Korean children's understanding of social media advergames: An exploratory study of ad recognition and skeptical attitudes toward advertising

This study explored Korean children's understanding of social media advergames. In particular, we investigated the effects of ad recognition and skeptical attitudes toward advertising on children's susceptibility to commercial influences. The results of a survey of 556 children, ranging in age from 7 to 11, showed that half of the children could correctly identify the social media advergame as a type of advertising, whereas the other half could not. Comparisons revealed that older students were better at recognizing commercial influences. In terms of children's intention to visit sites featured in advergames, students who were in a lower grade, female, or had high Internet usage were more likely to want to visit the store advertised. After controlling for demographics and media usage, children's ad recognition and skeptical attitudes, as well as the interaction term, were all statistically significant. The results underscore the importance of combining both cognitive and attitudinal advertising literacy.     

The mediating role of advertising literacy and the moderating influence of parental mediation on how children of different ages react to brand placements

This study investigates the role of advertising literacy in how children of different ages respond to brand placement and how parental advertising mediation strategies can attenuate advertising effects. The results of a cross‐sectional study among 180 children under 12 and their parents show that older children (10 to 11 years) are better able to detect the commercial intent and the source of brand placement compared to the younger children (7 to 8 years). However, parental advertising mediation appears to increase (instead of decrease) brand attitudes for the younger children, whereas it has no significant effect on brand attitudes of the older children. Practical implications of the study are discussed.     

Young adolescents' advertising literacy and purchase intention in social network games: Influence of perspective taking and need for cognition

Social network games (SNGs) are popular online venues for young adolescents. The aim of this study is to examine how individual traits, need for cognition (NFC) and perspective taking (PT), are related to young‐adolescents' conceptual (i.e. understanding selling and persuasive intentions) and attitudinal (i.e. critical attitude) advertising literacy in these SNGs. The current study also examines how a child's conceptual and attitudinal advertising literacy is related to purchase intentions after seeing advertising in an SNG. In total, 781 young adolescents (aged 10–14 years) took part in our study. First, participants were shown a 5‐min video clip of an SNG including advertising. After watching the video clip, the participants completed a questionnaire about, among others, NFC, PT, conceptual advertising literacy, attitudinal advertising literacy and purchase intentions. NFC was found predictive of children's understanding of the selling and persuasive intent of SNG advertising. This means that children who score higher on the NFC scale are also more likely to have a higher conceptual knowledge of SNG advertising. PT was found to negatively influence children's critical attitude towards SNG advertising. As expected, critical attitude towards advertising was negatively related to purchase intentions. Finally, purchase intention was only partially related to conceptual advertising literacy. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The interplay of persuasion inference and flow experience in an entertaining food advergame

Increasingly, unhealthy food is being advertised through online games known as advergames. The advergame is designed for entertaining fun to promote the brand featured in the game. But what happens if the food advertised is healthy or the source of the game is non‐commercial? This study examines how people's entertainment (flow experience) interacts with their inference about the persuasion impact of food brands featured in an advergame, which vary according to their persuasion knowledge about the source (e.g., non‐commercial versus commercial) and the perceived persuasion effect on self (e.g., beneficial versus harmful). Results of an experiment show that flow is positively associated with persuasion effects of the advergame. Brand attitudes and purchase intentions were the most favorable for non‐commercial brands with perceived benefits (healthy food) followed by commercial brands (healthy food) and commercial brands with harmful effects (less healthy food). However, persuasion effects for purchase intention were mitigated when participants were immersed in a flow state. Ramifications for persuasion and health promotions are discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

品牌熟悉对广告过程中品牌态度改变的影响

文章通过分析广告前后被试者品牌态度的变化,研究了在不同的广告态度和信息相关度条件下被试者品牌熟悉程度对品牌态度变化的影响。结果显示品牌熟悉程度对品牌态度变化的调节作用并非单向的,而是与广告态度和信息相关度交互产生作用的。当被试者不熟悉品牌且有正面的广告态度时或当被试者不熟悉品牌且信息相关度较低时广告才能产生说服效果,进而使被试者的品牌态度发生改变。     

All Loads Are Not Equal: Distinct Influences of Perceptual Load and Cognitive Load on Peripheral Ad Processing

Task load is an important variable in understanding mediated message processing under different levels of demand on audience attention. However, past research has neglected to differentiate between distinct types of task load that may lead to different patterns of media processing. We discuss how conceptualization of the types of load encountered in media processing may change study outcomes and be a hidden factor in previously published work. We illustrate the potential differences in load with a study that applies the perceptual load theory to devaluation of advertisements that are placed peripherally around a web browser game that utilizes levels of either cognitive or perceptual load. Results showed that high (vs. low) perceptual load leads to worse ad recognition, lower perceived ad familiarity, and decreased ad preference; however, high (vs. low) cognitive load leads to increased brand familiarity. Implications for advertising and media research are discussed.     

