Improving advertising literacy and effectiveness

Item does not contain fulltextChildren's sensitivity to food advertising has been the subject of social and political debate for many years. Besides concerns over the negative side effects of food advertising on the wellbeing of children, there are also concerns about the honesty of advertising targeted at children. The biggest concern is that children are not yet capable of critically assessing advertising. In comparison with adults, children are thought to be more vulnerable when confronted with advertising and, consequently, more sensitive to its impact. The rationale behind this common assumption is that their understanding of persuasion has not fully developed, and that therefore they are less capable of recognizing the temptations of advertising and evaluating it in a critical manner. In the children and advertising literature, these skills are often referred to as advertising literacy. In this chapter I will discuss how children's advertising literacy develops with age, the role of advertising literacy in children's susceptibility to food advertising, and how media education can increase children's advertising literacy skills and empower them to deal with food advertising