Abstract

Purpose: The study is framed to enrich our understanding of fathers perceptions of the influence of TV advertising on childrens buying behavior. This exploratory study presents fathers perceptions of the role and impact of TV advertising on childrens attitude formation towards consumption. Methodology: Data was collected from 30 males having at least one child between the ages of seven to fourteen years. They were purposefully selected and interviewed in detail by the research team. A qualitative approach to investigation was opted and data was collected through detailed interviews from 200 males having at least one child between the ages of seven to fourteen years. Findings: Thematic analysis revealed six themes; Quantity of ads exposure, Negative impact of TV food ads, Bad eating habits, Changing Buying patterns, Positive/productive impact on children, and fathers perceptions of TV advertising. Originality: This study is useful for advertising and brand managers striving hard to persuade children and their families into buying various products. Additionally, the brand management from a societal perspective can also be initiated with the help of findings from current study. Keywords: Advertising, Children, Behavior, Father, Pakistan.

Introduction
The attitudes, values, and behaviors of viewers of all ages, especially the children are highly affected by watching TV programs (Pine & Messer, 2009). It has been observed that food advertisers always try to persuade children through Television advertising efforts that extremely affect children food choice decisions (Just & Payne, 2009). This has resulted to an increase in consumption of food items and ultimately causing obesity amongst children of various age groups. One third of American children in age group of 10 to 17 years are considered overweight with half of them categorized as obese (Science News, 2010). The obesity is not only prevalent in US even it is prevalent in Indian region as well. In New Delhi, there are almost 22% urban children facing overweight and 6 percent were dealing with obesity concerns (Sharma et al., 2007). It is argued that television viewing in children, especially, induces them to consume more food that results in production of a body mass and ultimately leads to obesity (Viner & Cole, 2005). Despite taking into account important factors such as socio-economic status of family & familial trend of being overweight (Hancox & Poulton, 2006), and physical activity performed by children (Epstein et al., 2008), television viewing remains most significant factor contributing towards obesity. Some others also supported this notion and it is found that childrens food preferences have been affected by peers food preferences (Benton, 2004), behaviors of surrounding adults (Harper & Sanders, 1975), food preference of parents (Campbell & Crawford, 2001), and media watch, including food advertising through TV (Cardone & Masi, 2004). Because TV advertising has a strong influence on children buying behaviors, hence some researchers strongly recommended the idea to regulate TV advertisers in order to control the obesity and overweight concerns (Henderson & Kelly, 2005; Kaiser Family Foundation, 2007). Parents are found to mediate the relationship between children watching TV and their food choice but how, and up to what extent it is mediated, depends highly upon the culture of any

country (Pavleen & Raghbir, 2012). Culture of any country also includes the parenting style such as the extent to which parents are restrictive vs. warm, involved vs. detached, and these styles are also linked with dominant element of culture as being collectivist or individualistic (Pavleen and Raghbir, 2012). Culture of Indian part of worldsubcontinent (including India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh) is mostly collectivist and people live in joint family systems with their parents and grandparents (Webster, 2000). Traditionally, in such cultural systems, parents are much authoritative as they take decisions regarding children schooling, their clothes and food, and even about their marriage, once they grow adult (Rose et al., 2003). In subcontinent, specifically, males influence most of the decisions regarding food choice, schooling etc. due to being regarded as Masculine culture (Hofstede, 2001). That accolades the notion that TV viewing in this part of world is also controlled by parents and they also have significant role to play in food choices, especially the fathers (Singh and Kaur, 2012). Despite a significant research targeted at delineating the mothers perceptions of role and impact of TV advertising on childrens attitude towards food consumption, the evidence notifying fathers perceptions is absolutely missing (Jay, 2012; Pavleen and Raghbir, 2012). We believe that in societies like Pakistan that score high on Masculinity and Collectivism, , fathers play a dominant role as compared with mothers. It is mostly true in case of , especially when it comes to media selection, food choice and consumption habits amongst children. On the other hand, fathers are also considered as playing the pivotal role through spending time with children and making decisions regarding their food, schooling, media selection, and eating habits (Brooks et al. 1998; Coontz 2005; Downs 2008). The studies so far have not been able to present the fathers concerns pertaining to perspective with regard to TV advertisements and food choice where this study significantly contributes to advertising literature. to the body of knowledge with regard to food marketing and branding. Hence, a qualitative study is needed to explain the phenomenon in detail for better understanding. Theis will benefit academia, industry, and society through adding a fathers perspective to advertising literature, outlining responsibility-driven brand management efforts, and help to reduce the bad eating habits amongst children, respectively. With this in mind, the current study has been aimed to answer the following research questions; What are fathers concerns regarding TV advertising to children? How fathers in a collectivist society explicate their attitude towards TV advertising directed at children?

