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A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF SATURDAY
MORNING NETWORK TELEVISION COMMERCIALS

By
Joseph H. Kuperberg

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulﬁllment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Department of Telecommunication

1994

ABSTRACT

A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF SATURDAY
MORNING NETWORK TELEVISION COMMERCIALS

By
Joseph H. Kuperberg

This study attempted to identify some of the characteristics of
Saturday morning network television commercials.

174 commercials were looked at from two Saturdays in October,
1993, and all of the commercials were content analyzed for race and sex
characteristics, as well as product type, length of the commercial and
number of characters appearing in each commercial.

The study revealed that race levels in the American population are
represented on an equal or greater scale in the commercials viewed, but
when it comes to the main character in the commercial race
representation is not equal to those numbers in the population; more
characters appeared in food commercials as opposed to toy commercials;
and regardless of type of product advertisers use 30-second commercial

spots more than any other kind.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION .................................................. 1

CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................ 4
Introduction ........................................................................ 4
Review of Literature ............................................................. 4

CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY ............................................. 12
Introduction ........................................................................ 12
Sample ................................................................................ 12
Data Analysis and Collection ............................................... 13
Design Limitations ............................................................... 15

CHAPTER FOUR ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS .................................... 16
Introduction ......................................................................... 16

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ................ 31
Introduction ......................................................................... 31
Summary of Findings ........................................................... 32
Conclusions ......................................................................... 34
Recommendations ................................................................ 35
Overall Recommendations .................................................... 36

APPENDIX A COMMERCIAL CODING SHEET ............................... 37

APPENDIX B

PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE FOR CBS ON SATURDAY.

OCTOBER 9. 1993 BETWEEN 8:00 AM. AND NOON .................... 39

APPENDIX C

PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE FOR ABC ON SATURDAY.

OCTOBER 16. 1993 BETWEEN 8:00 AM. AND NOON .................. 40

APPENDIX D A

COMPLETE LISTING OF ALL COMMERCIALS. WITH

RUNNING TIME AND PRODUCT TYPE. IN THIS STUDY ................. 41

REFERENCES ............................................................................... 49

LIST OF TABLES

Table Page
4.1 Type of product advertised in the television commercials ..... 17
4.2 Length of commercials appearing in the study ..................... 18
4.3 Number of characters present in the commercial ................. 19
4.4 Presence of black male characters in the commercials ......... 20
4.5 Presence of black female characters in the commercials ....... 20
4.6 Presence of white male characters in the commercials ......... 21
4.7 Presence of white female characters in the commercials ....... 21
4.8 Presence of Asian male characters In the commercials .......... 22
4.9 Presence of Asian female characters in the commercials ....... 22
4.10 Presence of other male characters in the commercials .......... 23
4.1 1 Presence of other female characters in the commercials ........ 23
4.12 Presence of other characters in the commercials ................... 23

4.13 Characteristics of the main character in the commercials ..... 25
4.14 Number of characters present in food commercials ............... 27
4.15 Number of characters present in toy commercials ................. 28

4.16 Number of characters present in entertainment
commercials ......................................................................... 28

4.17 Number of characters present in automobile commercials... 29

4.18 Number of characters present in service commercials ........... 29

4.19 Number of characters present in public service
commercials ......................................................................... 29

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION

Television is one of the most viable ways for advertisers to reach
children. In any given month. 81% of all children in the United States are
exposed to commercials on Saturday morning network television (Burke.
1992).

Television commercials are an important part of any time block. and
Saturday morning network television is a prime example of commercials
being aimed at a certain audience segment. There is no question that
continuing research needs to be done on how commercials affect children
and buying patterns. The main question that needs to be answered on
this topic is whether kids (or their parents) buy products due to
advertising. or because their friends have the products.

In my research I have focused on the content of the Saturday
morning television commercials. The variables I will be looking at in this
study are the length of the commercial, the sex of the dominant character
in the commercial (the character most responsible for sending the message
about the product). the race of the dominant character in the commercial.
and the number of characters present in the commercial.

Throughout history. television has shown women as the subservient.
lesser counterparts of men (Media Report to Women. 1993). I will be
looking to see if this is also true of commercials aired during Saturday
morning network television. Advertising folklore states that both boys and
girls react more comfortably to a male than a female protagonist in a

commercial (Winick, Williamson. Chuzmir and Pezzella Winick. 1973). and

2
in this study I will look to see if the males are indeed used more often in a

dominant role than women are.

The second thing I will be looking at is race representation in the
commercials. Are the percentages of race in the commercials equal to the
percentages in the American population? For example. the black race
represents 12% of the American population (United States Census Bureau,
1994). but are blacks represented in 12% of the commercials aired during
Saturday morning network television programs.

The third variable I will look at are total character number
differences in types of commercials. I hypothesize that in food
commercials there will be more characters present than in non-food
commercials. I am making this hypothesis because the American society
frowns on dining alone. thinking those who do are "closet eaters."

The ﬁnal variable I will be looking at in this study is the length of the
commercial. Most commercials are 10-. 15-. 30- and 60-seconds long.
with the majority of them being 30-seconds long. It will be interesting to
see if there is any correlation between the length of the commercial and
the characters in the advertisement, or the type of product being sold.

My sample for this study will be commercials aired during Saturday
morning network television for two consecutive weeks. The two networks
being used for this study are CBS and ABC. The ﬁrst week of commercials
is from the CBS programming. and the second week is from ABC
programming. I did not use NBC because they air a weekend edition of
Today on Saturdays, and I chose not to use the Fox Network because they
still do not have as many affiliates lined up as the other three networks.

This report will have five chapters: the introduction. the literature

review. the methods used. the results, and a closing discussion.

3
The research questions being examined are content analyses and are

not representative of any causal relationships between children and how
they view the world, but past studies have shown that children get many
of their worldly views from television and its content (Walling. 1990). and
this is solely a study of the content of television commercials.

Based on the conclusions of this report we should have a clearer
picture about the content of Saturday morning network television
commercials. and we may even uncover some of the reasons why they are

that way.

CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction
The role television plays in the development of a child has been
explored in many books and studies. The following is a summary of some
of the more relevant and interesting findings. The Michigan State
University Library served as the main basis for this literature review. and
the MAGIC computer program in particular was responsible for providing

many of the books. studies and journals.

