Editorial

Citation

Brian Young, D. (2010), "Editorial", Young Consumers, Vol. 11 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/yc.2010.32111caa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Young Consumers, Volume 11, Issue 3

After another highly successful special issue on food and children we are back to the usual formula of general articles that sample the ever-widening range of topics that comprise the field of children, youth, and consumption. The high quality remains unchanged and I have picked as our lead article this quarter a piece by Caroline Oates and Nicki Newman at the University of Sheffield in England. They were interested in seeing what sorts of food is shown on children’s TV; not just in advertising but including all programmes and other parts of the output. Ofcom, the regulator in the UK, has implemented bans on fatty, sugary or salty (HFSS) food advertising in children’s programmes and generally speaking it seems to have worked with healthy foods predominating in most of TV content (although the lack of HFSS foods in advertising does not necessarily imply a strong presence of healthy foods in advertising). Next we have two papers on shopping. One is by Stella Minahan from Deakin Business School in Australia and her colleague Patricia Huddleston from Michigan State University. They have interviewed young women and from their qualitative analyses have extracted themes based on their perceptions of shopping with their mothers. If I tell you that one of them is “the bank of mum” (!) then I’m sure this will act as a spur to read on further. A fascinating account of one of the significant rituals of consumption today. A different approach to shopping was taken by Tulin Vural Arslan, Filiz Sankal Sezar and Erkan Isigicok at Uludag University in Turkey. They did an extensive survey of young persons’ perceptions of shopping malls in Turkey and discovered five factors that seemed to explain what they call “the magnetism” of malls. This paper should appeal to mall designers in that country in particular and urban planners in general.

Turning now to advertising research, Muhammad Mohsin Butt and Ernest Cyril de Run from the University of Malaysia look at ethnicity as a target variable among young consumers in Malaysia, a country with a tradition of different ethnic groups. Using quantitative techniques they found that ethnicity was an important variable as different ethnic groups responded differently to advertising. Ayantunji Gbadamosi from the University of East London has explored the regulatory framework for advertising to children used in Nigeria. After a useful set of comparisons with other countries she concludes that although there are regulations they are not always embraced fully. This is a valuable case study.

The last two academic papers are from the USA. Dwane Dean from Frostburg State University looked at risk acculturation in young people in the setting of car renting. In other words the more accustomed you become to the behaviour (e.g. driving), the less likely you are to perceive a high level of risk in the behaviour. There are managerial implications here in terms of take up of insurance for example. He did discover an effect although the intent to purchase is a complex decision and other factors could come into play. Michael Hyman from New Mexico State University and his colleague Jeremy Sierra from Texas State University in a discursive piece explore the world of hero worship where adolescents’ thoughts, feelings and actions become obsessed with a celebrity, in this case sports heroes. Sport as entertainment is a global phenomenon and this paper points out the all-too-real dangers of this adolescent infatuation as it develops into possible adulthood psychopathology.

Wang Hongjun, a youth marketer from Singapore, has written a practitioner article on different kinds of contests and how they can be used effectively in a marketing context. These case studies are useful to readers who can see how marketing to children and young people operate in different parts of the world and this one is full of examples drawn from Hongjun’s experience. And last but not least we have our regular column under the “legal briefing” head. This time it is on advertising to children and young people in Russia.

I hope you enjoy reading all of these important papers and many thanks to all our reviewers and contributors without whom these regular issues would not be possible.

Dr Brian YoungEditor