TV Outranks Celebs as a Driver of Kids’ Purchases
This could be one reason the Hilary Duff line of Barbie dolls failed to set the world on fire: Celebrities aren’t the key driver of kids’ purchasing decisions.
At least that’s the opinion of 5,680 parents surveyed in 13 countries last month by GMIPoll. Among the U.S. parents surveyed, only 6% believed that celebrities were the greatest influence on children’s buying decisions. More than four times as many–28%–cited peers as the number-one driver of kids’ buying decisions. But 61% of U.S. parents said that television was the greatest influence.
As for what products parents do not want advertisers pitching to their children, junk food was by far number one. Three-fourths of the U.S. parents cited it as a product that should not be targeted to kids. Makeup came in second, with 55% saying it should not be marketed to children, followed by mobile phones (54%) and reality TV (50%).
What the survey didn’t ask was whether the parents who are so against marketing reality programming to kids and who say that TV is the greatest influence on children’s buying decisions monitor their children’s TV viewing.
