Let the children be fed ethically: an explorative study on children’s advertising and advertising regulations in Sri Lanka

Children appear especially influenced by TV advertisements because of the medium’s multi-sensory stimulation and its potential for product over-representation. By using subjective camera angles, cleaver editing, film speed adjustments and child actors who radiate product satisfaction, advertisers have been accused of exploiting a child’s vulnerability.

Stern and Resnik (1978)

According to the available academic literature, effects of advertising on children are generally based on two paradigms: the paradigm of the empowerment child and that of the vulnerable child. The empowerment child paradigm stipulates that children should be viewed as skilled and streetwise consumers, capable of critically processing commercial messages. A research on advertising efforts, based on the vulnerable child paradigm, articulates that children lack the cognitive skills to protect themselves against advertising messages. Further, the vulnerable child paradigm emphasizes that children are more susceptible than adults to the seductive impulses of commercials. However, research into the unintended advertising effects has mostly focused on three dependent variables: materialism, parent–child conflict, and unhappiness.

According to previous research, advertising enhances materialism (Greenberg & Brand, 1993; Liebert, 1986; Pollay, 1986; Wulfemeyer & Mueller, 1992). Similarly, advertising for children causes parent–child conflict (Atkin, 1980; Goldberg & Gorn, 1978; Robertson, 1979). Advertising makes children unhappy. When children do not receive the requested products, they become disappointed (Atkin, 1980; Goldberg and Gorn, 1978).

1. Methodology and research focus

The purpose of this research paper is twofold. Firstly, to content analyze the message strategies or tactics which advertisers use to influence children, to find out the information content of children’s television advertisements, and to find out the surroundings of the children’s advertisements, and secondly, to find out whether these so-called advertisements for children are within the guidelines and rules of existing advertising laws, codes of ethics and regulations that exist in Sri Lanka to safeguard children from unintended effects of advertising. From the previous studies on the subject, researchers were able to formulate two hypotheses for this research. This research paper is important not only for understanding the social effects of media advertising on children of different ages, but also for policy- and decision-making.

Hypothesis 1. Just (like) as in other developed countries, in Sri Lanka, paid advertising to children primarily involves television spots that feature toys and food products, most of which are high in fat and sugar and low in nutritional value.

Hypothesis 2. The existing laws in Sri Lanka about advertising for children are not as effective as desirable to deter the ill effects of advertising on children.

The period of scrutiny was three months. All the advertisements targeting mostly children in the three leading television stations, namely government-owned state Rupavahine channel and privately owned “Sirasa” Television Channel and ITN, Independent Television Network, again owned by the government, were monitored by the researchers. However, since daily observations consume much valuable time, for the purpose of this research, most of the television channels were downloaded from the YouTube and saved in the computer.

Childhood obesity is a serious and escalating public health concern in many countries due to the proliferation and omnipresence of advertisements aimed at adults and children, and yet, children, especially, are targeted as never before by marketing for high-calorie, nutritionally deficient foods. Overweight children are at a risk of a number of medical problems, including hypertension, asthma (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2003), and type 2 diabetes, a disease previously found primarily in adults (Sinha et al., 2002,). Since 1980, the proportion of overweight children aged 6–11 has doubled to 15.3%; for adolescents, the rate has tripled to 15.5% (Ogden, Carroll, & Johnson, 2002). In recent years, the World Health Organization (WHO 2003), the Institute of Medicine (McGinnis, Goodman, & Kraak, 2006), and the British Food Commission (Dalmeny, Hanna, & Lobstein, 2004) conducted reviews of academic research pointing to a link between child-targeted marketing and childhood obesity. The 2006 report released by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) found that “for younger and older children, the evidence clearly supports the finding that television advertising influences their food and beverage purchase requests” (McGinnis et al., 2006). Moreover, of the $200 billion spent by children and youth consumers, the four categories leading in sales are candy and snack foods, soft drinks, fast food, and cereal (McGinnis et al., 2006, p. 22). The IOM’s findings underscore the important results of the 2003 review conducted by the WHO, which concluded that “the heavy marketing of high-calorie and low-nutrient foods and fast food outlets represents a probable increased risk for childhood obesity” (McGinnis et al., 2006). With this alarming background, we look to assess the advertising for children in Sri Lanka.

