How intervention can empower children as consumers in dealing with advertising

Identifier:  imarina:3665265

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/imarina3665265

Authors:  del Mar Pamies, Maria; Ryan, Gerard; Valverde, Mireia

Abstract:
In today's society, children are surrounded by advertising. Within this context, this paper presents a set of activities designed to make children aware of various marketing tactics, mainly related to advertising, so that they become empowered to make informed consumer choices. The design of the intervention and the evaluation of its effectiveness make a number of contributions to current research. Firstly, teachers carried out the activities, a role traditionally assigned to parents or researchers in previous literature. Secondly, we broaden the scope of indicators measuring the effectiveness of the activities by including the evaluation of changes not only in advertising literacy, but also in attitudes towards advertising and in children's behaviours. Results show the effectiveness of the intervention in preparing children to better deal with advertising. Suggestions for further research and the design of this type of interventions are presented.