Seasame, open the door (Zimakamen) about ten minutes



Advertising to children in China:

A study of children’s TV media environment

Kara Chan, PhD*

Associate Professor

Department of Communication Studies

Hong Kong Baptist University

Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong

Telephone: (852) 3411-7836 Fax: (852) 3411-7890

Email: karachan@hkbu.edu.hk

Fanny Chan

Mphil. Student

Department of Communication Studies

Hong Kong Baptist University

Telephone: (852) 3411-5977

A paper presented at the

Korean Academy of Marketing Science

Annual conference, Seoul, Korea, May 22, 2004

Acknowledgement: The work described in this paper was fully supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. HKBU2022/01H)

Kara Chan (PhD, City University of Hong Kong) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University. Her research interests include cross-cultural advertising and consumer behaviour. She is the co-author of the book “Advertising to children in China”.

Fanny Chan is MPhil Student at the Department of Communication Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University. She graduated from the University of Hong Kong major in Psychology and minor in Statistics and Media Studies.

*Please send all correspondence to this author.

KAMS.doc; 13 April 2004

Advertising to children in China:

A study of children’s TV media environment

Abstract

As children have limited ability to read, marketing to children often uses television advertising. Effective marketing needs to have a thorough understanding of the media environment the children are exposed to advertising messages. A qualitative content analysis of a week’s children programs broadcast in China in 2003 was conducted. It was found that over 95 percent of the children’s programme broadcast on free-to-air national channels were locally produced. Three-quarters of the programs targeted at elementary school students, with the remaining one-quarter targeted at pre-school children, and teenagers. Chinese children’s TV programs largely reflected the masculine values, collective values, and high power distance discussed in Hofstede’s (1994) framework of cultural values. Competition for success, group activities, and yielding to authorities frequently occurred in media contents. Programs for teenagers resembled those for adults and themes like love and courtship were taboos in programs for teenagers.

Keywords: China / children / marketing / media content

Advertising to children in China:

A study of children’s TV media environment

Introduction

As a developing country, the pace of economic development of China is much faster than the other countries. China’s Gross National Product (GNP) reached 94,346 billion in year 2001 (China Infobank, 2003). An 8.2 per cent expansion in GDP in the first half of 2003 made China the world’s fastest growing economy. It overtook the United States in 2002 as the prime destination for foreign direct investment (Knyge, 2003). When the economy keeps on growing, it is expected that people will have more disposable income and are more likely to seek for satisfaction of higher order needs, such as entertainment and enjoyment.

Advertising to children in China, as well as in other parts of the world, often uses television as a medium. This is because children have limited ability to read and television has strong audio and visual demonstration power. The household penetration rate for television in China 2002 was 99.5% (China Infobank, 2003). This indicates that nearly every Chinese family has at least one TV set. The television audience in China reached 1.1 billion in 2003 (CCTV website, 2003). On average, urban households can access fifteen channels while rural households can access ten channels (Journalism Publishing News, 1998). China has a population of nearly 300 million children under age 14. A popular afternoon children programme on the Chinese Central TV station (CCTV) channel 1 on average attracted over 10 million people aged 4-14 (CVSC-TNS Research, 2002). Children often model people and events in television and media shape children’s behaviours by providing examples (Kane, Taub, and Hayes, 2000). Advertising messages are broadcast next to television programs. So, the television programs serve as a mediating context which communication of advertising messages takes place. In order to create persuasive advertising messages, advertisers need to pay attention to the children’s media environment in China. The current study investigates what types of programs Chinese children are exposed to and what kinds of values are being communicated to children through television. Implications for marketers and advertisers will be discussed.

Literature review

Children’s TV programme in China

In China, all mass media are owned by the state. CCTV, the national TV network, is under the Ministry for Radio, Film and Television. Private TV stations are strictly forbidden in China. CCTV, the only national TV broadcaster, operates 13 channels and broadcasts 330 regular programs. It provides a variety of programs including news, variety shows, dramas and imported movies (CCTV website, 2003).

