critical thinking and advertising

Critical Thinking: A Crucial Role in Achieving Marketing Excellence Today

The ability to think critically is one of the most important skills marketers need to develop in today’s digital world. Consequently, marketers can make smart decisions backed by facts and logical arguments, leading to better company performance and success. Additionally, professional marketers must be capable of making and implementing decisions quickly. Learning to distinguish intelligence from critical thinking is vital to your marketing team’s success.

Moreover, critical thinking can take many forms in marketing, such as decision-making, content and brand auditing, prioritization, troubleshooting, case analysis, correlation, and data interpretation. Marketers employ critical thinking strategically in several ways, like:

Creative strategies: Critical thinkers can use creative strategies to look for creative messages that they want people to see.
Problem-solving and decision-making: Critical thinking helps marketers develop their problem-solving and decision-making skills.
Customer engagement: Critical thinkers are sure about the reasoning behind their decisions, allowing them to communicate with employees clearly. This level of communication enhances employee engagement.
Dealing with difficult customers: Critical thinking skills are essential for dealing with difficult customers because they help your team make informed decisions while managing stressful situations.

Would you consider critical thinking to be one of your strengths? Why do you need it? Do you enjoy analyzing situations, thinking outside the box from different perspectives, and making informed decisions through thoughtful consideration?

Furthermore, the ability to evaluate the credibility and accuracy of information, ask good questions about it, and act based on its importance to success is essential in critical thinking. An interesting article in HBR about how to develop critical thinking mentioned three elements. It requires the ability to recognize weakness in other arguments, a love for good evidence, and a willingness to reflect on your own perspectives, beliefs, and values.

Developing critical thinking takes practice, openness, and a willingness to challenge your assumptions. Incorporating these strategies into your daily routine will contribute to the development of robust critical thinking skills over time.

Examples of Critical Thinking

Certainly, the ability to critically analyze marketing campaigns is crucial to developing successful campaigns that resonate with your target audience and stand out from the competition. Further, marketers can drive business success by analyzing data, identifying market gaps, and generating creative ideas. To illustrate, here are some examples:

The “Share a Coke” campaign by Coca-Cola is a great example of successful marketing through critical thinking— analyzing customer data to personalize products with popular names, fostering social media sharing, and a powerful call to action to engage customers and create a sense of community around the brand and achieving a 2.5% sales increase in the US, and winning prestigious awards, demonstrating how critical thinking can drive innovative and effective marketing strategies that resonate with customers and drive sales.
Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign showcases critical thinking in challenging beauty norms . Featuring diverse women, the campaign recognized shifting beauty perceptions, prioritizing authenticity, and relatability . Dove’s marketing team decided to break away from the industry norm of using airbrushed models, Dove celebrated natural beauty, resonating widely, fostering brand loyalty, and setting a new standard for inclusive marketing. Dove challenged beauty norms, resonating with consumers, fostering loyalty, and redefining inclusive marketing, setting a new industry standard.

Effective Critical Thinking

Moreover, many articles suggest different habits to help improve your critical thinking—tailor them to your style and practice consistently. Cultivate keen observation, probing questions, deep reflection and analysis, creative synthesis, and decisive judgment for optimal results.

“In the words of Zig Ziglar, ‘It’s Attitude, Not Aptitude, Which Determines Altitude.’ This powerful statement highlights the importance of mindset over natural abilities. This quote encourages critical thinking, prompting reflection on attitudes, and mindsets and emphasizing their impact on success and growth.

To sum up, being good at critical thinking is like a superpower for achieving success. It helps make smart decisions, boost company performance, and handle the challenges of the digital age. Whether it’s creative ideas, problem-solving, talking with customers, or dealing with tough situations, critical thinking is the key to clarity, good communication, and engaged employees. Succeed in marketing by practicing, embracing new ideas, and questioning the status quo—it’s the key to success in this dynamic field. Therefore, it is not just a valuable skill; it’s a cornerstone for success in today’s digital age. Marketers can enhance decision-making, customer engagement, and problem-solving in the dynamic and competitive field of marketing.

SUGGESTED TOPICS
The Magazine
Newsletters
Managing Yourself
Managing Teams
Work-life Balance
The Big Idea
Data & Visuals
Reading Lists
Case Selections
HBR Learning
Topic Feeds
Account Settings
Email Preferences

Creativity in Advertising: When It Works and When It Doesn’t

Werner J. Reinartz
Peter Saffert

Ask a professional in the business what the key to success is in advertising, and you’ll most likely get an answer that echoes the mantra of Stephan Vogel, Ogilvy & Mather Germany’s chief creative officer: “Nothing is more efficient than creative advertising. Creative advertising is more memorable, longer lasting, works with less media spending, and […]

Reprint: R1306H

Do highly creative ads really inspire people to buy products? Studies have found that creative messages get more attention and lead to positive attitudes about the products, but there’s little evidence linking those messages to purchase behavior. To address this gap, Reinartz and Saffert developed a consumer survey approach that measures perceived creativity along five dimensions—originality, flexibility, elaboration, synthesis, and artistic value—and applied the approach in a study of 437 TV ad campaigns for 90 fast-moving consumer goods brands in Germany. The study then linked the assessments to sales figures for the products.

The findings confirm that creative campaigns are, in general, more effective than other types of ads. The research also shows that the various creativity dimensions deliver different results. Elaboration, for instance, had a far more powerful effect on sales than did originality, a more commonly used dimension. Indeed, many companies focus on the wrong dimensions in their campaigns. This article reveals which product categories are best suited to creative advertising and which dimensions of creativity have the most influence on sales.

WR Werner J. Reinartz , director of the Center for Research in Retailing (IFH) and professor of marketing at the University of Cologne, researches firms’ customer strategies and is a coauthor of Customer Relationship Management: Concept, Strategy, and Tools (Springer Books, 2018).
Peter Saffert is a research associate at the University of Cologne in Germany.

Partner Center

Articles / Close reading

Close Reading of Advertising Promotes Critical Thinking

by MiddleWeb · Published 07/22/2014 · Updated 06/08/2020

This is the third article in a four-part series by expert Frank Baker, drawing connections between the Common Core’s emphasis on “close reading” and media literacy. Also see Part 1 (media text) and Part 2 (photography).

Advertising: it’s everywhere. As media literacy educators work to engage students in conversations and study about commercial marketing, we have to encompass more advertising in more mediums (radio, TV, film, internet, newspapers, magazines, social media) than ever before.

In the pre-Common Core era, we were teaching students “techniques of persuasion.” Now the terminology has shifted to “argument.” The study of advertising fits nicely in many CC standards, including these two:

▶ Speaking & Listening Standards ( Grade 8 )

Analyze the purpose of information presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and evaluate the motives (e.g., social, commercial, political) behind its presentation. ▶ College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Reading ( Integration ) Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.

Deconstructing ads through the school year

As a media education consultant, I have used a number of print and non-print ads in my teacher and student workshops. As a result, I created these advertising resource web pages to assist teachers who may want to engage students in advertising analysis, deconstruction and production.

For example, during the holiday time of year (November-December), upper elementary teachers might want to take advantage of the resources on toy ads . The start of the New Year is good time for secondary teachers to consider engaging their students in examining all the hoopla around Super Bowl ads — or the marketing messages that Hollywood producers use to promote Oscar-worthy films.

During Drug-Free Schools week, educators might want to have students analyze smoking imagery and tobacco advertising .

Some teaching strategies

I recommend that teachers start first with print ads, taken from magazines or newspapers. (After students excel at these, you can move on to non-print ads.) I teach that ads are “informational texts” and there are many ways to approach learning about them. The media literacy approach recommends that we challenge our students to think about:

• how an ad was constructed; • for what audience(s); • using which techniques; and • who benefits from the message and its placement.

An art approach might involve studying layout, design, color, font and image composition.

For ELA and social studies teachers: Think about the words “purpose” and “motive” in the CC 8th grade standard. Ask students “what is the purpose of advertising?” and most will probably say to sell something. But I would argue that advertising is much more than simply selling.

More than anything, it’s about persuasion. Challenge students to create a log of all the ads they come into contact with during a typical day. Where did they see the ads? What do they recall? Are they influenced by ads? (Just ask them to explain the logos on their clothes.)

Deconstructing a pizza ad

Here is an advertisement for pizza, taken from a magazine aimed at the tween audience.

I introduce this ad by recommending that my audience:

• read every word on the page (even words in small font) • make a list of all of the images • consider the layout, color, design, and font

I advise students to raise their hands if they come across any unfamiliar words.

Speaking of words, did you notice those words in small font running along the left margin of the ad? That might be something important, and I like to get my audience to rotate the ad horizontally in order to read those small words.

So how else might we use this ad? We might ask students to identify the slogan; tell the story; notice the colors and other attention-getters; identify the point-of-view; who has the power; how does your eye move as you read the ad?

We can take the ad deconstruction even further by challenging students to consider these questions:

– who created this ad (the answer is not on the ad) – what is the purpose of the ad? – who is the audience for the ad: what are the clues; – what magazine would you expect to publish an ad like this? – what is omitted and why? and where can students find the answers to what’s missing?

(Here is a lesson plan I did for a South Carolina project, using this pizza ad. You can find all the background information about the ad you need. There’s also an 8.5 x 11 download – large enough to read all the small print.)

After your students have gained experience at analyzing ads, you should consider giving them opportunities to create ads. (Creation sits atop the list of higher order thinking skills in this proposed Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy .)

Using VoiceThread

Several years ago, I discovered a middle grades teacher who was using Voicethread to engage her students in ad analysis and deconstruction. Take a look and listen to how her students responded to the NIKE ad and the questions she posed:

Source: http://ed.voicethread.com/share/663006

(If you don’t see the Voicethread window above, you’re likely using an Apple iOS device and need to install the Voicethread app .)

Deconstructing commercials

Where print ads rely on words and pictures, television commercials rely on words, sounds and moving images. Commercials are more complex because there are so many elements to study and analyze.

Most of us have never been inside an advertising agency (no, “Mad Men” on AMC does not count). But it is inside ad agencies that ads are born. I wish more educators embraced the work product of ad companies as they engage students in the study and investigation of the persuasion business. (Books by and about David Ogilvy , one inspiration for Mad Men, can be illuminating.)

Despite the fact that, thanks to technology, we now have more opportunities to skip ads on television and streaming media, commercials remain an inevitable part of our lives. In fact, ask students what is the purpose of TV and they’re not likely to know that it is, with few exceptions, to deliver an audience….us…to advertisers through the “allure” of programming.

Writing ad scripts

Before showing students commercials, you might begin by having them write their own commercials or PSA (Public Service Announcements). A simple two-column script has AUDIO and VIDEO. If students try their hand at writing a commercial, since they’re not shooting the video they should concentrate on AUDIO (what is being said and heard). Audio includes not only the narration (on camera or voice-over), but also the music and sound effects.

Scriptwriting alone is a valuable CC-related activity, and it can be made more valuable by also having your students “storyboard” (draw) the action that the script describes. ( I spotted several introductory storyboard videos on TeacherTube .)

Should you decide to let students work on video, remember, it is both the script and the storyboard that must precede production. So before your students turn on those cameras, make sure they’ve completed the first two steps.

Studying commercials

Choose a commercial spot that you think will resonate with your students. For younger students, I recommend a toy commercial; for older students it might be one for fast food, diet products, or a candidate running for office. Plan to show the spot more than once: that way, students will pick up elements they may have missed on first viewing.

One element that teachers can call student attention to is production techniques. How might understanding camerawork, lighting, sound, editing, etc. help students understand how these elements imply meaning?

My lesson plan “Deconstructing Television Commercials” has a link to a 60-second commercial (above) as well as questions and additional resources to simulate discussion. It’s a cellphone ad from earlier days, when everyone didn’t routinely have such a device in their pocket or purse. Students can think of what that might have been like, and how the atmosphere created in this commercial, complete with howling wolves and a dark stranger, might have boosted sales.

In the fourth and final article in this series. Frank Baker will explore the connection between close reading and the language of moving images.

Part 1: Close Reading and What It Means for Media Literacy

Part 2: Close Reading: Visual Literacy through Photography

Part 4: How to Close-Read the Language of Film

Sign Up & Receive the Latest News about Our Content…

Email address:

First Name:

Read our Privacy Policy

BOOK REVIEWS

What to Expect from AI in Class and Beyond

Strategies for Teaching Against Disinformation

The Democratic Roots Essential to Literacy

How to Reclaim Your Energy, Passion, & Time

A Leadership Blueprint for Growth and Success

A How-to Guide to Better Engage Your Students

10 Tools to Help Kids Develop Their Talents

The Reading Strategies Book Gets an Update

Opportunities for Swift Achievement Gains

Teaching for Retention, Application and Transfer

Strategies to Adjust ‘Up’ What Students Know

Assuring Just, Inclusive Learning for Newcomers

Building Bridges That Cultivate Teacher Growth

SEL, Civic Engagement, & a Healthy Democracy

An Enhanced Edition of ‘When Kids Can’t Read’

Shifting to Asset-Based Literacy Assessments

Bringing the Science of Reading into Grades 3-5

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

View all journals
My Account Login
Explore content
About the journal
Publish with us
Sign up for alerts
Open access
Published: 30 June 2023

Do I question what influencers sell me? Integration of critical thinking in the advertising literacy of Spanish adolescents

Beatriz Feijoo ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5287-3813 1 ,
Luisa Zozaya 1 &
Charo Sádaba 2

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume 10 , Article number: 363 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

1977 Accesses

2 Citations

6 Altmetric

Metrics details

Cultural and media studies

Engaging with influencer posts has become a prevalent practice among adolescents on social media, exposing them to the combined elements of promotional content and entertainment in influencer marketing. However, the versatile and appealing nature of this content may hinder adolescents’ ability to engage in critical thinking and accurately interpret this hybrid form of advertising. This study aims to investigate adolescents’ capacity to critically process persuasive content shared by influencers, utilizing the five components of digital critical thinking outlined by Van Laar ( 2019 ): clarification, evaluation, justification, linking of ideas, and novelty. To analyze minors’ online experiences, a qualitative approach was employed involving twelve discussion groups with a total of 62 children and adolescents aged 11 to 17 in Spain. The findings indicate that the exercise of critical thinking in response to influencer marketing is closely associated with the cognitive and affective dimensions of advertising literacy in adolescents, while wamong them.

