HK Advertising to children

JOURNAL OF MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS 6 37–52 (2000)

Hong Kong children’s understanding of television advertising
KARA CHAN

Department of Communication Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong,
Hong Kong

This study exam ines Chinese children’s understanding and comprehension of television advertising. A quota sam ple of 448 children made up of 32 girls and 32 boys from kindergartens and grades 1–6, were personally interviewed in May 1998.
The results indicated that children in grade 2 (aged 7–8 years) were beginning to understand what advertising was and were aware of the persuasive intention of television advertising. Over one-third of older children from grade 4 understood that television stations carried advertising for m oney. Like children in the West, the main reason for liking and disliking comm ercials depended on their entertainm ent element. An understanding of television advertising, recall of brands from slogans and com prehension of advertising content were consistently related to the cognitive developm ent of children. Brand recognition from liked and disliked com m ercials was strong. Com prehension of the key m essages of advertising content varied greatly by children’s cognitive development and the style of presentation. Ethical issues and public opinions of Hong Kong consum ers regarding advertising to children were discussed.
KEYWOR DS: Children; television advertising; cognitive development
INTRODUCTION
Today advertising penetrates into the life of every person, including children. The children’s market is important to advertisers because of the enormous purchasing power of the children and their parents. A survey of 2400 children aged 7–12 years in six countries, including
China, Japan, France, the UK, Germany and the USA, indicated that their estimated annual spending power ranged from US$1.7 billion in Germany to US$11.3 billion in the USA. The survey results also indicated active participation of

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