学校归属感与青少年手机依赖的关系:学习焦虑的中介效应与同伴关系的调节效应

为探讨学校归属感对青少年手机依赖的影响及其作用机制,基于阶段环境匹配理论,本研究采用问卷法对山东省青岛市65所中学3355名高二年级学生进行调查。结果表明:(1)在控制了性别和上网时间后,学校归属感对青少年手机依赖具有显著的负向预测作用;(2)学习焦虑在学校归属感与青少年手机依赖之间起部分中介作用;(3)学校归属感对青少年手机依赖的直接作用、学习焦虑的中介作用均受到同伴关系的调节,且相对于同伴关系水平低的个体,学校归属感对手机依赖、学校归属感对学习焦虑以及学习焦虑对手机依赖的作用都在同伴关系水平高的个体中更强。本研究有利于揭示学校归属感是如何影响青少年手机依赖的,以及在何种条件下对青少年手机依赖的影响更强/更弱,对移动互联网时代预防青少年手机依赖有一定启示意义。     

Effects on Youth of Exposure to Retail Tobacco Advertising1

The absence of significant restrictions on tobacco advertising in stores has prompted concern about the proliferation of these messages and their impact on youth. This is among the first studies to investigate the effects of adolescents’ exposure to retail tobacco advertising. Under the guise of testing teen‐interest news stories, 8th and 9th graders (n= 385) saw photographs of a convenience store that was either dominated by or devoid of tobacco advertising while listening to a story about a proposed tobacco control law or one about teen food purchases. Regardless of the news story they heard, students exposed to the tobacco‐saturated store perceived significantly easier access to cigarettes, believed more peers tried and approved of smoking, and expressed weaker support for tobacco‐control policies than did the comparison group. The study results suggest that widespread tobacco advertising in stores might distort adolescents’ perceptions about the availability, use, and popularity of this product.     

Creating Nostalgic Advertising Based on the Reminiscence Bump: Diachronic Relevance and Purchase Intent

Nostalgic advertising uses images relevant to past periods in individuals' lives to market products. The current study examines the reminiscence bump in a new context: reactions to nostalgic advertising. We examine diachronic relevance and its influence on purchase intent using a 3 (time frame: bump advertisements, non‐bump past advertisements, present‐focused advertisements) × 2 (age group: Generation X, late‐stage baby boomers) between‐subject design. Results show that advertisements for a fictional camera brand (i.e., Optimax) that focus on a bump year (i.e., 15–24 years) have more diachronic relevance than advertisements from either a non‐bump past year or present‐focused advertisements. In addition, advertisements focused on bump years elicit greater intent to purchase the advertised product than non‐bump past and present‐focused advertisements. Analyses show that intent to purchase the product is fully mediated by diachronic relevance of the bump‐year advertisement. These effects hold across both age groups.Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Friendly fire: Longitudinal effects of exposure to violent video games on aggressive behavior in adolescent friendship dyads

Research on gaming effects has focused on adolescence, a developmental period in which peer relationships become increasingly salient. However, the impact of peers on the effects of violent gaming on adolescents has been understudied. This study examined whether adolescents’ exposure to violent video games predicted their own and their friend's aggression one year later. Among 705 gaming adolescents, 141 dyads were identified based on reciprocated best friend nominations (73.8% male, M_age = 13.98). Actor‐Partner Interdependence Models indicated that adolescent males’ (but not females’) exposure to violent games positively predicted the aggression of their best friend 1 year later. This effect appeared regardless of whether the friends played video games together or not. The study illustrates the importance of peers in the association between violent gaming and aggression.     

The Diagnosticity of Advertising Generated Brand Attitudes in Brand Choice Contexts

Advertising theory tends to presume, sometimes implicitly, that advertising mediates brand choice through its effect on brand attitudes. This article addresses the limitation of using brand attitude measures at or near the time of advertising exposure to predict the relative ability of a set of alternative advertising message appeals to directly influence brand‐choice decisions. The results suggest that the ability of advertising‐generated brand attitudes to predict advertising effects on brand choice declines when (a) consumers’ motivation to deliberate is greater at the time of brand choice than at the time of attitude formation, (b) the message appeal of the brand assigned the most favorable attitude rating is not accessible, not perceived to be at least as diagnostic as competitor appeals, or both, and (c) attitude differences among brand alternatives are small.     