explore the fathers perceptions about the influence, character, and impact of TV food ads on children buying behavior and food choice decisions. The article is presented through Literature Review, Methodology, Findings & Results, and Conclusion as major topics outlining discussions with regard to major work in this area, the methods implied to collect & analyze data, results of study, and conclusions.

Literature Review

Young children are usually exposed to thousands of commercials each year due to an underlying assumption that children are the profitable customers (Kunkel et al., 2004). TV advertisements are more useful than the print media especially when it comes to influencing children. This is mainly due to the fact that children are exposed to TV commercials much earlier than their exposure to the print media (Kaur and Singh, 2006). John (1999) stated that the ability to recognize bias and deception in ads, coupled with an understanding of advertisings persuasive intent, results in less trust and less liking of commercials (p. 190). Interest in commercials has been found to directly relate to the professed truthfulness of advertising. As studies have revealed that children who perceive commercials to be true show more interest and attention to them as compared with those who are less or not interested in them (Chan, 2001). Children aging between seven to twelve years have been the focus of TV advertising, with main products like toys, candy, cereal, soda, and fast food (Mercola, 2005). Many high fat and less nutritious products are advertised during children TV programs (Taras and Gage, 1995). This study has been conducted in a developing country context of Pakistan and addresses the fathers opinions regarding negative impact of TV food advertising on children buying and eating habits. This would be a useful insight as parents play an important role in selecting food for their children and researchers; have always focused to study the attitude of parents towards advertising aimed at children (Young, de Bruin, & Eagle, 2003). Studies exhibit that parental attitude has always served as a guide to regulate TV advertising directed at children (Hawkes, 2005). Parent-child relationship is considered pivotal in grooming children and parents pay special attention to fulfill the needs of their children. However, there is some food products discussed earlier that parents consider are not much useful for child health and at times, parents deny to buy those items for children. When the demand of children to buy such products that can affect their health is not fulfilled by their parents, children get frustrated and are more likely to start discussions leading towards the conflict between the parents and the children (Atkin, 1978; Kunkel et al., 2004). One of the core reasons for not allowing children to buy food products is that some of them contribute significantly to child obesity that is attributed to poor eating habits, eating less nutritious-food and use of cold drinks (Mehmood, 2009). Williams and Burns (2000) used social power theory to study the ways in which children make persuasive attempts in order to buy the desired food products. They found when children feel entitled to act in the way according to their will, they opt to negative influence efforts such as dishonesty, displaying anger, pleading, and demanding to exert influence. On the other hand, if they find their parents having the power to express their actions, they make use of positive pressure attempts such as nicely asking, being affectionate, or negotiating. The relationship between parents and child is extremely important as it sets the tone for making decisions among choices in the coming years of life. Understanding child psychology, especially related to buying and consumption of food products is imperative for parents so that conflicts can be resolved before they actually arise. Childhood obesity has been a concern across the globe and majorly it is attributed to bad eating habits that are a result of food advertising targeted at children (USA Today, 2005). Childhood obesity has been well highlighted by U.S media with linking it to food advertising on TV (International Food Information Council, 2007). The developing world is no exception in matters concerning with childhood obesity and other weight related issues. Obesity amongst Pakistani primary school children was researched by Muhammad Umair Mushtaq , Sibgha Gull, Ubeera Shahid, Mahar Muhammad Shafique, Hussain Muhammad Abdullah, Mushtaq Ahmad Shad and

