Fun Things to Do During Ad Breaks

As the programme segment ends the spell is broken and it's that time parents dread - the commercial break. Soon your quiet, well-behaved children will be reacting to clever adverts with the kind of demands for new toys that could put your bank balance firmly in the red for the rest of your life.

If simply turning off the TV set is not an option, at least there are methods you could use to distract kids from the adverts. Play your cards right and the techniques below might teach your little ones about ads too, making them less likely to fall for advertisers' claims in the future. Great news for you - and even better for your bank balance.

Play Advert Bingo

This is a fun way to make older children aware of the techniques advertisers use in their adverts. Create simple cardboard game cards for your children with phrases such as 'washes whiter' and scenes like 'happy family'. Each time a child hears one of the phrases or sees a scene onscreen that's on their game board, they get to put a cross in the relevant box. The winner is the child who ticks the most boxes in three commercial breaks. Play again, but now let the kids decide what should go in the boxes.

The Great TV Race

Make the most of children's natural competitiveness and make sure they get some exercise too! As the ad break starts children have to complete three laps of the garden (or maybe even a course round the block for older kids). The winner is the child that makes it back onto the sofa first. Reward children with a cold drink and then let them relax back into their programme.

Make Your Own Adverts.

This is another good way to get children thinking about the way adverts are made - and more importantly, what their purpose really is. First, split into two teams. As the programme segment ends, one team has to select a household product (the more obscure the better) and the second team has to improvise an advert around it. The teams then swap roles for the next break, while an independent referee (Mum or Dad) judges which ad was most effective. Give extra marks for silly acting and over-the-top situations to make the game more fun.

The irony is that though all these techniques will help you and your children get interactive during ad breaks, the chances are that they probably don't pay as much attention to the ads as advertisers would like anyway.

A 2003 survey by the London Business School put webcams in family homes to find out what families really did when commercial breaks came on. The study found that during prime time (when advertising slots are most expensive) families were much more likely to talk, or do domestic chores, than passively watch the adverts. Interestingly, they found that viewers were much more receptive to adverts during late night slots (on which advertising space is relatively cheap), when most children are fast asleep.