Children’s Perception of Television Commercial in Lagos State, Nigeria

Abstract

Television has been described as the primary medium used by companies to market their product to children. This consequently makes television
commercial has significant influence on children. The children tend to
believe what the adverts tell them about product and fail to realize that its
purpose is just to sell product to consumer. However, there is problem of
separating television adverts effect from influence of peers, parents, friends, and others. This constitutes one of the major problems confronting television advertising to children. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of children age on their understanding of television commercial in Lagos State, Nigeria. It will also consider the type of commercial watched, what interest the children and promotional theme used to persuade them in the television commercial. Primary data was generated through administration of 1500 pro-forma type questionnaire to the children using stratified sampling. This sample was taken from a total population of 55800 children in ten out of the twenty Local Government Areas in Lagos State. Kruskal Wallis tests used to determine whether significant relationships exist between children’s age and reaction to television advertising. The paper concludes that there is need to consider the age which the children should be exposed to television advertisement. Those children under five years should be exposed to too little advertisement while older children (7years and above) can be exposed to more advertisement.

Key Words: Perception, Television Commercial, Children Consumer
Product