Arif Mahmood Siddiqui (2011). Amongst 1860 children aged between 5-12 years, 17 percent were overweight and 7.5 percent children were obese. The research study delineated that children living in urban areas, with high social status, were more affected by these concerns. In another study some family-based factors were identified that contributed towards childhood obesity and overweight in Pakistan (Muhammad Umair et al., 2011). High parental education, high income, luxurious living conditions, and fewer siblings were the most contributing factors towards children being overweight and obese in Pakistan. These concerns call for immediate regulations of TV advertising, especially for food ads, directed at children. Theory of agenda setting has been predominantly employed in this article to address theoretical underpinnings regarding information the fathers have about TV food advertising and its impact on children. Theory of Agenda Setting was proposed by McCombs & Shaw (1972) to believe that media content sets the agenda for public discussions (Wilcox, et al, 2003, p.213). Agenda setting refers to the design that there is a strong correlation between the emphasis that mass media place on certain issues and the importance ascribed to these issues by publics (McCombs & Shaw, 1972). Further to this notion, more the media will highlight any issues, its public discussion would be heightened and people will aggressively talk about the issue. Agenda setting theory can be considered positive as it keeps society informed and up to date. However, on the other side, the information being provided is not always true, rather is biased. Cultures differ in the extent to which cooperation, competition, or individualism (Mead, 1967) is emphasized. Individualism lays emphasis on personal freedom and attainment; therefore it awards all important actions that make an individual stand out. Collectivism, in contrast, emphasizes closeness of individuals in a family or group. It encourages conformity and discourages individuals from rebellious attitudes. The most important relationships in collectivist cultures are vertical (parent-child), while in individualist cultures the most important relationships are horizontal (spouse-spouse, friend-friend). Interdependence is maximized between parent and child in the collectivist culture by guidance, consultation, socializing in which the children are involved, and there is always penetration into the child's private life. In individualist cultures, there is emotional detachment, independence, and privacy for the child to a greater extent. The relationship between personal values and food choices has been linked to cultural differences. For example, White et al. (2004) reported through examining the consumption of convenience food items between British Indian people in the UK. Both groups shared the values of health and delight, but the values of social life, adventure and savings were important for the English respondents while on the other hand, good life, religion and culture were desirable values for the Indians. Culture is segmented into five broader dimensions: power distance, individualism/ collectivism, masculinity/femininity, risk taking/uncertainty avoidance, and long-/short-term orientation (Hofstede 2001; Hofstede & Hofstede 2005). In power distance cultures, the less powerful members in a society accept that power is distributed unequally; while in highly powerful cultures every one considers oneself as having rightful place in any society.. Another dimension is individualism and collectivism. With an indirect mode of communication, Collectivistic cultures are high-context communication cultures. In the sales process in individualistic cultures both parties focus on reaching at a conclusion quickly, whereas in collectivistic cultures it is required to first build a relationship and trust between parties that will lead to making a final decision. This difference is reflected in the different roles of advertising communications such as; persuasion versus creation of trust. The masculinity/femininity dimension views culture in a

