Esther Rozendaal

Reconsidering advertising literacy as a defense against advertising effects

It is widely assumed that advertising literacy makes children less susceptible to advertising effects. However, empirical research does not provide convincing evidence for this view. In this article, we explain why advertising literacy as it is currently defined (i.e., conceptual knowledge of advertising) is not effective in reducing childrens advertising susceptibility. Specifically, based on recent insights on childrens advertising processing, we argue that due to the affect-based nature of contemporary advertising, children primarily process advertising under conditions of low elaboration and, consequently, are unlikely to use their advertising knowledge as a critical defense. Moreover, literature on cognitive development suggests that childrens ability to use advertising knowledge as a defense will be further limited by their immature executive functioning and emotion regulation abilities. Therefore, we argue that the current conceptualization of advertising literacy needs to be extended with two dimensions: advertising literacy performance, which takes into account the actual use of conceptual advertising knowledge, and attitudinal advertising literacy, which includes low-effort, attitudinal mechanisms that can function as a defense under conditions of low elaboration. We conclude our article with specific directions for future research and implications for the ongoing societal and political debate about children and advertising.

Comparing Children's and Adults' Cognitive Advertising Competences in the Netherlands

This study examines the age at which children reach adult levels of cognitive advertising competences. In a computer-assisted survey of 294 children (8–12 years) and 198 adults (18–30 years), we investigate at what age children reach adult levels of (1) advertising recognition, and (2) understanding of advertisings selling and persuasive intent. Our findings show that around the age of 9–10, most children have reached an adult level of advertising recognition. However, at age 12, children have still not acquired an adult-like understanding of advertisings selling and persuasive intent. Finally, childrens understanding of the selling intent of advertising develops before their understanding of its persuasive intent.

Children's understanding of advertisers' persuasive tactics

The aim of this study was to investigate children’s understanding of six popular tactics used by advertisers to elicit certain advertising effects, including ad repetition, product demonstration, peer popularity appeal, humour, celebrity endorsement and premiums. We first asked 34 advertisers of child products to indicate what kind of effects (e.g. ad or product recall, learning and liking) they intend to elicit by using each of the six tactics. Subsequently, in a survey among 209 children (aged 8–12) and 96 adults (>18), we investigated the extent to which children understood advertisers’ intended effects of these tactics and how this compared to an adult benchmark. Results showed that children’s understanding of advertisers’ tactics increased progressively between the ages of 8 and 12, showing a significant increase around age 10. The age at which children reach an adult level of understanding differed by tactic. For example, the use of celebrity endorsement was generally understood at an earlier age than other tactics, whereas product demonstration was understood at a later age.

Do children’s cognitive advertising defenses reduce their desire for advertised products?

Abstract In both the academic and societal debates, it is widely assumed that cognitive advertising defenses can reduce childrens susceptibility to advertising effects. Empirical evidence supporting this crucial assumption is however missing. It is precisely this gap that the present study aims to fill In a survey of 296 children (aged 8–12 years), we investigate whether childrens cognitive defenses (i. e., advertising recognition and understanding of its selling and persuasive intent) reduce the relationship between the amount of television advertising they are exposed to and their desire for advertised product categories. Interaction analysis in regression shows that of all the cognitive defense variables, only understanding advertisings persuasive intent was effective in reducing the impact of advertising exposure on childrens advertised product desire. However, this only applies to the older children in the sample (ages 10–12). For the younger children, understanding the persuasive intent even increased the impact of advertising.

Children's Responses to Advertising in Social Games

This study explored childrens (ages 9 through 12) level of persuasion knowledge and peer influence susceptibility concerning advertising in social games and investigated how these variables affect childrens desire for the brands advertised in these games. Results showed that (1) children have a fairly good knowledge of the advertising in social games yet hold uncritical attitudes toward it and claim to be not very susceptible to peer influence; (2) the most important predictors of childrens desire for the advertised brands are a low critical attitude and high peer influence susceptibility; and (3) recognition and understanding of advertising in social games is effective in reducing advertised brand desire only for children who are familiar with social games.

Parent Versus Child Reports of Parental Advertising Mediation: Exploring the Meaning of Agreement

In a survey among 360 parent-child dyads (children aged 8–12 years), parent and child reports of parental advertising mediation activities were examined. The first aim was to investigate how parent-child agreement in reporting mediation differed by family and child factors. Results showed that agreement was highest in communication-oriented families and between parents and girls. The second aim was to examine the role of agreement in predicting the mediation outcome (i.e., reduced materialism). Both measures predicted the mediation outcome, but its effectiveness was contingent on parent-child agreement. Mediation was most effective when parents and children both reported that parents often discussed advertising.

Disclosing the persuasive nature of advergames: moderation effects of mood on brand responses via persuasion knowledge

The aim of this study was to investigate whether the effects of advergame disclosures were moderated by gamers’ moods. More specifically, we tested whether the effects of disclosures on brand recall, game attitude, and brand attitude via activated persuasion knowledge were different for people in positive moods than in negative moods. An experiment (n = 127) showed a moderated mediation effect: advergame disclosures activated persuasion knowledge, which resulted in higher brand recall, but also in more negative game and brand attitudes. This mediated effect was only significant for people in positive moods: a disclosure raised awareness of the advergames persuasive nature, which subsequently led to more critical processing. People in negative moods already processed the advergame in a critical manner. These findings have important implications for theory, legislation, and the advertising practice.

Development and Validation of a Survey Instrument to Measure Children's Advertising Literacy

The aim of this study was to develop and validate a survey measurement instrument for childrens advertising literacy. Based on the multidimensional conceptualization of advertising literacy by Rozendaal, Lapierre, Van Reijmersdal, and Buijzen (2011), 39 items were created to measure two dimensions of advertising literacy (i.e., conceptual and attitudinal advertising literacy) and their 9 underlying components (i.e., recognition of advertising, understanding selling intent, recognition of advertisings source, perception of intended audience, understanding persuasive intent, understanding persuasive tactics, understanding advertisings bias, skepticism toward advertising, and disliking of advertising). The survey was administered to 1,026 8- to 12-year-olds in the first wave and 519 in the second wave. Structural equation modeling revealed that the Advertising Literacy Scale for children consists of two separate and unrelated subscales: the Conceptual Advertising Literacy Scale (CALS-c) and the Attitudinal Advertising Literacy Scale for children (AALS-c). Both scales performed well in terms of test–retest reliability and construct validity. In addition to the full-length scale, shortened versions were created. Specific directions for future advertising literacy research are discussed as well.

This is Advertising! Effects of Disclosing Television Brand Placement on Adolescents

As heavy media users, adolescents are frequently exposed to embedded advertising formats such as brand placements. Because this may lead to unwitting persuasion, regulations prescribe disclosure of brand placements. This study aimed to increase our understanding of the effects of disclosing television brand placements and disclosure duration on adolescents’ persuasion knowledge (i.e., recognition of brand placement as being advertising, understanding that brand placement has a persuasive intent and critical attitude toward brand placement) and brand responses (i.e., brand memory and brand attitude). To do so, an earlier study that was conducted among adults was replicated among adolescents aged 13–17xa0years (Nxa0=xa0221, 44xa0% female). The present study shows that brand placement disclosure had limited effects on adolescents’ persuasion knowledge as it only affected adolescents’ understanding of persuasive intent, did not mitigate persuasion, but did increase brand memory. These findings suggest that brand placement disclosure has fundamentally different effects on adolescents than on adults: the disclosures had less effects on activating persuasion knowledge and mitigating persuasion among adolescents than among adults. Implications for advertising disclosure regulation and consequences for advertisers are discussed.

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.