All state-approved TV stations, including CCTV, broadcast children’s programs that ranged from two to eight hours a day. In a study in 1996, a typical week of CCTV broadcast consisted of 60 hours of children’s programs, with 29 percent children’s movie, 21 percent cartoon, and the remaining 49 percent songs, dances, and plays. Children’s programs contributed 7 percent of total daily programs (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 2000). The Chinese government’s policy regarding children’s TV programme was to provide children with nourishment and help them to develop morally, intellectually, and physically (Yang, 1995). Children’s TV programs were broadcast mainly on national CCTV channels 1, 7 and 8. A typical week of children’s programme on these three channels added up to about seven hours a day (Chan and McNeal, 2004). Regional TV channels, especially those in economically developed regions, also broadcast children’s programs. A survey in 1999 indicated that 89 percent of the regional TV channels carried children’s programs (Bu, 2001). On average, children programs were broadcast about 30 minutes a day and four times a week on regional TV channels. So, national TV on three channels together carried over twenty times the volume of children’s programs on regional TV.

In December 2003, CCTV launched the first national channel for children and teenagers. It broadcast 18 hours a day from 6am to 12am and the number of children programs increased from 15 to 28. The volume of children’s programs on CCTV was more than doubled. The target of the new channel consisted of four segments, children ages 0 to 6, elementary school children ages 6 to 12, secondary school children ages 12-18, and parents (Yu, 2004).

TV viewing among Chinese children

Studies of media usage in China, especially among its children, appear to be uncommon and certainly not comprehensive. In a survey of 529 high school students in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province in the 1980s, it was found that 88 percent of the urban and 11 percent of the rural students had TV sets at home. TV was regarded as the most favoured source of learning, and children’s favourite TV contents were drama among the entertainment category and sports among the news and documentary category (Research Group on Adolescence and Television, 1984). In a survey of 600 sixth grade and tenth grade students in Beijing in 1988, on average young people spent 1.3 hours each day watching TV. The time spent on radio, newspapers, and audiotapes were 0.8, 0.7, and 0.6 hours per day respectively (Greenberg et.al., 1991). In a survey of 2,288 Beijing children in 1998, the most popular media were television, books and newspapers (Bu, 1998). The media exposure in a week for these three popular media was: watching television (89 percent), reading books (73 percent), and reading newspapers (73 percent). A national survey of 3,173 grade 5-9 children conducted in 1996 found that their favourite TV programs include variety shows, action dramas, and cartoons (Bu, 2001). McNeal and Ji’s (1999) survey of 460 grades 4-6 Beijing children reported that TV viewing (97.3 percent) was much more common than readership of newspapers (72.9 percent) and magazines (60.4 percent), and radio listening (38.9 percent). On average, children spent 17.2 hours each week on watching TV, which was far greater than the total time spent on reading newspapers (2.7 hours) and magazines (2.6 hours) and listening to the radio (6.3 hours). Boys watched significantly more TV than girls on weekends (4.8 hours versus 3.8 hours), and their readership of magazines was slightly higher than that of girls (64.5 percent versus 55.3 percent). Heavy TV viewers were less likely to read newspapers than moderate TV viewers and light TV viewers. In Chan and McNeal’s (2003) survey of 1,665 parents in urban China, 98 percent of them reported some control of children’s TV viewing. Watching TV with children was more common on weekends than on weekdays.

Cultural values in media content

Numerous studies have shown that media content is a reflection of the culture and philosophies of the society. Hofstede (1994, p. 4) defined culture as “collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from those of another.” Hofstede identified four dimensions of culture including power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, and masculinity. Power distance refers to the extent to which less powerful members of a society accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. It is reflected in the values of both the less powerful and more powerful members of society and it influences the way people accept and give authority. The second dimension, called uncertainty avoidance, focuses on how societies deal with unknown aspects of the future. One characteristic of a high uncertainty avoidance culture is that it has little tolerance for ambiguity in one’s perceptions. The individualism/collectivism dimension describes the relationship between the individuals. An individualistic society places higher emphasis on individual variety and pleasure whereas a collective society places collective goals ahead of personal goals. The fourth dimension is defined as the degree to which a society is characterized by masculinity (assertiveness) versus femininity (nurturance). Masculinity stands for a preference in society for achievement, heroism, assertiveness, and material success. Its opposite, femininity, stands for a preference for relationships, modesty, caring for the weak, and the quality of life. For example, Ji and McNeal’s (2001) comparative study of US and Chinese children’s television commercials found that Chinese commercials reflect China’s traditional cultural values and its social and economic development levels.