different way. In masculine societies, performance together with achievement must be demonstrated as important, so status brands or products such as jewelry are important to show ones success (De Mooij & Hofstede 2002; De Mooij 2010). Differing from masculinity, the dominant values in a feminine society are caring for others and quality of life. The household work is less shared between husband and wife in masculine cultures. Men also do more household shopping in the feminine cultures. Data from Eurostat (2002) shows that low masculinity explicates 52 percent of variance of the proportion of men who spend time on shopping activities. Mothers perspectives toward TV food advertising are helpful in providing important implications for academia. In addition, parental attitudes towards advertising has been considered a decisive reference point when investigating advertising issues concerning child psychology towards buying and consuming products (Young, de Bruin, & Eagle, 2003). Mothers are of the view that the ads are negatively impacting their children and this is so true for both levels of nations; developing and developed (Gallup, 2006; Kaiser Family Foundation 2007; Nemours Foundation 2007). More specifically, policy makers have utilized parents viewpoints to establish or modify regulations limiting the content of advertising targeted at children (Hawkes, 2005). The importance of mothers in discussions about the impact of TV food advertising on children has been noted in several studies (e.g., Corder-Bolz & Fellows, 1979; Desmond, Singer, Singer, Calam, & Colimore, 1985; Rossiter & Robertson, 1975; Warren, 2002), and is considered vital. Despite the fact that mothers perspective is considered highly important while investigating the impact of TV ads on the children, but it cannot be neglected that information provided by other family members, such as fathers, siblings and even the children themselves, could have been useful (Jay, 2012). Therefore, a potential study particularly focusing on the fathers perceptions regarding role and impact of food ads on childrens attitude formation regarding TV advertising including fathers as the only participants is absolutely missing. The current study thus focuses on the following research objective; To explore the fathers perceptions about the influence, character, and impact of TV food ads on children buying behavior and food choice decisions fathers perception regarding the role and impact of TV ads on their childrens buying and eating habits. Pakistan has been selected as a country context for this study due to several reasons. In Pakistan, obesity has been well highlighted through print media and it is acknowledged that little research has been conducted so far to deal with this issue (Dawn, 2012). On the other side, in a study conducted by Kashif et al (2012), researchers found that Pakistani children well understand the logic behind TV advertising that signifies the high influence of TV ads on childrens buying of those food products that can damage their health. These are alarming signs for a country like Pakistan, where children population face dual challenges, low-weight birth and obesity among school going children with little research on TV advertising and its impact on dietary habits (Dawn, 2012). This led research team to conduct a study in Pakistan aiming at achieving two broad research objectives concerning fathers opinions about TV advertising targeted at children. These two broader themes for study are well grounded in academic literature. Two major subtopics are addressed such as; (1) Fathers attitude towards impact of food advertising through TV on childrens eating habits (Cardone & Masi, 2004), and (2) Fathers opinions concerning the need to regulate TV food advertising directed at children (Pavleen & Raghbir, 2012). -

Methodology:
Research Design In order to record and present the fathers opinions concerning about influence of TV advertising, on its role and impact on children schildrens buying and consumption habits behavior, an exploratory research design was opted to deal with Qualitative data. Literature from the Pakistani context is scarce which led us to opt for a Qualitative inquiry. The qualitative data is considered highly useful in explaining the concepts, definitions, symbols, metaphors, and other descriptions of phenomenon at hand which highly suited our context of study (Berg, 2001). There are various techniques to collect data qualitatively however, observations, interviews, focus groups, and documents have been considered pivotal (Myers, 2011). It has been noted that qualitative researchers are mostly interested in reaching to a detailed-orientation of the construct to be developed, outlining also the underlying reasons behind the phenomenon (Malhotra, 2010). Data was collected through semi-structured interviews where the following items were focused; Fathers awareness and knowledge of children information seeking behavior Fathers opinions of the influence of TV advertising on children Their thoughts on impact of TV ads on children buying of unhealthy products The respondents awareness of state and nature of TV advertising in Pakistan Suggested changes in the policy making to regulate TV advertising Therefore, for the purpose of this research, in order to collect data from fathers, an exploratory research design was opted to obtain detailed responses with regard to the role and impact of TV food advertising on children in Pakistan.

Sample Selection For the purpose of this study, a self-experience based data collection approach through purposive sampling technique was adopted. Sample consisted of fathers having at least one child in between the ages of eight to 14 years. Research team interviewed 32 business faculty members of a large University with a supposition they are experts in the field of business and can better present their opinion as compared with general public. Another rationale for sample selection was marital status, and experience of the respondents. It is believed that marital status and having children bring many changes in ones thinking and lifestyle which is worthy to study (Moschis, 2003). Above all, these criterions well served the information needs to achive the objective of the study. An interview protocol was developed prior to conducting the interviews. Formal permissions and time was requested from the interviewee and before an interview, every respondent was briefed about the research objectives. This approach to interviewing experts has been used to uncover details and to understand logic in previous qualitative research studies (Easterby-Smith et al., 1991; Malhotra, 2010). The sample size has been determined through principle of saturation method, used in several qualitative research studies to conduct interviews (Patton, 2002; Grougiou and Pettigrew, 2011). After completing 32 interviews, data saturation was observed which led us to fix the sample size at 32 respondents.