Review of Literature

Schramm. Lyle and Parker (1961) reported that a child's first direct
experience with television usually comes at age two. Children are
introduced to books before television. but do not conceptualize books for
what they are. Children see books as the sound of a parent's voice telling
a story. not as printed media. thus they cannot relate the printed word to
the spoken. Furthermore. Schram, Lyle and Parker explain that television.
more than any other medium, provides a common body of information for
the earliest socialization of children.

In her 1989 book. Television is Good for Your Kids. Messenger
Davies argues that television serves many purposes for children of all ages.
Amongst other things. television informs them. structures their lives. and
provides an occasion for family togetherness, discussion and even
argument. But when it comes to television commercials Davies warns that

children do not like to be conned.

S
In his 1987 book. thldren'e Ielevieien. Schneider poses the

question. "Is it fair to advertise to children?" Schneider explains that
because children react favorably to television they may be unable to cope
with advertising demands. He believes marketers have to appeal to kids
because advertising creates an interaction between parents and children
that ultimately affects the buying process.

Children become more aware of the presence of commercials as they
grow older. and by the time they are four or five many children are able to
differentiate between commercials and programs (Schneider). Even though
children are able to distinguish between commercials and programs at this
young age. this is also the age at which they most enjoy commercials. As
children get older. seven years of age and up, they become increasingly
cynical about commercials. and realize that commercials "are trying to
make people buy things."

In 1973 Winick. Williamson. Chuzmir and Pezzella studied
"Children's Television Commercials." The study looked at the length of
commercials during children's programs. and the cast of characters in the
advertisement amongst other things.

While 78% of the commercials viewed in the study were 30-seconds
long. only 21.2% were 60-seconds long. and less than one percent of the
commercials were 10 seconds long. Although the majority of commercials
were indeed 30-seconds long. Winick. et al. reported that children
appeared to pay maximum attention to 60-second commercials rather
than the shorter 30—second ones. This is interesting to note because 30-
second commercials clearly outnumber 60-second spots in this study and

many others.

6
30-second commercials also outnumbered other commercial lengths

in a comparison study by Hasegawa and Ramaprasad (1992). The
researchers in this study were comparing American and Japanese
commercials. and they found that 63.3% of the 331 American commercials
they looked at were 30-seconds long. lS-second commercials were seen
the second most frequently amongst the American commercials. but
interestingly this order was reversed for the Japanese commercials.

In the Winick. et al. study 246 commercials were looked at, and the
researchers reported that there was a substantial difference in the
commercials between the number of male and female children present in
the advertisement. Male children were reported in 58.1% of the
commercials while female children were only present in 35.6% of all the
commercials viewed in the study.

A study by Knill, Pesch, Pursey. Gilpin and Perloff in 1981 looked at
sex role portrayals in television advertising. Although the study only
looked at commercials aired from one until four in the afternoon, and from
eight until eleven in the evening, the results were similar to those reported
by researchers looking at children's television commercials.

The study looked at three different components in the commercials:
voiceovers. product representatives and consumers. In both afternoon and
evening commercials males dominated as the main source of voiceovers.
In both the afternoon and prime time messages males accounted for
greater than 90% of the voiceovers in the commercials.

Statistics for the product representative category showed differing
results. In the afternoon commercials women accounted for 72% of the
product representatives. while in the evening women were the product

representatives 48% of the time. When compared to the results of Cantor's

7
study (1972) these numbers are considerably higher than those Cantor

reported in 1972.

Of the afternoon commercials women accounted for 73% of all the
consumers in the commercials. In the evening spots women were
represented most often in home/domestic situations while men were the
dominant consumer in business/management advertisements. In the
overall synopsis of the evening spots there were no signiﬁcant reportings
except for the situational commercials.

In line with the results of the Knill, et al. study were the results of a
content analysis done by Craig in 1992. Craig looked at gender portrayals
in television commercials during three different day parts. 2.209 network
television commercials were content analyzed in this study. Craig reported
that ads in all day parts tended to portray men in roles of authority and
dominance.

A content analysis of television advertisements in the United States.
Mexico and Australia by Gilly (1988) found that male voices were much
more likely than female voices to be used in voiceovers. In addition. Gilly
reported that men were more likely to be portrayed in independent roles
than women were. Women were often portrayed in roles that were related
to others.

Another study that looked at the role of gender in commercials was
done by Greco and Swayne in 1987. Greco and Swayne (1987) found that
in advertisements in which older persons were portrayed as role advisors
of a product or service, the advisor was most likely a male. Further. Greco
and Swayne found that elderly women were only used as major advisors in

2.5% of all the commercials they looked at.

8
Comstock and Cobbey (1979) reported. 'The behavioral response of

children and adolescents to television portrayals is in part dependent on
ethnic minority membership." Comstock and Cobbey go on to say that
race portrayals on television appear to be an important reinforcement of
behavior amongst both black and white children.

There is plenty of research on the portrayal of blacks. whites and
Asians in television commercials. yet there is very little research on the
role of Hispanics in television commercials. This may be due to the
difficulty of coding Hispanic characters. Valencia and Wilkes (1989) point
out different judgments according to ethnicity of coders in studies dealing
with Hispanics. In their study the Hispanics coder counted more
Hispanics than the other coders, regardless of race. This is attributed to
the perceptual cues not available to the other coders. and the Hispanic
coder's familiarity with Hispanics and the Hispanic culture. Valencia and
Wilkes warn that this lack of Hispanic recognition could hamper future
studies regarding race representation.

In Moss's (1981) book review of The Effeete ef Ielegieien
Agvertising en Children by Adler, Lesser, Meringoff, Rossiter and Ward it is
reported that over 60% of all commercials aimed at children promote food
products or places to eat them. Moss goes on to report that during the
heaviest advertising periods (weekend mornings) children see between four
and nine "food messages" every hour. of which two out of every three
commercial messages are for sugared cereals. candy and other highly
sugared products.

Moss (1981) also suggests that the effects of television advertising on
children is greater than many suspect. and goes on to report that research

does indeed show that children do "learn" the content of food commercials.

9
and that they do influence parental buying patterns. It is also interesting

to note that Moss found older children continued to express desires for
advertised products even after they realized that commercials are
persuasive and can not always be trusted.

