Children in Indian Television Commercials: A Semiotic Analysis

The contemporary world seems to be inundated with advertising. The multiple ways of advertising have been affecting every individual directly or indirectly. Consciously or unconsciously every one of us has been exposed to these signs and they have been influencing our attitudes, behaviour, values, and belief systems. It is in this context that the objective of the present study is to critically analyse the representation of children in television commercials. Since television has become a ubiquitous medium in modern times and children are getting over exposed to this medium from the tender age, the overexposure to television commercials have far reaching consequences on their minds and bodies. The sample for the study consists of five television commercials that promote kid's products. The ads that have been taken are from 19 to 52 s duration. They have been selected on the basis of the presence of the children in them. As the study deals with the representation of children, the ads selected feature children as the main protagonists in the ads. All these ads have casted the children in active roles and all have the children as the central characters. Semiotic analysis technique was employed and the ads have been analysed on the basis of the 16 elements which include both the audio visual aspects.