ADVERTISING: DO CHILDREN DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN ADS AND PROGRAMMES?

Gunilla Jarlbro of the Swedish Consumers' Agency told the 200 professionals invited to attend the seminar that certain studies commissioned by advertisers have concluded that children between 3 and 6 years of age develop some skill in understanding advertising. However, she added that there is no empirical proof that an understanding of advertising enters into the cognitive repertory of children in this age range.Mrs Ulvskog suggested that unlike adults, young children are incapable of distinguishing advertising from programmes. No advert should therefore target young children as they are incapable of understanding what they hear and say. She argued that advertising for children is only desirable once they are of a sufficient age to understand its hidden objectives, subject to ethical rules drawn up by the industry itself.Swedish law has banned the advertising of products directed at children under 12 since 1991, and Sweden is now pressing for this ban to be extended across the EU through the 1989 Television Without Frontiers Directive, which the European Commission proposes to review in 2002. Advertisers argue that a tightening of Community legislation would damage the child advertising market estimated by the European Group of Television Advertising (EGTA) to be worth some Euro 31 billion. This Brussels-based pressure group points out that 94% of...