Atkin (1981) reports that there is sufficient evidence to suggest that
television advertising plays a dominant role in shaping children's product
preference. Atkin also found that the heaviest viewers of advertising are
much more likely to request that parents buy advertised products than are
lighter viewers. These findings replicate the findings in W
W

In their 1984 study Rodnight and Williams looked at the
implications of children's responses to selected television commercials.
The study was conducted on seven to thirteen year olds in the United
Kingdom and the results they obtained were rather interesting.

Rodnight and Williams "buried" the educational advertisements in
their study amongst spots which were selected for their entertainment
value, yet they found that the children being studied were clearly aware of
the purpose of these educational commercials. The educational spots were
on road safety and cigarette smoking. and the children seeing the spots
were stimulated enough to recall and speak about the road safety
messages they had seen in the past.

The children did enjoy watching the entertainment commercials. but
Rodnight and Williams found that although they enjoyed these messages
they did not always remember the product being advertised or necessarily
have any interest in the product. This is an interesting finding because it
shows that while entertaining commercials do indeed attract a child's

attention. they will not necessarily "sell" the product to the child. A

IO
conclusion to be drawn from the Rodnight and Williams study is that to

sell a product an advertiser must attract more than a child's attention.
they must stimulate the child to act upon viewing the commercial..

Rodnight and Williams study concentrated on commercials. but
watching television is an important factor also. because if children did not
turn on the television they would not be exposed to the commercials. In
his 1987 book. MW McNeal developed a model of
children interacting with television advertising.

At the core of McNeal's model is the theory that children alone do
not decide what they are going to watch on television. Parents play a very
big role in determining what their children watch, and how often they
watch. Besides parents. peers can also have a major impact on children's
viewing patterns. In homes where there is no parental supervision of
television watching peers play an even bigger role. Peers may range from
older siblings to friends and other similarly aged children.

Children enjoy getting together to watch television. and often times a
dominant child may decide what other children will watch. The end result
of a child's decision to watch television, according to McNeal. is a ﬂow of
advertising messages. Except for public broadcasting or pay channels
McNeal is 100% correct.

McNeal also speaks about the content of the commercials aired
during children's television programs in his book. McNeal reports that
food and toys are most often advertised to children, and that during the
Christmas season toy commercials can account for nearly 50% of all
children's television advertising.

Within the food category cereal commercials are aired most often. In

a 1985 study of all commercials aired during one Saturday morning in

l 1
November there were 15 different cereal brands advertised. as opposed to

13 types of sweets. nine brands of candy. and eight varieties of other
foods.

In their 1990 content analysis Faulkner and Story studied food
messages in television commercials. They looked at 261 commercials, of
which 35% were food-related advertisements. Similar to previous findings.
Faulkner and Story reported that the television diet was not a healthy one,

and was made up of mostly fast foods. low nutrient foods and snacks.

CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY

Introduction
The major purpose of the present study was to describe the content
of commercials aired during Saturday morning network televisions
programs. The research design involved a coding form which was used to
code the content of the commercials. The coding form consisted of 14
different statements, the majority of which were closed ended. A copy of

the Coding form is listed in Appendix A.

Sample

The sample in this study consisted of the commercials aired between
8:00 AM. and Noon on CBS and ABC the second and third Saturdays in
October, 1993. The sample was chosen from a population representing all
of the commercials that may possibly air on Saturday morning network
television.

On Saturday. October 9, 1993 84 commercials were aired during the
four hours of programming on CBS. The CBS programming schedule for
Saturday. October 9, 1993 between 8:00 AM. and Noon can be found in
Appendix B.

The following Saturday, October 16. 1994 90 commercials were aired
during the hours of 8:00 AM. and Noon on ABC network programming. A
complete listing of the ABC programming for Saturday, October 16. 1994
is listed in Appendix C.

The 174 commercials were looked at together in this study, and

differences in the commercials between the two networks were not looked

12

13
at for the purposes of this study. For a complete listing of all the

commercials and their running times please see Appendix D.

Data Analysis and Collection

The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used in the
presentation and analysis of data in this study. Simple descriptive
statistics, including means, medians, modes. percentages. percentiles.
frequencies and standard deviations were the major statistical tools used
in this study.

Each of the fourteen items on the coding sheet were analyzed, and
the results of this analysis led to the results of this study. Each of the

fourteen items and their possible response choices are listed below.

Ceding Question 1: What was the product being advertised?

This question was open ended so that the exact item being
advertised could be recorded. It was very important to insure that the
item being advertised was listed and spelled correctly. since many of the

products being advertised were very similar.

Qeging Question 2: What type of product was being advertised?

This was a closed ended question and the choices were: food. toy.
entertainment item, automobile, services and public service
announcements.

Food messages were usually for fast food restaurants. cereals.
candies and other foods young viewers consume. and it was important to
distinguish between a food commercial and a toy commercial when a fast

food restaurant or a brand of cereal was giving away a toy with the item

14
being advertised. In all of these situations the commercial was listed as a

food commercial.

There was one situation where a fast food restaurateur was actually
marketing a toy and in this situation the product was listed as a toy. The
item was commercial number thirteen. the McDonalds Happy Meal Snack
Maker Set.

Qoding Question 3: How many characters were present in the commercial?

In determining the number of characters present in the commercial
limitations had to be drawn on which characters to include. and which not
to include. Any characters with a speaking part, or that appeared in the
commercial for more than five seconds were considered a character in the
commercial for this study.

The actual number of characters present in the commercial was
recorded between zero and nine characters. If there were ten characters or

more present in the commercial it was recorded as ten plus.

Qeging Questien 4: Was there a black male present in the commercial?
Qoging Queetion 5: Was there a black female present in the commercial?
Qeging Question 6: Was there a white male present in the commercial?
Qeding Queetien 7; Was there a white female present in the commercial?
Qeging Queetion 8: Was there an Asian male present in the commercial?
Qeging Questien 9: Was there an Asian female present in the commercial?
Each of the above questions, four through nine. were answered with
a yes or a no, and for each of these items the same limitations that applied
to item three applied. The character had to appear for at least ﬁve seconds

or speak in order to be counted as having been present.

l 5
Qeging Questien 19: Was there an other male present in the commercial?

Qoging Question 1 1: Was there an other female present in the
commercial?
Qoding Questien 12: Was there an other present in the commercial?

Coding questions ten through twelve were answered with a positive
or negative response, and as in the previous questions the character must
have had a speaking part in the commercial, or must have appeared for
ﬁve seconds or more in order to qualify as being present. Characters
included in items ten through twelve were animals. animated characters
and characters in costumes (humans in a costume).

