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The purpose of this paper is to understand the factors influencing young children’s (aged three to five years) understanding of brand symbolism.

Multiple hierarchical regression was used to analyse the relationships between age, gender and environmental factors, including family and the media, on the development of brand symbolism in pre-school children based on 56 children and parent dyad interviews.

Results confirmed the primary influence of age, television exposure and parental communication style on three to five-year-old children’s understanding of brand symbolism. The study demonstrates that the tendency to infer symbolic user attributes and non-product-related associations with brands starts as early as two years, and increases with age throughout the pre-school years. Children exposed to more television and less critical parental consumer socialisation strategies are more likely to prefer branded products, believe that brands are better quality and that they make people happy and popular.

Identifying the factors that influence the development of symbolic brand associations in pre-school children provides an important contribution to public policy discussions on the impact of marketing to young children.

The paper extends existing research by considering, for the first time, the role of environmental factors in pre-schooler’s understanding of brand symbolism. The results provide a more informed basis for discussion about the impact of marketing messages on very young children and the environmental factors that may lead to a more critical engagement with brands.

The purpose of this paper is to examine perceptual and behavioural components of the third-person effect for sport sponsorship marketing communications by legalised gambling companies. Specifically, this research examines judgements about the perceived influence of gambling sponsorship on self, children, and other adults. It also investigates behavioural reactions towards the censorship of gambling sponsorship, and intentions to gamble with sponsors.

An online survey was fielded to a commercial consumer database and yielded 511 usable responses. Four hypotheses were tested to examine perceptions of the effects of gambling sponsorship on self and on others, and whether perceived differences in self/other effects influenced pro-censorship behaviours and gambling intentions.

Findings reveal a range of responses to sport sponsorship by gambling companies. Some individuals view gambling sponsorship positively, they are anti-censorship, and happy to bet with sponsors. Others, who bet on sports, but have no particular allegiance to gambling sponsors, appear highly protective of children, and endorse censorship.

This study focused on the perceived impact of gambling sponsorship on other adults and on children. Future research may consider targeting more specific groups such as other sports fans, others engaged in online sports betting, or primary/secondary school age children.

This study provides new insights on sponsorship effects, specifically public perceptions of gambling sponsorship advertising and their associated behavioural consequences.