The portrayal of children in magazine advertising: A post-apartheid study

Abstract

A content analysis is presented of the portrayal of child actors in advertisements obtained from nine consumer magazines over a three month period in 1983, 1987, and 1997. A limited number of studies have investigated the portrayal of children in magazine advertisements, but no previous study looked exclusively at the roles children depict in advertisements. The primary objective of the present study was to describe the various roles children portray in full page magazine advertisements. Secondary objectives focused on the age and sex of the models and the use of children of different races in the same advertisement. The results indicate that children are portrayed in seven different roles in the advertisements. Suggestions for further research are offered.