Serious games going beyond the Call of Duty: Impact of an advertising literacy mini-game platform on adolescents’ motivational outcomes through user experiences and learning outcomes

Abstract

As adolescents’ advertising literacy is not yet fully developed with regard to non-traditional advertising, they should be made more resilient to this contemporary advertising. Therefore, the current study conducted a three-level, between-subjects experiment (advertising literacy intervention: control condition versus informational booklet versus serious mini-game platform) to examine the effectiveness of advertising literacy interventions among adolescents (aged ten to sixteen). The results showed that an advertising literacy intervention (compared to no intervention) increased Belgian adolescents’ (N = 211, Mage = 13.22) perceived dispositional advertising literacy, and subsequently, their motivation to critically reflect on advertising. In addition, the advertising literacy serious mini-game platform (compared to the informational booklet) increased the experience of flow among the adolescents, which in turn positively affected enjoyment, and perceived learning. Perceived learning then further increased adolescents’ motivation to critically reflect on advertising and their motivation to interact with the learning materials.

Keywords

• Advertising literacy intervention
• adolescents
• advertising literacy
• serious mini-game platform
• learning outcomes
• motivational outcomes