A study was conducted to compare the relative importance of several different variables from different theoretical perspectives in explaining how children understood the advertising on commercial television. Sixty-seven first and third grade students were interviewed individually to assess their current stage of logical operations and role taking, their exposure to television, and their understanding of the purpose of television commercials. In accordance with the hypotheses that were proposed, the role-taking stage was the variable most highly correlated with understanding the purpose of advertising. Role taking continued to account for a significant amount of the variance after all other variables were entered into the model. These results support R. Selman's (1976) theory that the social skill of role taking is more basic to children's comprehension of other social stimuli such as advertising than the physical skill of logical operations. It appears that children need to have developed some rudimentary ability in understanding others' points of view and in stepping outside their own perspective before they can comprehend the more abstract perspective of the advertiser. (RL)