Animated characters and characters in costumes were not
considered to have race characteristics. If the animated character had
clear sexual characteristics then the character was coded as an other male
or an other female. conversely If the animated character had no clear

sexual characteristics they were coded in question 12. other.

Design Limitations

The use of Saturday morning commercials on ABC and CBS during
the ﬁrst two Saturdays of October may not be representative of all
commercials aired during Saturday morning children's television. Since
the sample only contained commercials from these two Saturdays. the
results cannot be generalized to include all Saturday morning network
television commercials aimed at children. In particular, the proportion of
toy advertising ﬂuctuates according to season. and is likely to be lower in

the ﬁrst three quarters of the year.

CHAPTER FOUR
ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS

Introduction

The purpose of this study was to examine the content of
commercials aired during Saturday morning children's programming. and
see how that content compares to the real world. The research. in addition
to looking at the length of the commercials. the product being advertised
and the characters in the commercials. was to look at race representation
in the commercials, sex representation in the commercials. and the
number of characters present in food versus non-food commercials.

In total 174 commercials were viewed in the study. Advertisements
for toys represented the highest amount of commercials in the study. Toys
represented 49%. or 86 of the commercials. Food commercials were the
second most common type of commercial. and they represented 40%. or
69 of the commercials. The third most common type of commercial aired
was for entertainment products, and these commercials accounted for 5%
of the total amount of commercials.

Directly behind entertainment commercials was public service type
messages. Public service type messages made up 4% of the sample.
Commercials for services and automobiles were tied with two commercials
each. and each represented 1% of the total level of commercials. Table 4.1
contains an exact listing of the percentages and frequencies of the type of

product advertised in the commercials.

16

17
Table 4.1 Type of product advertised in the television commercials.

 

 

Type of Commercial Frequency Percent Cum Percent
Food 69 39.7% 39.7%

Toys 86 49.4% 89. 1%
Entertainment 9 5.2% 94.3%
Automobiles 2 1. 1% 95.4%
Services 2 1. 1% 96.6%

Public Service 6 3.4% 100.0 %

 

In the length of commercial category. 30-second spots dominated by
representing 167. or 96% of the spots. 15-second spots were seen the
second most often. four times accounting for 2% of the commercials.
Commercials lasting one minute were next, and they represented two of
the commercials. Finally. one commercial lasted only ten seconds. Due to
past research a slot was available on the coding sheets for 45-second
spots. but there were none in this study. Table 4.2 contains an exact

listing of the commercial lengths and their frequencies.

18
Table 4.2 Length of commercials appearing in the study.

 

 

Length of Commercial Frequency Percent Cum Percent
10 seconds 1 .6% .6%

15 seconds 4 2.3% 2.9%

30 seconds 167 96.0% 98.9%

60 seconds 2 1.1% 100.0%

 

In the number of characters category all responses, zero through
nine and ten plus were used. The most common amount of characters in
a commercial in this study was two. Commercials with two characters
represented 50 or 29% of the commercials. Following closely behind
commercials with two characters were commercials with three characters.
and they represented 31 or 18% of the commercial messages. Next were
commercials with one and four characters, each of these represented 12%
of the total sample.

Following these commercials were commercials with nine. ﬁve and
ten plus characters. Commercials with six characters followed next
representing seven commercials from the total sample. There were four
commercials with zero and eight characters. and commercials with seven
characters were the least represented with only three. Table 4.3 contains
a listing of the number of characters in the commercials with exact and

cum percentages also listed.

19
Table 4.3 Number of characters present in the commercial.

 

 

Number of Characters Frequency Percent Cum Percent
in Commercial

Zero 4 2.3% 2.3%
One 21 12.1% 14.4%
TWO 50 28.7% 43.1%
Three 31 17.8% 60.9%
Four 21 12.1% 73.0%
Five 10 5.7% 78.7%
Six 7 4.0% 82.8%
Seven 3 1.7% 84.5%
Eight 4 2.3% 86.8%
Nine 13 7.5% 94.3%
Ten Plus 10 5.7% 100.0%

 

The next item on the coding sheet looked at the presence of black
characters in the commercials. Black males appeared in 36 of the 174
commercials while black females were present in 30 of the commercials.
Tables 4.4 and 4.5 show the frequencies and percentages of black male

and females in the commercials.

20
Table 4.4 Presence of black male characters in the commercials.

 

 

Black Male Present Frequency Percent Cum Percent
Yes 36 20.7% 20.7%
No 138 79.3% 100.0%

 

Table 4.5 Presence of black female characters in the commercials.

 

 

Black Female Present Frequency Percent Cum percent
Yes 30 17.2% 17.2%
No 144 82.8% 100.0%

 

White characters were the most represented of any race in the study.
and amongst whites females were seen more often than male characters.
White females were present in 1 10 of the advertisements while white males
were present in 104 of the advertisements. Tables 4.6 and 4.7 contain the
percentages and frequencies of white males and females in the

commercials.

21
Table 4.6 Presence of white male characters in the commercials.

 

 

White Male Present Frequency Percent Cum Percent
Yes 104 59.8% 59.8%
No 70 40.2% 100.0%

 

Table 4.7 Presence of white female characters in the commercials.

 

 

White Female Present Frequency Percent Cum Percent
Yes 1 1 0 63.2% 63.2%
No 64 36.8% 100.0%

 

Of all the races represented in the commercials. Asians were
represented the least. Asian females appeared in thirteen of the
commercials. while Asian males appeared in only three of the
advertisements. Listed in tables 4.8 and 4.9 are the percentages and

frequencies of Asian characters in the commercials in this study.

22 ~
Table 4.8 Presence of Asian male characters in the commercials.

 

 

Asian Male Present Frequency Percent Cum Percent
Yes 3 1.7% 1.7%
No 171 98.3% 100.0%

 

Table 4.9 Presence of Asian female characters in the commercials.

 

 

Asian Female Present Frequency Percent Cum Percent
Yes 13 7 .5% 7 .5%
No 161 92.5% 100.0%

 

Other males appeared much more frequently than other females in
the advertisements in this study. Other males appeared in 31 of the
commercials, while other females were present in only 12 of the
advertisements. Tables 4.10 and 4.1 1 show the percentages regarding the

appearance of other males and females in the commercials.