Before looking into the content and strategies of products advertised for children, in Sri Lanka, which deals with the first hypothesis, we first look into the existing rules and regulations that govern children’s advertising in Sri Lanka to test our hypothesis two. Are there enough clauses in Sri Lanka that protect vulnerable and innocent children from the market-driven advertisers? How effective are these regulations when it comes to product advertising for children? An inherent legal principle holds that advertising must be “fair” and “not deceptive” in order to enjoy the protected status under the law. Yet, the limitations in young children’s comprehension of commercial messages often have been argued to raise fundamental questions of fairness (Choate, 1980; Federal Trade Commission, 1978; Kunkel & Roberts, 1991).

Although the unintended efforts of commercials raise important social issues, the fundamental policy concern surrounding children and television advertising revolves around the question of fairness. Are young children, who possess only a limited capability for evaluating commercial persuasion, fair targets for advertising? Is it fair to allow unlimited advertising during children’s programming, or should restrictions be placed on the amount of commercials? Does fairness require special safeguards to limit certain types of strategies directed at children?

Sri Lankan Rupavahinie (Television) corporation code of advertising standards and practice code, issued in 1982 and revised in November 1985, says the following on advertising aimed at children:

No products or service may be advertised and no method of advertising may be used in association with a programme intended for children or which large numbers of children are likely to see, which might result in harm to them physically, mentally or morally, and no method of advertising may be employed which takes advantage of the natural credulity and sense of loyalty of children.

In particular, it says, (a) No advertisement which encourages children to enter strange places or to converse with strangers in an effort to collect coupons, wrappers, labels, etc. should be allowed. The details of any collecting schemes must be submitted for investigation to ensure that the scheme contains no element of danger to children. (b) No advertisement for a commercial product or service should be allowed if it contains any appeal to children which suggests in any way that unless the children themselves buy, or encourage other people to buy the product or service, they will be failing in some duty or lacking in loyalty toward some person or organization, whether that person or organization is the one making the appeal or not. (c) No advertisement should be allowed which leads children to believe that if they do not own the product advertised, they will be inferior in some way to other children or that they are liable to be held in contempt or ridicule for not owing it. (d) No advertisement dealing with the activities of a club should be allowed without the submission of satisfactory evidence that the club is carefully supervised in the matter of the behavior of the children and the company they keep, and that there is no suggestion of the club being a secret society. (e) While it is recognized that children are not the direct purchasers of many products over which they are naturally allowed to exercise preference, care should be taken that they are not encouraged to make of themselves a nuisance to other people in the interest of any particular product or service. In an advertisement offering a free gift, a premium or a competition for children, the main emphasis of the advertisement must be on the product with which the offer is associated. (f) If there is to be reference to a competition for children in an advertisement, the published rules must be submitted for approval before the advertisement can be accepted. The value of prizes and the chances of one must not be exaggerated. (g) To help in the fair portrayal of free gifts for children, an advertisement should, where necessary, make it easy to see the true size of a gift by showing it in relation to some common object by which its scale can be judged. After explaining the clauses of code of advertising standards and practice in the above manner about advertising and children, the document explains in detail about the precautions advertisers should take when making use of children in product advertising. Most of the precautions about physical safety of the children appearing in product advertisements speak of the following:

The Child in Advertisements – The appearance of children in advertisements is subject to the following conditions,

(a)	employment – it should be noted that the conditions under which children are employed in the making of advertisements are governed by certain provisions of the law.
(b)	contributions to safety – any situation in which children are to be seen in television ads should be carefully considered from the point of view of safety.

