“We'll Be Back in a Moment”: A Content Analysis of Advertisements in Children's Television in the 1950s

Abstract

The children's television advertising environment generally is studied from the 1970s onward. Indeed, so little academic research was reported in the 1950s that the decade has been referred to as the prehistory of research on children's television advertising. The authors rectify that oversight by examining commercials of the 1950s in programs aimed at the child market. Content analysis shows marked distinctions from commercials of subsequent decades in total commercial time, product type, promotional appeals, age and gender of participants, production variables, and controversial techniques. Some of the differences are due to the television technology and technical standards of the 1950s, but others illustrate growth in advertisers' and television executives' understanding of the medium as a way to reach specialized child audiences.