23
Table 4.10 Presence of other male characters in the commercials.

 

 

Other Male Present Frequency Percent Cum Percent
Yes 31 17.8% 17.8%
No 143 82.2% 100.0%

 

Table 4.1 1 Presence of other female characters in the commercials.

 

 

Other Female Present Frequency Percent Cum Percent
Yes 12 6.9% 6.9%
No 162 93.1% 100.0%

 

Others were present in 31 of the commercials. the same as other
males. Listed below in table 4.12 are the percentages and frequencies for

others in the commercials in this study.

Table 4.12 Presence of other characters in the commercials.

 

Other Present Frequency Percent Cum Percent

 

Yes 31 17.8% 17.8%
No 143 82.2% 100.0%

 

24
The ﬁnal item on the coding sheet looked at the race and sex of the

main character in each of the commercial messages. Whites were most
often the main character, appearing as the dominant character in 131. or
75% of the 174 commercials. Of the 131. 63 of the dominant white
characters were females while 68 of them were males. Third in order of
appearance as dominant character were other males. Other males
appeared as the main character in 24 of the commercials. Other females
did not appear as the main character in any of the 174 advertisements.

Black characters were the main character in the messages eleven
times. Black males were the dominant character eight times. and black
females were the dominant character in three of the advertisements.
Asian characters were not viewed as the main character in any of the 174
commercials nor were other females. Others were the main character in
four of the commercials. and four of the commercials had no main
character present. This finding of four commercials with no main
characters coincides with the ﬁnding that four of the commercials had no
characters present in them at all.

Frequencies and percentages detailing the main character of the

commercial can be found below in table 4.13.

25
Table 4.13 Characteristics of the main character in the commercials.

 

 

Main Character Frequency Percent Cum Percent
None 4 2.3% 2.3%

Black Male 8 4.6% 6.9%

Black Female 3 1.7% 8.6%

White Male 63 36.2% 44.8%

White Female 68 39.1% 83.9%

Other Male 24 13.8% 97.7%

Other 4 2.3% 100.0%

 

When comparing number of characters present in a commercial and
type of product being advertised it is quickly noticed that every commercial
for food and toys had at least one character in them. Commercials for toys
had two characters present in 42 of 86 occurrences. Toy commercials with
three characters were the next most frequent with 18 occurrences. and toy
advertisements with one character followed closely behind with 13. Toy
commercials with four characters were next with six occurrences.

Toy commercials with six. seven or eight characters appeared twice
in the study. and those with ﬁve characters appeared just once. There
were no toy commercials with zero. nine or ten (ten plus) characters
present.

Food commercials, like toy commercials. had at least one character
present in every commercial in the study, but unlike toy commercials the

most common number of characters in food commercials was four. 15

26
food commercials had four characters in them. and following closely

behind with 13 occurrences were food commercials with three characters
in them. Food commercials with nine characters in them were next.
accounting for 12 of the 69 food commercials.

Five characters appeared in eight of the food commercials. while food
commercials with one character followed right behind with seven
occurrences. Next were food commercials with two characters. there were
six of these. and there were four food messages with six characters. There
were two food commercials with eight and ten characters in them. and
there were no food advertisements with either zero or seven characters.

Of the nine commercials for entertainment products an astonishing
eight of them had more than ten characters present. The remaining
entertainment commercial had zero characters present.

Automobile commercials made up two of the 174 commercials in
this study. and one of those commercials had zero characters present
while the other had six characters present. There were also two
commercials for services in this study, and both of those commercials did
not have any characters.

The ﬁnal type of commercial message in this study was of the public
service variety. and of the six of these there were two characters present in
two of the messages. The remaining four public service messages each
had different amounts of characters. One of the commercials had one
character, one had ﬁve characters. one had seven characters and one had
nine characters. For a complete breakdown of the number of characters

present in a speciﬁc message type please refer to tables 4.14 through 4.19.

Table 4.14 Number of characters present in food commercials.

 

 

Number of Characters Frequency Percent Cum Percent
One 7 10.1% 10.1%

TWO 6 8.7% 18.8%

Three 13 18.8% 37.6%

Four 15 21.7% 59.3%

Five 8 1 1.6% 70.9%

Six 4 5.8% 76.7%

Eight 2 2.9% 79.6%

Nine 12 17.4% 97.1%

Ten Plus 2 2.9% 100.0%

 

28

Table 4. 15 Number of characters present in toy commercials.

 

 

Number of Characters Frequency Percent Cum Percent
One 13 15.1% 15.1%

Two 42 48.8% 63.9%

Three 18 20.9% 84.8%

Four 6 7.0% 91.7%

Five 1 1.2% 92.9%

Six 2 2.3% 95.4%

Seven 2 2.3% 97 .7%

Eight 2 2.3% 100.0%

 

Table 4.16 Number of characters present in entertainment commercials.

 

 

Number of Characters Frequency Percent Cum Percent
Zero 1 1 1.1% 1 1.1%
Ten Plus 8 88.9% 100.0%

 

29
Table 4.17 Number of characters present in automobile commercials.

 

 

Number of Characters Frequency Percent Cum Percent
Zero 1 50.0% 50.0%
Six 1 50.0% 50.0%

 

Table 4.18 Number of characters present in service commercials.

 

Number of Characters Frequency Percent Cum Percent

 

Zero 2 100.0% 100.0%

 

Table 4.19 Number of characters present in public service commercials.

 

 

Number of Characters Frequency Percent Cum Percent
One I 16.7% 16.7%
Two 2 33.3% 50.0%
Five 1 16.7% 66.6%
Seven 1 16.7% 83.3%

Nine 1 16.7% 100.0%

 

38
All of the percentages in the above tables are rounded to the nearest

one-tenth, and some of the cumulative percentages may have been
adjusted one-tenth so that the ﬁnal cumulative percentage is equal to
100%. As stated previously all calculations were done via the SPSS
computer program. located in the Michigan State University Computer

Center.

CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMDEENDATIONS

Introduction

The main purpose of this study was to examine the content of
commercials aired during Saturday morning network programming. The
commercials were looked at in terms of the product being advertised. the
length of the commercial. the number of characters in the commercial. and
the race and sex of the characters in the commercial.

