Steffi de jans; Liselot Hudders; Veroline Cauberghe The immediate versus delayed effects of an advertising literacy training on children’s responses to product placement Steffi de jans; Liselot Hudders; Veroline Cauberghe

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION Advertising literacy: recognize advertising distinguish the commercial content from the media content understand persuasive intent and techniques that are used

INTRODUCTION

RESEARCH AIM What are the immediate versus delayed effects of an advertising literacy training on children’s responses to product placement? What is the moderating impact of children’s skeptical attitude toward advertising in general? What is the moderating impact of age?

HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT Advertising literacy training to help children cope with embedded advertising Previous research for traditional advertising formats (Roberts et al., 1980; Brucks et al., 1988; Nelson et al., 2015) Previous research for non-traditional advertising formats (Wollslager, 2009; An et al., 2014; Hudders et al., 2015)  An advertising literacy training intervention can increase children’s advertising literacy for non-traditional advertising formats, more specifically for advergames Children have a low level of advertising literacy for product placement (Moore, 2004) H1: A general advertising literacy training session will increase children’s advertising literacy for product placement.

HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT The mediating effect of advertising literacy and the moderating effect of skepticism on advertising effectiveness H2: For children wo are highly skeptical toward advertising, advertising literacy triggered by the training will decrease pester power for product placements. For children with a low skepticism, advertising literacy triggered by the training will increase pester power.

HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT The moderating role of age RQ 1: What is the moderating role of age on the relationship between advertising literacy training and advertising literacy in our conceptual model?

HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT The delayed effects of an advertising literacy training Few studies have examined the long-term effects of advertising literacy training (Roberts et al., 1980; Austin et al., 1997). Learned change fades over time (Collins et al., 1975) H3: When children are exposed to product placement one week after the advertising literacy training, there will be a decrease in their level of advertising literacy, compared to when they are immediately after the training session exposed to the product placement.

HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT The delayed effects of an advertising literacy training H4:When children are exposed to product placement one week after the advertising literacy training, there will be an increase of pester power for product placements due to a mitigating effect of advertising literacy and advertising skepticism, compared to when they are exposed to the product placement immediatly after the training session. RQ2: What is the moderating role of age on the relationship between timing of product placement exposure on children’s advertising literacy in this conceptual model?

METHOD 3 (training session: control condition vs. advertising literacy training with immediate ad exposure vs. advertising literacy training with ad exposure after one week) by 2 (age: 7-8 year-olds vs. 10- 11 year-olds) between-subjects experimental design Children out of 5 different elementary schools in Belgium Active parental consent N = 205 (M = 8.81 years; 56,6% girls)

MEASURES Questionnaire adapted to the cognitive abilities of children Advertising literacy (6 items; van Reijmersdal et al., 2012) Skeptical attitude toward advertising in general (1 item; van Reijmersdal et al., 2012) Pester power (1 item; Mallinckrodt et al., 2007)

RESULTS Advertising literacy training vs. control condition

RESULTS Advertising literacy training vs. control condition

RESULTS Advertising literacy training vs. control condition

RESULTS Immediate ad exposure vs. delayed ad exposure (after one week)

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION Advertising literacy training triggers children’s advertising literacy for PP Skeptical attitude toward advertising in general taken into account Delayed effect No moderating effects of age Conclude Implications: educational programs

FURTHER RESEARCH Duration of training session Two specific age categories Delayed effectiveness Other non-traditional advertising formats (e.g. mobile advertising)

THANK YOU Steffi.DeJans@UGent.be