Representation of family fertility in commercial advertising

The article presents an analysis of the representation of the family images and family fertility in commercial advertising. In sociology the terms “need for children” and “desire to have children”, and the concepts of the average expected, the average ideal and the average desired number of children were introduced. Commercial advertising, as one of the forms of mass media, can provide a limited impact on the desire to have children through moderating the social norm. On the basis of the concept of the limited impact of mass media on the values and group ideas about the social norms, the representation of family models and number of children in modern commercial advertising, presented on most popular Russian TV channels were analyzed. On the basis of the empirical research, the models of family fertility in commercial advertising were presented. The family models demonstrated in advertising can be integrated into collective consciousness as the examples of group norms.