In total 174 commercials were gathered from two networks on
successive Saturday mornings. and those commercials were analyzed for
the purposes of this study. There are four research inquiries to be
answered based on the ﬁndings of this study. The ﬁrst thing I will look at
is if the data supports the claim that Winick. et al. made regarding that
both boys and girls respond in a better fashion to male than female
protagonists in commercial messages. I will look at this in terms of the sex
of dominant character in the commercials.

The second thing I will use the results of this study to look at is the
level of race representation in the commercials in comparison to the
general population of the United States. Whites (including Hispanics)
currently make up 84% of the American population, while blacks make up
12%. and Asians make up 3% (United States Census Bureau. 1994). The
data from this study will be used to see if the ﬁgures in the commercials
are in order with the ﬁgures in the population.

The third item to be tested is my hypothesis that in food
commercials there are more characters present than in non-food

commercials. based on the rational that we are a society that frowns on

31

32
dining alone. fearing that we tend to eat more. and less healthily when we

eat alone.

Finally. the data in this study will be used to see if there is a link
between the length of the commercials. and any characteristics of such
commercials.

All ﬁndings of this study should be viewed with certain limitations.
There are limitations inherent in a subjective content analysis like this
one. Because of this. ﬁndings can not be generalized to populations

beyond the sample used in this study.

Summary of Findings

Of the 174 commercials. 166 had a main character that were either
a male or female. The remaining eight commercials either featured no
main character or a non-sexual main character. Of the 166 commercials.
95 or 57% of the advertisements featured a male as the dominant
character. This number of 57% includes males from the "other male"
category. but when this category is dropped from the findings males and
females were represented evenly as the main character of the commercial.
It is rather interesting to note that other males were the main character in
24 of the spots. while other females were not the main character even
once.

White characters appeared the most of any of the three races being
compared in this study. and they were in 154, or 88% of the commercials.
Black characters appeared the second most often of the three races. and
they were in 55. or 32% of all the advertisements. Asians appeared the
least frequent of the three groups. appearing in only 15, or 9% of the

commercial messages.

33
When looking at appearance as the dominant character whites were

again the leaders having appeared as the dominant character in 131. or
75% of the commercials. Black characters appeared as the dominant
character in 1 1. or 6% of the advertisements. While Asians appeared in 15
of the messages. they did not appear once as the dominant character.

Food commercials had an average number of 5.3 characters per
commercial while toy commercials averaged 2.6 characters per
advertisement. Commercials for entertainment products had a study high
total of 8.9 characters per message. while commercials for services
averaged a study low total of zero characters per commercial.

Advertisements for automobiles had an average of three people per
commercial and public service messages had a mean of 4.3 characters per
message.

When looking at the average number of characters per message it is
important to remember the number of commercials that we are dealing
with in each category. In the food and toy categories we are dealing with
69 and 86 commercials respectively, but in the other categories we are
dealing with less than ten commercials in each of them. Because the
number of commercials in the ﬁnal four categories is so low it is more
important to look at the averages for the food and toy messages.

When looking at the comparison between product type and length of
commercial it is quickly noticed that 96% of the sample in this study were
commercials that lasted 30 seconds. Of the six product types. ﬁve of them
had commercials lasting 30 seconds. Service type commercials were the
only message variety that did not have any 30 second commercials. but
service commercials accounted for less than 2% of the messages in this

study.

34
All of the toy. entertainment and automobile commercials lasted 30

seconds while 67 of the 69 food commercials also lasted 30 seconds. The
remaining two food commercials lasted one minute. and while both one

minute messages were different they were both for McDonalds.

Conclusions

The following conclusions are based on the ﬁndings of this study. It
is important to remember when looking at these conclusions that they are
for the commercials viewed in this study alone. They are not conclusions
related to. or applicable to all commercials aired on Saturday morning
network television.
1. Apparently sponsors do not differentiate between using male or
female characters when choosing who to use as the dominant character in
a Saturday morning commercial when the character is a human being.
When it comes to deciding on a non-human character advertisers seem to
prefer the use of a male non-human more than a female non-human.
2. Advertisers appear to make an effort to have race levels in Saturday
morning children's television commercials equal to or greater than those
levels in the population at large. Possibly fearing a loss of market share. it
appears that advertisers stop short of equal or greater representation when
it comes to characters serving as the main or dominant character.
3. Advertisers use more characters per food commercial than they do
per toy commercial. perhaps furthering the conception that it okay to play
alone. but it is not okay to eat alone.
4. Regardless of the type of product being advertised. Saturday
morning advertisers use 30-second commercials more often than any other

timed lengths in their attempt to reach viewers.

35
Recommendations

As with many studies. research often generates more questions than
it answers. This research was done to examine the content of commercials
aired during Saturday morning network television aimed at children. and
based upon the conclusions of this study recommendations are offered for
additional research. These recommendations focus on children and their
viewing habits. commercials aired during other times of the day and other
related areas of mass media and telecommunication.

This study was a content analysis of children's Saturday morning
network television commercials. and while it provided information
regarding the make up of the commercials it did not look at the programs
or the actual time children spent paying attention to the programs or
commercials.

More research on television commercials needs to be done in
different time periods before we can generalize the results of this study for
all commercials aired on television. Commercials aired during prime time
and late night, for example. have much different audiences and may have
totally different types of commercials with different characters in them. It
would also be interesting for future researchers to compare commercials
aired during children's Saturday morning network television. and those
aired during other programs directed towards children.

Television is slowly becoming a niche media. and each niche serves a
different segment of the population. Twenty years ago Saturday morning
television was the best way for advertisers to reach a younger market. but
with the advent of cable television this whole philosophy is changing.

Nickelodeon now caters to children and young adults the same way ESPN

36
caters to a men and sports fans, and future studies may want to look at

the impact of these niche stations and the advertising that is on them.

Overall Recommendations
Television is one of the most powerful sources of information
exchange that is in existence today. The power of television. and the
commercial messages contained in television programs is stronger than
anyone of us realize. If we respect television's power we may have a better
chance of understanding it and its effects. and that may be a better

approach than the one many of television's detractors take.

APPENDIX A

COMMERCIAL CODING SHEET

1 . Product being advertised:

 

2. Type of product is being advertised:
Food Toy Entertainment Product Automobile

Other:

 

3. Length of commercial:
10 seconds 15 seconds 30 seconds 45 seconds 1 minute

other:

4. Characters present in the commercial:

123456789104-

5. Was there a black male present in the commercial? yes no
6. Was there a black female present in the commercial? yes no
7. Was there a white male present in the commercial? yes no

8. Was there a white female present in the commercial? yes no
9. Was there an Asian male present in the commercial? yes no

37

10.

ll.

