The impact of television advertising on children's Christmas wishes

In December 1997, 250 children were asked to list their Christmas wishes. These requests were then compared to the commercials that were broadcast at the time of data collection. Sixty-seven percent of the seven-and eight-year-olds, 49% of the 9- and 10-year-olds, and 40% of the 11-and 12-year-olds asked for at least one advertised product. Children's gender and age, as well as their level of exposure to the network that aired the most commercials, were significant predictors of their requests for advertised products.
Advertising to children has always provoked strong feelings and contradictory opinions. Some advocates of child-directed advertising believe that advertising has no or negligible negative effect on children (Miller & Busch, [...]