Applying television ratings to advertising: Are parents informed?

Abstract

PurposeBoth television and movie rating systems are used to inform parents, caregivers and prospective viewers about the content which will appear in a program. While rating systems are fallible, they do provide information prior to viewing. Unfortunately, television advertisements are not rated. Can a parent or caregiver feel confident that a child restricted to a particular level of viewing content will avoid being exposed to advertising content which exceeds the program rating? The purpose of this paper is to explore the content of advertisements relative to an established rating system.Design/methodology/approachAdvertisements were assigned ratings based on the TV rating criteria. Comparisons between advertisement ratings and program ratings are provided. Additionally, advertisements are examined for unrated mature themes.FindingsMore than half of the advertisements analyzed across all program ratings were deemed appropriate for all audiences. However, it was discovered that advertisement content exceeded the content rating of the program during which it aired over 20 per cent of the time.Originality/valueThe findings show that the content of about one in every five television advertisements will have content that exceeds the content rating of the program in which the advertisement appears. This has the potential to undermine parental or caregiver restrictions on a child’s viewing content.