Methodology

The current study was conducted before the launch of the CCTV children and youth channel. When the study was conducted, most of the national children’s programs are broadcast daily on channels CCTV-1, CCTV-7 and CCTV-8. Due to signal clash, it is not possible to receive CCTV-8 in Hong Kong. All the children’s programs broadcast on CCTV-1 were also carried on CCTV-7. Therefore, CCTV-7 was selected for the study. CCTV-7 is a channel with programs targeted to children and youths. The station broadcast episodes of continuing series from Monday to Friday in the same time slots (early mornings and late afternoons). Different series are shown on Saturday and Sunday mornings. With this scheduling pattern in mind, we included three days in the sample: two weekdays and one Sunday during the week May 26 to June 1, 2003. Hofstede’s (1994) framework of cultural values was used as a reference frame for analysis.

Findings

Table 1 represents a full list of sampled programs and nations of origin. Duration of children’s programs ranged from 10 to 50 minutes, with shorter programs targeting at younger audience. Types of programme included quizzes, talk shows, news, documentaries, dramas and cartoon series. Longer programs were usually divided into three to four segments that each last 10 to 20 minutes. About two thirds of the programs in terms of time duration were broadcast in the first run and the remaining one third were replays. Nearly all the programs were locally produced and only 3 percent were imported. Close to eighty percent of the programme time were programs for elementary school students. The rest of the programme times were equally split between programs for preschool and secondary school students.

[INSERT TABLE 1 ABOUT HERE]

The following sections briefly introduce the media contents of each of the children’s programs included in the sample. Programs are sorted by ascending age of the target audience. After the brief description, we are going to discuss some common themes that frequently occurred.

The Seven-Piece Puzzles (Qiqiaoban) was a 10-minute programme targeted at preschool children. The programme was in a very slow pace with infrequent cuts and camera transitions. The host was a mother-like lady aged around 25 to 30. It was produced in a fantasy setting of a garden with a puppet boy and a puppet dragonfly (See figure 1a). In one episode, the host played the “I spy” game with the audience. She asked the children to guess an animal with clues such as it can swim; it can climb trees; it is one of the endangered species. Then, video clip of tigers were shown and four children ages 5 to 8 were asked to mimic a tiger’s movement (figure 1b).

Seasame, Open the Door (Zhimakaimen) is a 10-minute programme for elementary school children. It attempted to teach children scientific knowledge through activities and competitions. Six to eight teams of students were invited to join a competition. The host proposed a scientific problem. Participating teams were requested to follow certain instructions and to construct the best solution. In one episode, children were provided with papers, tape, cardboard to build a foundation for holding bricks. The foundation that could support the greatest number of bricks would be the winner. From Figure 2, we could see the model constructed by the winning team that holds 17 bricks. At the end of the programme, the host taught the audience that cylinder was the best geometrical shape for building secure foundation.

All the students came from schools in the NingBo city and they all wore T-shirts with the NingBo-TV logo. Children were very concerned about the results. The programme usually featured many failures before the winning scenario. The programme vividly displayed how the failing team suffered from frustration and disappointment. It was in a sharp contrast to the winners overwhelmed by joy and excitement.

The Big Windmill (Da fengche) was a 40-minute programme targeted at elementary school children. The programme mainly consisted of four to five segments including cartoon series, quizzes, and short movies. The programme had a long history since it was introduced in 1995. It was very popular among Chinese children with rating of 5 percent among all children aged 4-14 (CVSC-TVS Research, 2002).

