Children attracted to humor in advertising.

When asked what they do when TV commercials come on, more than half of children ages 6-11 say they watch them, but relatively few are interested in advertising that helps them to learn about new products or uses sarcastic humor, according to MRI’s recently-released 2006 American Kids Study.

The element that appeals most to kids in magazine, Internet, radio and TV advertising is humor, but it needs to be the right sort of humor. When asked, “What do you really like to hear or see in advertising,” 74.7% of the youthful respondents agreed with “Funny things, like a funny animal or character” and 44.2% chose “Silly Humor”.

However, only 18.7% of the respondents cited “Sarcastic humor that makes fun of things.”

Approximately 5,300 children responded to the study, questionnaires for which were sent to households with children ages 6-11 that were interviewed for MRI’s Survey of the American Consumer.

The second most-often cited feature of advertising that kids want to see or hear is music, with 52% of children reporting it’s what they like to hear in advertising. This is particularly true of girls: 62.5% of girls vs. 42.1% of boys cited music as a favored advertising feature.

Boys were more likely to choose “Action and Excitement” in advertising, at 50.4% to just 37.4% of girls. Girls are more likely (46.7% vs. 36.8%) to want to see or hear “Kids my age” in ads, and they are also more interested in seeing or hearing “Famous people I like” (47.7% to 31.8%).

When asked,” What do you usually do when TV commercials come on?” 56.5% of respondents said they “Watch the Commercial”, 53.1% report they “Go away from the TV (to get a snack or go to the bathroom)” , 33.0% said they “Change the channel to watch another show” and 31.9% said they “Flip or surf the channels.”

A virtual identical percentage of boys (56.1%) and girls (57%) said they watched TV commercials.

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