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11 February 2014

How Parents Think About Advergames

Keywords: advergames, advertising, games, parents, survey, North America, internet, kids,

A study in Journal of Advertising investigates whether parenting style is linked to parents’ believes about advergames targeting young children. The study shows that parents with different parenting styles vary in how they think about advertising in games. For example, parents who are more controlling, hold more negative attitudes toward child-directed advergames.

Take aways

  • In general, parents are negative about advergames targeting children.
  • However, their degree of negativity differs across parenting style:
    • Controlling and democratic parents hold more negative attitudes toward advergames compared to permissive and uninvolved parents.
  • Game developers should be aware that parents tend to view child-directed advergames in a negative light.

Study information

  • The question?

    Does parenting style affect parents’ attitudes towards advergames?

  • Who?

    214 parents with one or more children between the ages of 7 and 11 years (48% fathers and 53% boys)

  • Where?

    United States

  • How?

    First, parents saw two examples of child-directed advergames (i.e., “Oreo Double Stuff Racing League” and “SpongeBob SquarePants”). Afterwards, they completed an online survey about their parenting style and attitudes toward advergames (e.g., “there is too much advergaming directed at children” and “advergames use tricks and gimmicks to get children to buy their products”).

Facts and findings

  • Parents’ attitudes toward advergames targeting children varied with their parenting style:
    • Controlling parents (i.e., strict rules and very demanding) reported more negative attitudes about advergames than permissive (i.e., few rules and very inconsistent) and uninvolved parents (i.e., no rules and no supervision).
    • Democratic parents (i.e., listen to their children and encourage independence) also reported more negative attitudes toward advergames compared to permissive parents.
  • Overall, all parents in the study reported negative attitudes toward child-directed advergames.
  • Critical note: This study does not allow for any conclusions about cause (parenting style) and effect (attitudes toward advergames). The results only show that parents who are more controlling or democratic, hold more negative attitudes toward child-directed advergames.