Advertising literacy

Nowadays, children are confronted with a considerable amount of advertising, not only through traditional media channels, but also through a wide range of (new) digital formats such as advergames, social media advertising, and product placements. This raises the important issue of whether children are able to critically recognize and understand these persuasive attempts; in other words, do children possess the necessary advertising literacy? In this entry, a concise and comprehensive overview will be presented on the topic of advertising literacy among children. Several issues will be addressed, such as children as a target group, the different perspectives on advertising literacy, and the comparison with the advertising literacy of adults. After that, this entry will dwell on the socialization and cognitive developmental view on advertising literacy. Then, children's level of advertising literacy for different advertising formats will be addressed, followed by how to improve this literacy in particular. Finally, challenges for future advertising literacy research will be presented.