Is visual content modality a limiting factor for social capital? Examining user engagement within Instagram-based brand communities

The old-new epistemology of digital journalism: how algorithms and filter bubbles are (re)creating modern metanarratives

The persuasive power of social media influencers in brand credibility and purchase intention

Introduction.

In a consumer society, the cultivation of advertising literacy has long been recognized as culturally and socially necessary (Malmelin, 2010 ; Rozendaal et al., 2011 ). However, the relevance of advertising literacy has significantly increased with the widespread influence of digital technology throughout all stages of the consumer journey encompassing discovery, information search, offer evaluation, purchase decisions and product/service recommendation (Kietzmann et al., 2018 ; Shavitt and Barnes, 2020 ). The urgency for adolescents to develop advertising literacy has intensified due to the omnipresence of commercial information in various formats (Braun and Garriga, 2018 ; Cheng and Anderson, 2021 ; Humphreys et al., 2021 ; Kietzmann et al., 2018 ), such as the emergence of hybrid advertising that poses challenges in identification (Feijoo and Sádaba, 2022 ; Ikonen et al., 2017 ). Additionally, the accessibility of technology to audiences, of all age groups, including adolescents, and across various educational levels, particularly through mobile devices (An and Kang, 2014 ; Chen et al., 2013 ; Terlutter and Capella, 2013 ), exacerbates the need for promoting advertising literacy. The personal nature of screens and the exposure to commercial content amplify the urgency of addressing this issue (Oates et al., 2014 ).

Advertising literacy, which has existed even before the digital era, has now emerged as a distinct category among the various literacies that have evolved (Malmelin, 2010 ) due to the increasing digitalization of our daily lives (Selber and Selber, 2004 ). In addition to advertising literacy, other important literacies include algorithmic literacy (Dogruel et al., 2022 ; Shin et al., 2021 ), visual literacy (Avgerinou and Ericson, 1997 ), informational literacy (Behrens, 1994 ), and data literacy (Sagirolu and Sinanc, 2013 ), among others. While these literacies may primarily focus on specific perspectives that are currently of great interest, the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required for acquiring these literacies can be widely applicable across various domains. Some scholars argue that simplification is necessary to facilitate efforts in operationalizing these literacies (Kacinova and Sádaba, 2022 ).

Numerous studies on advertising literacy have emphasized that understanding advertising is necessary but insufficient for accurately processing digital messages (Rozendaal et al., 2011 ; An et al., 2014 ; Rozendaal et al., 2013 ; Vanwesenbeeck et al., 2017 ; Van Reijmersdal, 2017 ). This holds true particularly for content where the persuasive intent is more subtle, such as influencer marketing (Borchers, 2022 ; Van Dam and Van Reijmersdal, 2019 ). In addition to the cognitive dimension, considering the attitudinal dimension of advertising literacy is crucial as it plays a significant role in encouraging children to question and interpret advertisements. Attitudes such as skepticism (valuing a critical approach to advertising) or liking/disliking the phenomenon are instrumental in facilitating low-effort processing when children encounter new advertising formats. However, an examination of the results from the latest EU Kids Online questionnaire reveals that Spanish children aged 12–16 demonstrate some of the lowest levels of browsing and critical appraisal skills in Europe (Smahel et al., 2020 ).

Hence, programs aimed at enhancing advertising literacy among adolescents should not solely focus on the cognitive aspects but should also encompass the attitudinal domain, where critical thinking skills play a pivotal role. This article seeks to contribute to the ongoing discourse on advertising literacy in adolescents by employing a qualitative approach to assess their level of critical competence when confronted with influencer-generated branded content, characterized by subtle persuasive intent. The World Health Organization has coined the term “infodemic” to describe the overwhelming abundance of information individuals encounter on the internet, particularly on social networks. Therefore, it is imperative for individuals, especially children who are vulnerable during their formative years, to develop essential skills such as discerning content, identifying and selecting credible sources, curbing the spread of misinformation, and refraining from propagating falsehoods. All these skills foster responsible digital consumption.

The attitudinal and ethical dimension of adolescents’ advertising literacy in the face of influencer marketing

Leisure and social relations content holds significant relevance for children and adolescents in today’s digital landscape. Although screens have been used for educational purposes, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, entertainment continues to be a prominent component of digital device usage (IAB Spain, 2022 ), particularly among adolescents. The content consumed by minors on social networks often consists of sponsored posts and advertisements, encompassing both traditional and hybrid formats. Influencers frequently utilize this combination of formats to produce content that appeals to the varied interests of young audiences.

The traditional understanding of advertising literacy in children encompasses both cognitive and attitudinal dimensions (Rozendaal et al., 2011 ). The cognitive dimension requires the awareness of specific elements such as recognizing the intent to sell, the source, the persuasive intent, the employed tactics, and the advertising bias (Friestad and Wright, 1994 ; Livingstone and Helsper, 2006 ; Rozendaal et al., 2011 ). However, the rapid evolution of commercial tactics presents challenges in accurately processing advertising. Advertisers now employ branded content, adgames and influencer-generated content to quickly capture consumer attention and intention (van Berlo et al., 2021 ; van Dam and Van Reijmersdal, 2019 ; Hudders et al., 2016 ). Strategies used by advertisers include strategically placing content, appealing to audience emotions, offering customized experiences, and providing rewards and gifts in exchange for exposure (Feijoo and Sádaba, 2021 ). The increasing demands for stricter regulations in digital advertising sometimes surpassing those of television (Feijoo et al., 2020 ), and the suggestion of timely labeling of commercial content to facilitate identification (Lou and Yuan, 2019 ; Zozaya and Sádaba, 2022 ) further emphasize the need to address evolving advertising formats. Given the rapid evolution and ubiquity of advertising formats, developing persuasive knowledge is crucial for navigating this content, particularly among vulnerable audiences.

The attitudinal dimension of advertising literacy encompasses fostering a healthy level of skepticism and promoting critical reflection on the content individuals hear or see in terms of biases and persuasive intentions (Waiguny et al., 2014 ). Ideally, through this process of critical analysis, individuals would develop an informed response to advertising exposure.

When children come across formats that combine advertising and entertainment, they tend to engage in low-effort cognitive processing and fail to activate their developed associative knowledge network regarding the phenomenon (Mallinckrodt and Mizerski, 2007 ; Rozendaal et al., 2011 ; Rozendaal et al., 2013 ; An et al., 2014 ; Vanwesenbeeck et al., 2017 ; Van Reijmersdal et al., 2017 ). Numerous studies have focused on advergaming formats and have shown that merely recognizing the advertising intent of a message does not automatically translate into the ability to question or interpret the received content. This limited cognitive processing of non-traditional advertising formats is further influenced by several factors, such as the child’s primary attention being directed toward the recreational aspect of the format, often overshadowing the processing of the persuasive message. Consequently, advertising literacy programs should adopt an attitudinal perspective, emphasizing the promotion of critical attitudes towards advertising (Hudders et al., 2017 ; Vanwesenbeeck et al., 2017 ; Van Reijmersdal et al., 2017 ).

In recent years, the dimension of ethics has been recognized as a crucial aspect of advertising literacy (Adams et al., 2017 ; Hudders et al., 2017 ; De Jans et al., 2018 ; Sweeney et al., 2022 ; Zarouali et al., 2019 ). This addition reflects the growing pressure and diversification of advertising messages, as well as the utilization of various elements and resources aimed at achieving commercial objectives. Some advertising campaigns employ images, stories or tactics that deviate from social values or norms in order to capture the attention of potential consumers. Others attempt to circumvent legal restrictions by employing hybrid or inaccurately labeled formats or promoting unethical or illegal products or services, which may vary across cultures (Lee et al., 2011 ). To assess the potential impact of an advertising message or action on themselves, others, or society as a whole, consumers must enhance their ethical dimension (Adams et al., 2017 ; Zarouali et al., 2019 ).

The increasing digitization and its impact on consumption practices underscore the heightened necessity of advertising literacy across its three dimensions (Sweeney et al., 2022 ). Therefore, this study aims to integrate advertising literacy with the development of digital competence by emphasizing its interconnectedness with critical thinking. This integrated approach seeks to facilitate the comprehensive advancement of all three dimensions of advertising literacy. By exploring these synergies, the research intends to equip citizens, particularly adolescents as consumers of commercial content, with the ability to engage with such content in a healthy and conscientious manner. This endeavor aligns with prior research that examines the essential skills adolescents need to cultivate in the face of ubiquitous and pervasive commercial content (Hudders et al., 2017 ).

Critical thinking as a key competency in advertising literacy for adolescents

The development of critical thinking is recognized as a fundamental skill for educating new generations. Critical thinking entails an intellectually disciplined process of conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and actively evaluating information derived from reflection, reasoning, or communication which serves as a guide to belief and action (Scriven and Paul, 2007 ). It involves acquiring skills such as identifying the source of information, analyzing credibility, reflecting on information, and drawing conclusions (Linn, 2000 ; Shin et al., 2015 ). Additionally, critical thinking encompasses attitudes towards inquiry, a commitment to the accuracy of evidence, and the practical application of these attitudes and knowledge (Watson and Glaser, 1980 ).

During adolescence, the development of critical thinking becomes more prominent, relying on the advancement of formal thinking. It represents a sophisticated ability to solve complex problems, but prior training is essential to cultivate the skills necessary for evaluating one’s own thinking and the thinking of others (Delval, 1999 ). In Spain, the Royal Decree 1105/2014 of 26 December establishes the basic curriculum for Compulsory Secondary Education and the Baccalaureate. While critical thinking competency is not considered fundamental throughout the curriculum, it is addressed in a cross-cutting manner within the Secondary and Baccalaureate content.

The constant participation and immersion in the global online environment have elevated critical thinking to one of the seven essential digital skills necessary for engaging with 21st-century online content. Consequently, critical thinking is considered a priority competency by the European Union’s Innovation, Research, Culture, Education, and Youth Council ( 2022 ) in their efforts to promote digital literacy and combat misinformation. In the digital context, critical thinking serves as the foundation for developing reflective reasoning, which relies on evidence to validate or challenge the encountered information. This enables users to make informed judgments and decisions by considering the intentions behind publications and examining multiple perspectives (Amabile and Pillemer, 2012 ; Van Laar, 2019 ). An essential characteristic of critical thinking is the ability to independently evaluate arguments and evidence, detached from personal beliefs. This capacity to contrast ideas fosters the emergence of new viewpoints and contributes to meaningful discussions (Voskoglou and Buckley, 2012 ).

Van Laar ( 2019 ) identifies five components of digital critical thinking: clarification (asking and answering clarifying questions), evaluation (assessing the credibility of sources), justification (providing arguments based on personal experiences, reasoning, etc.), idea linking (connecting facts and ideas from personal experiences), and novelty (suggesting new ideas for discussion).

Figure 1 illustrates the advertising literacy model that serves as the foundation for this study (Rozendaal et al., 2011 ; Hudders et al., 2017 ). This model outlines the components of digital critical thinking that play a vital role in the attitudinal and ethical dimensions of the literacy process.

Advertising literacy model used in this study, which includes Van Laar’s critical thinking components.

However, evidence from the European research network EU Kids Online (Garmendia et al., 2011 , 2016 , and 2019 ; Livingstone et al., 2011 ; Smahel et al., 2020 ) indicates that Spanish children consistently demonstrate the lowest levels of critical information literacy in Europe. These findings have remained consistent since 2015 (Garmendia et al., 2016 ) when Spanish children aged 9 to 16 displayed significantly lower levels of information literacy skills, such as contrasting information from different sources, compared to other activities. Only 48% of 9 to 16 year olds claimed to possess this ability, with notable gender and age differences. The most recent EU Kids Online questionnaire, which compares digital skills among children in 18 European countries, reveals alarming results, particularly for Spain. Spanish children aged 12 to 16 exhibit the lowest levels of browsing skills and critical appraisal in Europe (Smahel et al., 2020 ). Authors such as Van Deursen et al. ( 2016 ) argue for the necessity of new qualitative studies that enable a more in-depth exploration of digital skills, particularly those related to Web 2.0 activities and the technical aspects of internet use, to avoid oversimplifying the findings.

Adolescents may encounter difficulties in recognizing dynamic or entertaining advertising formats as advertisements and may face challenges in developing critical attitudes towards them. This is particularly evident in the case of influencer marketing, where influencers serve as brand ambassadors and promote products and services aligned with their personal profiles. They engage with their followers in a manner that resembles recommendations rather than sales pitches. Consequently, distinguishing between genuine product suggestions and paid collaborations can become challenging for the audience (van Dam and van Reijmersdal, 2019 ; Feijoo and Sádaba, 2021 ).

