Agnes Nairn

Who’s messing with my mind?: The implications of dual-process models for the ethics of advertising to children

The debate surrounding the ethics of advertising to children generally centres on the age at which children have developed sufficient cognitive resources both to understand the persuasive intent of marketing messages and to critically evaluate them. In this paper we argue that this debate requires urgent updating to take into account recent and significant findings from psychology and neuroscience. Substantial evidence now shows that judgements and behaviours, including those relating to consumption, can be strongly influenced by implicitly acquired affective associations, rather than via consciously mediated persuasive information. Contemporary advertising formats typically targeted at children are particularly likely to ‘implicitly persuade’ in this way. The implications for the ethical and empirical agenda are profound, pointing the way for a re-evaluation of what constitutes responsible children’s advertising, a new research agenda and a new approach to media literacy strategies.

Brand Relationships: Strengthened by Emotion, Weakened by Attention

ABSTRACT This article explores the way in which advertising builds brand relationships. Behavioral research by Watzlawick, Bavelas, and Jackson (1967) suggests it is the emotional not the rational content in communication that drives relationships. This assertion is tested using a new research copy-testing system—the CEP™Test—and the results confirm that favorability toward brands is strongly correlated with emotional content in advertising, but not with factual content. However, learning from psychology indicates that high attention weakens the effect of emotional content, so the implications are that advertising aimed at building strong brand relationships might be more effective if processed at lower levels of attention.

Children's use of brand symbolism: A consumer culture theory approach

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 interpr...

“We make the shoes, you make the story” Teenage girls’ experiences of fashion: Bricolage, tactics and narrative identity

This article explores the ways that French teenage girls use fashion discourse to construct their evolving identity from their recently left childhood to their future as fully grown women. Verbatim texts of 14 phenomenological discussions concerning clothing, accessories, make‐up and fashion are interpreted using the concepts of bricolage (Lévi‐Strauss), tactics (Certeau) and narrative identity (Ricœur). The findings resonate with Thompson and Haytko’s portrayal of a dialogical relationship between consumers and a system of countervailing fashion meanings and with Murray’s exposition of a dialectical and discursive tension between sign‐experimentation and sign‐domination. But beyond this we elucidate the process by which teenagers also acquire, from personal social milieu, skills and tactics through which they toy with preconstrained sartorial symbolism to construct the plot line of their own lives which, in turn, reflects their past, defines their present self and presages their future.

How effective is creativity? Emotive content in TV advertising does not increase attention

Emotive creativity is generally believed to facilitate communication by increasing attention. However, during relaxed TV viewing, psychology suggests we may pay less not more attention to emotive ads. An experiment conducted in a realistic viewing environment found that ads that were high in emotive content correlated with a 20 percent lower level of attention and that attention toward these ads was unlikely to decline on repeat viewing. This supports the idea that TV advertising is not systematically processed but is automatically processed in response to the stimuli presented. We speculate that emotive creativity may benefit brand TV advertising by lowering attention and inhibiting counter-argument.ABSTRACT Emotive creativity is generally believed to facilitate communication by increasing attention. However, during relaxed TV viewing, psychology suggests we may pay less not more attention to emotive ads. An experiment conducted in a realistic viewing environment found that ads that were high in emotive content correlated with a 20 percent lower level of attention and that attention toward these ads was unlikely to decline on repeat viewing. This supports the idea that TV advertising is not systematically processed but is automatically processed in response to the stimuli presented. We speculate that emotive creativity may benefit brand TV advertising by lowering attention and inhibiting counter-argument.

The Role of Commodified Celebrities in Children's Moral Development: The Case of David Beckham

This paper explores some of the subtle and complex roles which consumption culture may play in the moral development of children. We concentrate on the role of commodified celebrities in children’s understanding of moral questions, taking English soccer hero David Beckham as an example. We address three questions: first, how do children draw on celebrities to shape their understanding of moral issues?; second, what kind of morality is likely to emerge when iconic celebrities become a site in which children’s relationship to moral issues is developed?; and third, what does this mean for children’s understanding of a global media culture which revolves around a culture of spectacle and commodified celebrity? Our findings emphasise both the role of consumption culture as a framework within which moral unfolding happens, and children’s ability to construct morally engaged positions which hold complexity and ambivalence around specific aspects of consumption culture. We propose that the kind of morality that emerges herein can be characterised as ambivalent, contested, negotiated, located and mediated.

Researching children: are we getting it right? A discussion of ethics

As the role of children in society becomes more prominent, their participation in research seems set to increase. In this paper we review whether we are getting the ethics of childrens research right. We show that, since the late 1980s, children have been treated universally as a special case and that they have been accorded their own special set of human rights (UNCRC), which primarily grants them rights to protection and participation. We go on to argue (with practical examples) that the core MRS research principles of well-being, voluntary informed consent and privacy/confidentiality must be applied to children with particular caution and care. We note that, as research with children grows and as new techniques are developed, we are presented with fresh challenges for keeping children safe and maintaining their trust. We end by presenting the results of a survey that sought childrens views on being research participants in a quite sensitive piece of research. We found that children are highly appreciative of being consulted about their lives in general and being asked about their feelings. However we also found that some children can be uncomfortable with some of the issues raised and can feel compelled to answer the questions. We conclude that, while we have good industry codes, ethics evolves with shifting social, political and cultural patterns, and we need to keep challenging ourselves to maintain best practice.

“It does my head in … buy it, buy it, buy it!” The commercialisation of UK children's web sites

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” o...

Through the paradigm funnel: a conceptual tool for literature analysis

This paper introduces the “paradigm funnel” as a research tool and suggests how it could be used to produce enlightened analysis of complex literatures. This article first explores the use of Kuhns notion of a paradigm. It goes on to introduce the notion of a “paradigm funnel” Next it explains the four level construction of the funnel and points out the importance of the dynamics between these levels. In the main body of the article, a detailed example from an area of marketing literature is used to illustrate how the paradigm funnel can be used to structure an insightful literature review and to generate enlightened research thinking. It is suggested that this tool will be especially useful for doctoral students and for any researcher faced with a heterogeneous body of literature.

Relative importance of individual and social factors in improving adolescent health

Aims: In 2010, the English Department of Health launched a radical new public health strategy, which sees individual factors, such as self-esteem, as the key to improving all aspects of young people’s health. This article compares the strength of association between key adolescent health outcomes and a range of individual and social factors Methods: All participants aged 12–15 in the nationally representative 2008 Healthy Foundations survey were included. Six individual factors related to self-esteem, confidence and personal responsibility, and seven social factors related to family, peers, school and local area were investigated. Single-factor and multivariable logistic regression models were used to calculate the association between these factors and seven health outcomes (self-reported general health, physical activity, healthy eating, weight, smoking, alcohol intake, illicit drug use). Odds ratios were adjusted for gender, age and deprivation. Results: Individual factors such as self-esteem were associated with general health, physical activity and healthy eating. However, the influence of family, peers, school and local community appear to be equally important for these outcomes and more important for smoking, drug use and healthy weight. Conclusion: Self-esteem interventions alone are unlikely to be successful in improving adolescent health, particularly in tackling obesity and reducing substance misuse.