Young Consumers: Insight and Ideas for Responsible Marketers Emerald Article: Marketing toys without playing around

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into how both characteristics of toys and marketer-provided cues influence parents’ perceptions of advertised toys and their ideas of what life skills are important for their children’s future well-being and success. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected with a 2 (toy encourages structured play vs toy encourages unstructured play) £ 2 (ad mentions ‘‘brain development’’ vs ad mentions ‘‘child development’’) experimental design involving four advertisements for a hypothetical toy. Findings – Parents recognized that the toy encouraging unstructured play has many benefits. Relative to parents who saw an ad with a ‘‘child development’’ appeal, those who saw an ad with a ‘‘brain development’’ appeal rated social and intellectual development as less important for their children. Practical implications – Findings support the idea that manufacturers can and should continue to develop toys, which encourage relatively unstructured play; such toys are both appreciated by parents and valued by experts. They also support eliminating ‘‘brain talk’’ from advertising; such messages do not enhance parents’ evaluations of toys and detract from parents’ maintaining the value they place on social and intellectual development. Social implications – By designing toys which encourage play which is most beneficial to children and promoting them with advertisements without ‘‘brain’’ language, marketers can support children’s development and parents’ values. Originality/value – This paper provides insights into the effects of toy and ad characteristics on parents’ perceptions of toys and what is important for their children.