Catching Them Young: Representations and Images of Children in Nigerian Television Advertisements

Abstract

The television medium more than other types of media, represents one of the most powerful media that affect children's development,  perception, and identity formation. Children are mostly fascinated by the television because of its audiovisual qualities. This explains the  natural preference and affection for television because it not only entertains but also portrays characters in a virtual form that the children can easily identify with. Advertising messages are one of the contents of the media that are often powerful, persuasive, and  influential in shaping attitudes and behaviour of consumers. Children have in recent times been recognized as one of the major consumers of these advertisements. Against this backdrop, this paper focuses on an appraisal of children representations and portrayals  in the various television advertisements in Nigeria. The findings from the study suggest that children are portrayed more in product  advertisements while young females face stereotypical representations. The paper recommends that more accurate and favourable  representation of children in different roles and character formation should be used by the advertisement media as a means to motivate  children towards attainment of positive role orientation