1. Advertising Literacy: “What about the children?”
Ralf De Wolf

2. Children’s advertising literacy
Key findings

3. In general
Children’s understanding of advertising tactics develop together with their cognitive capacities and their information processing skills, and thus with age
Early childhood (-5): Does not recognize the intent of advertising
Middle childhood (8-12): Begin to recognize the difference between advertising and program, begin to understand persuasive intent
Late childhood (12-16): More detailed comprehension of persuasive intent
 Because young children lack the cognitive skills, they are highly susceptible to the influence of advertising
(Martinez et al., 2013)

4. Old versus new advertising tactics
Children’s ability to process information already is limited. New advertising tactics just make things harder.
“Difficulty to recognize ad content and persuasive intent in brand placement” (Panic et al., 2012)
“They are much more aware of explicit versus implicit tactics” (Freeman & Shapiro, 2014)
Children’s ability to recognize advertisements on a Web page is far behind their ability to recognize advertisements on television (Blades et al., 2013)
“Children’s advertising literacy between 6 – 12 is low to average. Certainly for product placement, advertiser funded programs and advergames (Cauberghe et al., 2012).
“Because of the affect based nature of contemporary advertising, children’s ability to use advertising knowledge is limited (Rozendaal et al., 2001).
(Panic et al., 2012)
(Freeman & Shapiro, 2014)
(Cauberghe et al., 2012)
(Rozendaal et al., 2001)
(Blades et al., 2013)

5. Example: advergames
Children who played an advergame had more difficulty recalling the advertised brand than children who saw a traditional television advertisement (Verhellen et al., 2014)
3/4 of the children did not recognize advergames as a type of advertising (An et al., 2014)
(Verhellen et al., 2014)
(An et al., 2014)

6. Children’s advertising literacy
What is missing? What are the research challenges?

7. Challenge #1: Disentangling the concept
Different conceptual and operational definitions of advertising literacy
Too little is known about affective and moral dimension
(Rozendaal et al., 2014)
(Hudders et al., under review)

8. Challenge #1: Disentangling the concept
Cognitive dimension:
Recognizing advertisements
Understanding
The selling and persuasive intention
Knowing persuasive tactics
Positive attitudes
!Moral dimension:
skills to judge advertising (tactics) in terms of appropriateness (fairness, manipulativeness and respectfulness)
!Affective dimension:
Affective attitudes (learned and sceptic)

9. Challenge #2: Moving beyond the classic television commercial
Focus on traditional TV advertising. Less is known about new adverting tactics
(Panic et al., 2012)

10. Challenge #3: taking into account children’s experiences
Children’s own accounts of how they experience, use and manage new advertising formats have not received sufficient attention
(Carter et al., 2011)

11. Children’s advertising literacy
The bigger picture

12. …But new advertising tactics are developing rapidly Key questions:
Our goal = empower children so that they can grow up to be critical, informed consumers who can make their own conscious choices
…But new advertising tactics are developing rapidly
Key questions:
How do we balance between empowerment and regulation?
Is it fair to use implicit/ integrated advertising tactics when we know children have low levels of implicit tactic awareness?
What can advertisers do? Implement advertising cue?
LSD post-hoc test shows that visually warned children were almost twice as likely to have seen a brand than the control group (61% vs. 33%, p = .036). (De Pauw et al., under review)
We can develop educational packages or parental mediation can help as well, but we can also assist children more actively, by for example developing an advertising cue.

16. Adolescents and advertising on SNS
Brahim Zarouali

17. Limited attention for adolescents in advertising research

18. Underdeveloped advertising knowledge

19. Advertising on social network sites (SNS)
SNS have become an important venue for marketers
Sharp increase in advertising on SNS
Advertising on SNS = targeted advertising

20. Advertising Effectiveness on SNS
Relevant and appealing advertising
Creepy and feelings of privacy intrusion

21. Adolescents are avid SNS users Regularly exposed to advertising on SNS
Important …
Adolescents are avid SNS users
Regularly exposed to advertising on SNS

22. Adolescents and Advertising on SNS?
How do adolescents engage or interact with targeted ads on SNS, and how this influences their advertising responses?
STUDY!!