Children's memory for television advertising: effects of programme–advertisement congruency

The effects of the surrounding programme environment and level of involvement upon children's memory (year 6 primary school, mean age 11.1, SD = 0.4, 48 boys and 69 girls) for television advertisements was examined by manipulating the degree of congruency between the production genre of the programme and the advertisements embedded within it. In Experiment One (n = 56) the ad‐break comprised either all cartoons (n = 4) or all non‐cartoons (n = 4). In Experiment Two (n = 61) cartoon and non‐cartoon advertisements were equally represented in each ad‐break. After viewing, participants provided evaluative ratings of the programme and completed memory tests for advertisements, using prompted recall and brand‐recognition tasks. Memory performance overall was better for cartoon advertisements than for non‐cartoon advertisements, with the latter being poorly remembered when presented in the non‐cartoon programme. In Experiment Two, the programme had no effect on overall recall of advertising, but was related to brand recognition, which was better for advertisements placed in the cartoon programme. Free recall of non‐cartoon advertisements was best when placed in the cartoon programme, while free recall only of cartoon advertisements was best when placed in the non‐cartoon programme. The measures of audience involvement (programme ratings) did not show any significant correlation with memory for advertising. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

科技干扰与青少年智能手机成瘾的关系：情绪症状和环境敏感性的作用

本研究以问卷法对湖北省两所中学共3219名初一至初三的中学生进行调查,建立结构方程模型来考察在家庭环境中由于父母使用科技设备而产生的科技干扰对青少年智能手机成瘾的影响机制。结果发现：（1）科技干扰不仅能直接正向预测青少年智能手机成瘾,还能通过情绪症状的中介作用间接预测青少年智能手机成瘾;（2）环境敏感性在情绪症状对青少年智能手机成瘾的影响中起显著的调节作用,具体而言,较高的环境敏感性能够缓冲情绪症状对青少年智能手机成瘾的影响。     

Longitudinal Model Predicting Self‐Concept in Pediatric Chronic Illness

Although self‐concept has been identified as salient to the psychosocial adjustment of adolescents dealing with a chronic illness (CI), little research has focused on its predictors it. Given that depression and parent–child attachment have been linked to self‐concept in the population at large, the goal of this study was to evaluate these relationships longitudinally in a sample of adolescents with CI. Using participant data from the Mastering Each New Direction (MEND) program, a 3‐month psychosocial, family based intensive outpatient program for adolescents with CI, we employed multilevel modeling to test longitudinal changes in self‐concept, as predicted by depressive symptoms and parent–child attachment, in a sample of 50 youths (M_age = 14.56, SD_age = 1.82) participating in MEND. Both “time spent in the program” and decreases in depressive symptoms were associated with increases in self‐concept over time. Higher baseline levels of avoidant attachment to both mother and father were also associated with greater initial levels of self‐concept. Targeting depressive symptoms and supporting adaptive changes in attachment may be key to promoting a healthy self‐concept in pediatric CI populations. The association between avoidant attachment and higher baseline self‐concept scores may reflect differences in participants’ autonomy, self‐confidence, or depression. Limitations of the study include variability in the amount of time spent in the program, attrition in final time point measures, and the inability to fully examine and model all potential covariates due to a small sample size (e.g. power).     

广告干预对消费者品牌态度和信任的影响

为了探讨广告干预对危机品牌的消费者品牌态度和信任的影响,采用实验组与控制组对照的前测后测设计,其中实验组采用2×2因素型被试间实验设计。结果表明:广告干预对被试的内隐品牌态度发生了一定程度的影响,对被试的外显品牌态度和品牌信任则发生了很大程度的影响;高渗透广告相较于低渗透广告能驱使消费者对危机品牌产生更为正向的外显品牌态度;理性诉求广告相较于感性诉求广告能驱使消费者对危机品牌产生更为正向的外显品牌态度;广告的渗透程度和诉求方式对内隐品牌态度的影响存在交互作用;品牌信任受双重态度驱动。     

Sexism and the Effectiveness of Femvertising in China: A Corporate Social Responsibility Perspective

