Impact of Television Food Advertisements on Pester Power: Parent’s Perspective on Children’s Behavior

Advertising is critical to the success of any marketing campaign. However, achieving success by unethical means is dubious. While the advertising business abides by certain regulations, such as those governing infant foods and alcoholic beverages, it is not obvious that they practice ethically. The number of marketing directed towards vulnerable groups such as children exemplifies this pitiful condition. The reason for this is that children are not yet developed enough to correctly comprehend commercials and respond appropriately. Thus, children's actions may change as a result of their television viewing habits and exposure to advertisements. With this backdrop, the purpose of this study is to determine the effect of children-targeted food television advertisement on pester power. Align with research ethics, responses from parents were gathered regarding their perceptions of the effect of child-targeted food commercials on pester power. On the basis of positivism, a quantitative survey was conducted by delivering over 200 questionnaires to parents in the Colombo district who were selected using the non-probability convenience sampling approach. The descriptive statistics, correlation, and regression were used to analyze the data. The study discovered that children have a modest level of pester power and children-targeted television food advertising have a significant positive effect on pester power. This study contributes to the body of knowledge about children's television viewing patterns, children-targeted advertisements, and pester power by elaborating on existing literature. As implications, the study suggests relevant authorities to regulate advertisements directed at children, businessorganizations to exercise self-control in targeting vulnerable groups, parents exercise control over their children's television viewing behavior, and educators educate children about evaluating the contents of advertisements, which will ultimately result in the avoidance of conflict between children and parents as a result of pestering.