12.

13.

14.

38
Was there an Asian Female present in the commercial? yes no

Was there an other male present in the commercial? yes no
Was there an other female present in the commercial? yes no
Was there an other present in the commercial? yes no

The main character in the commercial was a:

black male black female white male white female
Asian male Asian female Other male Other female other

APPENDIX B

PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE FOR CBS ON
SATURDAY. OCTOBER 9. 1993
BETWEEN 8:00 A.M. AND NOON

8:00 AM. Marsupilami (cartoon)

8:30 AM. Little Mermaid (cartoon)

9:00 A.M. Garfield (cartoon)

10:00 A.M. New Dennis The Menace (cartoon)
10:30 A.M. Ninja Turtles (cartoon)

1 1:30 A.M. Cadillacs And Dinosaurs (cartoon)

39

APPENDIX C

PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE FOR ABC ON
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16. 1993
BETWEEN 8:00 A.M. AND NOON

8:00 AM. Dog City (cartoon)

8:30 AM. Bobby's World (cartoon)

9:00 A.M. Sonic The Hedgehog (cartoon)
9:30 A.M. Eek The Cat (cartoon)

10:00 A.M. Cryptkeeper (cartoon)

10:30 A.M. Bugs Bunny 8: Tweety (cartoon)
1 1:30 A.M. City Kids (teenagers)

40

@NWP‘PWPT‘

10.
l 1.
12.
l3.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.

APPENDIX D

COMPLETE LISTING OF ALL COMMERCIALS.
WITH RUNNING TIME AND PRODUCT TYPE
IN THIS STUDY

Cabbage Patch Kid's Magic Meadow Pony (30 seconds. toy)
Little Caesars Pizza with Nerf Offer (30 seconds. food)
Krystal Princess Dolls (30 seconds. toy)

Made By Me-Fantastic Roses (30 seconds. toy)

Kellogg's Rice Krispie Treats Cereal (30 seconds. food)
Cabbage Patch Kid's Baby Cries So Real (30 seconds. toy)
Baby giggles 'n Go (30 seconds. toy)

McDonalds Halloween McNuggets Buddies Happy Meal (30 seconds.
toy)

Lil Miss Candy Stripes (30 seconds. toy)

Chuck E. Cheese (30 seconds. food)

Hollywood Hair Barbie (30 seconds. toy)

Kellogg's Pop Tarts (30 seconds. food)

McDonalds Happy Meal Snack Maker Set (30 seconds. toy)
Stretch Armstrong (30 seconds. toy)

Pizza Hut (30 seconds. food)

Newborn Baby Alive (30 seconds. toy)

Baby Giggles 'n Go (30 seconds. toy)

Toby Terrier (30 seconds, toy)

Lego Dragon Masters (30 seconds. toy)

Lil Miss Candy Stripes (30 seconds. toy)

4|

2 1 .
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.

28.
29.
30.
3 1 .
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.

45.
46.

42
Chuck E. Cheese (30 seconds. toy)

Magic Feeding Baby (30 seconds. toy)

Pizza Hut (30 seconds. toy)

Toby Terrier (30 seconds. toy)

Big Frank (30 seconds. toy)

Fruity Pebbles (30 seconds. food)

McDonalds Halloween McNugget Buddies Happy Meal (30 seconds.
food)

Party 'n Play Stacie (30 seconds. toy)

Kellogg's (30 seconds. food)

Fruity pebbles (30 seconds, toy)

Planters P.B. Crisps (30 seconds. toy)

Polly Pocket (30 seconds. toy)

Toby Terrier (30 seconds. toy)

Pizza Hut Aladdin Offer (30 seconds. food)

'l\vix (30 seconds. food)

Cabbage Patch Kid's Baby Cries So Real (30 seconds, toy)
Newborn Baby Alive (30 seconds, toy)

Fisher Price Tournament Table (30 seconds. toy)

Kellogg's Pop Tarts (30 seconds. toy)

McDonalds "What's On Your Plate" (60 seconds. food)
McDonalds (60 seconds. food)

M-78 Body Shop (30 seconds. automobiles)

Lego Pirates (30 seconds. toy)

Burger King Kid's Club (30 seconds. food)

Cabbage Patch Kid's Baby Cries So Real (30 seconds, toy)
McDonalds Happy Meal Snack Maker Set (30 seconds. toy)

47.
48.
49.
50.

5 1 .
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.

61.

43
Aladdin on video (30 seconds. entertainment)

Toby Terrier (30 seconds. toy)

Fisher Price Tournament Table (30 seconds. toy)
McDonalds Halloween McNugget Buddies Happy Meal (30 seconds.
food)

Post Golden Crisp (30 seconds. food)

Baby Giggles 'n Go (30 seconds. toy)

Fruity Pebbles (30 seconds. food)

Cabbage Patch Kid's Magic Meadow Pony (30 seconds. toy)

Pizza Hut Aladdin Offer (30 seconds. food)

Fashion Plates (30 seconds. toy)

2 Sided magna Doodle (30 seconds. toy)

Kellogg's Pop Tarts (30 seconds. food)

Tim Burton's 'The Nightmare Before Christmas" (30 seconds. ent.)
Lil Miss Candi Stripes (30 seconds. toy)

McDonalds Halloween McNugget Buddies Happy Meal (30 seconds.
food)

Jurassic Park Hand Held Game (30 seconds. toy)

Taco Bell Demolition Man Meal (30 seconds, food)

Fisher Price Tournament Table (30 seconds. toy)
McDonalds Happy Meal Snack Maker Set (30 seconds. toy)
Baby Giggles 'n Go (30 seconds. toy)

Burger King Kid's Club (30 seconds. food)

2 Sided Magna Doodle (30 seconds. toy)

Fashion Plates (30 seconds. toy)

Little Caesars Nerf Offer (30 seconds. food)

Aladdin on Video (30 seconds. entertainment)

72.
73.
74.
75.
76.
77.
78.
79.

80.
8 1 .
82.
83.
84.
85.
86.
87.
88.
89.
90.
91.
92.
93.
94.
95.
96.
97.

