Pest power

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As Pester Power (German: power of Quengelns ; Quengelkraft ) or Nag Factor (German: nagging factor ) is known in marketing to influence younger children , their parents buying in the advertising perceived products enforce by whining. Children between the ages of two and five in particular enforce their consumption preferences primarily through whining. In addition, younger children do not have the necessary media skills , can be influenced to a large extent and tend to spontaneous and unbalanced consumption. As the children get older, the Pester Power becomes less important, also because older children gradually understand that they can convince their parents better with explanations and compromise offers.

Many parents agree to their children's consumption wishes in order to keep the family peaceful or to avoid unpleasant situations when shopping. In a 2011 study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 36% of mothers surveyed said that as a countermeasure, restricting children's exposure to advertising; 35% tried to explain the purchase decisions made or rejected to the children.

Although advertisers had been aware of the influence of children on purchasing decisions for many decades, until the 1950s, most companies and advertising agencies had a voluntary commitment not to address children directly with advertising. The reasons for this were in part moral; In some cases, however, it was feared that the parents would turn against them and thereby suffer a drop in sales.

In 1952, the commercial for Mr. Potato Head was the first large-scale advertising measure aimed directly at children. In the mid-1950s, the direct addressing of children in advertising increased sharply. In the United States, child-centric advertising first began to be used on a large scale in 1955 around the Mickey Mouse Club . Many advertisers then adapted these measures and designed advertising material more and more specifically for the young target group . In commercials, for example, children were portrayed as cleverer and superior to their parents, which is particularly appealing to children because “their everyday perception corresponds to the opposite”. Another option is to involve children with well-known personalities ( testimonials ) or cartoon characters .

Advertising directed at Pester Power for supposedly unhealthy foods is classified as particularly critical, mainly because it undermines the efforts of parents to establish a supposedly healthy diet . Pester Power therefore has the potential to cause or exacerbate conflicts in the parent-child relationship .

From the 1960s onwards, the sometimes aggressive measures increasingly led to complaints from parents and youth protection organizations , which ultimately resulted in stricter advertising guidelines in many countries. With regard to the protection of minors, advertising in Germany is restricted by the State Treaty on Youth Media Protection . By adopting the regulation in Directive 89/552 / EEC (TV Directive) , all offers in telemedia (teleservices and media services) and in broadcasting may not:

  1. contain direct appeals to children or young people who take advantage of their inexperience and gullibility,
  2. Immediately request children and young people to persuade their parents or third parties to purchase the goods or services advertised, or
  3. take advantage of the special trust that children or young people have in parents, teachers and other confidants.

Despite these requirements, the turnover generated by Pester Power (“nagging market”) in Germany is estimated at around 70 billion euros annually.

See also

literature

  • Ursula Arbeiter, Elke Sauerteig: Growing up in a mediatized world: three to eight year olds (= series of media literacy , part 1). AJS - Action for youth protection Landstelle Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-923970-40-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Laura McDermott, Terry O'Sullivan, Martine Stead, and Gerard Hastings: International food advertising, pester power and its effects. In: International Journal of Advertising Vol. 25, Iss. 4, 2006, abstract .
  2. ↑ a b c Torsten Porsch, Stephanie Pieschl (ed.): New media and their shadows: media use, media effect and media competence. Hogrefe Verlag, 2014, ISBN 978-3801724795 .
  3. ↑ a b c d Stephanie Theresa Bartomioli: Children as a target group of advertising: A social-ethical analysis. Diplomica Verlag, 2015, ISBN 978-3959347204 , pp. 29–33.
  4. ^ A b Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. The nag factor: How do children convince their parents to buy unhealthy foods? ScienceDaily, August 16, 2011.
  5. ↑ a b c d D. Buckingham, V. Tingstad (Ed.): Childhood and Consumer Culture (Studies in Childhood and Youth). Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, ISBN 978-1349309788 , pp. 20-21.
  6. ↑ a b Elisabeth Raether, Tanja Stelzer: Child Marketing: Sweet Shops. In: Die Zeit , May 8, 2013.
  7. ↑ Denise Heseler, Robin Iltzsche, Olivier Rojon, Jonas Rüppel, Tom David Uhlig: Perspectives of critical psychology and qualitative research: On the unpredictability of the subject. Springer, 2017, ISBN 978-3-658-14019-9 , p. 213.