Advertising Connoisseurs: Children's Active Engagement with and Enjoyment of Television Advertising

The literature pertaining to advertising and children has tended to focus on how advertising affects children at cognitive, attitudinal and behavioural levels. A key element of the debate has been the extent to which children understand advertising as a mode of commercial communication, and the potential associated outcomes such as advertising scepticism and pester power. This paper adopts a different approach by exploring the extent to which television advertising can constitute a resource for a child's own use and enjoyment. As part of an interpretive study of a group of Irish children aged seven to nine years which explores their relationship with advertising this paper focuses on the specific advertising techniques to which children are attracted. It is suggested that the label of advertising connoisseurs can be applied to many of the children in this study, who, far from being passive recipients of advertising, are actively engaging with, and enjoying this form of communication.