visited various parks and other community areas where families come with their children to spend some time. This was stepped to make sure the high response rate and to get some personal insight regarding fathers opinion about the role and impact of TV ads on children. Research team personally contacted fathers sitting in parks and community centers, asked them politely about their marital status and number of children they have in between the ages of eight to 14 years. This was purposefully done to ensure that only those people are converted into qualified respondents who are married and have children in between the desired age group. Some people told that they are not yet married while some shared that they do not have TV in their house due to several reasons. The convenient purposive sampling technique was followed and in total 200 people was contacted as 11 of them did not qualify as respondents. Reliability and Validity Data collected for the purpose of Quantitative and Qualitative studies is tested through the lens of the issues pertaining to validity and reliability. It is strongly suggested that qualitative researchers must address the issue of validity through implementing various tools and techniques (Yin, 1994). For this study, content validity was ensured and data collection technique, procedures, as well as methods employed were discussed with two senior researchers, actively involved in research pertaining to food in developing countries. They reviewed all the tools and techniques, presented to them and approved without suggesting any further changes. This method of ensuring validity has been extensively used by advertising researchers (Kashif et al., 2012). Data Analysis The data collected through detailed interviews from fathers was analyzed and presented by applying thematic analyses. While performing this analysis, several steps have to be followed such as; noting and describing themes and subthemes, separating between important as well as non-important themes, developing a hierarchy of themes, and later on, presenting themes as theoretical codes (Ryan and Bernard, 2003). Interviews were noted and later on, some transcrits were developed with the help of interview protocol (McLellan et al., 2003). These transcripts were reviewed and discussed by the research team which led to development of some initial data subsets. Further to this, a code-book was developed through a standard iteration process (Macqueen et al., 1998). The codes were developed and operationalized through the following steps: (a) an initial definition of the code, (b) a comprehensive definition of code which truly represents the code, (c) code were structured through repetition of sentences, (d) most frequent quotes were woven into the construct which led the research team to pull relevant data representing each theme. This analysis and emergence of themes has been advocated by marketing researchers (Toby et al., 2012). Further to ensure inter-coder reliability, the research team comprising of two students and a faculty member had several meetings to discuss the data collected. Every member actively participated in development of themes, individually and later on, all these themes were crosschecked by every member. The differences were discussed and an agreed upon thematic version of the data was developed. This method of ensuring inter-coder reliability has been promoted by social science researchers (Guest et al., 2006; Kurasaki, 2000).

The data analysis for this study started with a thorough reading of the material collected through interviews where research team read and discussed it several times. The repeated material was combined where some themes started to be emerged. The last phase involved coding of data and converting into final themes as suggested by qualitative researchers in the field of marketing (Toby et al., 2012).

Findings:
Initially, to understand the information sources of children, fathers were asked this question; What are the many ways in which children get to know about food products? Amongst the 32 respondents mostly believed TV to be the highly influential medium. The results of this question have been presented through figure 1. Figure 1: Major Information Sources

Most of the respondent believed that television commercials do have an unconstructive effect on childrens behavior and their buying habits. Some of the respondents emphasized on the need to limit the influence of commercials on their children. Few other respondents pointed out that even the children with restricted exposure to television commercials in the home can still be susceptible to latest unhealthy food products through social pressures including friends. The concerns and views of the respondents are summarized under the following themes. 1. Quantity of Ads Fathers were of the view that their children are usually exposed to a large number of TV commercials that badly affects the eating habits. They complained that during watching TV

programs, their children are bombarded by an ostensibly unlimited number of commercials which can influence their children acting and copying the unsafe physical movements. Recent research indicates that children often find it difficult to make a distinction between the commercials and regular programming and a larger number of commercials often result in production of negative values amongst children (Hawkins and Mothersbaugh, 2010). Sub Theme(s) General Statements

Number of food ads

Its difficult to manage the eating habits of children because the more ads they watch, more they demand for food products There is a great deal of ads which are directed at the children and most of them portray children as doing some un-natural activities. There is always a possibility that when TV food ads targeting the children would be decreased the eating habits of the children might improve

