ASSESSMENT OF CHILDREN'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS CARTOON AND NON-CARTOON TV ADVERTISEMENTS IN PAKISTAN Muhammad Haroon Assistant Professor Faculty of ManagementSciences, NUML, Islamabad, Pakistan. Hafiz Muhammad Fakhar Zaman (PhD Scholar) Department of Management Sciences, Al-Khair University, AJK, Pakistan. Abstract Huma Rasheed Department of Management Sciences, NUML, Islamabad. Muhammad Yousuf Khan Marri (PhD Scholar) Senior Scientific Officer (SSO) Social Sciences Division, Pakistan Agriculture Research Council HQ, Islamabad. Yasir Mehmood Raja (PhD Scholar) Department of Management Sciences, Al Khair University, AJK, Pakistan The study craves to find out the impact of Cartoon and Non-Cartoon TV Advertising on the attitudes of children between 8-12 years of age, regarding the factors of entertainment and credibility, in Pakistan. Due to the usage of cartoons in advertisements, children develop different attitudes towards them that can be favorable or nonfavorable, in terms of entertainment and credibility. The study reveals a more positive attitude of children towards Cartoon TV Advertising, in contrast to Non-cartoon TV Advertising. Children regard Cartoon TV Advertisements to be more entertaining than Non-Cartoon TV Advertisements and they like watching them. Contrarily, the credibility aspect of attitude is lower for Cartoon TV Advertisements as compared to Non-Cartoon TV Advertisements. Thus, children trust Non-Cartoon TV Advertisements more than Cartoon TV Advertisements. Moreover, the general trend of attitude of girls towards advertising is more favorable than it is for boys. Key words: Cartoon, Advertisement, Non- Cartoon, TV 1. Introduction The present day customer is showered with thousands of advertisements per day. While the number of advertisements continues to increase, the attention of human beings has become a scarce commodity, creating an Attention Economy. Marketers all over the world are in a war to grasp most of the attention of their customers; thus, leading to the invention of new and naïve marketing practices, all intended to influence human attitudes and behaviors. One such practice is the introduction of cartoon characters in advertisements, specially targeted at children. Children represent a huge yet vulnerable portion of the consumer market. They have disposable incomes and a great influence on parental purchasing decisions (Sandra, 2008); thus making them a profitable market segment. Although the use of cartoons in advertisements is an old practice, yet it is an eminent way of advertising products towards COPY RIGHT 2012 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 753
children in particular. This form of advertising could be persuasive in nature, as it makes children do things, like purchase brands of goods or services or influence buying decisions of parents. According to Latif and Zain (2011), TV advertisements in Pakistan have triggered an inclination of children towards unnecessary purchasing, leading towards materialism. Children also tend to copy the content they view in TV advertisements (Jam, F. A. et al, 2010). Thus, in response to the aggressive content of TV advertisements, children residing in Pakistan have adapted more aggressive attitudes than before (Latif, A. & Zain, 2011). Even young children have the ability to form certain attitudes in response to the information broadcasted through television (Deborah, Brian & Bobby, 1983). This persuasive nature of advertising makes it a sensitive issue in the instance of children who are unaware of the actual intentions behind these advertisements. Especially due to the usage of cartoons in advertisements, children develop different attitudes towards them that can be favorable or non-favorable. Thus, the study of children's general attitude toward cartoon and non-cartoon advertising is of the utmost importance. Such studies can prove to be useful for both practitioners and those responsible for advertising control. Practitioners have an urge to study the impacts of various advertising methods on the attitudes of children in order to improve the effectiveness of their advertisements. On the other hand, such studies are required by advertising control authorities to keep a check and balance on advertising techniques and ensure safe and healthy exposure of advertisements towards children. Thus, the assessment of children s attitude towards cartoon and non-cartoon advertisements in Pakistan, in terms of entertainment and credibility, could prove to be useful in the related set of circumstances. 2. Literature Review Marketing activities have exploded over time. In 2008, companies spend nearly $17 billion annually marketing to kids. This value is more than double than it was in 1992 (Lagorio, 2007). The average 8 to 13-year-old child watches, on average, of over 3 ½ hours of television a day. Children under the age of 11 or so have not fully developed their abilities to acquire, encode, organize, and retrieve information. This means in practice that they do not have adult-like abilities to use the information in commercial messages (O Barr, 2008). However, another study revealed that from the age of 8 onward, children develop some knowledge about advertising, some skepticism as they realize that ads are not only entertaining and informative but are sometimes untrue (Roedder John, 1999). This means that children above the age of 8 years understand the fact that what they see in TV advertisements may not always be