Advertising targeting young children: an overview of 10 years of research (2006–2016)

ABSTRACT

A review of 138 published academic articles was conducted to provide an up-to-date and comprehensive overview of academic research of the past decade (2006–2016) on advertising directed to young children up to 12 years old. The research overview resulted in a conceptual framework comprising five research domains that were found to be most prominent. For each of these five domains, an overview, discussion and future research agenda is presented. We conclude that much of the research of the past decade included food advertising and its effects. Progress has been made in the domain of children's advertising processing, specifically with regard to advertising literacy. Despite the growing importance of embedded advertising, many of the new ad formats remain neglected (e.g. native and mobile advertising). Additionally, only a few studies investigated which executional factors (e.g. humour) are effective in advertisements to target children and social influences are also less often considered.

KEYWORDS:

• Advertising
• children
• advertising processing
• (new) advertising formats
• executional factors
• social influences
• advertising effects

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Agentschap Innoveren en Ondernemen.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Agentschap voor Innovatie door Wetenschap en Technologie [grant number 130008].

Notes on contributors

Steffi De Jans

Steffi De Jans is a research and teaching assistant at the Department of Communication Sciences at Ghent University, and is currently conducting a PhD research. The overall aim of her dissertation project is to examine minors' advertising literacy for different embedded advertising formats, how this advertising literacy further affects advertising effectiveness and how minors' advertising literacy can be improved.

Dieneke Van de Sompel

Dieneke Van de Sompel is a visiting professor at Ghent University, Department of Communication Sciences. She holds a PhD degree in applied economic sciences (exploring children's consumer activities). Her research interests include the effects of advertising cues, persuasive communication and marketing on children's attitudes, consumer behaviour, motives and well-being. Her research work involves stimulating sustainable and pro-environmental concerns and behaviour in minors.

Liselot Hudders

Liselot Hudders is an assistant professor in marketing communication and consumer behavior at Ghent University, Department of Communication Sciences and director of the Center for Persuasive Communication. Her research focus lays on how children cope with advertising, advertising effectiveness and on how (sustainable) consumption affects happiness. She published in a diverse range of SSCI-ranked journals as Journal of Advertising, International Journal of Advertising, Journal of Happiness Studies, Journal of Business Research, and Computers in Human Behavior.

Veroline Cauberghe

Veroline Cauberghe is an assistant professor in communication management at the Ghent University. She teaches the courses marketing communication, corporate communication and social marketing. Her research interest lays on advertising effectiveness and social marketing. She published her research in international journals such as Journal of Advertising, International Journal of Advertising, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Journal of Business Research, and Public Relations Review. She serves as ad hoc reviewer for journals such as New Media and Society, Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, Journal of Interactive Marketing and for international conferences (EMAC, ICORIA).