Previous research has investigated adolescents’ ability to recognize and respond to influencer-generated content with persuasive intent (Boerman and Van Reijmersdal, 2020 ; De Jans and Hudders, 2020 ; Van Reijmersdal and Rozendaal, 2020 ; Van Dam and Van Reijmersdal, 2019 ; van der Bend et al., 2023 ). Qualitative research conducted by Borchers ( 2022 ) with 132 German adolescents aged eleven to fifteen revealed their awareness of sponsored influencer posts. However, the study highlighted a tension between their understanding that sponsored content is advertising and the need to critically scrutinize it. Consequently, there is an urgent need for additional qualitative studies exploring adolescents’ online behavior and the strategies they employ to navigate the impact of persuasive content disseminated by influencers. Adopting an advertising literacy approach and aiming to foster the development of critical consumers, it is crucial to gather data on the presence of critical thinking dimensions when children and adolescents encounter messages disguised as entertainment but containing commercial intent (Feijoo and Sádaba, 2021 ).

The acquisition and development of critical thinking skills among adolescents are fundamental for advancing their advertising literacy. This serves as a crucial foundation for enhancing media and digital competence, especially considering the significant portion of content exposure occurring through internet-connected screens. Examining how critical thinking evolves during exposure to influencer marketing enables questioning, investigation, and learning. This perspective helps envision approaches that go beyond automatic responses influenced by biases against the commercial relationship between advertising and celebrities (McShane et al., 2013 ).

In light of these underlying factors, this article aims to address the following research question:

RQ1. To what extent do adolescents’ reactions to commercial content created by influencers encompass the components of critical thinking as defined by Van Laar ( 2019 )?

Methodology

The objective of this study is to investigate how adolescents use critical thinking when exposed to influencer-generated content. A qualitative methodology will be employed to accomplish this aim. In assessing critical thinking, the study will adopt the five dimensions proposed by Van Laar ( 2019 ) as a framework.

Participants and selection process

For this study, a sample of 62 students between the ages of 11 and 17 ( M = 14.14, SD = 1.9) was selected, comprising 59.7% female participants and 40.3% male participants. These students were drawn from multiple schools located across different regions of Spain, with 41.9% from the South, 22.6% from the Levante region, 19.3% from the North, 9.7% from the Canary Islands, and 6.5% from the central area.

Twelve virtual focus groups were conducted using platforms familiar to the participants, namely Zoom and Microsoft Teams between April and June 2021. To ensure more specific data across different segments of the sample, three focus groups were organized for each age group, categorized by socio-economic status (low, medium, and high). This approach allows for a comprehensive examination of the research participants’ perspectives. Additionally, the number of focus groups aligns with previous studies on children and adolescents in Spain, which commonly utilized 10 to 12 focus groups (Iglesias et al., 2015 ; Nuñez-Gomez et al., 2020 ). To create a comfortable environment for the younger interviewees, the focus groups were structured to include adolescents of the same age, minimizing any potential inhibitions caused by interactions with older participants.

The sample selection process for participation in the focus groups was conducted as follows. A non-probabilistic sample was chosen in collaboration with educational centers. The sample was defined based on two filtering criteria: age and the socio-economic profile and location of the school attended by the students. Regarding age, the participants were divided into four categories corresponding to their grade level: elementary students (6th graders), 1st cycle of ESO (7th and 8th graders), 2nd cycle of ESO (9th and 10th graders), and Baccalaureate (11th and 12th graders).

To classify schools, two criteria were employed: funding sources and geographical location. Schools were categorized as private, charter or public based on their funding sources. In terms of geographical location, it served as an initial indicator of the socioeconomic level of the households from which the participants came (Andrino et al., 2019 ). Subsequently, students were classified as attending high-income (+€30,000), medium-income (€11,450-€30,350), or low-income (-€11,450) SEG schools, using data provided by the Spanish National Institute of Statistics (Andrino et al., 2021 ).

Table 1 illustrates the distribution of the focus groups based on two predetermined filter variables:

This project encompassed various ethical considerations, particularly concerning the involvement of adolescents in the fieldwork. To address these concerns prior informed parental consent was obtained, in accordance with the guidance and oversight of the University Ethics Committee, which both financed and reviewed the research project and approved the final report.

Structure of the focus groups

This study employed a qualitative research design, utilizing focus groups as the primary data collection method to explore the opinions and attitudes of participants towards social networks. The use of focus groups facilitated the recording of adolescents’ perceptions, and their online behaviors through peer discussions. By analyzing the recorded sessions, researchers gained valuable insights into the online dynamics of the participants, including how adolescents share their experiences and engage in idea exchange with other users (Gómez et al., 1996 ).

The group session commenced with an overview of the objectives and an introduction of the group members. A preliminary exploratory question was posed to the participating students, seeking insights into their social media usage and their preferred platforms for engagement. Subsequently, the researchers delved into the central research questions, inquiring about the influencers they follow and the motivations behind their choices. This led the discussion towards an examination of the credibility and trustworthiness of these influencers. Lastly, the researchers gathered information on the participants’ perceptions of influencers as brand collaborators.

Table 2 shows the precise questions that served as a guide during the discussion.

The protocol for the focus groups began by individually verifying the audio and video settings for all participants. Additionally, they were reassured regarding the confidentiality and privacy of the recordings, with specific mention that access to the files was restricted to the participating researchers. It was emphasized that participation was voluntary, and participants were free to withdraw at any time. Each discussion group lasted approximately 50 min, and consisted of 4–6 participants, with one, exception where three participants were present due to an unforeseen circumstance preventing one attendee from joining at the last moment.

The information analysis process is outlined as follows:

Phase 1: Verbatim transcription. During this phase, the recordings of each focus group were transcribed in a word-for-word manner.

Phase 2: Dimension identification. A team of researchers specializing in education and communication, with expertize in the use of social networks, collaboratively reached a consensus on identifying the dimensions of critical thinking. This process involved referring to the scientific literature reviewed in this study.

Phase 3: Categorization process. During this phase, the transcripts were carefully reviewed, and the statements were categorized based on the dimensions identified in the previous phase. The NVivo 12 Plus software was utilized to conduct content analysis of the transcripts.

Table 3 presents the adapted components of critical thinking, based on Van Laar’s ( 2019 ) framework, used by the authors to analyze the critical thinking abilities of adolescents when exposed to persuasive content from influencers.

Contextualization

Instagram emerges as the most popular social network across all age groups, comprising 33.53% of total mentions, followed by TikTok at 23.87%, WhatsApp at 14.05%, and YouTube at 12.54%. However, platform preferences vary among different age groups. Primary school and first-cycle ESO students, show a preference for Tiktok, Youtube, Twitch, and Discord. As students’ progress to the second cycle of ESO and beyond, there is a decline in their usage of these platforms, with Instagram becoming the dominant choice, accounting for 47.10% of mentions in Baccalaureate. These usage patterns also reflect differences in users’ motivations. Younger users tend to consume more entertainment-oriented content on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, or Twitch, while older users focus move on communication with friends and family and information consumption. However, recreational usage remains prevalent, particularly among Baccalaureate students.

Participants’ opinions regarding influencers, displayed a high level of consistency across different age groups. They consistently acknowledged the commercial intent and economic nature underlying influencers’ activities and they deemed product promotion as an essential attribute defining an ‘influencer’. Consequently, influencers who do not meet this requirement are excluded from the definition.

Components of critical thinking in advertising literacy

Clarification.

During the focus group discussions, participants shared their daily interactions with influencers and their understanding of their role as content creators. They expressed familiarity with influencers’ practices and their ability to question the intentions behind the shared content, which led adolescents, including children as young as 11 years old, to associate influencers with advertising. For instance, a female participant from the 6 th grade, belonging to a high socio-economic group provided the following insight:

“If a company wants to sell a product, they often approach a highly popular individual, and request them to feature the product in videos. Many people are influenced to desire the product simply because that person possesses it” (FG1, female, elementary school, high SEG).

Furthermore, participants engaged in discussions questioning the authenticity of influencers’ appearances and raised concerns regarding the negative effects of such alterations. A participant from Baccalaureate, belonging to a low socio-economic group, shared,

“They edit their photos to create an unrealistic image of themselves, which makes us feel uncomfortable because we don’t look like them. They want us to believe that they look like that in real life” (FG9, female, Baccalaureate, low SEG).

This discussion also addressed the use filters, prompting questions about the credibility of recommendations. Another participant shared the following observation:

“Once, an influencer claimed to love a makeup product and wore it in the video, but I noticed she was also using a beauty filter. It surprised me because if the makeup was truly good, why did she need to rely on a filter?” (FG5, female, 2nd cycle ESO, high SEG).

Participants expressed skepticism regarding the authenticity of influencers’ content by examining their language, product presentations, and app usage.

Teenagers and adolescents view repetitive and unoriginal messages with suspicion often questioning the content when they detect common elements that deviate from the narrative:

“When I see someone excessively advertising and repeatedly saying things like ‘oh, this is so good, it’s super, super good, super cheap, super…’, I immediately become suspicious because it doesn’t seem normal to insist so heavily on the greatness of a product… I can tell that someone’s economic interests are involved” (FG3, male, 2nd cycle ESO, low SEG).

The characterization of influencers was identified as a crucial filter through which adolescents evaluate advertising sources. Influencers who solely exist on social networks were categorized in a way that limits their persuasive impact. One participant shared his perspective:

“Influencers and others who engage in gossip, they are less trustworthy. It’s possible that some are solely motivated by money, followers and similar motives. The genuine ones are perhaps the ones who pursue their passions without solely focusing on external gains” (FG3, male, 2nd cycle ESO, low SEG).

The participants recognized the significance of influencers having direct experience with the advertised product when assessing the appropriateness of influencer collaborations and validating recommendations on specific topics. Adolescents expect influencers to have a genuine connection with the product rather than promoting it solely for advertising purposes. One participant offered her viewpoint:

“’If someone says ‘Buy this racket because it’s the best’ …in this case, maybe yes, but if this person were an influencer, which is what we are discussing, someone who relies on social networks and is obligated to engage in this type of advertising, well, no” (FG7, female, 1st cycle ESO, medium SEG).

However, interviewees also emphasized the emotional connection and inspiration they felt towards influencers, extending beyond simply evaluating their expertize in content creation. A participant expressed

“I believe that when you follow someone and aspire to be like that person it’s because they fulfill certain emotional and inspirational criteria that validate you in a certain way” (FG4, male, 2nd cycle ESO, medium SEG).

Among the interviewed adolescents, the physical appearance of influencers was considered a valid criterion for providing dietary and esthetic recommendations to their audiences. As one participant explained:

“She has an amazing body, and she’s not very young anymore… she has three children, if I’m not mistaken, and she’s doing great. So, in the case of diets, I understand that their appearance serves as a reference. I don’t believe this girl has a reason to deceive me, I don’t think she does, because no one is paying her” (FG5, female, 2nd cycle ESO, high SEG).

However, it is important to note that this argument was not universally accepted and was not deemed valid for all recommendations.

Justification

Participants in the study justified the use of exaggerated content by influencers, considering it part of the social media game. They acknowledged the artificial nature of influencers’ online personas but found it entertaining. One participant shared her viewpoint:

“Even though they present a false life and such, it entertains us, you know? They somehow captivate us with their actions and that’s why we choose to follow them” (FG2, female, 1st cycle ESO, high SEG).

Additionally, participants noted that certain practices including controversy, were necessary for influencers to build their social media profiles, based on stories shared within their close circles. Another female participant explained:

“When you have over 15,000 followers on TikTok, you start getting paid based on the number of views. That’s what they do. They intentionally create controversy, and some TikTokers with 5 million views get paid around ten euros per video, or even more. I know this because my brother’s coworker gets paid, you know…” (FG10, female, 1st cycle ESO, low SEG).

Adolescents justify their decision to follow non-authentic profiles by emphasizing their appreciation for other aspects displayed by influencers such as shared interests and new content. As one participant expressed:

“I follow her because I enjoy seeing her fashion choices, discovering new things, and I also admire her style and what she does. Despite the possibility of her portraying a false life, I still appreciate her content” (FG2, female, 1st cycle ESO, high SEG).

Linking ideas and novelty

Participants leveraged their understanding of sales strategies to explain the persuasive techniques employed in advertising. A male participant explained:

“In argumentation there’s this one thing which is, to sell something or to promote an idea, you need to incorporate the endorsement of a respected individual” (FG4, male, 2nd cycle ESO, medium SEG).

In several focus groups, participants referenced lessons taught by their teachers to help explain the phenomenon of influencer marketing. As one participant stated:

“Our teacher informed us about how they try to sell things. It’s true, that if you’re selling a product, you can’t directly say ‘buy this’ or ‘buy it from me’. Instead, you might highlight its quality and durability, which could sway undecided individuals towards making a purchase” (FG3, male, 2nd cycle ESO, low SEG).

Participants drew on their academic knowledge to both explain and critique advertising techniques employed by influencers. For example, one participant provided a critique of the repetitive and tiresome nature of English instruction in YouTube videos. One male participant mentioned:

“The typical YouTuber who promotes Letyshops, and promises refunds, or excessive branding” (FG5, male, 2nd cycle ESO, high SEG).

