Search results
1 – 10 of 16The main purpose of this chapter is to highlight the latest research on the implicit influence of online game advertising on children and to discuss some possible solutions to…
Abstract
Purpose
The main purpose of this chapter is to highlight the latest research on the implicit influence of online game advertising on children and to discuss some possible solutions to help them cope with this implicit influence.
Methodology/approach
This chapter reviews key theories and relevant empirical evidence in the literature on advertising to children in order to highlight the implicit influence of online game advertising on children.
Findings
Children can be influenced by online game advertising outside their awareness.
Social implications
The chapter challenges the effectiveness of current advertising literacy education.
Originality/value
This chapter highlights the implicit influence of online game advertising on children. It also proposes alternative approaches to current advertising literacy education to help children cope with the implicit influence.
Details
Keywords
Against a background of social concern about the commercialisation of childhood, the purpose of the paper is to analyse the commercial activity on the favourite web sites of UK…
Abstract
Purpose
Against a background of social concern about the commercialisation of childhood, the purpose of the paper is to analyse the commercial activity on the favourite web sites of UK children and report the views of a sample of parents and children.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews the theory underpinning current debate over risks to children from online commercialism and summarises the key provisions laid out in current international regulatory guidelines. The broad principles of protection from harm and deception are identified. This review is used to frame a research design encompassing web site observation and qualitative data collection from children and parents.
Findings
A great deal of advertising is poorly labelled and deceptively integrated into content. Most sites visited by children are created for an adult audience which means 25 percent of adverts were for dating, gambling, loans, surgery and age‐restricted products. There was also evidence of pester power, dubious “free” offers and incitement to make impulse purchases using mobile phone credit.
Research limitations/implications
Surveys of commercial activity on children's web sites must be ongoing as technology, advertising techniques and regulation change at a fast pace.
Practical implications
Companies which attract a child audience (inadvertently or not) should revise their strategy for selling advertising space. Advertisers should review potentially deceptive techniques such as advergames, product placements and embedded commercial content. “Wish lists” should be reviewed in the light of guidelines on pester power. Online payment methods available to children should be reviewed.
Originality/value
This is one of the first overall assessments of the commercial content of UK children's web sites.
Details
Keywords
Agnes Nairn and Fiona Spotswood
– This paper aims to propose the lens of social practice theory (SPT) as a means of deepening insights into childhood consumer culture.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to propose the lens of social practice theory (SPT) as a means of deepening insights into childhood consumer culture.
Design/methodology/approach
The data comprise four qualitative interviews and ten focus groups with 58 8-13 year olds in six diverse schools across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Transcripts were coded with NVIVO10. Analysis was guided by the three elements of SPT: materials, meaning and competence.
Findings
Branded technology products and clothes consistently combined with both the socially sanctioned objective of achieving and maintaining a place in the peer hierarchy and also the three skills the authors have labelled “social consumption recognition”, “social consumption performance” and “social consumption communication” in regular, predictable ways to produce an ordered and, thus, reproducible nexus of actions. Analysis of the inter-relationship between these elements showed that children’s consumption is a specific practice, embedded in their everyday routines. Consumption is also linked inextricably to social position; children’s variable performance of it links with their degree of social acceptance and popularity.
Research limitations/implications
Although the study included a broad cross-section of school catchment areas, they cannot be said to represent all British children. Nonetheless, SPT provides an alternative theoretical perspective on children’s consumption by shifting the focus away from the child, the social context or even the products, thus ceasing to privilege the notion that consumption is something external to children that they learn to be socialised into; or to consciously use for their own symbolic or other purposes; or that they have to be protected from.
Social implications
Consumption practice is deeply embedded in children’s relationships and is inextricably linked to their well-being. Policies seeking to tackle any single element of the practice, such as media literacy training, are only likely to have limited effectiveness. This research implies that responsible marketing measures need to concentrate on the links between all the elements.
Originality/value
This SPT analysis of children’s consumption makes three contributions. First, it provides a much-needed new theoretical perspective beyond the dominant but limited “consumer socialisation” research paradigm that confines analysis of children’s consumption to the functioning of their individual cognitive capacity. Second, it suggests new research methodologies for understanding the interaction between children and the commercial world. Third, it offers a different approach to policymakers tasked with the controversial issue of regulating marketing to children.
Details
Keywords
Raffaello Rossi and Agnes Nairn
Really creative posts on the social media accounts of brands or political parties can produce gratifyingly viral results that can boost brand engagement, loyalty, profits and…
Abstract
Really creative posts on the social media accounts of brands or political parties can produce gratifyingly viral results that can boost brand engagement, loyalty, profits and votes. This makes it a highly attractive new marketing tool. However, when brands or parties get creativity on social media wrong it can damage reputation. This chapter examines two aspects of this trade-off between the viral and the virtuous. Firstly, the authors explore the regulations around labelling brand posts as adverts and show that they are very unclear, tempting brands to bend the rules or allowing them to inadvertently break them. Secondly, the authors consider memes: a content marketing technique widely used in political and commercial brand posts. The authors analyse the three creative elements core to memes along with successful and unsuccessful examples. The authors end by suggesting that regulators clarify the codes and invite readers to weigh up the pros and cons of using creative content marketing in brand posts.
Details
Keywords
Agnes Nairn, Christine Griffin and Patricia Gaya Wicks
The paper seeks to offer a critique of the Piagetian developmental cognitive psychology model which dominates research into children and brand symbolism, and to propose consumer…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper seeks to offer a critique of the Piagetian developmental cognitive psychology model which dominates research into children and brand symbolism, and to propose consumer culture theory as an alternative approach. The paper also aims to present the design and interpretation of an empirical study into the roles brands play in the everyday lives of junior school children, which demonstrates the richness of this alternative framework.
Design/methodology/approach
The key literature on children and brand symbolism is reviewed and the main concepts from consumer culture theory are introduced. A two‐stage qualitative study involving 148 children aged 7‐11 is designed using group discussions and a novel cork‐board sorting exercise. Findings from group discussions with 56 children in stage 2 of the study are analysed from a consumer culture theory perspective.
Findings
The analysis focuses on two aspects of the ways in which children use brand symbols in their everyday lives: their fluid interpretations of “cool” in relation to brand symbols, and the constitution of gender in children's talk about iconic brands, notably on “torturing Barbie”.
Research limitations/implications
A key aim of this paper is to critique an existing framework and introduce an alternative perspective, so the analysis offered is necessarily partial at this stage. Future research could also use a consumer culture approach to investigate the role of brands in the everyday lives of children with differential access to financial resources, children from different ethnic groups, and children from different parts of the world.
Originality/value
The introduction of a new framework for researching children and brands offers a host of possibilities for academics and practitioners to understand the effects of brand symbols on the lives of today's children, including a more informed approach to socially responsible marketing. This is also the first study to apply consumer culture theory to children's consumption behaviour. Studying consumption practice from the child's viewpoint offers exciting new angles for the development of this theoretical perspective.
Details
Keywords
Teresa Davis, Margaret K. Hogg, David Marshall, Alan Petersen and Tanja Schneider