2. Negative Impact of TV food ads (conflict) Many of the respondents were distressed due to the fact that their children are throwing crabbiness over buying the products they observe through TV commercials. Another interviewee said that his children refused to believe several times that another less advertised product can be better than the product being advertised. Another respondent mentioned that his children stopped caring about how much money their parents need to spend on such products rather once they start requesting for it, they just wont stop. Sub themes General Statements

Arousal of conflict

When I try to convince my children about the inappropriateness of the product, they completely ignore the price of the product as well as its damage to their health. Somehow I have started to notice a pattern of changed behavior in my children. The Stubborn behavior of the children towards the purchase of the advertised product is creating traumatic environment My children are not ready to take no as a response towards their choices

Change in behavior Stressful atmosphere

3. Bad eating habits Some interviewees also said that the eating habits of their children are now highly influenced by the commercials shown on television. They want to eat the less nutritional and unnecessary food. Majority of the fathers were apprehensive about the fact that they were helpless to check what they are really providing to their children. Sub themes General Statements

Obesity

Television ads are major reason behind the obesity of children. I really feel that such attractive ads of children food are really not good for the health of my children. Many advertised food products are not fit for the health of my children.

Improper diet( less nutrition)

I actually do not know whether the advertised products of food are nutritious or perilous for my children Snack and candies ads are chiefly influencing on my childs diet

4. Changing Buying patterns: Many interviewees shared their concern regarding the consumption of less nutritional products advertised through TV. Some respondents also complained that their children ignore the food prepared at home and prefer the various manufactured brands. Most of them were worried about the fact that they do not any measure to test the quality of food items, advertised and sold to their children. Some others were of the view that no matter how well the children are educated at home about the truth of the TV commercials, they still have the option to get influenced by their peers or friends. Sub themes Peer influence General Statements My children always wanted to buy the food stuff which their friends had.

When children see other children with these sugary items in social clubs or schools they want to have the same for themselves. Increased influence of ads Due to the ads my children dont find nutritious and homemade food interesting anymore. My children usually demands food they have seen through TV ads. Change in preferences The likings and preferences of my children is changing after he had seen a lot of unhealthy food commercials.

5. Positive/productive impact on children: Irrespective of the fact that marketing efforts focused on children are impacting negatively on the young children, some respondents still believed that these ads are somehow helping the children to become aware of the changing world. Some of them mentioned that their children used to keep repeating the slogans or the taglines of the commercials. Few respondents supposed that their children are gaining information from the TV food ads. Due to which they are able to differentiate between the TV ads and programs. Sub themes Awareness Increased information General Statements I somehow believe that TV food ads encourage discussion of food products within our family Sometime it feels good to know that my children understand the real purpose of TV advertising I am surprised to know that my children are always the first ones to tell me about some new food products. Rationality There is something positive about the TV food ads my child is exposed to, as the children would be able to better understand these commercials. Some advantage of advertising to children is that they are very good at paying attention to the information and they do not easily forget what they see or hear. I believe that due to these TV food ads my children have become some sort of creative and innovative.

6. Fathers perceptions/ suggestions:

After commenting about the effects of the TV food ads some respondents suggested ways to avoid these problems because they believed that it is impossible to stop companies from sponsoring advertisements. Many parents actually came up with some possible solutions by themselves. They suggested that they can record the programs without the commercials.
Sub themes Statement of participants

Protection needed

from

TV

ads There should be more research on television commercials as they affect the diet of their children. We can keep the public stations on for the children and lock the cable networks as a measure I should have the option to decide as which TV food ads my child should watch or otherwise.