Furthermore, participants engaged in a critical analysis of the ethics behind certain influencer collaborations highlighting the promotion of bookmakers as an example. As a participant explained:

“Several influencers, particularly Spanish ones, started endorsing bookmakers. They would tell all their followers ‘Hey look, I’ve earned so much by betting on Atleti or Madrid’ and they would display screenshots claiming their winnings… I believe they are exploiting people’s vulnerability” (FG3, male, 2nd cycle ESO, low SEG).

Despite criticisms directed towards content creator practices, participants engaged in debates regarding the impact of exposure to influencer content on the mental health of adolescents, as well as the potential distortion of reality it can cause. A participant stated:

“The problem with influencers and everything surrounding them is that above all, it affects the personality and imagination of everyone, right? It creates this image of a perfect world, a phenomenal life that, ultimately even affects our mental well-being” (FG6, female, Baccalaureate, high SEG).

In addition, some participants made connections between body and diet recommendations from influencers and their own struggles with eating issues. They also questioned the suitability of influencers as spokespersons for such matters, arguing that there are certain topics in which influencers should not offer opinions as they lack the necessary qualifications. As one participant expressed:

“There are certain things that can be promoted, but others are like ‘it’s not your business’ and should be left to a doctors or other medical professionals” (FG7, girl, 1st cycle ESO, medium SEG).

Some adolescents mentioned seeking clarification and guidance, from their parents, bringing new insights to the discussion. One participant shared his experience:

“My mother works as a publicist, and she recently collaborated with an influencer to promote a shopping center. The influencer visited the stores in the mall and promoted them” (FG2, male, 1st cycle ESO, high SEG).

Figure 2 summarizes the critical thinking components in the discourse of the participants.

Source: Compiled by the authors.

Consequences resulting from critical thinking

As a result of discussing persuasive practices and influencer marketing, interviewees demonstrated a critical attitude towards the latter and expressed the need for content creators, brands, and platforms to provide a less invasive social media experience. One participant from the same group stated:

“So, what I did was I read it the first time they published it, and then I directly personalized it to prevent similar recommendations” (FG2, male, 1st cycle ESO, high SEG).

The critical engagement of baccalaureate students from different socio-economic levels with influencer content was further outlined through three specific actions:

Not following influencers: Baccalaureate students from various socio-economic backgrounds displayed a critical attitude towards influencer content which was reflected in their actions. One of these actions involved the decision not to follow influencers, recognizing the potential negative impact on their self-esteem and well-being. While this practice was not common among the interviewees, one participant explained her decision as follows:

“I have set a goal for myself to not follow any influencers […] because I don’t want to compare myself to anyone. I understand that what they show may not be entirely true, and I don’t want to idealize or view them as role models. It’s not something that contributes to my well-being” (FG6, girl, Baccalaureate, high SEG).

Following influencers and considering their advice: Some participants, particularly adolescents rely on influencer recommendations when making purchase decisions. They evaluate the influencers’ profiles and the quality of their content before trusting their advice. One participant shared her experience, stating:

“I needed to buy a specific type of paint called Watch and what I did was look for paint artists, YouTubers (laughs) who recommended it and whose opinions I liked the most. I used them as a reference to purchase the drawing supplies” (FG12, female, Baccalaureate, medium SEG).

Following influencers while being selective about their recommendations: In this scenario, an interviewee acknowledges that they priorize following influencers, but prefers the advice of true experts over influencer recommendations, particularly when the influencers lack expertize in a specific field, and are solely motivated by financial gain:

“Somehow I don’t always trust the products they promote, because I feel like they do it just for money. They don’t really care if it works for you or not. In those cases, I prefer to go to the pharmacy and listen to the recommendations of the pharmacist rather than relying solely on an influencer” (FG9, female, Baccalaureate, low SEG).

Overall, there was a noticeable trend towards more complex, critical, and well-informed discussions on influencer marketing among older age groups. This was particularly evident in the focus groups conducted with students in the 2nd cycle of ESO and Baccalaureate, as they demonstrated a greater ability to connect influencers’ activities with various outcomes, including the impact on body satisfaction for users.

Consequently, older age groups expressed concerns about the potential effects of influencer content on young people, such as the creation of unrealistic stereotypes that do not reflect the reality of the population., This can lead to feelings of frustration and dissatisfaction with life or one’s body. It is important to note that in the 12-13 age group, thinking tends to be concrete, as they may not perceive the future consequences of their actions and decisions. This age group is characterized by a more narcissistic view of self. However, as adolescents progress beyond this stage, they develop increasingly abstract thinking, abilities, enabling them to engage in critical analysis and discussions while seeking solutions and articulating well-founded arguments (Casas-Rivero and González-Fierro, 2005 ).

Figure 3 shows the consequent steps related to advertising literacy.

This article explores the cognitive, attitudinal, and ethical dimensions of the advertising literacy model proposed by Rozendaal et al. ( 2011 ) and Hudders et al. ( 2016 , 2017 ) which comprehensively encompass the processing of the advertising phenomenon. Understanding these dimensions becomes especially relevant when addressing the more subtle advertising formats that resemble entertainment (Feijoo and Sádaba, 2022 ; Ikonen et al., 2017 ). The present study provides insights into the questions raised by previous researchers (Hudders et al., 2017 ) regarding how adolescents engage with these new hybrid advertising formats and the essential skills that strengthen their associative networks, particularly at the ethical and affective/attitudinal levels (Mallinckrodt and Mizerski, 2007 ; Rozendaal et al., 2011 ; Rozendaal et al., 2013 ; An et al., 2014 ; Vanwesenbeeck et al., 2017 ; Van Reijmersdal et al., 2017 ). It is increasingly crucial to comprehend this area as adolescents are increasingly exposed to influence marketing, an advertising format characterized by the mingling of persuasive and entertaining content (Borchers, 2022 ; Van Dam and Van Reijmersdal, 2019 ). Within this context, the development of critical thinking skills becomes paramount for adolescents, making it relevant to examine its application at a dispositional level in the current advertising landscape.

Van Laar ( 2019 ) identified five dimensions clarification, evaluation, justification, linking ideas, and novelty for assessing critical thinking in the digital context. This study provides evidence that adolescents generally apply these dimensions when encountering influencer marketing. The findings are based on an analysis of statements made by adolescents during the discussion groups. Participants demonstrated an understanding that product and brand promotion are inherent to the role of an influencer and recognized their intentional and persuasive strategies. They were critical in evaluating influencers by questioning and assessing their experiences and origins before granting them credibility in their storytelling.

Similarly, the emotional connection that adolescents feel towards influencers is crucial in determining the credibility of their commercial arguments (Feijoo and Sádaba, 2021 ). Adolescents demonstrate a tendency to contextualize the content displayed by influencers and exercise caution in detecting the use of reality-altering tools, such as filters. They also recognize that social media portrays only the positive and friendly aspects of influencers’ lives aiming to foster an aspirational relationship between followers and celebrities. Older adolescents, particularly those in the 2nd cycle of ESO and Baccalaureate, contribute new ideas to the discussion highlighting the expectations generated by such publications, the promotion of ideal esthetics, and the potential impact on their audience’s well-being. Notably, older participants demonstrate a more advanced ability to link ideas and add nuance to the discussions, indicating a higher level of abstract thinking (Casas-Rivero and González-Fierro, 2005 ).

However, it appears that adolescents are willing to accept exaggeration and superficiality as inherent features of influencer content and social media platforms. As a result, they tend to incorporate these traits into their digital routines, sometimes creating two profiles on the same platform. One profile serves as a curated showcase of their “public life” accessible to relatives, friends, and acquaintances, while the other remains more personal and private, accessible only to their closest circle.

Thus, it can be concluded that the adolescents interviewed in this study demonstrate a thoughtful approach when confronted with influencers’ persuasive messages. They exhibit awareness of and engagement with the cognitive and attitudinal dimensions of advertising literacy as they filter and evaluate these messages. In fact, they apply critical thinking skills by questioning the tactics used, assessing the influencer’s connection to the promoted product and their own preferences recognizing exaggeration and relativism as inherent to the influencer industry, and considering the emotional impact of these publications on their lives. They also propose solutions to counterbalance any potential negative effects on their self-esteem. It is worth noting that influencer marketing is a familiar advertising phenomenon to young audiences. It would be valuable to investigate whether adolescents apply the same components of critical thinking when faced with other hybrid practices, such as advergaming.

The scope adolescents’ critical thinking now extends recognizing the advertising phenomenon. They are aware of the rules of the commercial game (Borchers, 2022 ; van der Bend et al., 2023 ), and incorporate them into their digital behavior. However, they do not appear to thoroughly examine the ethical appropriateness of the resources employed (Sweeney et al., 2022 ). As previous research by Hudders et al. ( 2017 ) suggests, the ability to evaluate advertising from a moral standpoint is increasingly crucial, especially considering the intertwining of advertising formats with entertainment in the digital realm.

Individual ethical analysis of advertising relies on people’s knowledge and life experience regarding societal values and norms (Lee et al., 2011 ). It is worth noting that in Spain, where this study was conducted, there is currently no specific regulation concerning influencer marketing, despite the launch of some self-regulatory initiatives promoting more ethical use. None of the adolescents mentioned the normative dimension or the moral implications of whether promotional content should be explicitly identified as such, as observed in the investigations conducted by Van Dam and Van Reijmersdal ( 2019 ) or Sweeney et al. ( 2022 ) regarding influencer-sponsored videos.

Thus, while this research indicates that adolescents are employing critical thinking in cognitive and affective aspects, particularly, at the attitudinal level (Borchers, 2022 ; Rozendaal et al., 2011 ; Hudders et al., 2017 ), the moral dimension is largely overlooked. Although topics such as the use of filters and the utilization of personal data to tailor commercial messages were mentioned, no explicit references or reflections on the moral suitability of influencer marketing or evaluations of moral exaggeration were observed.

In the context of hybrid digital formats, it is crucial to incorporate the ethical dimension into advertising literacy for younger generations. This dimension enables adolescents to distinguish between right and wrong and to understand its impact of their choices the individual and societal behavior. Only by integrating ethics into advertising literacy can we truly claim that critical thinking has been achieved (Van Laar, 2019 ). This is especially important in an ever-changing digital environment where commercial content continually evolves (Borchers, 2022 ; Braun and Garriga, 2018 ; Cheng and Anderson, 2021 ; Humphreys et al., 2021 ; Kietzmann et al., 2018 ; Feijoo and Sádaba, 2022 ; Ikonen et al., 2017 ).

Conclusions

In a context where children and adolescents are spending an increasing amount of time on the internet, it is crucial to ensure that they possess the necessary competences to navigate the digital environment effectively, both in terms of managing risks and capitalizing on opportunities. While commercial interests are prevalent in Western societies (Kietzmann et al., 2018 ; Shavitt and Barnes, 2020 ), it is of utmost importance to teach young users to identify, process and understand the ethical implications of advertising (Chen et al., 2013 ; Terlutter and Capella, 2013 ; An and Kang, 2014 ; Oates et al., 2014 ;; Ikonen et al., 2017 ; Braun and Garriga, 2018 ; Kietzmann et al., 2018 ; Cheng and Anderson, 2021 ; Humphreys et al., 2021 ; Feijoo and Sádaba, 2022 ).

Digital competence programs have gained attention in recent decades, but it is essential to incorporate the perspective of advertising literacy to address the experiences of young users online, where ads are present in various forms, including subtle and difficult-to-identify modes such as influencer marketing (Rozendaal et al., 2011 ; Adams et al., 2017 ; Hudders et al., 2017 ; De Jans et al., 2018 ; Van Dam and Van Reijmersdal, 2019 ; Zarouali et al., 2019 ; Sweeney et al., 2022 ; Borchers, 2022 ; Kacinova and Sádaba, 2022 ). This advertising literacy should encompass cognitive, attitudinal and ethical dimensions, with critical thinking playing a crucial role.

Implications and future research

The findings of this study have significant implications for the design of advertising and media literacy programs for adolescents. The digital literacy for the younger generation should incorporate an ethical dimension to help them differentiate between good and bad content and understand its impact on individuals and society. This is crucial for fostering critical thinking, a vital skill in the digital landscape where content can often be ambiguous. In an educational context, it is imperative to equip future citizens with digital intelligence and cultivate humanities that align with the demands of the digital age.

The present study, conducted through qualitative methodology, offers valuable insights into the critical capacity of adolescents in interpreting emerging digital advertising formats that combine persuasive intent with entertainment. However, the study acknowledges its limitations in terms of the exploratory nature of qualitative approaches and the inherent constraints of the research design: the sample size precludes generalization of conclusions. For this, further research is needed to replicate and expand on these findings in different cultural contexts, as in the recognition of the ethical dimension of advertising can be influenced by cultural factors. Additionally, it is essential to explore how critical thinking manifests among adolescents when exposed to other digital advertising formats like advergaming or native advertising. This future research should also delve into the ethical dimension of advertising literacy, taking into account the influence of adolescents’ home and educational backgrounds.

Data availability

The data presented in this study can be made available upon request from the corresponding author.

