The family's role in children's interpretation of advertising

Family communication is often considered the most effective tool in the management of advertising influence on children. The family context not only influences how children use the media and the messages they get from them, but also how literate they become as media users. In this chapter, I discuss how parents manage their children's interpretation of advertising. The chapter includes four sections. First, I discuss how parents engage in discussions with their children about advertising and more general consumer matters. Second, I discuss a typology of different communication strategies used by parents and caretakers. Third, there will be a discussion of the effectiveness of the various communication strategies and how that varies by different family and child characteristics. Finally, the chapter will address the implications of child-directed marketing in new media and its implications for future research and public policy.