The roles portrayed by children in South African magazine advertising : a longitudinal study

Abstract

This paper summarizes the findings of four studies executed from 1983 to 2003 to determine how marketers in South Africa portray children in magazine advertisements. This longitudinal study reports on aspects such as the incidence of child models in the advertisements, the roles they depict and whether there are differences as to the way in which marketers use children from different races in the same advertisements. A conceptual framework or marketing communications model is presented to illustrate how marketers can use the child as a substitute communicator in various roles to convey the firm's advertising message. The relevance of the findings for South African marketers is highlighted and suggestions for further research are proposed.