Effectiveness of a School-Based Intervention to Empower Children to Cope With Advertising

Abstract. This study tested the effectiveness of a theory-driven, school-based advertising intervention entitled Ad Masters that aimed to stimulate children’s advertising coping behavior in the current media landscape. A cluster randomized controlled trial was completed among 704 children (7–12 years old) in schools. The schools were allocated to either the intervention group ( n = 399) or control group ( n = 305). Both short-term (directly after the intervention) and long-term effects (3 months after the end of the intervention) were measured. Bayesian mixed-effect analyses showed positive short- and long-term effects of the intervention on children’s understanding of advertising’s tactics. Structural equation analysis showed that the intervention-induced changes in children’s understanding of advertising’s tactics were not related to any changes in their use of advertising coping strategies or their advertising susceptibility. No other intervention effects were found. However, structural equation analyses showed that, regardless of the intervention, motivation and ability to use advertising coping strategies are both associated with children’s actual coping behavior. These findings indicate that motivation and ability to effectively use advertising coping strategies are important empowering factors that should be taken into account in future research on children’s advertising coping behavior and in advertising intervention development.

The intervention Ad MAsters has a long-term (3 months) positive effect on children's understanding of advertising's persuasive tactics. The intervention has no direct effects on children's motivation and ability to use coping strategies. The intervention-induced changes in children's understanding of adversting's persuasive tactics do not lead to increased use of coping strategies or reduced adversied product desire and choice. Children who are more motivated and better able to use advertising coping strategies actually do use such those strategies more often Use of advertising coping strategies does not relate to children's advertised product desire and advertised product choice.