Children’s Advertising Literacy for New Advertising Formats: The Mediating Impact of Advertising Literacy on the (Un)Intended Effects of Advergames and Advertising Funded Programs.

  • Liselot Hudders
  • Veroline Cauberghe
  • Katerina Panic
  • Wendy De Vos
Chapter
Part of the European Advertising Academy book series (EAA)

Abstract

To be able to stand out in today’s crowded advertising environment and to reach children more effectively, advertisers are adopting new advertising venues, such as advergames, product placements, branded websites, or mobile applications (Calvert, 2008; Moore, 2004). Three important characteristics of these new advertising formats are a longer exposure time to commercial content, the integration of commercial content into the media content and the interactive engagement of the user with the commercial content (Rozendaal et al., 2012). In the current paper, we will investigate children’s advertising literacy level, purchase requests and materialism level after exposure to either an advertiser funded program (AFP, defined as a program produced by an advertiser) or an advergame (defined as a simple game specially designed by an advertiser).

Keywords

Online Game Product Placement Persuasion Knowledge Commercial Content Consumer Socialization 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Boerman, S. C.; Van Reijmersdal, E. A. and Neijens, P. C. (2012), "Sponsorship disclosure: effects of duration on persuasion knowledge and brand responses," in: Journal of Communication, 62 (6), 1047–1064.Google Scholar
  2. Bottelberghs, I. (2007), "Consumensjes: over kinderen, reclame en communicatie," Leuven, Uitgeverij LannooCampus.Google Scholar
  3. Brehm, J. (1966), "A theory of psychological reactance, "; New York, Academic Press.Google Scholar
  4. Buijzen, M. (2007), "Reducing children’s susceptibility to commercials: mechanisms of factual and evaluative advertising interventions, " in: Media Psychology, 9 (2), 411–430.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  5. Buijzen, M. and Valkenburg, P. M. (2003), "The unintended effects of television advertising: a parent-child survey, " in: Communication Research, 30 (5), 483–503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. Buijzen, M.; Van Reijmersdal, E. A. and Owen, L. H. (2010), "Introducing the PCMC model: an investigative framework for young people’s processing of commercialized media content, " in: Communication Theory, 20 (4), 427–450.Google Scholar
  7. Calvert, S. L. (2008), "Children as consumers: advertising and marketing, " in: The Future of Children, 18 (1), 205–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  8. Campbell, M. C. and Kirmani, A. (2000), "Consumers’ use of persuasion knowledge: the effects of accessibility and cognitive capacity on perceptions of an influence agent, " in: Journal of Consumer Research, 27 (1), 69–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. Cauberghe, V. and De Pelsmacker, P. (2010), "Advergames: the impact of brand prominence and game repetition on brand responses, " in: Journal of Advertising, 39 (1), 5–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. Chia, C. S. (2010), "How social influence mediates media effects on adolescents’ materialism, " in: Communication Research, 37 (3), 400–419.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. Eagle, L. (2007), "Commercial media literacy: what does it do, to whom – and does it matter?, " in: Journal of Advertising, 36 (2), 101–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. Escalas, J. E. (2004), "Imagine yourself in the product: mental simulation, narrative transportation, and persuasion, " in: Journal of Advertising, 33 (2), 37–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  13. Glass, Z. (2007), "The effectiveness of product placement in video games, " in: Journal of Interactive Advertising, 8 (1), 23–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. Gunter, B.; Oates, C. and Blades, M. (2005), "Adversing to children on TV: content, impact and Regulation, "; New Jersey, Lawrence Erlbaum Associations.Google Scholar
  15. Hang, H. and Auty, S. (2011), "Children playing branded video games: the impact of interactivity on product placement effectiveness," in: Journal of Consumer Psychology, 21 (1), 65–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  16. Hsu, C. and Lu, H. (2004), "Why do people play on-line games? An extended TAM with social influences and flow experience," in: Information & Management, 41 (7), 853–868.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. Hudders, L., Cauberghe, V. and Panic, K. (2014), "Advertising Literacy in an Advergame Context. The Moderating Impact of an Advertising Literacy Training Session on Children’s Advertising Vulnerability," Paper presented at the 43rd European Marketing Academy, Valencia, Spain, June 2014.Google Scholar