Adams B, Schellens T, Valcke M (2017) Promoting adolescents’ moral advertising literacy in secondary education. Comunicar 52:93–103. https://doi.org/10.3916/C52-2017-09

Article Google Scholar

Amabile TM, Pillemer J (2012) Perspectives on the social psychology of creativity. J Creat Behav 46(1):3–15. https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.001

An S, Jin HS, Park EH (2014) Children’s advertising literacy for advergames: perception of the game as advertising. J Advert 43(1):63–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2013.795123

An S, Kang H (2014) Advertising or games? Advergames on the internet gaming sites targeting children. Int J Advert 33(3):509–532. https://doi.org/10.2501/IJA-33-3-509-532

Andrino B, Grasso D, Llaneras K (2019 October 4) School for the rich, school for the poor? How public and private schools segregate by social class. El País. https://elpais.com/sociedad/2019/09/30/actualidad/1569832939_154094.html . Accessed 14 May 2023

Andrino B, Grasso D, Llaneras K, Sánchez A (2021) Income map of Spain, street by street. El País. https://elpais.com/economia/2021-04-29/el-mapa-de-la-renta-de-los-espanoles-calle-a-calle.html . Accessed 14 May 2023

Avgerinou M, Ericson J (1997) A review of the concept of visual literacy. Br J Educ Technol 28(4):280–291. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8535.00035

Behrens S (1994) A conceptual analysis and historical overview of information literacy. Coll Res libraries 55(4):309–322. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl_55_04_309

Boerman SC, Van Reijmersdal EA (2020) Disclosing influencer marketing on YouTube to children: the moderating role of para-social relationship. Front Psychol 10:3042. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.03042

Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar

Borchers NS (2022) Between skepticism and identification: a systematic mapping of adolescents’ persuasion knowledge of influencer marketing. J Curr Issues Res Advert 43(3):274–300. https://doi.org/10.1080/10641734.2022.2066230

Braun A, Garriga G (2018) Consumer journey analytics in the context of data privacy and ethics. In: Linnhoff-Popien C, Schneider R, Zaddach M (eds) Digital marketplaces unleashed. Springer, Berlin, pp. 663–674. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-49275-8_59

Chapter Google Scholar

Casas Rivero JJ, González Fierro MJ (2005) Desarrollo del adolescente. Aspectos físicos, psicológicos y sociales. Pediatr Integral 9(1):20–24. https://repositorio.upn.edu.pe/bitstream/handle/11537/25269/desarrollo_adolescente%282%29.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Google Scholar

Chen Y, Zhu S, Xu H, Zhou Y (2013) Children’s exposure to mobile in‐app advertising: An analysis of content appropriateness. Proceedings of the SocialCom 2013, International Conference on Social Computing. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, pp. 196–203. https://doi.org/10.1109/SocialCom.2013.36

Cheng M, Anderson CK (2021) Search engine consumer journeys: exploring and segmenting click-through behaviors. Cornell Hosp Q 62(2):198–214. https://doi.org/10.1177/1938965520924649

De Jans S, Hudders L (2020) Disclosure of vlog advertising targeted to children. J Interact Mark 52:1–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intmar.2020.03.003

De Jans S, Vanwesenbeeck I, Cauberghe V, Hudders L, Rozendaal E, van Reijmersdal EA (2018) The development and testing of a child-inspired advertising disclosure to alert children to digital and embedded advertising. J Advert 47(3):255–269. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2018.1463580

Delval J (1999) El desarrollo humano, 4th edn. Siglo XXI, Madrid

Dogruel L, Masur P, Joeckel S (2022) Development and validation of an algorithm literacy scale for Internet users. Commun Methods Meas 16(2):115–133. https://doi.org/10.1080/19312458.2021.1968361

European Commission, Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (2022) Guidelines for teachers and educators on tackling disinformation and promoting digital literacy through education and training, Publications Office of the European Union. https://doi.org/10.2766/28248 . Accessed 8 Mar 2023

Feijoo B, Sádaba C (2022) When ads become invisible: minors’ advertising literacy while using mobile phones. Media Commun 10(1):339–349. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v10i1.4720

Feijoo B, Sádaba C (2021) Is my kid that naive? Parents’ perceptions of their children’s attitudes towards advertising on smartphones in Chile. J Child Media 15(4):476–491. https://doi.org/10.1080/17482798.2020.1866626

Feijoo B, Sádaba C, Bugueño S (2020) Ads in videos, games, and photos: Impact of advertising received by children through mobile phones. Prof de la Inf 29:e290630. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2020.nov.30

Friestad M, Wright P (1994) The persuasion knowledge model: How people cope with persuasion attempts. J Consum Res 21(1):1–31. https://doi.org/10.1086/209380

Garmendia M, Jiménez E, Karrera I, Larrañaga N, Casado MA, Martínez G, Garitaonandia C (2019) Actividades, Mediación, Oportunidades y Riesgos online de los menores en la era de la convergencia mediática. Instituto Nacional de Ciberseguridad (INCIBE), León (Spain). https://addi.ehu.es/bitstream/handle/10810/49632/informe-eukidsonline-2018.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y . Accessed 10 Feb 2023

Garmendia M, Jiménez E, Casado MA, Mascheroni G (2016) Net Children Go Mobile: Riesgos y oportunidades en internet y el uso de dispositivos móviles entre menores españoles (2010-2015). Red.es, Universidad del País Vasco. https://netchildrengomobile.eu/ncgm/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Net-Children-Go-Mobile-Spain.pdf . Accessed 10 Feb 2023

Garmendia M, Garitaonandia C, Martínez G, Casado MA (2011) Riesgos y seguridad en internet: Los menores españoles en el contexto europeo. Universidad del País Vasco y EU Kids Online. https://www.observatoriodelainfancia.es/oia/esp/descargar.aspx?id=3155&tipo=documento . Accessed 10 Feb 2023

Gómez GR, Flores JG, Jiménez EG (1996) Metodología de la investigación cualitativa. Ediciones Aljibe, Málaga

Hudders L, Cauberghe V, Panic K (2016) How advertising literacy training affect children’s responses to television commercials versus advergames. Int J Advert 35(6):909–931. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2015.1090045

Hudders L, De Pauw P, Cauberghe V, Panic K, Zarouali B, Rozendaal E (2017) Shedding new light on how advertising literacy can affect children’s processing of embedded advertising formats: a future research agenda. J Advert 46(2):333–349. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2016.1269303

Humphreys A, Isaac MS, Wang RJH (2021) Construal matching in online search: applying text analysis to illuminate the consumer decision journey. J Mark Res 58(6):1101–1119. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022243720940693

IAB Spain (2022). Social Media Study 2022. https://iabspain.es/estudio/estudio-de-redes-sociales-2022/ . Accessed 10 Feb 2023

Iglesias EJ, Larrañaga MSG, del Río MAC (2015) Children’s perception of parental mediation regarding Internet risks. Revista Latina de Comunicación Social 70:49–68

Ikonen P, Luoma-Aho V, Bowen SA (2017) Transparency for sponsored content: analysing codes of ethics in public relations, marketing, advertising and journalism. Int J Strateg Commun 11(2):165–178. https://doi.org/10.1080/1553118X.2016.1252917

Kačinová V, Sádaba C (2022) Conceptualization of media competence as an “augmented competence”. Revista Latina de Comunicación Social 80:21–38. https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2022-1514

Kietzmann J, Paschen J, Treen E (2018) Artificial intelligence in advertising: How marketers can leverage artificial intelligence along the consumer journey. J Advert Res 58(3):263–267. https://doi.org/10.2501/JAR-2018-035

Lee T, Sung Y, Marina Choi S (2011) Young adults’ responses to product placement in movies and television shows: a comparative study of the United States and South Korea. Int J Advert 30(3):479–507. https://doi.org/10.2501/IJA-30-3-479-507

Linn MC (2000) Designing the knowledge integration environment. Int J Sci Educ 22(8):781–796. https://doi.org/10.1080/095006900412275

Livingstone S, Helsper EJ (2006) Does advertising literacy mediate the effects of advertising on children? A critical examination of two linked research literatures in relation to obesity and food choice. J Commun 56(3):560–584. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2006.00301.x

Livingstone S, Haddon L, Görzig A, Ólafsson K (2011) Risks and safety on the internet: the perspective of European children. Full findings. EU Kids Online, LSE, London, Accessed 20 Jan 2023 http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/33731/1/Risks%20and%20safety%20on%20the%20internet%28lsero%29.pdf

Lou C, Yuan S (2019) Influencer marketing: how message value and credibility affect consumer trust of branded content on social media. J Interact Advert 19(1):58–73. https://doi.org/10.1080/15252019.2018.1533501

Mallinckrodt V, Mizerski D (2007) The effects of playing an advergame on young children’s perceptions, preferences, and requests. J Advert 36(2):87–100. https://doi.org/10.2753/JOA0091‐3367360206

Malmelin N (2010) What is advertising literacy? Exploring the dimensions of advertising literacy. J Vis Lit 29(2):129–142. https://doi.org/10.1080/23796529.2010.11674677

McShane P, Gillis-Drage A, Benton J (2013) Introducción al pensamiento crítico. Plaza y Valdés SL, Madrid

Núñez-Gómez P, Rodrigo-Martín L, Rodrigo-Martín I, Mañas-Viniegra L (2020) Self-confidence and career expectations in minors as a function of gender. The use of creativity to determine the aspirational model. Revista espacios 41:41–57

Oates C, Newman N, Tziortzi A (2014) Parent’s beliefs about, and attitudes towards, marketing to children. In: Blades M, Oates C, Blumberg F, Gunter B (eds.) Advertising to children: new directions, new media. Springer, London, pp. 115–136. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137313256

Rozendaal E, Lapierre MA, Van Reijmersdal EA, Buijzen M (2011) Reconsidering advertising literacy as a defense against advertising effects. Media Psychol 14(4):333–354. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2011.620540

Rozendaal E, Slot N, van Reijmersdal EA, Buijzen M (2013) Children’s responses to advertising in social games. J Advert 42(2-3):142–154. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2013.774588

Sagiroglu S, Sinanc D (2013) Big data: a review. Paper presented at 2013 international conference on collaboration technologies and systems (CTS), San Diego, CA, USA, 20–24 May 2013

Scriven M, Paul R (2007) Defining critical thinking. The critical thinking community: foundation for critical thinking. https://www.criticalthinking.org/template.php?pages_id=766 . Accessed 3 March 2023

Selber S, Selber SA (2004) Multiliteracies for a digital age. SIU Press, Illinois

Shavitt S, Barnes AJ (2020) Culture and the consumer journey. J Retail 96(1):40–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2019.11.009

Shin D, Rasul A, Fotiadis A (2021) Why am I seeing this? Deconstructing algorithm literacy through the lens of users. Internet Res 32(4):1214–1234. https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-02-2021-0087

Shin H, Ma H, Park J, Ji ES, Kim DH (2015) The effect of simulation courseware on critical thinking in undergraduate nursing students: Multisite pre-post study. Nurs Educ Today 35(4):537–542. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2014.12.004

Smahel D, Machackova H, Mascheroni G, Dedkova L, Staksrud E, Ólafsson K, Livingstone S, Hasebrink U (2020) EU Kids Online 2020: Survey results from 19 countries. EU Kids Online. https://www.eukidsonline.ch/files/Eu-kids-online-2020-international-report.pdf . Accessed 1 Mar 2023

Sweeney E, Lawlor MA, Brady M (2022) Teenagers’ moral advertising literacy in an influencer marketing context. Int J Advert 41(1):54–77. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2021.1964227

Terlutter R, Capella ML (2013) The gamification of advertising: Analysis and research directions of in‐game advertising, advergames, and advertising in social network games. J Advert 42(2/3):95–112. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2013.774610

Van Berlo ZM, van Reijmersdal EA, Eisend M (2021) The gamification of branded content: a meta-analysis of advergame effects. J Advert 50(2):179–196. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2020.1858462

Van Dam S, van Reijmersdal EA (2019) Insights in adolescents’ advertising literacy, perceptions an responses regarding sponsored influencer videos and disclosures. Cyberpsychology 13(2):2. https://doi.org/10.5817/CP2019-2-2

Van der Bend DLM, Gijsman N, Bucher T, Shrewsbury VA, van Trijp H, van Kleef E (2023) Can I @handle it? The effects of sponsorship disclosure in TikTok influencer marketing videos with different product integration levels on adolescents’ persuasion knowledge and brand outcomes. Comput Hum Behav https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2023.107723

Van Deursen AJAM, Helsper EJ, Eynon R (2016) Development and validation of the Internet Skills Scale (ISS). Inf Commun Soc 19(6):804–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2015.1078834

Van Laar E (2019) What are E-ssential skills?: A multimethod approach to 21st-century digital skills within the creative industries. Dissertation, University of Twente. https://ris.utwente.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/146623249/Dissertation_Ester_van_Laar.pdf . Accessed 1 Mar 2023

Van Reijmersdal EA, Rozendaal E, Smink N, Van Noort G, Buijzen M (2017) Processes and effects of targeted online advertising among children. Int J Advert 36(3):396–414. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2016.1196904

Van Reijmersdal EA, Rozendaal E (2020) Transparency of digital native and embedded advertising: opportunities and challenges for regulation and education. Commun 45(3):378–388. https://doi.org/10.1515/commun-2019-0120

Vanwesenbeeck I, Walrave M, Ponnet K (2017) Children and advergames: the role of product involvement, prior brand attitude, persuasion knowledge and game attitude in purchase intentions and changing attitudes. Int J Advert 36(4):520–541. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2016.1176637

Voskoglou MG, Buckley S (2012) Problem solving and computational thinking in a learning environment. Egypt Comp Science J 36(4):28–46. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1212.0750

Waiguny MK, Nelson MR, Terlutter R (2014) The relationship of persuasion knowledge, identification of commercial intent and persuasion outcomes in advergames—the role of media context and presence. J Consum Policy 37(2):257–277. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10603-013-9227-z

Watson G, Glaser E (1980) Watson–Glaser critical thinking appraisal. The Psychological Corporation, England

Zarouali B, De Pauw P, Ponnet K, Walrave M, Poels K, Cauberghe V, Hudders L (2019) Considering children’s advertising literacy from a methodological point of view: past practices and future recommendations. J Curr Issues Res Advert 40(2):196–213. https://doi.org/10.1080/10641734.2018.1503109

Zozaya L, Sádaba C (2022) Disguising commercial intentions: sponsorship disclosure practices of mexican instamoms. Media Commun 10(1):124–135. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v10i1.4640

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Innovation of the Government of Spain under I+D+i Project ref. PID2020‐116841RA‐I00. The research was also funded by the Research Plan of the International University of La Rioja (UNIR). We also wish to thank Angela Gearhart for her translation of the original manuscript into English.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Universidad Internacional de La Rioja, Logroño, Spain

Beatriz Feijoo & Luisa Zozaya

Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain

Charo Sádaba

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

BF has carried out the funding acquisition, the methodology, the validation, the formal analysis, the investigation, the resources, and data curation. LZ contributed to the formal analysis and exposition of results. CS has developed the theorical framework and the writing—original draft preparation. All authors read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Beatriz Feijoo .

