Do children's cognitive advertising defenses reduce their desire for advertised products?

Abstract

In both the academic and societal debates, it is widely assumed that cognitive advertising defenses can reduce children's susceptibility to advertising effects. Empirical evidence supporting this crucial assumption is however missing. It is precisely this gap that the present study aims to fill In a survey of 296 children (aged 8–12 years), we investigate whether children's cognitive defenses (i. e., advertising recognition and understanding of its selling and persuasive intent) reduce the relationship between the amount of television advertising they are exposed to and their desire for advertised product categories. Interaction analysis in regression shows that of all the cognitive defense variables, only understanding advertising's persuasive intent was effective in reducing the impact of advertising exposure on children's advertised product desire. However, this only applies to the older children in the sample (ages 10–12). For the younger children, understanding the persuasive intent even increased the impact of advertising.