Language in children's television commercials: A sociolinguistic perspective

Abstract

At this point the television station stops the programming and shows a series of commercials. In this particular break there are two candy commercials, one cookie commercial, two station identification commercials, one movie commercial, and two sugared cereal commercials. Commercials aimed at children, like the ones mentioned above, have come under scrutiny from a variety of sources. Recently, the Federal Trade Commission held several hearings on this issue. Among the questions that are being asked by parents, government officials, and television personnel is to what extent is the promotion of commercial products in children's commercials deceptive? Some consumer groups feel that commercials are inherently deceptive (Action for Children's Television, 1977, 1979). They feel that young children are unable to fully understand the commercial intent. On the other side, television representatives have claimed that commercials are not deceptive since parents, not children, purchase the products. Parents can, and often do, say no to children's requests (interview with John Summers, The New York Times, 3-4-79). In this paper, we are concerned with two aspects of what is communicated to young children in the commercials described above. Our primary purpose in analyzing these commercials was to explore the construction of commercial messages targeted at young children. However, we also uncovered much misrepresentation and/or deception during the course of our investigation. In this article, we will discuss both types of findings: 1) how language in these commercials is used to promote the commercial products, and 2) how language is used to deceive young children.