In one episode, the programme started with a 5-minute segment titled The Big Windmill Workshop (Da fengche gongzuoshi). It was a life-interview of children. Children were asked why they learned musical instruments or what their favourite food was. In another episode, children were instructed how to keep healthy eating habits. It then followed by a 10-minute cartoon series called Thousands of Questions (Qianqianwen). The characters of the cartoon consisted of two boys and one girl. They introduced knowledge about nature or science through questions and answers. In one episode, they first told the audience that giraffes had high blood pressure. They went on explaining that since giraffes got very high neck, it needed to pump blood vigorously to the head which was far away from the heart. The host then introduced concepts about evolution by linking giraffe’s long legs with survival of the fittest. In another episode, the characters explained what would happen if a bullet was shot under water.

In the remaining 25 minutes, there was a quiz show called Challenge for 800 (Tiaozhan 800). Participants were children from two elementary schools in Beijing. The incoming team attempted to take over the championship from the winning team that survived from the last round of the game. Children went through four rounds of competitions to gain points in order to reach the full mark of 800. They were tested in knowledge, creativity as well as skills. In one episode, they participated in a question and answer round (figure 3a), face drawing, a talent show and a debate. The debate question was ‘Are there pre-historical culture in our world?’ The debate resembled a formal high school debate event and children seemed to be well prepared for the answers. A university professor, a film director and an art teacher were invited as the judges. Children from other local schools were invited to cheer the teams. The host was a man aged about 40 to 45. The host of the quiz show acted like a teacher in the school who consistently apply methods of comparison to arouse children’s enthusiasm for achieving and make sure participants conform to rules. For example, he gave discouraging comments such as ‘the red team is now lagging behind by five points. It will be dangerous if they continue to loose marks in the coming round of the game’. To certain extent, the host of the quiz show was mean to the participants. When a child gave a wrong answer immediately after the host reading out the question, the host said, ‘you give up your chance for careful thinking and your answer is wrong.’

In another episode, there was a 15-minutes segment called Naughty Family (Wanpi jiazu). It was a quiz show for younger children. Children aged 5 to 7 were asked to answer questions after watching a short video about an animal. For example, the host asked ‘Does little panda like to eat sweet things?’ Children then indicated their answers by standing in the red circle for an answer ‘yes’ or blue circle for an answer ‘no’ (see Figure 3b). Before the programme ended, there was a 10-minute drama called Red Children and a Green World (Hong wawa lu shijie). The programme disseminated environmental knowledge and taught children how to engage in environmental friendly behaviours. In one episode, the drama showed that all the characters could not move because they accidentally stepped on chewing gum on the floor. They advised children to dispose gum in a proper way.

Then there was a 15-minute documentary segment called I can see (Wo kanjian). It featured about eight to ten video clips that were produced and sent in by children. It started with a still shot of a child identified as the producer, with information about his or her age, school name, and grade. The child acted as the narrator as well as reporter. Most of the clips talked about local environmental hazards. Figure 3c showed a girl reporting a heavily polluted river in her hometown.

Oriental Children (Dongfang ertong) was a 45-minute programme targeted at school children from grade one to grade nine. It had four segments that broadcast on different days, including Let’s head for the schools, Book City, Strong Rivals, and Pocket News. Let’s head for the schools featured model schools across different parts of China. In one episode, it featured a high school in the southern Fujian province with beautiful campus, enlightening environmental protection activities and a love of volleyball.

The host, a young man dressed in casual wear visited the school (figure 4a). In the subsequent fifteen minutes, the host took the audience on a tour around the campus and interviewed some students. With an enrolment of about 2000 students, the campus was spacious and modern. There was a zoology garden with a collection of mammal specimen and a hall full of awards and medals. There was a room showing sophisticated handicrafts such as model ships and paper flowers made by students. It claimed that every student in the school liked volleyball. Students also participated in environmental campaigns by going to the street to distribute leaflets with environmental protection messages.

After the school visit, it featured students’ spoke out. Students were shown standing on the stair and spoke out their wishes or expressed their gratitude toward somebody (Figure 4b). A typical statement was “I want to study well” or “I would like to thank my class teacher”. Their fellow classmates all gathered around in the playground and they joyfully cried out “Yes, we heard it”. The programme encouraged students to express their private self in a public setting. The programme went on to feature students’ activities. Students used paper and other solid wastes to make clothes and dresses. Twenty-four children crowded on a one-meter platform for more than twenty seconds. It looked as if they wanted to make a Guinness World Record.