Check& balance on children

Responsible behavior

Discussion:
TV advertising has a profound effects on childrens demanding, buying, and consuming of food products (Just & Payne, 2009; Viner & Cole, 2005). The importance of TV as the most influential media all across the globe cannot be neglected but there exist a need to align the objectives of promoting products, societys concerns, and Governmental regulations, supporting both parties; companies and society. The findings of current study revealed that TV food advertising is negatively impacting the children buying and eating habits. Fathers clearly indicated that TV advertisers of food products use gimmicks and tricks to influence their children, trigger the need in children to ask for unhealthy products, and market those products that are not much hygienic for their child health. Fathers also believed that there are too many food products advertised through TV that increase the demand for such products that children do not need. These results are in line with the work performed by Jay (2012) where mothers exhibited same opinions about TV advertising. It is notable, however, that the study of Jay (2012) was conducted in western conditions while current research was contextualized in eastern settings; Pakistan. With these results in mind, it can be inferred that parents hold almost same opinions regarding their child health, wherever they are located. Fathers negative opinion also verifies the importance and application of Theory of Agenda Setting proposed by McCombs & Shaw (1972). This is because Pakistani media highlighted the issues related to child obesity, low weight during birth, and other health related issues attributed to the usage of food items that contain sugar and other artificial flavors affecting child health badly. Interestingly, more than 50 percent fathers believed that their children do not understand the logic or reasoning of TV advertising. But the study conducted to investigate the attitude of Pakistani children towards TV advertisements by Kashif et al., (2012) revealed that children truly understand the logic behind advertisements of food products. This entails that a gap exists between Pakistani fathers and their children regarding the perceptions about role and impact of TV advertisements directed at children. There is another perspective to why this difference exists as most of the respondents are employed by professional firms and have less time to spend with their families and children.

Moreover several studies support this notion that advertising is influencing on childrens behavior and social values including materialism, parent-child conflicts and other issues of identical nature (Buijzen and Valkenburg, 2008). Fathers reported that the TV food ads are hugely affecting the lives of their children and changing their buying and eating habits along with the change in their behavior as well. The research on social marketing by Commercial Media has supported that the imagery is a powerful marketing tool as it can create the desired behaviors in (Douglas, 2008). The Canadian Teachers Federation (2003) in their study investigated that the constant marketing of junk food and snacks to children can contribute to childhood obesity. The study also argued that in fact only 4 percent of TV food ads are advertising the healthy food actually. Respondents were also concerned about advertisements of fast food products, which they felt these types of ads had the potential to affect their kids behavior in the long term. The results also disclosed that the product preference in their children kept changing with the changing TV food ads. This disclosure is also backed by Wilcox et al., (2004) that product preferences have proven to arise with a single exposure of TV food ad and it strengthens with the every next repeated exposure. Many respondents unearthed that the TV food ads featuring toys and celebrities were being very appealing to the children and were supporting to capture their childs attention and influencing their buying habits. They also confirmed that their children were able to distinguish the ads from the programs on TV that they were viewing. Some of the respondents were of the view that their children are often more influenced by their friends and surroundings. Similarly some studies support this fact that in addition to advertising there are other influential factors such as friends and parents. In this regard Biagi (2006) has squabbled that nearly every child desires for products only because they saw it with a friend and they feel if they wont have it, they would be lacking something. Moreover, cultural factors have a major influence, whether positive or negative, on the effectiveness of commercials. To honor and treat their parents well, Muslim children tend to respect their parents buying decisions, rather than trying to persuade those decisions (Arshed, 2009). Yet it is possible that if an advertisement is appealing in any way, the child may persuade his/her parents to make the purchase. However, the respondents did acknowledged the fact that there are some positive effects of commercials on children. As some food ads encourage their children to be creative and some others hearten their children to have strong bond between their parents and themselves. Research has supported this substantiation that advertisements do augment the childrens knowledge about the environment (Jam et al., 2010). The interviewees recommended some important changes such as; - Advertising targeted at children must not portray them dancing and performing harmful activities. - Food advertising on TV leads to arousal of conflict between parents and children. Parents mostly are not willing to purchase unhealthy food for children while they use pester power to influence the parents. - Fathers are highly concerned with bad eating habits of their children which they attribute to TV advertising and acknowledge TV as the strongest medium to influence children. - The advertising content communicated to children must be reviewed comprehensively by a legal authority and should be on air only after screening, - The quality of products is not unique and superior, as it is communicated through ads, especially in case of juices and biscuits.

Television is a great source of children knowledge about various products and services. However, the commercials are aggressively communicated to children which is not always positive.