  18. Hudson, S. and Hudson, D. (2006), "Branded entertainment: a new advertising technique or product placement in disguise?, " in: Journal of Marketing Management, 22 (5/6), 489–504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  19. John, D. R. (1999), "Consumer socialization of children: a retrospective look at twenty-five years of research, " in: Journal of Consumer Research, 26 (3), 183–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  20. Knowles, E. and Linn, J. (2004), "Resistance and persuasion, "; Mahwah, NJ, Erlbaum.Google Scholar
  21. Lee, M.; Choi, Y.; Quilliam, E. T. and Cole, R. T. (2009), "Playing with food: content analysis of food advergames, " in: Journal of Consumer Affairs, 43 (1), 129–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  22. Lee, M. and Youn, S. (2008), "Leading national advertisers' uses of advergames, " in: Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, 30 (2) 1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  23. Mallinckrodt, V. and Mizerski, D. (2007), "The effects of playing an advergame on young children’s perceptions, preferences, and requests, " in: Journal of Advertising, 36 (2), 87–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  24. Moore, E. S. (2004), "Children and the changing world of advertising," in: Journal of Business Ethics, 52 (2), 161–167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  25. Moses, L. J. and Baldwin, D. A. (2005), "What can the study of cognitive development reveal about children’s ability to appreciate and cope with advertising?, " in: American Marketing Association, 24 (2), 186–201.Google Scholar
  26. Nicholls, A. J. and Cullen, P. (2004), "The child-parent relationship: ‘pester power’, human rights and retail ethics," in: Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 11 (2), 75–86.Google Scholar
  27. Opree, S. J.; Buijzen, M.; van Reijmersdal, E. A. and Valkenburg, P. M. (2011), "Development and validation of the Material Values Scale for children (MVS-c), " in: Personality and Individual Differences, 51 (8), 963–968.Google Scholar
  28. Panic, K.; Cauberghe, V. and De Pelsmacker, P. (2013), "Comparing TV ads and advergames targeting children: the impact of persuasion knowledge on behavioural response," Journal of Advertising, 42 (2/3), 264–273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  29. Piaget, J. (1929), "The child’s conception of the world," New York, Hartcourt, Brace & Co.Google Scholar
  30. Pollay, R. W. (1986), "The distorted mirror – reflections on the unintended consequences of Advertising," in: Journal of Marketing, 50 (2), 18–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  31. Privette, G. (1983), "Peak experience, peak performance, and flow – a comparative-analysis of positive human experiences," in: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45 (6), 1361–1368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  32. Rozendaal, E.; Buijzen, M. and Valkenburg, P. M. (2011), "Children’s understanding of advertisers’ persuasive tactics, " in: International Journal of Advertising, 30 (2), 329–350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  33. Rozendaal, E.; Buijzen, M. and Valkenburg, P. M. (2012), "Think-aloud process superior to thought-listing in increasing children’s critical processing of advertising," Human Communication Research, 38 (2), 199–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  34. Van Reijmersdal, E. A.; Jansz, J.; Peters, O. and van Noort, G. (2010), "The effects of interactive brand placements in online games on children’s cognitive, affective and conative brand responses, " in: Computers in Human Behavior, 26 (6), 1787–1794.Google Scholar
  35. Van Reijmersdal, E. A.; Rozendaal, E. and Buijzen, M. (2012), "Effects of prominence, involvement, and persuasion knowledge on children’s cognitive and affective responses to advergames," in: Journal of Interactive Marketing, 26 (1), 33–42.Google Scholar
  36. Williams, R. B. and Clippinger, C. A. (2002), "Aggression, competition and computer games: computer and human opponents, " in: Computers in Human Behavior, 18 (5), 495–506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  37. Wollslager, M. E. (2009), "Children’s awareness of online advertising on neopets: the effect of media literacy training on recall," in: Studies in Media and Information Literacy Education, 9 (2), 31–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  38. Wulfemeyer, K. T. and Mueller, B. (1992), "Channel One and commercials in classrooms: Advertising content aimed at students," in: Journalism Quarterly, 69 (3), 724–742.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  39. Yuji, H. (1996), "Computer games and information-processing skills," in: Perceptual and Motor Skills, 83 (2), 643–647.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  • Liselot Hudders
    • 1
  • Veroline Cauberghe
    • 1
  • Katerina Panic
    • 1
  • Wendy De Vos
    • 1
  1. 1.Ghent UniversityGhentBelgium

Personalised recommendations