In particular:

(1)	Children should not appear to be unattended in street scenes, unless they are obviously old enough to be responsible for their own safety; should not be shown playing on the road, unless it is clearly shown to be a play street or other safe area; should not be shown stepping carelessly off the pavement or crossing the road without due care; in busy street scenes, they should be shown to use zebra crossing on the road; and should be otherwise seen in general, as pedestrians or cyclists, to behave in accordance with the highway code.
(2)	Children should not be seen leaning dangerously out of windows or over bridges, or climbing dangerous cliffs.
(3)	Small children should not be shown climbing up to high shelves or reaching up to take things from a table above their heads.
(4)	Medicines, disinfections, antiseptics, and caustic substances must not be shown within reach of children without close parental supervision nor should children should be shown using these products in any way.
(5)	Children must not be shown using matches or any gas, paraffin, petrol, and mechanical or mains-powered appliances which could lead to their suffering burns, electrical shock, or other injury.
(6)	Children must not be shown driving or riding on agricultural machines (including tractor-drawn carts or implements).
(7)	An open fire in a domestic scene in an advertisement must always have a fireguard clearly visible if a child is included in the scene.
(8)	Good Manners and Behavior – children seen in advertisements should be reasonably well mannered and well behaved.

In addition to all these, there are also regulations made by the Minister of Health in consultation with the Food Advertising committee under section of the Food Act no 26 of 1980. It is published in the Gazette No. 137/69 on Wednesday, 19 January 2005. Keeping all these as a bench mark, the researchers closely monitored all the advertising aimed at children for three months and noticed the following violations of the advice given in the regulations and code of ethics.

Knorr chicken cube advertisement – sponsored by Unilever Sri Lanka on Independent Television Network – shows children having a meal with parents but emphasizing chicken’s taste in dhal curry. Is chicken taste necessary in dhal curry? Dhal Curry should taste like dhal, not chicken. Children are “told” to expect chicken taste in dhal or is it the chicken taste that makes it superior? These are the questions that arise in our minds.

Lifebuoy – hand wash – sponsored by Unilever Sri Lanka in the same. ITN channel – shows children in a classroom eating hamburger rather than a nutritious meal advocated by school and government authorities. Further, it shows hand washing as a fast action – 6 s. This advertisement is definitely not realistic. Children should be instructed properly about the need to wash hands, and scrubbing nails to avoid germs that cause diseases.

Kist chocolate cream biscuit advertisement, sponsored by Cargills Ceylon PLC, appearing in the same channel, raises the following ethical question: Is it necessary to show kids getting chocolate biscuit all over their mouth and face? The researchers feel that it is not realistic and may teach bad habits for children. Enjoyment can be shown in another way – not a greedy way of consuming biscuits even by very young children.

MD Jam advertisment – sponsored by Lanka Canneries – shows jam as an energy source. This does not conform to Labeling and Advertising Regulations (2005) – specially Section (13) which says that “ no label relating to any food shall contain a false claim or misleading description of such food in such a manner as to mislead the purchaser or consumer of such food.” Further, the following violations were also noted by the researchers in the following advertisements aimed at children.

In magic ice cream advertisement: children have applied chocolate all over their faces and one girl eats the chocolate that was on her face using her finger. In Knorr soup advertisement, a small boy is drinking the remaining of the soup keeping the soup bowl in his mouth without using a spoon. By this, the soup is applied to the upper lip of the boy. It seems as if he is greedy and it is against table manners. In Lifebuoy hand wash advertisement, some of the students are shown seated on school desks while having their foods. One boy is speaking to his friends in a louder voice while having some food in his mouth. All the students laugh loudly while they are eating. One boy licks his finger. All these things are against table manners, namely violating the guidelines given in the code of ethics. These students eat fast food like hamburger rather than take a nutritious meal advocated by school and government authorities. In Pears baby soap advertisement, a mother opens the shower while the little girl is holding the shower pointed at her face. Suddenly water spurts out from the shower and strikes the little girl’s face. Such a thing could affect the respiratory system of the girl.

When one reads through the above-mentioned documents and studies the examples of advertisements aimed at children, the first impression is that some of the claws stipulated by the code of ethics are quite vague. There are loopholes in some of these clauses where one can get away cleverly without violating some of the main principles. Therefore, our second hypothesis was proved about the children’s advertisement in Sri Lanka.

Considering past research, as mentioned at the beginning of this paper, about the relationship between advertising exposure and patterns of consumptions, it is likely that the levels of advertizing of high-fat/high-sugar foods, and the targeting of these advertisements during high-rating periods are contributing to excess energy consumption and overweight and obesity among children and there is no mention at all about such dangers in these regulations. Another weakness of the above regulations is that they are not mandatory but voluntary from the part of the advertisers. Therefore, the researchers feel that voluntary regulations may not be sufficient, and that more transparent, enforceable rules and regulations may be required.

