Brahim Zarouali

Shedding New Light on How Advertising Literacy Can Affect Children's Processing of Embedded Advertising Formats: A Future Research Agenda

Advertisers are continuously searching for new ways to persuade children; current methods include fully integrating commercial content into media content, actively engaging children with the commercial content, and increasing the number of commercial messages children are confronted with at one moment in time. This poses a challenge for how children cope with embedded advertising. This conceptual article aims to develop a theoretically grounded framework for investigating how children process embedded advertising. More precisely, it sheds light on previous research and conceptualizations of advertising literacy and provides suggestions for future research. The article examines conceptual and methodological issues and discusses the need for research on how to improve childrens coping with embedded advertising by emphasizing the value of persuasive intent priming and implementation intentions. To conclude, future research directions are discussed regarding strategies to strengthen childrens coping skills and their dispositional (i.e., associative network consisting of cognitive, moral, and affective beliefs related to advertising) and situational (i.e., actual recognition of and critical reflection on advertising) advertising literacy.

‘You talking to me?’ The influence of peer communication on adolescents’ persuasion knowledge and attitude towards social advertisements

ABSTRACT This article examines how peer communication among adolescents (14–16 years) affects the evaluation of social advertising (i.e. targeted ad that adopts the social proof heuristic by using an individual’s social ties as endorsers for a brand) on social networking sites (SNSs). More precisely, the focus lies on how engaging in online peer chatting on these social platforms alters persuasion knowledge and attitude towards the ad. In order to test this, two between-subjects experiments were conducted in which adolescents chatted with peers on a mock SNS that contained a social ad. In Experiment 1, results reveal that a social ad generates a more positive attitude among adolescents when they have engaged in online peer communication, and at the same time, triggers less persuasion knowledge. In Experiment 2, the depth of the relationship between the chatters (tie strength) plays a significant moderating role as peer communication with strong ties yields greater effects, compared to communication with weak ties. These findings reveal important social influence dynamics that may alter the elaboration of persuasive communication, leading to valuable theoretical and practical implications.

Considering Children’s Advertising Literacy From a Methodological Point of View: Past Practices and Future Recommendations

Abstract Children’s advertising literacy is a well-documented research area. Yet the literature on how to measure advertising literacy is not straightforward due to conceptual and operational differences in the existing studies. This has led to inconsistent results with regard to the development, possession, and application of advertising literacy. The aim of this article is to give an overview of the different measurement methodologies used in past research efforts to assess children’s advertising literacy. Taking into account children’s psychological development (cognitive, affective, and moral), we formulate recommendations on which methods are most suitable to use in future advertising literacy research among different age categories.

The impact of regulatory focus on adolescents’ evaluation of targeted advertising on social networking sites

ABSTRACT This article examines whether individual differences in chronic regulatory focus (prevention vs. promotion focus) among adolescents influences the way they evaluate targeted advertising on social networking sites. Study 1 (survey) reveals that adolescents with a promotion focus (who are oriented toward achieving positive outcomes) have a more positive attitude and a higher purchase intention toward targeted advertising, as compared to prevention-focused adolescents (who are dispositioned toward avoiding negative outcomes). Study 2 (experiment) investigates how adolescents’ chronic regulatory focus can alter their attitude and purchase intention on a mock social networking site that includes a targeted advertisement. Results show that a low personalized targeted ad is better evaluated (in terms of a more positive attitude and higher purchase intention) among prevention-focused adolescents, whereas a high personalized targeted ad results in better advertising outcomes among promotion-focused adolescents. Contributions to theory and implications for advertising practice are discussed.