Ethics declarations

Competing interests.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval

The study was conducted in accordance with the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki. The research protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the International University of La Rioja, Spain (code PI:002/2021).

Informed consent

An informed consent was obtained from all their legal guardians of minors’ participants prior to their involvement in the research. Before participating in the focus group, the schools were provided with a consent document by the social studies company that assisted in contacting the sample. This document was given to the legal guardians, who had to sign and return it to the company. The consent document explained the purpose of the research project, the benefits of participating, and the sociodemographic data that would be requested from the minors. It was emphasized that participation was voluntary and that they could withdraw from the study at any time. The information obtained would only be used for the specific purposes of the study, and the minors had the right to decline to answer any questions they did not wish to answer.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Feijoo, B., Zozaya, L. & Sádaba, C. Do I question what influencers sell me? Integration of critical thinking in the advertising literacy of Spanish adolescents. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 10 , 363 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01872-y

Download citation

Received : 10 March 2023

Accepted : 19 June 2023

Published : 30 June 2023

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01872-y

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Quick links

Explore articles by subject
Guide to authors
Editorial policies

Innovation cannot exist without failure.

Critical Thinking in Marketing: Elevate Your Strategy

To succeed in the ever-changing world of marketing, small business owners and marketers need to possess critical thinking skills that enable them to make informed decisions to drive growth.

Think of it like a dating…you know, that thing that’s supposed to end in a happily ever after but far too often ends in tears and heartbreak? Yeah, digital marketing is just like that. You need trust, communication, and the ability to make quick decisions that will help your brand survive in this cutthroat world.

No pressure or anything.

In this blog post, we’ll explore the art of critical thinking in marketing.

We’ll cover everything from analyzing data to enhancing problem-solving skills and adopting habits to cultivate a critical mindset. By understanding these concepts and putting them into practice, you can avoid costly mistakes and identify existing problems before they become bigger issues.

… Like our client who’s previous ad manager wasted $25k in ad spend over a single week. But that’s a story for another day.

So, let’s dive in! We’ll explore the five elements of critical thinking and how they play a crucial role in making well-informed marketing decisions. You’ll learn how to hone your analytical abilities through practice and active discussion with your favorite communities.

Get ready to take your marketing game to the next level! Because let’s be real, your current level is about as impressive as a one-hit-wonder’s comeback tour (….MMM’bop anyone?).

With these insights and tips, you’ll be equipped to make informed decisions that drive growth and help your brand stand out from the competition.

Defining Critical Thinking in Marketing

In the wild world of marketing, critical thinking means taking a good hard look at situations and problems to make decisions based on cold hard evidence and logic.

It’s all about using your experience to spot potential pitfalls and sharpening your problem-solving skills to make better decisions that ultimately lead to more success in your industry.

Because let’s face it, success in marketing won’t come from simply picking the right filter for your Instagram post. It’s about diving deep into the data to uncover insights that will set you apart from the competition.

So let’s take a closer look at how to analyze data for effective decision-making.

Analyzing Data for Effective Decision-Making

In today’s data-driven world, being able to analyze information effectively is a critical component of successful marketing. As a marketer, you need to be able to comb through multiple sources of data – from customer feedback to market research reports – and turn them into actionable insights that drive growth.

By harnessing the power of digital analytics and staying up-to-date on industry trends, you can make informed decisions that help your brand stand out from the competition.

After all, data isn’t just a buzzword – it’s the key to unlocking your marketing potential.

Enhancing Problem-Solving Skills Through Experience

Marketing professionals who possess critical thinking skills can quickly identify underlying issues and develop innovative solutions that drive success. They gain this ability through experience working with diverse clients and navigating different business landscapes. By studying past campaigns’ successes or failures through case studies marketers can refine their approach over time and create effective strategies tailored for each unique situation. Critical thinking is an essential skill that helps marketers stay ahead of the curve and achieve business growth.

Critical thinking in marketing is like a secret weapon – it can help business owners make better decisions, spot hidden opportunities, and avoid costly mistakes. With enough practice, you might even become a marketing superhero. So, let’s dive into the five elements of critical thinking and uncover how to wield this powerful tool for success.

The Five Elements of Critical Thinking

In the world of marketing, honing critical thinking abilities is essential for success. There are five key elements of critical thinking that can be honed through application and experience but need to be expressed effectively in writing to establish authority.

Asking Good Questions for Better Understanding

One crucial aspect of critical thinking is the ability to ask relevant and thought-provoking questions. This skill helps marketers delve deeper into problems and uncover hidden insights that may otherwise go unnoticed. Asking pertinent queries can assist in gaining a better understanding of your target market’s requirements and inclinations, allowing for the formation of more effective promotional tactics.

And let’s be honest, who doesn’t love answering a bunch of questions? Especially when they’re relevant and thought-provoking.

It’s like a game of 20 questions, but instead of guessing if your friend is thinking of a banana, you’re figuring out how to market said banana. So go ahead, ask away and see what hidden insights you can uncover. Your target audience will thank you for it.

Actively Listening for Enhanced Communication with Clients

Ah, yes, Active listening , the often-overlooked skill in a world where everyone is too busy talking.

But in all seriousness, active listening is a crucial component of critical thinking in marketing. By paying attention to both verbal and non-verbal cues, you can build trust and establish open lines of communication with clients and stakeholders.

This not only leads to better collaboration but also allows for valuable feedback from your clients and team throughout various stages of a campaign.

So, put down your phone, turn off your email notifications, and let your clients do the talking. With active listening, you can hear what they’re saying, what they’re not saying, and what they really mean. Trust us, your marketing campaigns will thank you for it.

Clearly Defining Goals for Focused Strategies

A clear understanding of objectives is crucial for any business to succeed.

I mean, even Deadpool knows what he wants, and he’s not exactly the poster boy for strategic planning. But seriously, having a clear plan of action tailored towards achieving your desired results is essential in the world of marketing. Whether you’re trying to increase brand awareness or generate leads and conversions, having a focused plan will help you get there faster than Deadpool can regenerate his limbs.

To ensure clarity, goals should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound). Because let’s be real, setting vague goals is for those who want to leave success to chance.

In marketing, clear and specific objectives are crucial to creating focused strategies and achieving desired outcomes.

Considering Multiple Perspectives When Making Decisions

Decision-making in marketing involves a delightful mix of diverse opinions, varying objectives, and multiple stakeholders.

But fear not, critical thinkers thrive in this environment by carefully considering every perspective and weighing the pros and cons of each before making a final decision. And not only does this approach lead to better outcomes, but it also encourages teamwork and collaboration, ensuring that everyone feels heard and valued.

Evaluating Outcomes Objectively

Last but not least, critical thinking requires marketers to evaluate the success or failure of campaigns objectively using data-driven insights rather than relying solely on personal biases and assumptions.

By analyzing marketing analytics data, you can identify which strategies and tactics worked well and those that didn’t perform as expected, allowing you to make informed adjustments for future efforts to improve ROI and ultimately drive growth for your business. Because let’s face it, gut feelings aren’t always reliable.

Overall, the five elements of critical thinking provide a comprehensive framework for making informed decisions in marketing. By recognizing and understanding the importance of critical thinking in marketing, businesses can better identify existing problems and reduce costly mistakes with effective analysis.

And who doesn’t want to save some money?

Critical thinking – the not-so-secret weapon of successful marketers. Asking thought-provoking questions, listening actively, and considering multiple perspectives are all part of the grand plan to become a marketing genius. And let’s not forget defining goals clearly and evaluating outcomes objectively with data-driven insights. It’s like a recipe for success – just add a pinch of critical thinking and voila! You’ll be uncovering hidden insights left and right and developing marketing strategies that will blow your competition out of the water.

Importance of Critical Thinking in Marketing

Critical thinking is a vital component of marketing that can lead to better decision-making, reduced errors, and improved overall performance.

Here are some key reasons why critical thinking is so important in marketing:

Reducing Costly Mistakes with Effective Analysis

By thoroughly analyzing data and considering multiple perspectives before making decisions, marketers can avoid costly mistakes. Critical thinking enables marketers to identify potential pitfalls in advertising campaigns, messaging, and target audience selection. Such errors could have severe financial implications, making critical thinking an essential tool for minimizing risks.

Remember that client who basically burned $25k?

We don’t want that to happen to you – ok?

Identifying Existing Problems Swiftly

Critical thinking allows marketers to identify existing problems in their organization or industry quickly. This skill helps them proactively address potential issues and implement solutions efficiently.

A McKinsey report highlights how quick problem identification leads to faster decision-making processes – which ultimately translates into better results for businesses.

Fostering collaboration: A culture that encourages open communication and teamwork helps develop a shared understanding of the challenges faced by the organization. Creative problem-solving approaches often arise when team members come together to share ideas, perspectives, and insights. Critical thinking is essential in fostering collaboration as it allows team members to identify potential areas of conflict or disagreement and work towards a mutually beneficial solution.
Promoting continuous learning: Marketing is an ever-evolving field that requires constant learning and adaptation. Providing opportunities for employees to develop their critical thinking skills through training, workshops, or other learning initiatives can help them stay ahead of industry trends and make better-informed decisions. By promoting continuous learning, organizations can remain competitive and adapt to changing market conditions.
Creating a culture of accountability: Holding team members accountable for their actions encourages them to think critically about the consequences of their decisions. This approach fosters an environment where mistakes are seen as opportunities for growth rather than failures. Critical thinking is essential in creating a culture of accountability, as it enables team members to assess the potential risks and benefits of their decisions more effectively.

Incorporating these practices into your organization’s daily operations will not only improve overall performance but also create a more innovative and agile workforce capable of adapting to changing market conditions. Small business owners can achieve greater success in the current competitive climate by emphasizing the value of analytical thought within their marketing strategies.

Critical thinking is essential in marketing as it allows business owners to make informed decisions and reduce costly mistakes. Developing critical thinking skills through application and experience can help marketers hone their analytical abilities, broaden perspectives, and ultimately increase success.

So, remember, critical thinking isn’t just for rocket scientists and philosophers. It’s also for marketers who want to avoid crashing and burning their campaigns.

If you want to avoid costly blunders in marketing, critical thinking is a must-have skill. By fostering a culture of collaboration, continuous learning, and accountability, entrepreneurs can encourage their team (and clients) to think critically and identify problems with lightning speed. With a creative and adaptive skills at your disposal, you’ll be ready to tackle any market condition that comes your way – as long as it’s not a zombie apocalypse.

Developing Critical Thinking Skills Through Application & Experience

Small business owners and marketers must actively engage in activities that challenge their analytical abilities to develop critical thinking skills.

Think of it as a mental gym for your brain.

Engaging in activities that test your analytical aptitude can help you to sharpen your problem-solving abilities and make more informed choices for marketing tactics.

Practicing Analytical Abilities Through Smaller Challenges

To begin honing your critical thinking skills, start with small tasks that require analysis and decision-making. This could include analyzing customer feedback data or evaluating the effectiveness of a recent social media campaign.

As you work through these smaller challenges, take note of any patterns or trends that emerge – this will help build your intuition as a marketer.

Remember, critical thinking is a process that requires continuous effort and practice. So don’t be discouraged if you don’t get it right the first time. With persistence and dedication, you’ll be well on your way to becoming a critical thinking ninja.

Analyze customer feedback: Review comments left by customers on social media platforms or online review sites to identify areas where improvements can be made. Who knew angry rants on Twitter could be so helpful?
Evaluate marketing campaigns: Assess the performance of past marketing efforts using metrics such as conversion rates, click-through rates (CTR), and return on investment (ROI) to determine what worked well and what needs improvement. It’s like a game of marketing detective – just without the trench coat and magnifying glass.

Engaging in Active Discussions for Broader Perspective

Engaging in active discussions with colleagues or industry peers is another effective way to develop critical thinking skills. These conversations allow you to explore different perspectives within the field while also broadening your knowledge base about various aspects of marketing strategy.

Join local meetups: Attend events organized by professional groups focused on digital marketing topics like SEO optimization techniques or content creation best practices. You might even make some new marketing friends – who will be just as nerdy about marketing as you are. Yeah, we totally called you nerdy – it’s a compliment.
Participate in LinkedIn groups: Connect with other marketing professionals by joining relevant LinkedIn groups and engaging in discussions about industry trends, challenges, and solutions. You might even come across a new strategy to test with a client.
Attend conferences or workshops: Participate in industry events to learn from experts and gain insights into the latest marketing strategies being employed by successful businesses. Plus, you’ll finally get to use that travel line item on your tax returns.

