DR AGNES NAIRN

Agnes is an academic researcher, writer and consultant based in Bath, UK. She is Affiliate
Professor of Marketing at EM-Lyon Business School in France and Visiting Professor of
Marketing at RSM Erasmus University in the Netherlands. She teaches international MBA
students and her educational objective is to work with business towards responsible marketing
practice. She held previous appointments at the School of Management, University of Bath
and Bristol Business School and has lectured in marketing at a wide range of international
business schools.

Before entering academia she was managing director of a market research agency after
working as commercial contracts manager for Saga Holidays PLC, in political polling in the
USA and as an English teacher in Sri Lanka.

She is an active member of the Executive Board of the International Journal of the Market
Research Society (Journal of the Market Research Society) – whose mission is to bring the
business and academic research worlds closer together. She is also currently on the Expert
Advisory Group for the Healthy Foundations Lifestage Segmentation Research Project:
Department of Health.

Agnes’ research seeks to understand the influence of commercialism on children and to

contribute to social policy. Her work draws on psychology, sociology, culture studies,
marketing and, most recently, neuroscience.

Her recent research includes:

• the first empirical work in the UK to explore the links between commercialism, family
conflict and child mental health
• a review of commercialism on children’s favourite websites
• an analysis of how celebrities can be used in moral education
• how neuroscience can help understand the persuasive effects of advertising on the
very young;
• media literacy strategies;
• the dynamics between social class, materialism and well being

PhD University of Bath. 2000

MBA Manchester Business School (Distinction, Scholar) 1990
PGCE Institute of Education, University of London (Distinction) 1984
BA/MA (Hons.) Sidney Sussex College
Cambridge University, Modern Languages 1983

Agnes speaks French, German and Spanish; plays the trumpet and runs half marathons.
 RECENT PUBLICATIONS ON CHILDREN AND COMMERCIALISM

Peer Reviewed Academic Journals

2008 Nairn, Agnes, Christine Griffin and Patricia Gaya Wicks, “Children and Brand
Symbols: A Consumer Culture Approach”, European Journal of Marketing,
Volume 42, Issue 3, June

2007 Gaya Wicks, Agnes Nairn and Christine Griffin. “The Role of Consumption Culture in
Children’s Moral Development: the Case of David Beckham.” Consumption,
Markets and Culture, Vol. 10 No. 4, December

2007 Nairn, Agnes and Dowsiri Monkgol. “Children and Privacy Online.” Journal of
Direct, Data and Digital Marketing. Vol 8. No. 4 April.

2007 Nairn, Agnes and Alex Dew. “Pop-Ups, Pop-Unders, Banners and Buttons.
Responsible On-Line Advertising to Children.” Journal of Direct, Data and Digital
Marketing. Vol 9, No. 1 June

2006 Heath, Robert, David Brandt and Agnes Nairn, “Brand Relationships:
Strengthened by Emotion, Weakened by Attention”, Journal of Advertising
Research. Vol. 46 No. 4

2006 Nairn, Agnes “The Commercialisation of Children” International Journal of

Market Research, Vol 48., No, 2 pp 5-6

2005 Heath, Robert and Agnes Nairn “Measuring Affective Advertising:

Implications of Low Attention Processing on Recall” Journal of Advertising
Research, Vol. 45, No. 02 pp 269-281

2005 Nairn Agnes and Pierre Berthon “Affecting Adolescence: Scrutinizing the Link
between Segmentation and Advertising” Business and Society, Vol. 44, No. 3,
September, pp 318- 345

2003 Nairn, Agnes and Pierre Berthon "Creating the Consumer: The Influence of
Advertising on Consumer Market Segments - Evidence and Ethics", Journal of
Business Ethics Vol 42.No. 1 January (I), pp 83-99

Under Revision as of May 2008

Marion Gilles and Agnes Nairn. ‘"We Make the Shoes, You Make the Story": Teenage Girls'
Experiences of Fashion: Bricolage, Tactics and Narrative Identity“. Consumption, Markets
and Culture

Fine, Cordelia and Agnes Nairn, “Who’s Messing with My Mind?” The Implications of Dual
Process Models for the Ethics of Advertising to Children.” International Journal of
Advertising. Special Issue on Brain Sciences.
Bottomley, Paul, Agnes Nairn, Tim Kasser, Yuna Engle and Jo Ormrod, “Measuring
Childhood Materialism: Validating and Refining Schor’s (2004) Consumer Involvement
Scale” Psychology and Marketing

Research/Policy Reports

2007 Fielder, Anna; Gardner, Will; Nairn, Agnes, Pitt Jillian "Fair Game?: Assessing
commercial activity on children’s favourite websites and online environments.
Partnership between National Consumer Council, Childnet International and
Agnes Nairn, December

2007 Nairn, Agnes. Pester Power: Families Surviving the Consumer Society. Care for the
Family, October

2007 Nairn, Agnes, Jo Ormrod and Paul Bottomley. “Watching, Wanting and Wellbeing:
Exploring the Links”. National Consumer Council. July.

