Don’t kid yourself

Most obviously in consumer behaviour in terms of brand choices and the pressure children apply on parents for the purchase of toys, shoes, clothes and in food and drink — much of which is advertised ontelevision.

The children were picked from TV-owning households in Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai. The sampling of the report does not reveal their class or income background nor their exposure to cable TV. Nor oddly enough, does it tell us which channels or programmes children are watching (all this information is available in the full report). But the brands named by children in answer to a variety of questions, tell their own story: Coca Cola, Pepsi, Bata, Nike, Reebok, Action, Ruf &Tuf, Lee, New Port, Close Up, Colgate…all of these are, or have been, advertising on TV with considerable vigour. Interestingly, Coke and Pepsi are the biggest advertisers on cable/satellite TV and most of the others register strong presences too. The correlation seems obvious: in the metros, kids watch more cable/satellite TV.

Next: asked where they choose to go, Indian kids along with those from the region, said USA. And what could be more American than apple pie? Television in India. Most TV shows, films/channelswe have access to are American; and our serials, talk shows, films are mostly born in the USA.

Asked what’s "the latest thing people were doing", Indian kids replied fashion. Fashion? Surprising? Maybe not: newspaper supplements and feature magazines are predominantly fashion plates, while television is itself a fashion statement. From anchor Rajat Sharma’s double-breasted suits and weather girl Anuradha’s long hair, to VJ Sophiya’s scant wear, from singer Sonu Nigam’s desi-dress to Seema Kapoor’s outlandish dresses — from all the models in advertisements to all the characters in music videos: on TV, you must have "the look".

Oh dear. Worrisome. But they’re not such bad kids after all. They seem to have got the fundamentals right. The survey indicates that while Indian children don’t read books enough, they read newspapers quite avidly. That they enjoy going to school, that getting good grades, going to university are priorities; that they have "decisive" career goals, and that 60 per centidentified a family member as as their most admired person. Which suggests an apparent and central contradiction, one that perplexed at least one of the investigators, who frankly admitted he didn’t quite understand Indian kids. Join the club. Indian children like school; but they just luv watching TV too; they like to play more than other children (in China they like to read — wouldn’t you just know it?); yet they want a good education. They’re into fashion (even seven year olds!) while kids in Philippines and Taiwan are into "work"; but when it comes to careers, they are the most focussed. Their favourite drink is Coke and so you’d suppose their favourite food would be junkie, but no, it’s rice! So there.

Another significant detail: nothing much as changed. If it’s any consolation, this study roughly coincides with findings from an earlier one conducted in 1992-1993 (The Impact of Television Advertising on Children; Unnikrishnan & Bajpai; Sage). Children then and now watch the same amount of TV (2hours 40 minutes); Pepsi was their favourite cold drink ad even then; 80 % said their parents bought them what they wanted and pester power is very high even now; doctors and engineers, business ranked tops then as career ambitions and do so now; average pocket money is now Rs.39, it was between Rs.10-40 for 44% then.

Should we set aside those worry beads — or cling to them even harder?