The Status Quo Of Children’s Advertising Literacy And Its Impact Factors

Recent years have seen a growing concern over the relationship between children andadvertising, especially about the impact of advertising on children. Besides the increasingimportance attached to protecting children’s rights, literacy training is of great need, In theinformation age, literacy is the qualification that the individuals have a reasonable and effectivecommunication and interaction with the outside world, so advertising literacy consequentlyemerges.Based on a case study of elementary students from Guangdong and Hunan provinces bymeans of questionnaires and in-depth interviews, the present research aims to investigate thestatus quo of children’s advertising literacy and its impact factors from six perspectives, namely,contact, cognition, recognition, evaluation, resistance and use of advertisements. In so doing, adeep and macro understanding of the status quo of children’ advertising literacy will beprovided, the various objective and subjective factors that influence children’s ad-relatedbehaviors will be explored, and the resulting differences will be described and analyzedqualitatively in details. Finally, a solution will be ventured and some strategies advanced toimprove children’s advertising literacy.The survey shows that the status quo of children’s advertising literacy is not so optimisticand that children’s contact, recognition, evaluation and use of advertisements leave a lot to bedesired. An analysis of relevant impact factors reveals that there is a significant difference inadvertising literacy between urban and rural kids, and between kids from different grades. It isfound, for instance, that urban children are better than their rural counterparts in advertisingliteracy. It is also found that children’s attitude towards advertising, their exposure to media andother various factors, such as family, school and peers, all play a role in their advertisingliteracy. Thus, to cultivate children’s advertising literacy, it is essential to make joint efforts andtake actions that meet the needs of different kids from different areas.