How can commercial media literacy change the influence of product placement on children

Field lab in marketing

Purpose - The goal of this research is to analyze how the introduction of commercial media literacy programs can reduce the influence of product placement on children by giving them tools to easily identify it and understand its persuasive intent. Methodology - An experimental design with 147 children was performed, in order to compare if children that had a class about product placement were less influenced by it and could better identify its presence and understand its purpose. Findings - Results suggest that commercial media literacy is indeed effective mitigating some effects of product placement on children, since it contributed to decrease children’s preference for the placed brand. Moreover, it increased their understanding of the advertisements’ persuasive intent and product placement awareness on TV shows. Research Limitations – Further research should include children from other countries and ages. The medium and long-term effects should be analyzed as well. Besides, a longer intervention could be performed. Value – Previous research had already found that product placement is very effective in influencing children’s consumer behaviors due to their vulnerability. Nonetheless, this is the first study that seeks to solve this problem and overcomes the existing literature gap concerning the effectiveness of commercial media literacy on mitigating the effect of this subtle type of advertisement.