The Unintended Effects of Advertising by Valkenburg and Buijzen look at the effects of advertising on children. What makes this reading really interesting is its conclusion. Unlike most of the readings, this reading is a study of current day advertising effect. The authors of this article look at age, gender, socioeconomic status, consumer communication, and advertising communication in relation to advertising exposure-materialism, advertising exposurepurchase requests, purchase requests-parent—child conflict, and purchase requests-disappointment. While looking at this article, I realized that advertising-aimed at children-has greater effects than expected. For example boys react to advertising differently than girls. Valkenburg and Buijzen say that “It has been shown that the effect of advertising on parent-child conflict is stronger for boys than for girls”
Opening: Studies on the effects of advertising on children are generally based on two paradigms: the paradigm of the empowered child and that of the vulnerable child. o In the empowered child paradigm, children are viewed as skilled and streetwise consumers capable of critically processing commercial messages. o Advertising-effects research based on the vulnerable child paradigm assumes that children lack the cognitive skills to protect themselves against advertising messages. (children are more susceptible than adults)
(Empowered child paradigm) Research based on this paradigm—mostly marketing research—generally focuses on the intended effects of advertising. o Intended advertising effects refer to children’s brand awareness, brand attitudes, and purchase intentions (Vulnerable child paradigm) Research within this paradigm typically concentrates on the unintended effects of advertising, which are the secondary, usually negative, effects of advertising exposure. Research into the unintended advertising effects has mostly focused on three dependent variables: materialism, parent-child conflict, and unhappiness.
The authors expand on the history of this research. o Started in 1970 o Reached the peak in the second half of the same decade. o Remarkably, a few years later, interest in the topic began towane again. Since the 1980s, very little
scholarly research has addressed the unintended effects of advertising.
The aim of this study is to: Revitalize the research on the unintended effects of advertising.
In comparison to earlier generations, children are now more often encouraged to voice their opinion, to be critical, and to take part in consumer-related decision making (e.g., McNeal, 1999). It is, therefore, uncertain whether the results found in the 1970s still hold for the present generation of children. The aim of the present study is to reinvestigate whether and how television advertising is related to materialism, parentchild conflict, and unhappiness.
Hypotheses Several hypotheses have been put forward in the literature regarding the impact of advertising on parent-child conflict, materialism and unhappiness
Important to note: although the relation between materialism and life dissatisfaction has been established
among adults, this relation has not been investigated among children.
Method 427 children completed a paper and pencil questionnaire (25 min) Children were given parent questionnaire to take home 84% returned (360) 185 girls and 175 boys Grouped in 2 groups (8-10 years of age and 11-12) Measures Advertising exposure Materialism Purchase requests Parent-child conflict Unhappiness: disappointment Unhappiness: life dissatisfaction Moderator Variables Age and gender (child variables) socioeconomic status, consumer-related communication, advertising related communication (as possible
moderator variables)
The authors show that although there is evidence in support of the hypotheses in the figure, they are moderated by both child and family variables. Expand on Age, Gender, Socioeconomic status, parent-child consumer communication0
Results
Testing the Model To investigate the hypothesized model, we used the EQS program for structural equation modeling
The path analysis was carried out in two steps. o First, we investigated whether the initial model in Figure 1 conformed to the data. o In case the model would have to be rejected, they undertook a second step in the analysis to determine what causal paths should be added to or removed from the initial model. o They based the path analysis on one independent variable (advertising exposure), one mediating variable (purchase requests), and four dependent variables (materialism, parent-child conflict, disappointment, and life dissatisfaction). This model is represented by the solid arrows in Figure 2.
However, resulting model fit the date, hence, it was accepted as an adequate description of the date Moderator Analyses 2nd part of research