On this day in 1979, the opinionated children of Canberra had offered their commentary on television advertisements, voicing their distaste for the disruptions in their show-viewing.
A booklet titled It Makes Me Laugh, It Makes Me Sad had been compiled as a project to mark the International Year of the Child, with 650 submissions received from Canberra children between the ages of six and 12.
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The most common suggestion to improve Canberra television was to remove or reduce the number of advertisements. This was a mere suggestion for some children, but for others, a point they seemed to be quite passionate about.
"Television advertisements are disgusting," one 12-year-old boy said. " They show how unintelligent people are. Most of the advertisements are quite boring after a while. They also tell lies about what they are selling or advertising."
Not all children displayed a similar level of loathing towards advertisements, choosing to see the more positive side to them. "If you are dying to go to the toilet and the exciting part is coming on and an ad comes on, then you can go to the toilet," an 11-year-old boy said.
While not all children enjoyed advertisements, they did like commenting on them. They said they liked participating in the project because they felt their thoughts on television were generally not really taken into account.
See trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/12395135
