Reviews the research on children's understanding of the intent of advertising, the persuasive impact of television commercials, and children's cognitive defenses and resistance to such persuasion. Concludes that any model which tries to account for advertising's influence on children must incorporate affective as well as cognitive components. (PD)

A two-week consumer training program was designed to teach kindergarten children about advertising claims on commercial television programs. One objective of the program was to teach kindergarteners that commercials are designed to persuade people to buy products. Kindergarteners were taught to recognize the difference between commercials and…