Social Influence of Television Advertisement on Children a Case Study of Selected Primary Schools in Somolu Local Government Area

CHAPTER ONE 1. BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY Social influence is defined as “a change in an individual’s thoughts, feelings, attitudes, or behaviors that results from interaction with another individual or a group of people”. Social influence is distinct from conformity, power, and authority. French and Raven (1959) provided an early formalization of the concept of social influence in their discussion of the bases of social power. For French and Raven, agents of change included not just individuals and groups, but also norms and roles. They viewed social influence as the outcome of the exertion of social power from one of five bases: reward power, coercive power, legitimate power, expert power, or referent power. A change in reported opinion or attitude (conformity) was considered an instance of social influence whether or not it represented a true private change. Today’s children are unique in many ways from previous generations, but perhaps the most influencing on our young children today is Television advertisements. Today, everywhere we go we see some type of advertisement. A sale at the supermarket or a billboard for a radio station, are two of the many forms of advertisement. Currently, advertisements that target children are very controversial. However, advertising to children does not only bring in funds from the children but more importantly, it generates what experts call “The Nag Factor.” The “Nag Factor” is when a child sees an ad for a product then cries and complains to a parent until the parent purchase the item (Dumont) 2003, Over half of all families have reported to agree with a child’s request just to avoid an argument. McNeal 2005 emphasizes the “Nag Factor” when he claims that, “2 to 12 year olds had an indirect impact on another $320 billion of household purchases. Over the last five years, there has been a substantial increase in the amount of influence kids have on durable goods—cars, boats, big-ticket items. According

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