credible. Some attempts have been made in the past to study the attitude of children towards advertisements, but they did not end up in proposing scales whose validity was fully assessed (Riecken and Samli, 1981; Rossiter, 1977). However, Christian Derbaix and Claude Pecheux (2003) formulated a scale to assess the attitude of children towards advertising in general. Several studies on children and advertising have examined children s ability to distinguish deception in advertising. One study found out that children can be effective decision makers, as they are capable of forming attitudes on the basis of information presented in television commercials (Deborah, Brian & Bobby, 1983). It was also established that TV advertising may also increase the habit of unnecessary purchasing and materialism COPY RIGHT 2012 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 754
among children. It affects children by increasing their food consumption pattern, shifting their attitude and leading towards unnecessary purchasing or materialism (Latif, A. & Zain, 2011). John (1999), in his study, exposed that when children were asked whether commercials always tell the truth, older children tend to be skeptical. He found out that 88% of third graders and 97% of six graders believe that advertising does not always tell the truth (John, 1999). Although, at the age of 8, children might be able to understand a lot about the intentions behind advertisements but they still have problems until the age of 12 years (Marshall, 2010). Over the years, the freedom of children to spend their disposable income according to their will has increased. Now, children have a reasonable income to spend and also influence parental decisions. In return, marketers attempt to determine where this money is spent (Sandra, 2008). The following research model was used for the study: 2.1 Model: 2.2. Hypothesis H 1: Children have more favorable attitude towards cartoon advertising, in terms of entertainment and credibility, as compared to non-cartoon advertising. H 2: Children have more favorable attitude towards entertainment and credibility, in terms of cartoon advertising, as compared to non-cartoon advertising. COPY RIGHT 2012 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 755
3. Methodology 3.1 Sampling & sample size 3.1.1. Technique: Non-probability, convenience sampling technique was used for data collection. 3.1.2. Size: The sample size for data collection consisted of 100 children. However, after sorting, 80 questionnaires with proper response were selected for analysis. 3.1.3. Characteristics: School going children, between 8-12 years of age, from the cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi were included in the sample. Special care was taken to ensure equal participation of both genders (i.e. male and female) and children belonging from different income groups. 3.2. Data collection The study is based on primary data. The tool used for data collection was questionnaire. In order to facilitate the children, questionnaire was designed with easily understandable language and. The 7 item scale of Christian Derbaix and Claude Pecheux (2003) was used as base of questionnaire for Cartoon and Non-Cartoon TV Advertisements. 4. Findings The filled questionnaires were rated. The highest score (4) was given to the highly agree option (YES), while the lowest score (1) was given to the highly disagree option (NO). As the questionnaire consisted of 14 options (7 for cartoon and 7 for non-cartoon), the highest total score for the questionnaire was 56 (4*14). The trends of the scores of questionnaires are as under: Table: 1 Score below 30 Score between 30-40 Score above 40 Girls 0% 63% 37% Boys 8% 92% 0% Total 4% 77.5% 18.5% The graph indicates that girls scored higher in the questionnaire. There was no girl who scored below 30, while there were a few girls scoring higher than 40. On the other hand, boys scored lower than girls in the questionnaire. No boy exceeded the score of 40 in the questionnaire, while a few scored below 30. The table, thus, depicts the trend that girls scored higher as compared to boys. The highest number of questionnaires fell in the scores between 30 and 40. The following table represents the mean scores of the questionnaires: Table: 2 (Mean Score) Cartoon Ads Non-Cartoon Ads Total Girls 21 18 39 Boys 20 15 35 Total 20.5 16.5 37 COPY RIGHT 2012 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 756
The overall mean score for the questionnaires was 37. As depicted, Cartoon TV Advertisements received higher scores as compared to Non-Cartoon TV Advertisements. Looking at the trends of individual scores of boys and girls, the mean score for girls is higher than boys. Now, we split the scores to find the mean scores for our two variables: Credibility and Entertainment. First we consider the response towards Cartoon TV Advertisements: Table: 3 (Mean) Credibility (Cartoon) Entertainment (Cartoon) Girls 5 16 Boys 3 17 Total 4 16.5 Figures in the table show that the credibility mean score for boys is quite low than girls. Similarly, boys have scored lower in entertainment factor as well. Now considering Non-Cartoon TV Advertisements: Table: 4 (Mean) Credibility (Non-Cartoon) Entertainment (Non-Cartoon) Girls 5 13 Boys 4 11 Total 4.5 12 The trend is as same as seen for the Cartoon TV Advertisements. Boys have scored lower in terms of credibility and entertainment as compared to girls. 