Next came a 10-minute cartoon series “The Blue Cat and its 3000 Questions”. The programme introduced scientific knowledge using a question and answer format. The characters of the cartoon included a blue cat, a pig and a mouse. In one episode, an octopus trapped the pig and the mouse. The programme featured how an octopus ejects fluid, plus where their nervous systems are and how they work. The animated pig and mouse then attacked the nervous system of the octopus and ran away. In another episode, the characters were sitting in a submarine and suddenly a strong blast originated from the bottom of the sea. The characters then introduced the concept of earthquake, explaining its formation and discussing its potential for damage. Following it was the renowned imported programme Teletubbies. The four Teletubbies jumped around, laughed and played for twenty minutes in a very slow pace. A piano performance for ten minutes played by an eight-year old girl was inserted in it.

In another episode, there was a 35-minute quiz show. Four teams with representatives from different secondary schools in Beijing participated in the competition. The quiz had three rounds and one team would be eliminated in each round. Round 1 was a quiz about current affairs. The second round tested children’s art of living. In one episode, students were asked to arrange flowers. A senior officer of a Beijing flower company served as the judge. He evaluated the exhibit according to its colour balance and creativity but such criterion were not communicated to students beforehand. In the third round, children were given one minute to write down as many as possible the names of capital cities in English. The team that gave the most correct answers was the winner.

The remaining fifteen minutes was a documentary called Pocket News (Xinwen dai dai ku). A girl aged about ten and a boy aged about twelve acted as hosts. They discussed the current affairs. The hot topic during the study period was SARS. In one episode, it showed how bacteria could transmit by spitting. It went on interviewing a girl whose mother, a nurse, stayed away from home to take care of SARS patients. The girl talked about how her daily life was changed because of SARS.

The Second Starting Line (Di er qi pao xian) was a 50-minute talk show that targeted secondary school students. It consists of two segments. The first segment was an interview of a celebrity (about 40 minutes) and the next segment was a drama (about 10 minutes). In one episode, a woman and two secondary school students hosted the interview. The celebrity was the encore person of a famous television programme for adults (see Figure 5a). The interviewee recalled how he earned a seat at one of the most prestigious Chinese Universities, the Peking University, and his fondness for basketball. The programme also included interview with his parents and teachers. After the interview, there was a drama featuring a girl’s adventure on a basketball team (Figure 5b).

Studio 12 (12 Yanboshi) was a 50-minute talk show targeted at junior and high school students. It focused on current affairs. In one episode, it featured SARS. The host, a man about forty years old, invited three guest speakers including a Government Officer, a researcher from the Public Policy Research Centre of the China People’s University and a Sociology Professor of Peking University to discuss social problems that surfaced with the outbreak of SARS. They talked about housing management and proposed reform of the community organizations (Figure 6).

Under the Same Blue Sky (Tong yipian lantian) was a 45-minute programme for elementary and junior high school children. The programme featured innovative design and achievements of children. In one episode, students from a Hunan elementary school who designed subways to ease traffic congestion were interviewed (see Figure 7a). It also reported on a young surfer who was going to participate in the 2008 Olympic game in Tsingtao, China (Figure 7b). It went on to feature a young reporter who had encountered with the president of France.

Dragon Theatre (Xiao feilong juchang) was a 40-minute drama series. The current drama series featured a classical novel Journey to the West. It highlighted how Xuan Zang, Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy overcame all the hurdles to seek for the holy Buddhist scripture.

