A report examined children's experiences in the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Spain. Children in all three countries told researchers that their happiness was dependent on having time with a stable family and plenty of things to do, especially outdoors, rather than on owning technology or branded clothes. But parents in the UK said that they felt tremendous pressure from society to buy goods for their children, and this pressure was felt most acutely in low-income homes.
Source: Ipsos MORI and Agnes Nairn, Children?s Well-Being in UK, Sweden and Spain: The role of inequality and materialism – A qualitative study, UNICEF UK
Links: Report | Summary | UNICEF press release | DE press release | Childrens Society press release | CSJ press release | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2011-Sep
A new book examined debates about children's engagement with the consumer society. It challenged the image of children as incompetent and vulnerable consumers: but it also rejected the alternative view that consumption was an expression of children's power and autonomy.
Source: David Buckingham, The Material Child: Growing up in consumer culture, Polity Press
Links: Summary
Date: 2011-Sep
A report examined the regulatory and voluntary landscape concerning the marketing and promotion of food and drink to children.
Source: Jane Landon and Yvonne Gritschneder, An Analysis of the Regulatory and Voluntary Landscape Concerning the Marketing and Promotion of Food and Drink to Children, National Heart Forum
Date: 2011-Jun
Data for 2010 showed that actors from minority-ethnic groups featured in only 5 per cent of television advertisements, compared with their 13 per cent share of the population.
Source: Press release 21 April 2011, Institute of Practitioners in Advertising
Links: IPA press release
Date: 2011-Apr
A paper said that recent shifts in the media advertising market had had, and would continue to have, profound and largely adverse consequences for established public media – whether publicly or privately owned.
Source: Richard Collins, The End of Public Media? The UK: canary in the coal mine?, Working Paper 89, Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (University of Manchester)
Links: Paper
Date: 2011-Apr