As a savvy small business owner or marketer, you know that the key to success is staying ahead of the game. By actively seeking opportunities to develop your intellectual abilities through utilization and practice, you’ll equip yourself with the knowledge necessary to make informed decisions and create successful marketing strategies.

The application and experience of critical thinking skills is crucial for small business owners to make smarter decisions that lead to winning marketing campaigns. By exploring real-life examples of critical thinking in marketing, you’ll further develop your analytical abilities and create even more effective campaigns that leave your competition in the dust.

If you want to be a critical thinker in marketing, you could start by analyzing customer feedback data or evaluating past social media campaigns. And for those who want to take it to the next level, engaging in discussions with peers and attending industry events could also help broaden your horizons and push limits.

And who knows, with enough practice, you might even become the Chuck Norris of marketing decision-making.

Examples of Critical Thinking in Marketing Decisions

In the world of marketing, critical thinking plays a significant role in making informed decisions that can positively impact your business. Let’s explore some examples where applying critical thinking skills has led to better marketing outcomes.

Evaluating the Credibility of Sources

When it comes to choosing the theories that will shape your marketing strategies, it’s critical to be discerning about what you accept as fact.

Don’t just take an article’s claims at face value – dig deeper to evaluate the author’s credentials and knowledge of the field. Do they have relevant experience or expertise? Are their claims supported by other reputable sources?

Only by doing your due diligence can you confidently make informed decisions about which theories to apply to your marketing efforts.

Utilizing Behavioral Science-Backed Insights for Targeted Campaigns

If you want to actually create effective branding campaigns that speak to specific demographics, stop guessing and start using insights based on real science. You know, that thing that’s been around for centuries and involves things like data and testing. Shocking, right?

Analyze data like it’s your job: Use tools like Google Analytics to track user behavior on your website and identify patterns indicating what works well with different customer segments. Don’t rely on your gut feeling or your cousin’s opinion, unless they happen to be a qualified data analyst.
Run A/B tests like you’re a mad scientist: Test multiple variations of your marketing materials (e.g., email subject lines, landing pages) to determine which ones resonate best with your target audience. Because nothing says “effective marketing” like blindly sending the same message to everyone.
Ask for customer feedback like you’re not afraid of criticism: Actively seek input from customers through surveys or social media interactions to gain insights into their preferences and pain points. And don’t worry, your fragile ego will survive a few negative comments.

Let’s face it, in the world of marketing, everyone thinks they have the answers. But relying on just any old source for decision-making can lead to disaster. Instead, marketers need to constantly assess the credibility of sources and use data-driven intelligence to make informed choices that lead to success.

Analytical reasoning isn’t just a buzzword – it’s crucial to making smart marketing decisions. By forming habits that stimulate critical thinking and avoiding information overload, businesses can better equip themselves with the skills needed for effective campaigns. So let’s embrace everyday learning opportunities and practice due diligence, because in the world of marketing, ignorance is definitely not bliss.

Thinking analytically is not just for math geeks and data scientists. In marketing, it can mean the difference between a successful campaign and a cringe-worthy flop. But don’t worry, you don’t need a Ph.D. in statistics to make informed decisions. By evaluating the credibility of sources and tapping into behavioral science-backed insights, marketers can create targeted campaigns that resonate with their audience. And if that fails, there’s always A/B testing and begging for customer feedback.

Adopting Habits to Foster Critical Thinking

Let’s face it: we live in an age of information overload. But amidst all the noise, there’s one skill that can help small business owners and marketers rise above the fray: critical thinking.

By cultivating a mindset that values learning and questioning the status quo, we can make more informed decisions and craft marketing plans that truly resonate with our audience.

So don’t be afraid to challenge assumptions, dig deeper into data, and stay curious – the rewards of a more thoughtful approach to marketing are well worth the effort.

Embracing Learning Opportunities from Everyday Situations

The secret to improving your critical thinking skills? Treat every situation like it’s a learning opportunity – as Simon Kuper suggested. Be receptive, inquire, ponder encounters, and look for criticism from others.

Yep, even that embarrassing moment when you spilled your coffee all over yourself. Embrace the awkwardness, ask questions, and be receptive to feedback. Here are some tips to get you started:

Challenge Everything: Don’t be afraid to challenge assumptions and seek clarification. Your curiosity could lead to some brilliant ideas.
Reflect and Learn: Analyze past successes and failures to identify patterns that could inform future decisions. Trust us, analyzing your mistakes is just as important as celebrating your wins.
Feedback is Key: Seek input from colleagues and clients about how well certain marketing tactics worked or areas where improvements can be made. Don’t be a one-hit-wonder! Looking at you, Hansen Brothers.

Practicing Due Diligence in an Era of Information Overload

Information overload can make it tough to tell the truth from the trash online.

That’s why practicing due diligence when consuming online content is essential for forming informed opinions. And that, dear reader, is how you become a marketing mastermind. (are you catching the Bridgerton vibes?!)

Here are some tips for practicing due diligence:

Verify sources: Don’t believe everything you read, even if it’s written by your bestie. Check the credibility of authors and publications before relying on their information. Look for industry experts, reputable organizations, or peer-reviewed studies as reliable sources.
Cross-reference data: Make sure the data lines up. Compare information from multiple sources to ensure consistency and accuracy.
Evaluate relevance: Make sure the info you’re getting is fresh and relevant to your specific marketing goals or target audience. It’s like milk – you don’t want it to be past its expiration date.
Avoid confirmation bias: We all have biases, but don’t let them blind you. Be aware of your own biases when evaluating information, and actively seek out opposing viewpoints to gain a more balanced understanding of any given topic.

If you want to be the Belle of the marketing ball, make these habits part of your daily routine. Embrace learning opportunities in everyday situations, and practice due diligence amidst the sea of online content.

With these skills in your arsenal, you’ll make better-informed decisions and see improved results in your respective industries. So, let’s get critical and start thinking!

To truly excel in the competitive world of marketing, small business owners and marketers must make a habit of thinking critically. This means asking tough questions, analyzing feedback, and seeking out new perspectives. Of course, with so much information at our fingertips these days, it can be challenging to sort through the noise and verify the accuracy of sources. But hey, at least practicing due diligence gives us an excuse to spend more time on Google.

Frequently Asked Questions about Critical Thinking in Marketing

Let’s face it, marketing is all about staying ahead of the game. And to do that, you need to be able to analyze market trends, consumer behavior, and keep an eye on your competitors – all while juggling a million other tasks. By applying critical thinking skills, marketers can identify their target audience, create unique solutions to problems, and evaluate the effectiveness of their strategies.

When it comes to critical thinking, there are five concepts to keep in mind: clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, and depth. Basically, you need to be crystal clear on what you’re trying to achieve, fact-check like a pro, get specific, focus on what’s important, and dive deep into the nitty-gritty. By mastering these concepts, you’ll be able to make quicker decisions and develop razor-sharp thinking skills.

In marketing, critical thinking is like a three-legged stool: it requires three key elements to stand on its own. First, you need to identify any hidden assumptions or biases lurking beneath the surface. Second, you need to evaluate the evidence and determine what’s reliable and what’s not. And finally, you need to synthesize all of the information and put together a coherent solution. It’s like solving a puzzle, but instead of a picture of a cute puppy, you get more sales and happy clients.

Design and critical thinking go together like peanut butter and jelly, except instead of being delicious, they lead to innovative, user-centered products. Designers create products that are both visually pleasing and functional, while critical thinkers analyze customer feedback, industry trends, and competition data to inform product improvements. By combining these approaches, businesses can create products that not only meet customer needs but also exceed their expectations.

Congratulations, you’ve made it to the end! If you’re still reading, then it’s safe to assume that you’re serious about improving your critical thinking skills. And why not? After all, who doesn’t want to be a marketing genius? By mastering the art of critical thinking, you’ll be able to analyze market trends like nobody’s business, identify your target audience’s needs faster than you can say “conversion rate,” and come up with solutions that are so innovative, your competitors will be left scratching their heads.

But let’s not kid ourselves – improving your critical thinking skills isn’t a walk in the park. It takes time and effort. You might even have to sacrifice some of your precious Netflix binge-watching time (gasp!). But trust us, it’ll be worth it. When you’re able to make better-informed decisions in your marketing efforts, you’ll feel like a superhero – minus the spandex suit (unless that’s your thing). So, keep practicing, keep analyzing, and keep honing your critical thinking skills. You got this!

If you’re looking for more resources on how to use data-driven insights in your marketing strategy or need help with implementing these concepts into practice, check out our mega-mind community – Rebellion .

Unlock the Power of Data-Driven Marketing: What You Need to Know

Ready to Take the Leap? Here’s How to Know If You’re Ready to Hire a Facebook Ads Manager

10 Visual Arguments, Media and Advertising

Andrew Gurevich

Chess pieces placed on chessboard in room

Visual Arguments

In this chapter, we will be exploring the use of visuals (images, charts, graphs, etc.) in the presentation of arguments. Like any other piece of support, images and other visuals are compelling when used correctly. They also can be used in ways that contribute to all of the flaws, fallacies, and faulty reasoning we have been exploring all along. Images can support written or spoken arguments or become the arguments themselves . They hold great power in advertising, journalism, politics, academia, and many other areas of our media-managed perceptions of the world around us. As such they deserve our attention here as we continue our discussion of the analysis and construction of valid arguments.

When we say “argument,” we usually think of either spoken or written arguments. However, arguments can be made in all forms, including visual arguments. Visual arguments rely on images to persuade a viewer to believe or do something. Advertisements in magazines are often types of visual arguments. But there are many other examples to consider, each with their own particular set of parameters to evaluate in pursuit of analyzing and constructing valid arguments.

Basically, a visual argument is a supporting (or rebuttal) statement. It utilizes various images to intensify the effect on the audience. It is undoubtedly true that pictures or other visual art pieces help engage a wider range of people. In addition, images sometimes may reflect the values and beliefs of the culture. Thus, visuals arguments are more appealing to the public than verbal ones.

Exploring the usage of the images as a way of conveying the message requires substantial research. That is why visual rhetoric should be examined. The desire to watch a movie, streaming series, or a cartoon is probably familiar to everyone. Though, not everyone notices when it happens after seeing a poster. Most of us are unaware of how bombarded we are with visual rhetoric and the extent to which it actually does influence our thoughts and behaviors. But it’s not all nefarious. A bright advertising picture can lead to taking part in a charity event, as well, or lead people to donate money or blood to victims of a natural disaster or war. Such experiences may be deeply personal and at the same time shared by the majority of people within a society, culture, or subculture. These are just a few examples of the vast impact of visual rhetoric on the public mind. By employing visual rhetoric, the author can lead the reader/viewer to different outcomes. For instance, they can induce compassion, anger, fear, curiosity, etc.

Marketing companies often use visual rhetoric to the advantages. It can become an effective way for a successful product or a service promotion. Visual argument advertisements are often the most effective in persuading consumers to make a purchase, because they can communicate a lot of information, and more importantly emotional impact, very quickly. The “father” of this science, first called “public relations,” was a man by the name of Edward Bernays, who was none other than the nephew of the famous Swiss psychologist Sigmund Freud. In fact, Bernays used many of his uncle’s theories about the human mind to craft the basic models of the advertising industry that are still very much employed today. We will watch a film about the history of the advertising industry, and Ed Bernays in particular, below. But for now, it is important to understand how visual argument works and what the best practices are for using it effectively, ethically, and creatively to support the arguments you make in academic contexts.

Say you are at the doctor’s office in the waiting room, and you see an advertisement that has a beautiful model sitting in a Lexus driving down a long, open road. The image may evoke some feelings of inadequacy (“I’ll never be as pretty as her”), freedom (the long, winding road), and envy. All of these work together as an “argument” to convince you that a Lexus will change your life, and you will be as beautiful and as free as the model if you only had one. On a rational level, we know none of this is true. But the ad does not speak to our rational minds. It speaks to a more irrational place, the subconscious, where our desires and thoughts often mix with memories, projections, fears, and other phobias to encourage an irrational response to the stimulus. As we can already see, like with other forms of arguments, visual arguments may contain logical fallacies or use (and misuse) rhetorical appeals to persuade the viewer. Our job is to learn to spot the misuse of them, and to also use them ethically, accurately, and responsibly in our own argumentative contexts.

Learning to decode visual arguments can be challenging. We are bombarded with images every day and are often unaware of how they affect us. For instance, did you know that red, yellow, orange, and green make us hungry? Think about fast food chains. How many of them use one, or more, of those colors in their logo or design? In movies, we associate black with bad and white with good. In Star Wars , Darth Vader wears a black cloak, while Luke Skywalker often has light clothing. If a political cartoon showed a politician speaking in Times New Roman font and another politician speaking in Comic Sans, then it could be implying that one politician is serious while the other is childish. We tend to think of “visual” to mean only pictures, but learning to recognize how not just images, but color, layout, perspective, and even font choices, can affect people and influence their thoughts and choices can help you to hone your visual literacy and learn how to identify and evaluate visual arguments.

Adding visual elements to a persuasive argument can often strengthen its persuasive effect. There are two main types of visual elements: quantitative visuals and qualitative visuals .

Quantitative visuals present data graphically. They allow the audience to see statistics spatially. The purpose of using quantitative visuals is to make logical appeals to the audience. For example, sometimes it is easier to understand the disparity in certain statistics if you can see how the disparity looks graphically. Bar graphs, pie charts, Venn diagrams, histograms, and line graphs are all ways of presenting quantitative data in spatial dimensions.