Discussion

A snapshot of children’s television programs showed that they were highly different from those shown in the western countries. First of all, children’s television programs in China were highly educational, with tones of scientific information and technological detail crammed in limited time schedule. Fun is seldom featured just for fun’s sake. It reflects Chinese positive connotation of learning and negative connotation of playing. Chinese culture is known for its strong emphasis on education and learning. Education plays the utmost role as a ladder for upward mobility. Chinese people deeply believe that education is valuable for the well being of the nation as well as for their personal advancement (Chen, Lee and Stevenson, 1996). Chinese people perceive that achievement is possible if they work hard. There is a Chinese saying that ‘hardworking is beneficial while playing is harmful’. Chinese parents place heavy emphasis on the educational significance of TV programs. Parents wanted children to watch programs regarded as morally uplifting or intellectually educational (Zhao, 1996). Children’s programs in China are not playful at all. They are in sharp contrast with the commercials embedded between programs that always feature fun, excitement, and enjoyment. Also, there is little use of music except the use of songs to mark the beginning or the ending of the programs. We did not find any programme that use music extensively like those of Barney in the western society. We guess that may be because many of the classical children’s songs in China are inherited from a feudalistic tradition and are considered as ideologically incorrect. There is a lack of original and contemporary Chinese children’s music in the programs that we studied. As a result, we do not see a strong musical presence in children’s programs. Contrary to the programme, we notice that children’s commercials frequently use music as jingles, or as background. Children’s programs in Western countries often feature children dancing or engaged in vigorous body movement, usually with the celebrities in the programs. However, these kinds of activities are not found in Chinese children’s programs. Most of the children in the Chinese programs are physically inactive. Also, most of the celebrities in Chinese children’s programs are motherly and dressed in a conservative manner. No sexy celebrities occurred in children’s programs.

Secondly, we witnessed a strong sense of competition in children’s television content. Competitions are usually based on teams rather than individuals. The sense of collectivism is demonstrated through the cooperative reward structures. When a team wins, all members share the present, the fame and the honour. The programme glorifies success and achievement while at the same time shows no mercy about failure. In the scientific experiments featured in Sesame, Open the Door, students are not encouraged to explore scientific reasoning through trial and error. The host constantly reminds the goal of locating the best solution by expressions like ‘will it succeed this time?’ or ‘unfortunately, it doesn’t work’. The strong emphasis on success reflects the masculinity values in Chinese society.

Hosts in Western TV programs are usually friendly, physically attractive, and are always ready to give positive and encouraging words. This is not so for the hosts in Chinese TV programs. Some of the hosts maintained a hierarchical and remote relation with the children. High power distance, the term that Hofstede (1994) used to describe the cultural dimension where less powerful members of organizations are ready to accept unequal power distribution, is demonstrated through the maintenance of fairness in children’s quiz shows. In one instance, the host denied a team member from getting marks because the member obtained the correct answer illegally from his team members. The boy protested that the other team was doing the same. In no hesitation, the host accused him for pointing the finger on others while he was wrong in the first place. It demonstrates that authority and power of the hosts should be accepted without questions.

Many researchers characterize Chinese social relationships as maintaining harmony and avoiding conflicts. The highly competitive media content surfaces a paradox of social harmony and competitiveness in the Chinese Culture. We argue that social harmony is demonstrated through a static environment while competitiveness is demonstrated through the dynamic process. What we mean is that when Chinese people are settled in a hierarchical social structure, they will act according to what is required or expected in that particular position. Everybody attempts to maintain a nominal relationship with his peer, boss or sub-ordinates. As a result, we see harmony in social relations. However, when people are not yet settled in the social structure, they will compete to gain access to the most desirable position. As a result, we see fierce competition. We can use a metaphor of the musical chair game to explain the phenomena. When the music is on, we see people moving, chasing and juggling around. This reflects the competitive mode of social relation. Once the music stops, people settle and no competition is seen. This represents the harmonious mode of social relation. Children are holders of the future. With the recently granted openness in the economic system, there is increasing social stratification in China. In other words, there is huge potential for children to negotiate their best position-to-be through acquisition of knowledge, skills and networking.

Thirdly, we found that TV programs for teenagers were in short supply and contents of such programs resemble large programs for adults. In the United States and other western societies, TV programs for teenagers often feature courtship and love. However, these themes rarely occurred in Chinese TV programs. Chinese parents expressed strong opposition against love stories and intimate acts such as kissing, hugging, and ‘bedroom scenes’ in TV programs (Zhao, 1996). They thought that these programs are unhealthy and may make children think and ask about embarrassing things.

