The results from asking the group of children about the adverts

I had a group of 6 children, 3 girls and 3 boys around the age of 7 to 8. I recorded them on a tape so that I could play back the conversation later in order to get down everything that was said.

• To start off with I played the jungle pets advert to them. After watching this advert I then asked them whether they thought the toy was for girls, boys or both and they all answered girls. When I asked them why they thought it was for girls only they all gave the same kinds of responses, just phrasing things differently, saying there were girls playing with it so it must be for girls, or only girls play with little cute, fluffy animals, 'its really girly'.
• The second advert that I showed them was the wii game 'Rayman Raving Rabbits'. once again I asked them who they thought it was for and then I asked them why they thought this. they all said that the game was for both, and they even said that it would be for the whole family too, not just children. When I asked why they came up with the same kind of answer as they did for the first advert, saying that there were boys and girls playing with it so it must be for everyone, not just one group. They also said with this one that the music was funny, 'rabbit rabbit rabbit rabbit' was repeated through the advert, and so they said it was appealing to everyone because it wasn't using musical elements such as drums, which are in boys adverts, or 'tings' which are in girls adverts.
• The third advert i showed them was 'polly pocket pets' and they said that this toy was for girls only, because of the same reasons as the first advert that I showed them.
• The fourth advert was the Barbie fairy doll and they said that this was for girls only as boys dont play with fairys because it is a 'girly' toy, it was pink and glittery and they said that these things appeal more to girls, as boys think they make them look silly. When I asked them why they thought it was for girls from looking at aspects in the advert they all said that there were girls playing with the dolls and also the colour scheme was typicaly girly, as was the music with little bells and 'tingling noises' as one child put it.

At this point the children were getting bored and very noisy, which I had expected them to get like. The room in which i was showing them the adverts was small and cramped as it was the only one available, they were moving about swaping seats and kicking and biting eachother. I had tried to make it more fun for them by allowing them to hold the microphone when they had something to say about the adverts but this went badly around this stage as they kept turning ity on and off. The other equipment that i was using was being fiddled with also. The tape recorder was being paused continously and the laptop on which I was showing them the adverts was shut countless times as they found this funny. Of the 6 children there were only two children that were more sensible than the others, and one of these had to go half way through as they had a head ache, as the group was being so loud. I had tried to make them behave a bit more by telling them i had bought them some sweets which they could have at the end if they were good, but they just ignored this and got worse as the session went on. A teacher kept poking her head round the door to make sure that everything was ok and going well and as soon as they saw the teacher they would all behave, but then when she left they would carry on as though she had not been there. So at this point I only had 5 children, 3 boys and 2 girls.

• The fifth advert that I showed them was the password journal. I had planned to show them different ones but as they were getting out of hand I could not control them for much longer. So I showed them an advert which i thought would give them something more to talk about than the others. They said that this advert was for girls only and they said that this was because there was a girl playing with it. I then said what was the boy doing in this advert then, what was his purpose, and they said that he was there to show the girls toy was cool and that he could not see it because it was for girls only. As he was sneaking up on the girl in the advert they said that he wanted to see what the toy was and taht he couldnt because it was a girls only toy. I asked them to elaborate in why they thought it was a girls only toy and they said that it was pink, which is a girls colour, and also that the music once more was 'girly'.
• The sixth advert i showed them was the cosmic ball and they all said that it was a boys toy except for one. One boy said that it was both as anyone can play with a ball. I then asked hikm why he thought this in relation to the advert and he said that the advert was wrong as it only showed boys playing with the ball. I asked the others why they thought that the advert was aimed at boys and they said that boys were in the advert and also boys like playing with balls anyway (which stereotypes boys who play football) This created a mini argument in the group as they then started shouting about why girls wouldnt play with the ball, it was interesting that it was a boy that thought it could be for both though.
• The last advert that i managed to show them before they started to get too out of hand that i couldny control them any longer was a football sticker book, 'Euro 2008'. With this advert one girl and one boy thought that it could be for either sex, and when i asked them why they thought this they said that even though it was a male speaking you didn't see them playing with the book so it could be for either really. The rest of the children all said that it was for boys only and they said this because it was a male speaking and also because football isnt something that girls play so girls wouldnt want it anyway.

From this session with the children i have found out that they see the adverts and automatically think that whoever is advertising the product (male, female or both) is who the product is aimed at. Also I noticed that they are stereotyped into believing certain things, so at the age of 7-8 they have already been influenced by society into believing such stereotypes, like footbll is for boys and pink is for girls. There were a few children that thought they were aimed at people in a diferent way, by relying on their own opinions, instead of looking at how the advert is showing who the product is aimed at. Also they did not take into account things such as amount of shots, or how fast it was, editing features were unknown to them so they did not recognise some things as being gender specific in the adverts unlike older children would, or children from a better background.