2006 Nairn, Agnes, Christine Griffin and Patricia Gaya Wicks, “The Simpsons are Cool but
Barbie’s a Minger,” University of Bath

Books

2009 Mayo, Ed and Agnes Nairn, “Sold Out: How Children Became the Next Big
Business” London. Constable and Robinson

2007 (Chapter) Nairn, Agnes, Christine Griffin and Patricia Gaya Wicks “Busted Rocks
but Barbie’s a Minger: The Role of Brands in the Every Day Lives of Junior School
Children”Children, Media and Consumption, Eds. Ekstrom and Tufte, Nordicom, ,
Sweden

Academic Conference Papers

2008 Nairn, Agnes, Paul Bottomley and Jo Ormrod, “Those Who Have Less Want More:
But Does it Make Them Sad? An Exploration of the Links Between Deprivation,
Materialism and Wellbeing, Child and Teen Consumption Conference, Norway,
April 24-26

2008 O’Donohoe, Stephanie and Nairn, Agnes, “Inoculation of Indoctrination? A

ideological perspective on Children’s Advertising Literacy Websites, Child and Teen
Consumption Conference, Norway, April 24-26

2007 Nairn, Agnes, Jo Ormrod and Paul Bottomley. “Watching, Wanting and Wellbeing:
Antecedents and Consequences of Materialism in UK Tweens.” MidWest
Materialism Conference, 22-24 March, Champaign Urbana, Illinois, USA
2006 Nairn, Agnes, Christine Griffin, Patricia Gaya Wicks, “Keeping Pace with the
Children’s Brand World – The Role of Consumption Objects in the Everyday Lives of
7-11 Year Olds” Thought Leaders International Conference on Brand
Management, 28-29 March, Birmingham

2006 Nairn, Agnes and Christine Griffin “Busted are Cool but Barbie’s a Minger” Child
and Teen Consumption Conference, 27-29 April, Copenhagen

2006 Griffin, Christine, Agnes Nairn, Patricia Gaya Wicks, Anne Phoenix, Janine Hunter,
“Girly girls, tomboys and micro-waving Barbie: Child and youth consumption and
the disavowal of femininity” 8th ACR Conference on Gender, Marketing and
Consumer Behavior , 29 June – 1 July, Edinburgh

2006 Nairn, Agnes, Christine Griffin and Patricia Gaya Wicks, “Corporate Responsibility
in Marketing to Pre-Teen Children: Time to Widen the Parameters of Debate,”
Corporate Responsibility and Global Business: Implications for Corporate and
Marketing Strategy, 13-14 July, London Business School

2006 Heath, Robert and Agnes Nairn, “The relationship between Attention and Emotion”,
ICORIA, 29June – 1 July, University of Bath

2006 Nairn, Agnes, Christine Griffin and Patricia Gaya Wicks, “Corporate Reputation and
Children’s Brands”, Academy of Marketing Brand and Corporate SIG
Colloquium, Manchester 7th – 8th September, Manchester Business School

Recent Speaking Engagements

“Exploring how Children Consume Brands and Media” Responsible Marketing to Parents
and Children. 26th June 2008. London

“Watching, Wanting and Wellbeing. Exploring the Links between Consumer Culture and
Child Mental Wellbeing,” 21st May, 2008. Department of Developmental Psychiatry,
Cambridge University.

“A Leadership Challenge: Taking Positive Action to Detoxify Childhood.” Centre for

Leadership Studies, University of Exeter. 17th December 2007

“Good as Gold: The Commercial Lives of Children,” Evidence to Good Childhood Inquiry,
The Children’s Society, London, 18th November, 2007

“Exploring Kids Consumption Behaviours”. Marketing to Children & Parents

Conference. Haymarket Events. 27th June, 2007. London