ABSTRACT
Children are bombarded with advertising messages. Kunkel (2001) has calculated that the typical American child sees well over 40,000 commercials per year on TV, not to mention the vast number of ads they may be exposed to on the Internet, in magazines, or on their own school campuses. These persuasive messages seem to be having a positive impact on youngsters’ annual spending. A total of $23.4 billion was spent in 1997 by 4-to 12-year-olds (McNeal, 1999), which is up substantially from $17.1 billion in 1994 and $4.2 billion in 1984. Such expenditures are independent of their direct influence in $188 billion of annual household purchases.