5. Discussions As the higher scores represent a more positive attitude towards advertising, the results obtained from the data have highlighted some interesting facts. Overall, the response of children indicates a more positive attitude towards Cartoon TV Advertisements as compared to Non-Cartoon TV Advertisements. This coincides with our hypothesis: Children have more favorable attitude towards Cartoon TV Advertisements, in terms of entertainment and credibility, as compared to Non-Cartoon TV Advertisements. But when these findings are observed regarding the two factors of Credibility and Entertainment, it depicts that children regard Cartoon TV Advertisements as highly entertaining but in terms of credibility, children mistrust them. This trend of mistrust is seen to be higher in boys as compared to girls. As compared to boys, girls tend to trust and believe advertisements in general and cartoon advertisements in particular. The trend in Non-Cartoon TV Advertisements, however, reveals that girls have the same attitude, in terms of credibility, towards Non-Cartoon TV advertisements as well. Boys, on the other hand, tend to consider Non-Cartoon TV Advertisements more credible than Cartoon TV Advertisements. By observing the figures, it is revealed that children regard Cartoon TV Advertisements more entertaining than Non-Cartoon TV Advertisements; however, they regard Non-Cartoon TV Advertisements to be more credible than Cartoon TV Advertisements. COPY RIGHT 2012 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 757
6. Limitations & Further Research The study was conducted within the confined area of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The sample, therefore, might not be a true representative of the entire population of children between the ages of 8-12 years in Pakistan. Resultantly, the findings obtained might be different than those obtained from studies conducted in other areas of Pakistan. Moreover, due to the non-serious and careless nature of children, the responses through questionnaires may also be false, to some extent, and that may alter the correct reflection of the study. This study only focuses on the assessment of attitude towards Cartoon and Non-Cartoon TV Advertising of children falling in the age group of 8-12 years. Studies on other age groups of children living in different geographic regions of Pakistan can be pursued to better understand the impact of age on attitudes towards advertisements. Although the study examines a brief difference between attitude of boys and girls, profound studies on different attitudes of young girls and boys (gender differences) can also be conducted to observe the trends. Here, only the entertainment and credibility factors in attitude were assessed. Other factors (such as persuasion) can be used as basis for understanding different aspects of attitude towards Cartoon and Non-Cartoon TV Advertising. 7. Conclusion Although it is assumed that children are persuaded easily by the advertisements, the results of this study find out that children of age group between 8-12 years, in Pakistan, do not completely trust what they see in advertisements. They are aware of the fact that these advertisements sometimes exaggerate and the content in them may not always be trustworthy. However, children do feel that Cartoon TV Advertisements are more entertaining than Non-Cartoon TV Advertisements. This may be due to the fact that children are more attracted towards imaginary cartoon characters. Moreover, the humor in the Cartoon TV Advertisements may also be a factor that enhances a favorable attitude towards them. COPY RIGHT 2012 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 758
References Deborah L. Roedder, Brian Sternthal, Bobby J. Calder. (1983). Attitude-Behavior Consistency in Children's Responses to Television Advertising. Journal of Marketing Research, 20(4), 337-349. Derbaix, C. and Pecheux, C. (2003). A New Scale to Assess Children's Attitude toward TV Advertising. Journal of Advertising Research, 2003(Dec), 390-399. Jam, F. A. et al. (2010). Impact of Advertisement on Children Behavior: Evidence from Pakistan. European Journal of Social Sciences, 12(4), 663-670. John, D. R. (December 1999). Consumer Socialization of Children: A Retrospective Look at Twenty-Five Years of Research. Journal of Consumer Research, 26, 189. Lagorio, C. (2007). Resources: Marketing to Kids. CBSNews.com. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/14/fyi/main2798401.shtml Latif, A. & Zain. (2011). Effects of Television Advertising on Children: A Pakistani Perspective. European Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative Sciences, (30), 38-49. Marshall, D. (2010). Understanding Children as Consumers. Edinburgh, UK: SAGE Publications Ltd. Riecken, C, & C. Samli. (1981). Measuring Children's Attitudes toward Television Commercials: Extension and Replication. Journal of Consumer Research, 8(1), 57-61. Roedder-John, D. (1999). Consumer Socialization of Children: A Retrospective Look at Twenty-Five Years of Research. Journal of Consumer Research, 26(3), 183-213. Rossiter, J. R. (1977). Reliability of a Short Test Measuring Children's Attitudes toward TV Commercials. Journal of Consumer Research, 34(4), 179-84. Sandra L. Calvert. (2008). Children as Consumers: Advertising and Marketing. The Future of Children, 18(1), 205-234. William M. O Barr. (2008). Children and advertising. Advertising & Society Review, 9(4), Retrieved January 21, 2011, from Project MUSE database. COPY RIGHT 2012 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 759