After looking at the documents that directly deal with ethics of children’s advertising from government-owned Sri Lanka’s official television channel, and the Gazette, issued in 1985 about food labeling, we now look into the content of advertising for children in Sri Lanka. Tables 1-3 show our findings.

Table 1 Content, feelings, and buying rational

No	Ad	Product use (directly/indirectly/no use)	Feeling	Usage on screen	Buying rational
1.	Cargills Magic Ice creme	Direct use	Relaxation, fun, happiness	Full screen is used	Pleasing product association, product enjoyment
2.	Coca Cola	Direct use	Happiness, love, unity	Full screen	Reduced price, product enjoyment
3.	Maggi- rasa musu(Noodles)	Direct use	Care, pride, love, affection, kindness	Used in about 4 shots	Product qualities, product enjoyment
4.	MD Orange drink	Direct use	Fun, happiness, relaxation	Full screen	Product quality, product enjoyment, pleasing product association
5.	Motha jelly	Direct use	Fun, love, affection, happiness, verbal derogation	Full screen	Values, product enjoyment, product qualities
6.	Anchor Pedia Pro (Milk powder)	Direct use	Surprised, affection, love	Full screen	Product qualities
7.	Signal (tooth paste)	Direct use	Aggression, excitement, fun, surprise, victory, violence, fortuitous destruction	Full screen	Pleasing product association, product enjoyment, product qualities
8.	Johnson’s baby (soap)	Direct use	Affection, love, care, satisfaction, kindness	Full screen	Pleasing product association, product qualities
9.	Knorr soup	Direct use	Fun, affection, love, satisfaction, aggression	Full screen	Product qualities, product enjoyment
10.	Lifebuoy hand wash (deterrent)	Direct use	Oral (insults) Fun, happiness, humour,	Only 4 shots	Product qualities, superiority of the product, values
11.	Michael & Dennis – Signal (tooth paste)	Direct use	Humour, fun, scary, verbal threatening	Full screen	Values
12.	Knorr soupy noodles	Direct use	Fun, happiness	Full screen	Pleasing product association, product qualities
13.	Pears baby	Direct use	Kindness, love, fun	Full screen	Pleasing product association, product enjoyment

Table 2 Use of children and gender and various roles

No.	Advertisement	Presence/absence of children	Gender bias	Gender stereotypes	Sex role	Representation of minorities
						Tamil	Muslim	Burger
1.	Cargills Magic	Present	No	Animated fairies are females, two young girls with one boy kissing him represents sex objects, family cares for the little daughter	Heterosexual relationships
2.	Coca Cola	Present	No	Mother – makes decision on buying food items and buys goods for the family, takes care of the family. Son is given practice on saving and money handling	Mother–son bond
3.	Maggi- rasa musu	Present	No	Mother – cooks, cleans the house, shows love for her children, worries about the children’s matters	Mother–son bond
4.	MD Orange	Present	No	Females – Serving and making the drinks. Males – professional (young), relaxing (old),
5.	Motha jelly	Present	No	Professional mother carries food items for the family. Professional father	Mother–son, father–daughter bond
6.	Anchor Pedia Pro	Present	No	Mother (housewife) takes care of the child, feeds him, teaches him, cares about the nutrition	Mother–son bond
7.	Signal	Present	Yes	Sons are active and aggressively playful, mother-prepares the bed for sons. Video games – male game	Mother–son bond
8.	Knorr soup	Present	No	Housewife mother decides on the food to be given to the son, prepares meals	Mother–son bond
9.	Lifebuoy hand wash	Present	No	Doctor – male, Females – more concern about cleanness
10.	Michael & Dennis - Signal	Present	Yes	Mother – concerns about her beauty. Father – concerns about son’s dental health	Father–son bond
11.	Knorr soupy noodles	Present	No	Mother – prepares meals, serves meals for children. Male children – dominating the dining table

