 93 56 58 95 88 79

Horlicks Boost Bornvita Fruity Real Fruit Juice Kelloggs Cornflakes Kissan Jam Maggie Kelloggs Chocos Snack Break Pudding Maggie Cuppa Mania Maggie Tomato Ketchup Mc. Donalds Dominos Pizza Hut Boomer Dairymilk Shots Candyman Babbaloo Bubblegum Munch Pop-chocs Nestle Munch Mentos Parle G Britannia Sunfeast

It was found that the boys were more easily able to recall the ads than the girls, in general. Also, the recall was more when a strong slogan or jingle was associated with the particular ads. Page | 29

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The average recall for all the ads came out to be approximately 52. The averages for ads using specific appeal methods are given below: Appeal Method Used Slogan Animation Jingle Celebrity Reward Product Attribute Dramatization All Ads Average Recall 56 63.71 55.15 43.43 55.5 49.08 55.6 51.91

It is clearly visible from the chart above and the graph below that the recall for the ads that use Animation is much higher than any other ads. Slogans and jingles also have a high rate of recall. A very interesting thing is that the recall rate for ads using celebrities is much lower even than the average recall. The reason for such a low recall can be the use of celebrities whom the children do not recognize.

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When asked to recall the slogans, the following results came: No. of children who could recall the Slogan Total Girls Boys 83 40 43 69 28 41 32 22 10 12 4 8 12 17 19 56 95 38 6 9 5 27 57 20 6 8 14 29 38 18

Product Horlicks Boost Fruity Maggie Maggie Tomato Ketchup Pizza Hut Dairymilk Shots Candyman Mentos Parle G

It is quite visible that children can easily recall the slogans when they are powerfully used in the advertisements. A striking feature was that the slogans were easily recalled by the boys than by the girls. However, a reverse trend could be seen in the children when asked to recall the jingles. The girls could much more easily recall the jingles than the boys.

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Product Horlicks Fruity Maggie Kelloggs Chocos Mc. Donalds Dominos Pizza Hut Boomer Candyman Babbaloo Bubble-gum Munch Pop-chocs Nestle Munch Britannia Sunfeast

No. of Children who could recall the Jingle Total Girls Boys 55 42 13 26 17 9 7 4 3 54 29 25 58 32 26 32 18 14 17 7 10 22 16 6 23 12 11 27 12 15 3 1 2 12 8 4 2 2 0

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The celebrities could equally be identified by both the boys and the girls depending on who the celebrity is. When the celebrity is a cricket star like Sachin Tendulkar or Virendra Sehwag, recall is much common in the boys. Bollywood stars are equally popular between boys and girls. No. of Children who could recall the Celebrity Total Girls Boys 65 13 52 42 17 25 13 22 22 12 14 5 17 10 6 6 8 5 12 6 8

Product Boost Bornvita Maggie Tomato Ketchup Dominos Munch Pop-chocs Nestle Munch Britannia Sunfeast

Thus, it can be seen from the above results that girls and boys of this age behave differently to the external stimuli. The conclusions that can be drawn from the results above are summarized in the later part of the report.

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LIMITATIONS

There are a number of limitations of the study. One such limitation is that only food ads were considered for the topic of the study. The kids television channels apart from the food ads show a number of other product ads. Some of them that startling are washing powders, life insurance, diapers etc. Apart from these unusual products there are other products like bicycles, stationery, soaps, shampoos and toiletries, movies, TV programmes etc. that are advertised on the kids TV channels. The response to an advertisement comes as a result of three sources: frequency of the ad, recency of the ad and the cognitive process of the receptor. There may be difference between the responses to the various ads which may arise because the ads that were shown during a particular period of time on a few particular channels were taken into account while gauging the responses of children to various food advertisements. We should not forget that children are exposed to food ads through a number of sources few and the kids television channels form just one channel of exposure. Children view a variety of programmes on a variety of channels. The response to a particular ad is affected by a number of factors other than the appeal methods used in the ad to intrigue the children and some of them being effect of other ads on the particular ad and past experience of the child with the same product or other products, either substitutes or complements. Thus the limitations of the study can be summarized as follows: 1. Only a portion of the ads (food ads) are taken for studying while other products that are advertised on the kids TV channels are not taken into account. 2. For the purpose of recording the responses to the food ads targeting children, only the ads shown on the kids TV channels are taken and the other media to which the children are exposed are not taken into account.

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3. For saying that a particular ad is popular with the children, only the appeal methods used in that ad are studied and other factors that contribute to the success of an ad campaign are ignored.

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CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS

The following conclusions can be drawn after the successful completion of the study: Majority of the food products advertised to the children are chocolates, candies, fast-food like ready-to-cook noodles, pasta, fast-food joints, health drinks etc. Maximum of them use a strong jingle, slogan or sometimes both to appeal to the children. The use of slogans and appeals seems to be good strategy as far as advertising to children goes as the retention of these jingles and slogans is very high among the children. Celebrities are used by a very few number of products. The strategy of not using celebrities seems good when it comes to advertising to children as it was found in the study that this strategy is not very successful with the children. Animation, though, being a very powerful tool for advertising to children, is not very frequently used in Indian advertisement scenario. A prime reason for this can be cost associated to producing animation. However, if used properly, it is a very powerful tool. The appeal of Action/ Sports performance is very common in advertising to children. This observation can be attributed to the large number of products advertised targeting the male child with less amount of emphasis given to the female child. From other studies it has been found that the female child is not very impressed by sports and violence contents in the Television. Thus, to appeal to both the genders, Action/ Sports is not the correct appeal for advertising food which generally targets both the genders. However, the television channels picked up for the purpose of the study have viewership that is more dominated by Tier II, Tier III cities and Semi-Urban Towns where the male child enjoys control over a larger amount of purchasing power than his female counterpart. Thus, Action/ Sports is a dominant appeal method. Page | 38

