Northern kids in adverts

[Andy008]

Why are the kids in adverts so often northern, like in these ones:

Shredded Wheat, Hovis, the Vauxhall ad with the two boys in the people carriers...?

[flashpig]

Perhaps it might be to do with advertisers using accents which have a set of values which the audience would infer from it.

I think this falls into the general topic of Sociolinguistics which is pretty interesting but which I can't remember much about off the top of my head. I really recommend you buy a general book about it to read just for fun.

Anyway, I can remember something about a group of students being given a lecture or speech by someone with a RP accent and others with people with regional accents, an though the speech was the sam the students came away with different opinions about the truthfulness of it and the trustworthiness of the speaker.

[netibiza]

I asked a big timeshare company why they only used northen people for their sales reps and they said that people do not trust southerners thanks to Del Boy and Arfur Daley - a bit small minded methinks.

[brachiopod]

In the same (or similar) research, a Liverpool ('Scouse') accent was perceived as being the 'Northern' equivalent of the 'Cockney-Del-Boy-Arfur-Daley' (Mockney) accent - ie. dodgy and untrustworthy.

Brummies were perceived as being thick.

The classic 'Northern' accent (Yorkshire equivalent to Mockney) was perceived as being 'down-to-earth, working-class-but-honest.' (think Hovis, Fred Dibnah etc.)

Whilst a (Highland) Scots accent was perceived to be wholesome, natural and simple - (as in 'simple way of life' like crofting.)

I don't recall what was perceived of the Welsh !!!! (I am Welsh myself.)

 

[Quick aside - Hi all AB regulars - it seems I am only able to post one reply / question per day - tried my old log-in (trilobite) and managed to post one answer - tried again straight after and it's a no-no. Getting very p'd off. Anyone else having probs?]