Effects of television advertising on children in the Middle East

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to describe exploratory work which investigated the negative effects of television commercials on children in the Middle East.

Design/methodology/approach

The extant literature on issues relating to the effects of television advertising on children was critically reviewed. Data were collected by conducting a series of 15 projective techniques and a series of semi‐structured interviews with a sample of 12 parents and six psychology and marketing experts from the Middle East.

Findings

The results indicate that negative impacts of advertising lead to major social and behavioral problems in children such as physical and verbal violence, materialism and other “values issues” identified by parents, and health problems such as low nutrition and obesity. The results also indicate that although many forms of advertisement affect children negatively, the effects of television commercials are particularly noticeable.

Practical implications

The study provides a list of practical recommendations for marketers and policymakers to help mitigate the negative effects of television advertising on children in the Middle East.

Originality/value

This research is one of very few studies to consider the effects of television advertising on children in the Middle East.

Citation

Nassar, M.A. and Al Zien, A. (2012), "Effects of television advertising on children in the Middle East", Education, Business and Society: Contemporary Middle Eastern Issues, Vol. 5 No. 4, pp. 267-280. https://doi.org/10.1108/17537981211284443