44
Life Savers (30 seconds. food)

EZ 2 Do (30 seconds. toy)

Taco Bell Demolition Man Meal (30 seconds, food)
Playskool Dollhouse (30 seconds. toy)

Rice Krispies Treats Cereal (30 seconds. food)
ALIENS (30 seconds. toy)

Magic Feeding Baby (30 seconds. toy)

McDonalds Halloween McNugget Buddies Happy Meal (30 seconds.
food)

2 Sided Magna Doodle (30 seconds. toy)

Fisher Price Tournament Table (30 seconds. toy)
Planters P.B. Crisps (30 seconds. toy)

EZ 2 Do (30 seconds. toy)

Taco Bell Demolition Man Meal (30 seconds. food)
Fuss 'n Giggle Triplets (30 seconds. toy)

Milk. it does a body good (30 seconds. food)

Pizza Hut Aladdin Offer (30 seconds. food)

TV Teddy (30 seconds. toy)

2-XL (30 seconds. toy)

Baby Get Well (30 seconds. toy)

Turbo Shot (30 seconds, toy)

Kellogg's Frosted Mini Wheats (30 seconds. food)
Pony Surprise (30 seconds. toy)

Chuck E. Cheese (30 seconds. food)

Toby Terrier (30 seconds. toy)

Kellogg's (30 seconds. food)

Baby Get Well (30 seconds, toy)

98.

100.
101.
102.
103.

104.
105.
106.
107.
108.
109.
1 10.
1 1 1.
1 12.
1 13.

114.

115.
116.
117.
118.
119.
120.
121.

45
Turbo Shot (30 seconds. toy)

Apple Jacks (30 seconds, food)

Teddy Ruxpin (30 seconds. toy)

Milk. it does a body good (30 seconds. toy)

Lego Pirates (30 seconds. toy)

McDonalds Halloween McNugget Buddies Happy Meal (30 seconds.
food)

Magic Copier (30 seconds. toy)

Hyacinth House Greenery (15 seconds. service)

Street Fighter 11 Hand Held Game (30 seconds. toy)

Little Caesars Nerf Offer (30 seconds, food)

2 Sided Magna Doodle (30 seconds. toy)

Skittles (30 seconds. food)

Chefboyardee Sir Chomps-a-lot (30 seconds. food)

Kellogg's Pop Tarts (30 seconds. food)

Made By Me Fantastic Roses (30 seconds. toy)

McDonalds Halloween McNugget Buddies Happy Meal (30 seconds.
food)

American Melanoma Foundation Health Protection (30 seconds.
public service)

Crunch Berries (30 seconds. food)

TV Teddy (30 seconds, toy)

Chuck E. Cheese (30 seconds. food)

Pizza Hut Aladdin Offer (30 seconds. food)

Baby Giggles 'n Go (30 seconds. toy)

Jurassic Park Command Compound (30 seconds. toy)

Tim Burton's 'The Nightmare Before Christmas" (30 seconds, ent.)

122.
123.
124.
125.
126.
127.
128.
129.
130.
131.
132.
133.
134.
135.
136.
137.
138.

139.
140.
141.
142.
143.
144.

145.
146.

46
Kellogg's Frosted Flakes (30 seconds. food)

Skittles (30 seconds. food)

Teddy Ruxpin (30 seconds. toy)

Mommy's Having A Baby (30 seconds. toy)

Kellogg's Pop Tarts (30 seconds. toy)

Partnership For A Drug Free America (15 seconds. public service)
Potter Park Zoo (30 seconds. entertainment)

Fashion Plates (30 seconds. toy)

Kellogg's Pop Tarts (30 seconds. food)

Tim Burton's 'The Nightmare Before Christmas" (30 seconds. ent.)
Made By Me Fantastic Roses (30 seconds. toy)

Kellogg's Corn Pops (30 seconds. food)

Lego Rescue (30 seconds. toy)

Pizza Hut Aladdin Offer (30 seconds. food)

Cabbage Patch Kid's magic Meadow Pony (30 seconds. toy)

Five A Day/ Children Our Future (30 seconds. public service)
McDonalds Halloween McNugget Buddies Happy Meal (30 seconds.
food)

Magic Feeding Baby (30 seconds. toy)

Chuck E. Cheese (30 seconds. food)

Baby Giggles 'n Go (30 seconds. toy)

The Beverly Hillbillies Movie (30 seconds. entertainment)

My Buddy; Kid Sister (30 seconds, toy)

McDonalds Halloween McNugget Buddies Happy Meal (30 seconds.
food)

Milk, it does a body good (30 seconds. food)

Aladdin on Video (30 seconds. entertainment)

147.
148.
149.
150.
151.
152.
153.
154.

155.
156.
157.
158.
159.
160.
161.
162.
163.
164.
165.
166.
167.
168.
169.
170.
171.
172.

47
Jurassic Park Command Compound (30 seconds. toy)

Partnership for a drug free America (10 seconds. public service)
Troll Barbie (30 seconds. toy)

Chefboyardee Sir Chomps-a—lot (30 seconds. food)

Taco Bell Demolition Man Meal (30 seconds. food)

Baby Get Well (30 seconds. toy)

Lego Dragon Masters (30 seconds. toy)

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Hand Held Game (30 seconds.
toy)

Kellogg's Frosted Mini Wheats (30 seconds. food)

Turbo Shot (30 seconds. toy)

Little Caesars Nerf Offer (30 seconds. food)

My Buddy; Kid Sister (30 seconds. toy)

Jurassic park Command Compound (30 seconds. toy)

Kellogg's Corn Flakes with Phone Offer (30 seconds, food)
McDonalds McWorld (30 seconds. food)

Hyacinth House Greenery (15 seconds. service)

Cabbage Patch Kid's Baby Cries So Real (30 seconds. toy)
Kellogg's Pop Tarts (30 seconds. food)

Western Stampin' Barbie and Friends (30 seconds. toy)

Little Caesars Nerf offer (30 seconds. toy)

Aladdin on Video (30 seconds. entertainment)

Milk. it does a body good (30 seconds. food)

Puppy Surprise (30 seconds. toy)

Quiz Whiz (30 seconds. toy)

Magic Feeding Baby (30 seconds. toy)

Partnership for a drug free America (15 seconds. public service)

48
173. Delta Plan of Michigan (30 seconds, public service)

174. Regency GM Trucks (30 seconds. automobile)

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