The present study draws on theories and prior research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and gender attitudes (i.e., sexism) to understand young Chinese peoples’ responses toward women-empowering advertising (i.e., femvertising). We conducted two experiments in which male and female Chinese college students (232 in Study 1 and 231 in Study 2) were exposed to either women-empowering or control advertisements (traditional ad in Study 1 and gender-irrelevant ad in Study 2) and reported their attitudes about the ads as well as their purchase intentions toward the advertised products (shampoo and smartphone, respectively). In line with our predictions, both experiments showed that messaging about women’s empowerment in advertising can induce perceptions of CSR, thereby increasing favorable responses such as enhanced positive ad attitudes and increased purchase intentions toward the advertised products. Moreover, hostile sexism was negatively associated with consumer responses toward femvertising such that the lower participants’ hostile sexism, the more positive ad attitudes and stronger purchase intent participants they reported. However, benevolent sexism was not predictive of consumer responses toward femvertising. These results offer insights into people’s responses toward women-empowering advertisements and also have practical implications for advertisers and marketers who are interested in using such an advertising tactic to promote products and services.

     

Childhood brand nostalgia: A new conceptualization and scale development

This research seeks to expand the current understanding of nostalgia towards childhood as it relates to consumer brand relationships and provide a framework for better understanding the phenomenon as it appears in both academic and real‐world settings. In this paper, the authors use existing literature on nostalgia and consumer interviews to define childhood brand nostalgia as a positively valenced emotional attachment to a brand because of the brand's association with fond memories of the individual's non‐recent lived past. A scale to measure an individual's childhood brand nostalgia is developed and tested to ensure convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity. The scale is found to capture individual differences in nostalgic feelings towards a single brand, and individuals are found to have varying levels of nostalgic feelings for multiple brands across multiple product categories. This demonstrates the usefulness of this scale in determining a consumer's nostalgia towards a particular brand from their childhood. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Recency Versus Repetition Priming Effects of Cigarette Warnings on Nonsmoking Teenagers: The Moderating Effects of Cigarette-Brand Familiarity

This study focuses on the interactive effects of antismoking warnings and cigarette-brand familiarity on teenagers' smoking intent, attitudes toward the website, and sponsoring brand when exposed to entertainment websites sponsored by cigarette brands. Findings from a 3 (Warning Type) × 2 (Level of Cigarette-Brand Familiarity) factorial design experiment with nonsmoking teenagers demonstrated that text and picture warnings significantly reduced attitudes toward cigarette brands, compared to text-only or no warning. Warnings had assimilation effects on attitudes (toward brand and website) and on smoking intent in the case of familiar brands; and marginally significant contrast effects in the case of unfamiliar brands, which better reflects the repetition priming paradigm than the recency priming paradigm, and calls for attention to cigarette brands' familiarity.     

First‐Person Shooters and the Third‐Person Effect

A sample of 118 U.S. 6th and 7th graders was used to examine early adolescents’ views of whether video games negatively influence themselves, others of the same age, and younger others. Six specific games ranging in rating from E for Everyone to M for Mature were listed for the early adolescents to respond to, with questions asked about both potential influence and whether young people should be allowed to play the games. Results support a third‐person perception that grew as the rating of the game became more restrictive and as the “other” group in question became younger. The presence of rules set by parents about video game use was a positive predictor of perceptions of influence on self and others.     

Advertising Literacy and Executive Function: Testing Their Influence on Children’s Consumer Behavior

For decades, researchers have theorized that children’s persuasion understanding should help them cope with commercial messages. Yet, to date, there is little evidence to support this hypothesized relationship. Recently, scholars have suggested 2 potential reasons for the lack of findings. The first is that the measure of children’s persuasion understanding has not been thoroughly conceptualized, as previous work has confused knowledge of persuasive intent with knowledge of selling intent. The second is that previous research on the subject has not appropriately considered the role that cognitive development plays in helping children respond to commercial messages with a particular focus on the role that executive function should play. Working with 79 elementary school children and their parents, this study tested whether children’s advertising knowledge was associated with parent-reported consumer behavior (i.e., purchase requests) and if children’s executive function moderated this relationship. Results indicate that children’s understanding of selling intent is negatively associated with parent-reported purchase requests, but understanding of persuasive intent is not. Moreover, although children’s executive function does not moderate this relationship, it is directly associated with consumer behavior. These results offer new insights into how children’s advertising literacy and cognitive development potentially affect their consumer behavior.