【リンク】
Host-selling commercials are a type of television advertisement featuring characters that appear in adjacent programs. In North America and European countries, this type of advertisement is not allowed in children's programs for fear that it might have a negative impact on consumer confidence and recognizing reality, but such regulations are absent in Japan. In addition, few studies have been conducted to date, and we have no comprehensive knowledge as to the volume and content of host-selling advertisements. For this reason, the author performed a content analysis of host-selling advertisements in children's television programs aired in Japan. For this study, 39 children's television programs that were broadcast from May 28 to June 3, 2012 were chosen and 364 commercials that accompanied the programs were extracted. The number of commercials, the described content, and the timing of the commercials inserted in the programs were analyzed. The results of the analysis show that 60 (16.5%) advertisements in the sample were host-selling commercials, and that they accompanied 23 programs. The host-selling advertisements were often aired in the form of animation and in many cases advertising characters were 13-17 years old. The advertised products were often toys or character goods, which were associated with the programs. Furthermore, these commercials aired in such a way that the boundaries between the programs and the commercials were obscure. The author postulates that the current state of the host-selling television advertisements in Japan makes it difficult for children to draw a line between programs and the commercial's content, which potentially leads to their willingness to unnecessarily purchase such products. For children's healthy development, there is a need for further debates on the use of this type of advertising.