Another conclusion that can be drawn is that when the target is a female child, the advertiser should lay more emphasis on the jingle rather than on any other aspect of the advertisement. This is because the jingles are very easily retained by the girls. Similarly, while advertising to boys, emphasis should be laid on the slogan. The use of celebrities in advertising to children is a very debatable issue. Where on one hand, celebrity endorsements are becoming very popular in the contemporary advertising scenario; celebrities seem to be losing grounds when it comes to wooing the children. This maybe due to an adverse selection of the celebrity ads. Celebrities who have been very popular with the kids in the recent times should only be chosen when the target population is that of kids.

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ANNEXURES

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Questionnaire
LAL BAHADUR SHASTRI INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT (This questionnaire is purely for academic purpose and information divulged will not be used otherwise) 1. In the list given to you, which products do you know? 2. Which of the following products do you buy? 3. From the list of the products given to you tick-mark those whose ads you have seen? 4. What do you remember of the Ads of the following?

Product
Horlicks Boost Bornvita Fruity Real Fruit Juice Kelloggs Cornflakes Kissan Jam Maggie Kelloggs Chocos Snack Break Pudding Maggie Cuppa Mania Maggie Tomato Ketchup Mc. Donalds Dominos Pizza Hut Boomer Dairymilk Shots Candyman Babbaloo Bubblegum Munch Pop-chocs Nestle Munch

Aware

Buy

Seen

Remember

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Mentos Parle G Britannia Sunfeast

5. Can you tell the slogan in the ads of the following products?

Product
Horlicks Boost Fruity Maggie Maggie Tomato Ketchup Pizza Hut Dairymilk Shots Candyman Mentos Parle G

Yes/No

6. Can you sing the jingle of the ads of the following products?

Product
Horlicks Fruity Maggie Kelloggs Chocos Mc. Donalds Dominos Pizza Hut Boomer Candyman Babbaloo Bubble-gum Munch Pop-chocs Nestle Munch Britannia Sunfeast

Yes/No

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7. Can you name the celebrity/celebrities associated with these products? Boost Bornvita Maggie Tomato Ketchup Dominos Munch Pop-chocs Nestle Munch Britannia Sunfeast

8. Which of the ads do can you recall now? (aided-recall)

9. Do you buy products coming with some free offers? Yes No

10. Do you recall any ads of the products you just mentioned?

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List of Products
LAL BAHADUR SHASTRI INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT (This questionnaire is purely for academic purpose and information divulged will not be used otherwise) Q1 Horlicks Boost Bornvita Fruity Real Fruit Juice Kelloggs Cornflakes Kissan Jam Maggie Kelloggs Chocos Snack Break Pudding Maggie Cuppa Mania Maggie Tomato Ketchup Mc. Donalds Dominos Pizza Hut Boomer Dairymilk Shots Candyman Babbaloo Bubblegum Munch Pop-chocs Nestle Munch Mentos Parle G Britannia Sunfeast Q1 Q3 Q8

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REFERENCES
Articles:

Atkin, C. & Heald, G. (1977). The content of childrens toy and food commercials. Journal of Communication, 27, 1, 107-114. Bandura, A. (1977). Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc. Bandura, A. (2001). Social Cognitive Theory of Mass Communication. Media Psychology, 3, 265-299. Barcus, F.E. (1972). Advertising in the Saturday childrens hours. A report for Action for Childrens Television. Barcus, F.E. (1975a). Television in the after school hours. A report for Action for Childrens Television. Barcus, F.E. (1975b). Weekend commercial childrens television. A report for Childrens Television Kunkel, D. (1992). Childrens television advertising in the multichannel environment. Journal of Communication, 42, 3, 134-152. Kuribayashi, A., Roberts, M.C., & Johnson, R.J. (2001). Actual nutrition information of products advertised to children and adults on Saturday. Childrens Health Care, 30, 4, 309-322.

Mayer, J, ed. (1973). U.S. nutrition policies in the seventies. San Francisco, W.H. Freeman and Co. Rubin, R.S. (1972). An exploratory investigation of childrens responses to commercial content of television advertising in relation to their stages of cognitive development. Unpublished doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of Massachusetts.

Vivica Kraak, David L. Pelletier (1999). The Influence of Commercialism on the Food Purchasing Behavior of Children and Teenage Youth. Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University

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Winick, C, Williamson, L.G., Chuzmir, S.F., & Winick, M.P.. (1973). Childrens television commercials: A content analysis. New York: Praeger Publishers.

Books:
Barrie Gunter, Caroline Oates, Mark Blades (2005). Advertising to Children on TV: Content, Impact, and Regulation Acuff, D.S. (1997). Why kids buy and why. New York, NY: The Free Press. M. Carole Macklin, Les Carlson (1999). Advertising to Children: Concept and Controversies. Sage Pubns. Susan Linn ().Consuming Kids: Protecting Our Children from the Onslaught of Marketing & Advertising. Random House Inc.

Websites:
www.google.com www.sulekha.com www.brandchannel.com www.youtube.com www.managementparadise.com tvguide.indiatimes.com www.dinesh.com/india/television.shtml www.aeforum.org/aeforum.nsf/0/.../$FILE/awmr0026.pdf

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