Table 3 Camera movements, timings, and pace

No.	Ad	Transitions	No of transitions used	Duration (s)	Target audience		Pace
					male	Female	Fast	Slow
1.	Cargills Magic	Cut, dissolve, wipe, flash	23	45	√	√		√
2.	Coca Cola	Cut, dissolve	19	31	√	√		√
3.	Maggi- rasa musu	Cut	20	32	√	√		√
4.	MD Orange	Cut	26	34	√	√	√
5.	Motha jelly	Cut, dissolve	24	53	√	√		√
6.	Anchor Pedia Pro	Cut	19	20		√	√
7.	Signal	Cut, wipe, flash	23	31	√		√
8.	Johnson’s baby	Cut	32	42		√		√
9.	Knorr soup	Cut	24	29	√	√	√
10.	Lifebuoy hand wash	Cut	28	46	√	√		√
11.	Micheal & Dennis - Signal	Cut	03	32	√			√
12.	Knorr soupy noodles	Cut	35	41	√	√	√
13.	Pears baby	Cut	35	30		√	√

2. Discussion

Our first hypothesis for this research was that just like in any other developed country, in Sri Lanka, paid advertising to children primarily involves television spots that feature toys and food products, most of which are high in fat and sugar and low in nutritional value. Though relatively we did not find many toys advertised in advertisements aimed at children, we found that in Sri Lanka, too, most food products advertised for children were high in fat and sugar and low in nutritional value.

Our second hypothesis was that the existing laws about advertising for children in Sri Lanka were not as effective as desirable to deter the ill effects of advertising on children. This was convincingly proved and we were able to cite examples of violations. Overall, in Sri Lanka, most of the advertisements on all television channels for children were for food, and they contained high-fat and high-sugar foods. Our research shows that children in Sri Lanka have a high-level exposure to advertising for unhealthy food products. When we look at the above tables, we note that advertisers use a variety of techniques to attract children and parents to increase product purchases. These include a repetition of buying rational, appealing to emotions and different feelings, various camera techniques, catchy and interesting production techniques, etc. In addition, gender stereotypes are also enforced in children by these advertisements. From the content of the advertisements we have analyzed, it is evident that the advertized diet contrasts sharply with that of the recommended nutrients by dieticians. And themes of fun, fantasy, or taste encourage hedonism instead of nutrition and knowledge. Our analysis detailed in the above tables shows that the most common theme or appeal (i.e. persuasive strategy) employed in advertising to children in Sri Lanka is associating the product with fun and happiness, rather than providing any factual product-related information.

Our study further demonstrates that, though there are ethical guidelines, they are not fully observed, and children’s exposure to food advertising remains disproportionately high compared to the promotion of more healthful foods. Though there is not much research done in Sri Lanka about the relationship between advertising exposure and patterns of food consumption, it is likely that the levels of advertising of high-fat, high-sugar foods, and the targeting of these during high-ratings periods are contributing to excess energy consumption and overweight and obesity among Sri Lankan Children. It is interesting to note here that, two researchers in Sri Lanka (Samaraweera & Samanthi, 2010) found that the advertising during the favorite television programmes of children of Sri Lanka, has a considerable influence on food demand of children.

From this study, it can also be concluded that voluntary regulations and guidelines and code of ethics may not be sufficient, and more transparent, enforceable regulations may be required to reduce the pervasiveness of “non-core-food,” which we have mentioned in this research. We also suggest that advertising agencies should identify their social responsibility of creating a better future for children rather than be profit oriented. The child-focused advertising should be controlled by them by following appropriate business advertising ethics. The researchers feel that the government has the key role of prohibiting and controlling unethical advertisements using well-planned criteria. Since there is a dearth of research about children’s advertisements in Sri Lanka, and its relationship with the food habits of children, there is more scope for further research in this important area, especially about relationship between obesity and food consumed by children. In order to soften the ill effects of commercial advertisements, we also recommend media literacy workshops for parents and children, and already existing parent–teacher associations in various schools to educate parents about the dangers of advertising on children. Finally, consumer protection societies should be more vigilant and inform the policy-makers about various violations and loop holes in the existing regulations and code of ethics. Some of these positive activities will surely bring about a new awareness and enforce advertisers to comply with rules, regulations, and ethics.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.