Children and Advertising

How far do you think advertising influences children’s perceptions of themselves? Should children be viewed as consumers? Should children learn about advertising in school and if so, what do teachers need to understand about the way in which children engage with advertising?

Gunter, Oates and Blades (2005) pose the question ‘Is it fair to advertise to children unless they fully understand the intent of the advertisers?’ (Gunter et al, 2005: 1).  However, a more pertinent question initially comes to mind; do children understand the intent of the advertisers advertising to them, and if not, who is responsible for this part of children’s education?  Parents are obviously ultimately responsible for their child, but schools and teachers have a duty to promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils (The National Curriculum in England, 2013).  As adverts seem to be ingrained in this consumer-led world, from television and print to mobile devices, schools could be seen to have an obligation to teach or view media content and advertising as ‘inextricably bound together’ (Masterman, 1985: 107).

Teachers need to be aware how children engage in advertising, especially at the age of the children they teach, as children engage with adverts differently at different ages (Banaji, 2010). As children start to learn about persuasive writing, in Key Stage 2, learning about adverts is a great way of learning how to write persuasively (Department for Education and Skills, 2006) but it also allows the opportunity to explore and develop how children react to adverts (Hobbs, ).  Burrell and Beard (2010) support this argument by arguing that when using advertisements in the classroom, in particular children producing them, they can not only develop children’s critical reading but also in turn their consumer education.  Teachers and schools should take a more responsible role in educating children in this ever present element of real life; just as they have in tackling obesity and promoting good health.

There does need to be a definite reason for using advertising in the classroom; as discussed, it can help develop children’s writing.  When developing children’s argumentative writing, in particular persuasion, teachers can assess the children’s work by focusing on the type of appeal of the advertisement (Hobbs, 2009).  The teachers can assess the children’s use of Ethos (ethical/credibility), Pathos (emotional) and Logos (logical) writing to try and persuade the reader (Read-Write-Think, 2009).  Developing these three strategies of persuasion can help show the child different methods and strategies used by advertisers to entice consumers.

After this discussion I believe that advertisements should be used in the classroom but only if teachers highlight the issues and can produce tasks that do allow children to foster their persuasive writing.  Here children will be viewed less as consumers and give them more of an identity to become less affected from direct advertisements to their age range.

References

Burrell, A. and Beard, R. (2010) ‘Children’s advertisement writing’. Literacy Vol. 44 (2), pp.83-90

DfE (2013) The National Curriculum in England. London: DfE

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

Hobbs, R. (2004) ‘Does Media Literacy Work? An Empirical Study of Learning How to Analyze Advertisements’. Advertising Educational Foundation [online] http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v005/5.4hobbs.html (accessed 15/02/14)

Masterman, L. (1985) Teaching The Media. London: Comedia

Read Write Think (2009) Commercial Assessment [online] http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson1166/CommercialRubric.pdf (accessed 15/02/14)