The overall results of this study indicated that television commercials do appeal to children; however, they affect the child in a more negative manner. Excessive exposure to television commercials is leading to behavioral problems such as obesity, materialism, and violence. There is need to educate children and teenagers about the downbeat effects of advertising and to increase media literacy.

Conclusion
This study reports important insights of fathers opinions concerning the role and impact of TV food ads on children buying and eating habits. The results are enriched and demand a positive role to play by three major stakeholders, discussed in this research; parents, media, and manufacturing concerns. The researchers strongly recommend to manufacturers and marketers of food items targeted at children that; There is strong need to manufacture those food products especially for children that are not harmful to their health. The gap between quality communicated and quality delivered must be minimized to subtle level in order to increase the parents satisfaction with food quality. There is no doubt that TV has been the dom inant medium influencing children. However, being socially responsible, manufacturers can opt for other mediums also such as; print and interactive media. It will minimize the bad effect of visuals, created through launching violence-centered promotions. The theme of brand must be culturally sensitive which does not result in shaping the societal values towards violence, deception, and materialism.

The other important role media has to be played play by media through (1) discouraging those ideas to promote products which that can damage the societal values, and also (2) limit the promotion of those products, which are not necessary for harmful to children health. to buy. Lastly, research team has some suggestions for parents such as; Parents also have to understand the role and impact of media on their children and proper guidance to children on their part must be provided. Spending more time with children can minimize the bad impact created through flashy food ads. Hence, it is advisable to parents to spend a lot of time with their children.

These practices can surely play a positive role in meeting challenges like childhood obesity, conflict between parents and their children, and negative perceptions of parents about role and usage of media in countries like Pakistan. The results are meaningful for three major stakeholders; marketers, media, and parents. The study successfully developed a route to monitor child socialization in a collectivist society such as Pakistan. Given the increase in obesity rates amongst Pakistani school children, increase in low quality food products, and significantly high

rate of children-specific products, this study makes meaningful contribution. Several strategies are proposed to three major stakeholder groups and the fathers perspective on TV advertising has been presented for the first time. However, Ddespite significant contribution, the study also has some limitations. Firstly, the data has been collected only from fathers while mothers also play an important role in children media watch and selection of food products for children. Hence, future research is highly recommended to grasp the parents (father and mother) opinion regarding the impact of TV advertising on their children. The similarities and differences between the two will be very interesting. Another limitation of this study is that respondents demographics have not been given much importance and can be justified through the purpose of this study; exploratory. The purpose was to report the findings from fathers opinions regarding negative impact of TV advertising on children as no research, to date, has presented fathers point of views. Future studies in this regard are recommended to consider respondent demographics such as age, education, and occupation to delineate the results. Another potential area of research would be to grasp food brand managers opinion, uncovering the rationale behind promoting unhealthy food items through TV. Lastly, the themes discovered through this study can be quantitatively tested to describe the fathers satisfaction with food ads, quality of food items, and on role of media and regulatory authorities in screening unhealthy food brand promotions.

References:
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Hawkins, D. and Mothersbaugh, D. (2010), Consumer Behavior: Building Marketing Strategy, McGraw-Hill/Irwin, New York, NY. Brooks, Penelope H., Lawrence S. Gaines, Rebecca Mueller and Suzanne Jenkins. (1998). Childrens Television Watching and Their Fathers Drinking Practices. Addiction Research, 6 (1): 2734. Coontz, Stephanie. (2005). Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage. New York: Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Downs, Stacy. (2008). Todays Fathers are Choosing to be More Involved With Their Children. Kansas City Star, June 19. Easterby-Smith, M., Thorpe, R. and Lowe, A. (1991), Management Research, Sage, London. Grougiou, V., & Pettigrew, S. (2011). Senior Customers' Service Encounter Preferences. Journal of Service Research, 14(4), 475-488. Moschis, George P. (2003), Marketing to Older Adults: An Updated Overview of Present Knowledge and Practice, Journal of Consumer Marketing, 20 (6), 516-525. Guest, G., Bunce, A., & Johnson, L. (2006). How many interviews are enough? An experiment with data saturation and variability. Field methods, 18(1), 59-82.