Reducing Children's Susceptibility to Commercials: Mechanisms of Factual and Evaluative Advertising Interventions

The aim of this study was to investigate how factual and evaluative interventions modify the effects of television advertising among children in early and middle childhood. First, a conceptual model of advertising intervention was developed, and then this model was experimentally tested drawing on a sample of 5- to 10-year-old children (N = 206). Structural equation modeling analysis confirmed that factual intervention reduced children's susceptibility to commercials by stimulating their advertising knowledge and skepticism, and evaluative intervention reduced children's susceptibility by influencing their attitudes toward commercials negatively. For children older than 6, both factual and evaluative interventions were successful in modifying the effects of advertising, whereas the younger children had difficulty processing any type of intervention.