If you are like myself with little ones navigating these digital waters, it is most likely you have come across surprise eggs and unboxing toys videos. I see the views on these videos and wonder what has captivated my kids and 5million other little eyeballs on these? What is so alluring about watching another little person take out a toy from a box to show you how to play with it? Or watching hands fly Sky from paw patrol across a screen? Our guest on the podcast is here to help us unpack this together. Harsha Ganga brings his years of academic and professional experience in advertising and really just his personal experience as a dad that led him to carry out a research project on “the unboxing phenomena.” He also shares tips on how to help us help our kids navigate the advertising space; both at a micro and macro level.
Harsha is an associate professor of advertising at the University of Colorado Boulder. His research interests focus on new and emerging media, social & economic effects of advertising & environmental communication. He is the current president of the American Academy of Advertising - an organization of advertising scholars and professionals with an interest in advertising and advertising education. He holds a BE in Electrical Engineering from Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology (India), an MA in Advertising from Michigan State University, and a PhD in Advertising from the University of Texas at Austin. This was a deep dive of a conversation – I loved how he incorporated the psychology piece behind his work as relates to advertising and commercialization of childhood. It was great. Fix your coffee and lets dive in.
Resources:
American Psychological Association. Advertising and Children. http://www.apa.org/pubs/info/reports/advertising-children
FTC guidelines for influencers: https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/plain-language/1001a-influencer-guide-508_1.pdf
Linn, Susan. 2005. Consuming kids: Protecting our children from the onslaught of marketing and advertising. Anchor.
Einstein, Mara. 2016. Black ops advertising: Native ads, content marketing, and the covert world of the digital sell. OR Books.
Evans, Nathaniel J., Mariea Grubbs Hoy, and Courtney Carpenter Childers. 2018. "Parenting “YouTube natives”: the impact of pre-roll advertising and text disclosures on parental responses to sponsored child influencer videos." Journal of Advertising 47, no. 4: 326-346.
Evans, Nathaniel J. 2014. "Pinpointing Persuasion in Children's Advergames: Exploring the Relationship Among Parents’ Internet Mediation, Marketplace Knowledge, Attitudes, and the Support for Regulation." Journal of Interactive Advertising 14, no. 2: 73-85.
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