ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to describe the history of advertising to children. Most of the story takes place in the United States; developments in, for example, China and India, are not covered. However, there is no reason to believe that the major themes-rapid advances in communication technology, tension and potential conflict between the interests of commerce and the consumer, and the various issues that emerged since the mid-1950s when television became popular-are not found in most of the European countries, although the relationship between public broadcasting and national identity might well be more salient in Europe. But that story remains to be written, and we focus on the United States here. In another chapter, Huesmann and Skoric have written about another central concern that surrounds television-the portrayal and effects of violent behavior-and cite evidence that there is no relationship in time between research findings and public concern, suggesting that concern is orchestrated and adopted by politicians to suit their own ends. There is no reason to believe that advertising to children has never been used as a political tool, and the reader should interpret the evidence with that in mind.