23. In general…
Positive effect
Higher purchase intention

24. But…However… Higher advertising skepticism
1. High privacy concern 2. Informed debriefing
Higher advertising skepticism
Leads to lower purchase intention

25. Implications More responsible and effective campaigns Practitioners
Targeted ads backfired in the study
Careful when using adolescents’ personal information
Be transparent
More responsible and effective campaigns

26. New advertising formats and children’s fundamental rights
What is alive in academia at the moment in relation to the legal framework of advertising aimed at children, is going back to the fundamental rights of children, and so looking at the set of children’s rights and principles against which new advertising formats are held, so for instance to decide whether such formats are appropriate/fair/etc.
Valerie Verdoodt

27. Children’s fundamental rights
→ Right to become an optimal person, to development, to being ad literate?
→ Best interest principle
→ Other relevant rights
right to freedom of expression
right to privacy
right to access information and material from a diversity of national and international sources & protection …
The cornerstone of this children’s rights framework is the right to become an optimal person, or the right to personal development. As Ralf said, there is an important balancing exercise between participation/empowerment and protection/paternalistic approach for instance by having in place specific rules restricting a advertising practice.
The Best interest principle is key for the assessment of children-related legislation and requires a proper and two-fold appreciation of the position of the child.
On the one hand it is important for children to participate in society, this also may involve being exposed to advertising. Children would be unable to make a transition to adulthood if they don’t have any opportunities to practice their commercial decision making skills. Therefore, in order to be in line with the underlying child’s right to become an optimal person, children should be educated and empowered to cope with commercial communication (i.e. ad literate), so that they can grow up to be critical, informed consumers who make their own conscious choices in today’s new media environment.
That being said, it is important not to overly place the burden on the child, and the child’s best interest principle requires advertisers to take into account a child’s immaturity and vulnerability, which demands adequate protection and care. And the sole responsibilisation of the child is of course not desirable, it is important to recognise the limits of empowerment.
In the context of the UNCRC, the role of states lies in fulfilling clear obligations to each and every child. To achieve an effective implementation of the Convention, states should develop a children’s rights perspective throughout their government, parliament and judiciary.
Article 16 No child shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his or her honour and reputation
participation
protection

28. What are the research challenges? What is missing?
Fragmented regulatory framework: does it adequately cover new advertising formats?
For example advergames:
AVMS Directive (?)
E-Commerce Directive
Unfair Commercial Practices Dir.
Data Protection Directive (GDPR)
Self- and co-regulation
Media law
(AVMS Dir.)
Audiovis. Commerc. Comm.
Principle of identification
Principle of separation
Commercial content-specific rules
Consumer protection
(e-Commerce Directive)
Unfair / misleading / agressive trading practices
UCP Directive
Data Protection
Parental consent (16 years GDPR, unless MS opt for a different age)
So when we look at secondary legislation, we see that it presents clear challenges for academics. The regulatory framework consists of both legislation and self- or co-regulation, and it is unclear whether the current rules are also applicable in a digital advertising context, or whether there are any gaps/overlaps. For instance at the moment, it is unclear whether the scope of the AVMS will be broadened, it is currently under review.
Furthermore stronger requirements for linear services compared to on-demand services + the issue of content providers outside the EU which are not subject to the same rules as providers established within the EU.
Example: advergame --some academics have argued the AVMS could be applicable
--the mixing of commercial and non-commercial content – identification requirement in E-commerce (for instance cues/labelling)
--UCPD – perhaps a misleading or even aggressive commercial practice (if combined with massive data collection)
--DPD – the issue of parental consent and right to be informed
--Self- and co-regulation – how does this relate to legislation, how have the legal requirements been interpreted

29. What are the research challenges? What is missing?
→ Creating a level playing field?
→ Self-regulation and children’s rights – compatible?
→ Research on advertising cues
→ Children’s personal data collection and its limits
Parental consent
Innovative ways of providing information
→ The use of emotions in advertising and their impact on decision making
If a consensus emerges that a similar level of protection for minors across media channels and platforms is needed, the difficult question is whether to level up (towards the stricter obligations for television(-like) services), or to level down (towards the much lighter obligations for online services). Leveling up does not mean per se legislation, this could also be achieved by self- or preferably co-regulation.
Self-regulation and children’s rights – what does a self-regulatory framework substantively and procedurally need from a children’s rights perspective?
Advertising cues  how to be implemented in the framework, cross-media use (i.e. uniform labels across different techniques), adoption processes by users or viewers, specific cognitive characteristics and levels of advertising literacy of specific user groups (such as minors) and regular monitoring of efficiency.
Parental consent – GDPR age limit 16 years, unless MS choose differently (not below 13 years).
Brahim  transparency, info regarding the data collection activities in a legally correct but child-friendly format, concrete content guidelines to ensure an adequate, concise and easily understandable information transfer to parents and their children. (GDPR obligation to provide information in a manner easily understandable for children)
The use of emotions – boundaries between persuasion of a commercial message and manipulation of the child.

30. Further study
What are the most problematic formats for children to comprehend?
How should a cue look like to have the most desired effect?
How do we best reach children?
How should education packages look like?
What is the role of parents?

31. @R_dwlf, @Brahim_Zr, @valeverdo