Conclusion

Chinese children’s TV programs largely reflected the masculine values, collective values, and high power distance discussed in Hofstede’s (1994) framework of cultural values. It certainly does not reflect western cultural values of low power distance where children are given high level of autonomy and respect. The sophisticated educational content reflected the society’s strong emphasis on intellectual development. Children’s TV programs in China look like educational TV. There is a lack of children’s programs that featured music, fun, and enjoyment. Competition for success, group activities, and yielding to authorities frequently occurred in media contents. There are very few programs that target the specific needs of teenagers such as development of social relationship and self-identity. Programs for teenagers resembled those for adults and themes like love and courtship were taboos in programs for teenagers. Unlike Chinese children’s commercials that seem to represent a mix of traditional Chinese values and western values (Ji and McNeal, 2001), Chinese children’s TV programs in this study reflected more of its traditional Chinese values of high power distance and emphasis on education.

Implication for marketers and advertisers

To create effective advertising messages to children in China, we have the following suggestions:

1. Commercials should be fun and joyful: Children’s TV programs in China are highly educational and factual, with abundant information but little entertainment. Advertising should therefore be presented in an enjoyable way if it is to appeal to children. The use of memorable jingles will make the commercial more enjoyable.

2. Commercials should speak to the children using children’s own languages and featuring children’s activities. Some children’s TV programs seem to be too bossy and authoritative. Advertising to children should avoid authoritative tone and show respect to children’s choice.

3. Parents and children are concerned about educational achievement. Advertising should demonstrate how the products enhance children’s self-confidence, self-esteem, and sense of achievement.

4. Themes about love and friendships are seldom featured in teenagers’ TV programs. Advertisers can use emotional appeals and demonstrate how the products enhance teenagers’ physical appeal and social acceptance.

5. Television advertising should be placed at programs that reach their specific target. We found that most of the advertising that surrounds children’s programming now is for adult products. This is confusing and boring to children. Advertisers should select TV programs that best fit their target’s age and gender profile for advertising their messages.

Table 1 An overview of the sample

|May 26, 2003 (Monday) |Minutes |Origin |

|Sesame, Open the door |10 |China |

|Cartoon City |30 |China |

|Oriental Children |45 |China |

|The Seven-piece Puzzle |10 |China |

|The Seven-piece Puzzle |35 |China |

|Sesame, Open the door |10 |China |

|Oriental Children (replay) |45 |China |

|The Big Windmill |40 |China |

|The Seven-piece Puzzle |10 |China |

|Oriental Children |45 |China |

| | | |

|May 28, 2003 (Wednesday) | | |

|Sesame, Open the door (replay) |10 |China |

|Cartoon City |30 |China |

|Oriental Children (replay) |45 |China and U.K. |

|The Seven-piece Puzzle (replay) |10 |China |

|Sesame, Open the door |10 |China |

|Oriental Children (replay) |45 |China and U.K. |

|The Big Windmill |40 |China |

|The Seven-piece Puzzle |10 |China |

|Oriental Children |45 |China |

| | | |

|June 1, 2003 (Sunday) | | |

|The Second Starting Line (replay) |50 |China |

|Sesame, Open the door (replay) |10 |China |

|Studio 12 |50 |China |

|Oriental Children (replay) |45 |China |

|The Seven-piece Puzzle (replay) |10 |China |

|The Seven-piece Puzzle |10 |China |

|Sesame, Open the door (replay) |10 |China |

|The Big Windmill |40 |China |

|Under the Same Blue Sky |45 |China |

|Dragon Theatre |40 |China |

|Oriental Children |45 |China |

|Total |800 |100% |

|New |600 |68% |

|Replay |280 |32% |

|Origin | | |

|Local |850 |97% |

|Foreign |30 |3% |

|Target groups | | |

|Preschool children |95 |11% |

|Primary school students |685 |78% |

|Secondary school students |100 |11% |

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Figures

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