Qualitative visuals present images that appeal to the audience’s emotions. Photographs and pictorial images are examples of qualitative visuals. Such images often try to convey a story, and seeing an actual example can carry more power than hearing or reading about the example. For example, one image of a child suffering from malnutrition will likely have more of an emotional impact than pages dedicated to describing that same condition in writing.

The Venn diagram above is a great example of how an image can be used effectively to communicate a complicated idea rather quickly and efficiently. Here, we can see that “sustainability” is defined as the intersection of environmental, economic, and social concerns, for instance. Proper use of visuals can help us connect with an audience’s emotions and values, build credibility, and share data and logical information in memorable and engaging ways.

Review the handout: Ideographs
Review the document: Conducting Visual Arguments

Visual Argument Example: Gatorade Ad

Among the diversity of visual arguments, advertisers provide some of the most powerful examples. Let’s examine a visual argument for Gatorade—a drink for sportspeople. It illustrates the supposed superiority of the Gatorade drink, among other beverages. A bright picture of the bottle and a memorable slogan are a marketing specialist’s craft. It combines three main aspects of a successful visual ad: use of colors, “supernatural” power, and shock appeal.

Gatorade advertisement as a visual argument.

The developers of the given visual ad reached a perfect mix of colors. The dominating ones of the poster are blue and green, which are generally considered to be “natural” ones. Nothing can be more powerful than “nature.” These are also the colors of “sport”. The colors of the grass and the sky. This idea serves as the hidden message of this color combination. As a result of this color mixing technique, the ad creator reaches its primary goal—the assurance of success in the race!

In addition to an effective color combination, the advertisement reflects a concept in advertising often referred to as “supernatural power.” The image illustrates the bright container with the Gatorade drink pulling away from the others and dramatically winning the race. Moreover, it seems that the bottle with the advertised drink is “reaching for the sky.” This detail makes the ad even more eye-appealing and further suggests the one who has the drink will have the same power.

The rhetorical analysis helps to understand that the trick of placing the bottle ahead of other beverages is exceptionally effective. It persuades the audience to believe that Gatorade provides the drink takers with supernatural power. Hence, it motivates the target audience to purchase the beverage. The advertisement compares the athletes to the Gatorade. Thus, it convinces them that they will show excellent performance in the competition, as Gatorade does in the visual ad.

Apart from the use of colors and supernatural power, the given visual argument image implements other methods. For example, it uses a shock appeal technique. The ad demonstrates a real-life race, but with a metaphorical contestant—the Gatorade bottle. Consider the effect of “reaching the sky” by the container. It creates a vision of an incredibly strong nature of this beverage. As a result, the audience is “shocked” by Gatorade’s supernatural power and encouraged to buy it. Consequently, a shock appeal makes the visual argument images more effective. We will return to the ways advertisers and politicians use visuals to persuade us later, but for now let us look at the academic ways to both analyze and use visuals in argument.

View the vidcast: Purdue OWL – Visual Rhetoric
View the video: Visual Arguments Essay
View the video: Visual Arguments

Visuals in Advertising and Social Media

The following video content explores how visual stimuli impacts the ways we think, believe, and behave in the world. We begin by returning to the beginning of the discussion about Edward Bernays, the “father” of modern advertising and the nephew of Sigmund Freud. After that, we look at the more modern impacts of visuals on social media in young people with an informative Frontline episode with the media analyst Douglas Rushkoff:

View the film: The Century of the Self – Happiness Machines
View the film: Generation Like

Share This Book

Your company may already be a member. View our member list to find out, or create a new account .

Forgot Password?

Content Library

You can search our content library for case studies, research, industry insights, and more.

You can search our website for events, press releases, blog posts, and more.

Critical Thinking Skills for the Marketing Professional

In today’s business environment, developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills is essential to a marketing professional’s – and their organization’s – success. The ability to think critically to solve problems, leveraging a systematic and repeatable process, sets individuals apart from their peers and makes them sought-after marketers within their organizations. Especially when operating in highly competitive markets, it’s crucial for marketers to understand how to assess a problem and effectively use critical thinking tools to identify solutions quickly and improve results.

This course is designed to help participants avoid the most common mistake professionals make – jumping into solution creation before finding the root cause of a problem and identifying the real problem to be solved. By focusing on root-cause issues, critical thinking helps them avoid future problems that can result from their actions. Participants will learn to analyze the situation, identify the problem, design a solution by examining the different ways they can solve the problem, and ultimately achieve a successful outcome. Participants will learn best practices that they can apply to their own work experiences through case studies and step-by-step frameworks and toolkits .

Learning Experience

This is a multi-media format course and is fully interactive. It provides real-world practitioner-led learning. Active course participation is required and includes knowledge checks, activities, assessments, and resources/tools .

Who is this Course For?

This workshop is designed for marketing professionals who are responsible for defining problems, creating new options, and implementing solutions that drive results.

Learning Objectives

Perform strategic analysis and assessment
Frame problems using a systematic, repeatable process
Identify key stakeholders and ensure their needs are met
Develop and test solutions, employing adaptive problem solving
Collaboratively overcome obstacles
Leverage failures to optimize future performance

Find out what you will learn from instructor Mary Czarnecki in the video below.

Estimated Length of Completion

Approximately 90 minutes. This timing reflects the basic run time, but seat time varies by user and could be significantly longer .

Download the full benefits here

Registration Pricing

Instructors.

Mary Czarnecki

Mary Czarnecki is a co-founder of MAC Marketing Partners, the customer-centric marketing agency for market-leading brands. Mary has 20 years of experience driving revenue and customer impact growth for Fortune 100 companies and is no stranger to the "virtual environment," having delivered consulting and training services "remotely" since 2015. She is a regular advisor to market-leading brand teams and in addition to her work with MAC Marketing Partners, she applies her expertise in brand building and social media strategy to develop personal brand platforms for high-impact female entrepreneurs and executives to accelerate both career and business success.

Mary has been acknowledged as a top instructor for the ANA’s Marketing Training & Development Center and has developed several online courses for business leaders and entrepreneurs. She also leads live virtual group coaching programs for executives and entrepreneurs on topics such as virtual leadership, brand development, and online business growth.

Mary received her M.B.A. and M.E.M. from Yale University and B.A. from Princeton University.

Leaders want strategic and critical thinking more than anything. Most of their workers don’t have it

“A severe lack of critical business skills is preventing growth at America’s largest companies.”

That’s a major—potentially alarming—takeaway from a survey of over 1,000 corporate professionals, conducted by online learning platform Springboard for their new report, The State of the Workforce Skills Gap , released this morning.

Across industries, the majority of leaders surveyed for the report said “strategic/critical thinking” is the most sorely needed soft skill at companies today. (Problem-solving and decision-making came in second, while communication, both written and verbal, nabbed third.)

“With the global business environment in a state of flux for the foreseeable future, companies that can strategically evolve will have an edge,” Springboard researchers explained in the report. “Leaders see this opportunity, and recognize that critical thinking and problem-solving skills are essential to operate with this mindset.”

The problem? Many workers aren’t quite there yet . In fact, 54% of junior employees told Springboard they’re trying to further cultivate their leadership and management skills; a similar share want to improve their communication chops. Nearly 40% of leaders say the gap between the skills they need at their organization and the skills they have is only getting deeper .

Unsurprisingly, the rapid acceleration of AI —and the even more rapid integration of AI into business—has put a premium on the kinds of soft, interpersonal skills that no robot can quite automate yet.

The report was admittedly self-serving for Springboard, whose mission—per CEO Gautam Tambay—is to bridge the world’s skills gap. “The more we understand the gap, the better we’re able to execute against it,” Tambay tells Fortune. What struck him most in speaking with leaders is how focused they are “not just on what I’d call technical or perishable skills like AI or machine learning, but on what I’d call durable or non-perishable skills.” Very often, those are soft skills .

A growing challenge

The skills gap has been a growing challenge, calling for ample training and reskilling. Per a World Economic Forum report from 2023 , nearly half (44%) of an individual worker’s skills need to be updated. “The long-term trend is pretty undeniable that the demand for skills outpaces the supply of skills,” Dan Shapero, chief operating officer of LinkedIn , told Fortune last year. The problems remain the same: that WEF report found that the number-one most sought-after skill was creative thinking, followed by analytical thinking and technological literacy.

Skills like critical thinking, which employers expressed a clear need for, aren’t new. They’ve been top of mind forever , Tambay says, “but despite that, leaders really see a massive gap in this area.”

But don’t blame AI. The farther automation advances , the more uniquely human traits and attributes will be valued. “I’ve always believed—and the report validates—that AI is not going to take your job,” Tambay says. Rather, “someone who knows how to use AI better than you is going to take your job.”

Indeed, Tambay says much of today’s hand-wringing over out-of-control machine advancement is overblown. “It’s not the first time a massive wave of tech has come through and scared everyone,” he says. “Yes, it will change everything and people who can use it more effectively will be more successful. That’s what happened with the Industrial Revolution, too.”

But as always, companies need human beings to think strategically and make decisions. “AI will assist with that, but we still need humans to provide a layer of judgment on top.”

Even the most tech-forward leaders agree with that. Apple CEO Tim Cook has long lauded soft skills , which go hand in hand with creative and strategic thinking. In 2022, he said he seeks out the ability to collaborate, creativity, and curiosity in new hires above all else. “Those are the things that we look for in people, and it’s been a very good formula for us,” he said . “We look for people that think differently, that can look at a problem and not be caught up in the dogma of how that problem has always been viewed.”

Luckily, soft skills like communication, strategy, and judgment can be taught, he says, but they’re often harder to get down pat than technical skills. They need many more hours of boots-on-the-ground practice. “Understanding other human beings and their motivations, intentions, and what drives them—that’s absolutely learnable,” he says. Plus, they’re durable.

“Every business starts with understanding human emotion,” Tambay goes on. “Until businesses are no longer serving human needs, humans will have to be good at soft skills. Especially because today’s average 25-year-old is going to have a job in 20 years that doesn’t even exist yet because the shelf life of skills has gone down so much. You need a durable skill set that will help you to succeed for your whole career.”

Latest in Success

Billionaires sipped wine, noshed on caviar at lavish Formula 1 gala that included Goldman CEO David Solomon, Elon Musk and investor Nelson Peltz

The accounting firm that Trump hired for his media firm’s IPO was caught copy-and-pasting previous audits and is now banned forever

Why a Benioff acolyte left Salesforce after 15 years to lead a $3 billion HR software firm she thinks might be its rival

The ‘godmother’ of AI is getting into the startup game

Trump Media fires accountants after watchdogs find the audit firm faked documents in ‘massive fraud’

Jeff Goldblum wants his kids to find success on their own.

Jeff Goldblum isn’t planning on letting his kids be nepo babies. ‘You’ve got to row your own boat’

The U.S. economy is headed for a hard landing, and Fed rate cuts won’t be enough to rescue it, Citi says

$3 trillion could be injected into the U.S. economy without any federal spending by tweaking this corner of the mortgage market, ‘Oracle of Wall Street’ says

Another Boeing whistleblower is dead—this time a healthy 45-year-old who battled a sudden, severe infection

Elon Musk publicly dumped California for Texas—now Golden State customers are getting revenge, dumping Tesla in droves

New Florida resident Jeff Bezos pumped $60 million into making lab-grown meat taste better. Ron DeSantis just banned it from the state

IMAGES

Critical Thinking
How to Develop Critical Thinking Skills
How You Can Improve Your Critical Thinking Skills
25 Critical Thinking Examples (2024)
6 Main Types of Critical Thinking Skills (With Examples)
Critical thinking concept with icons and signs Vector Image

VIDEO

Trump Video is MOST OMINOUS Warning Yet
How to Scale Creative Ideation (Almost) Infinitely
IAB Targets Online Marketing's 'Creative Crisis'
Trump LOSES IT: Being Ridiculed In HILARIOUS Parody Ads
Scientific Advertising- Claude C. Hopkins- Chapter 3
12 Critical Thinking and Advertising

COMMENTS

Critical Thinking: A Crucial Role in Achieving Marketing Excellence
The "Share a Coke" campaign by Coca-Cola is a great example of successful marketing through critical thinking—analyzing customer data to personalize products with popular names, fostering social media sharing, and a powerful call to action to engage customers and create a sense of community around the brand and achieving a 2.5% sales ...
PDF 1 Advertising and critical thinking
affect critical thinking skills in responding to advertising messages.' - provide further evidence of the influence of media literacy teaching on critical thinking about advertising. The extract notes that: '[t]here is only limited evidence that shows that learning about advertising and discussions about advertising in school can reduce ...
Critical thinking for the modern marketer
Conclusion. Critical thinking is a crucial mindset to adopt as a marketer if you're looking to make a real difference within your organization. The ability to think outside of your own echo chamber, evaluate situations with genuine objectivity, and ask challenging but respectful questions will improve your problem-solving skills and enable ...
Creativity in Advertising: When It Works and When It Doesn't
To address this gap, Reinartz and Saffert developed a consumer survey approach that measures perceived creativity along five dimensions—originality, flexibility, elaboration, synthesis, and ...
Close Reading of Advertising Promotes Critical Thinking
Close Reading of Advertising Promotes Critical Thinking. by MiddleWeb · Published 07/22/2014 · Updated 06/08/2020. This is the third article in a four-part series by expert Frank Baker, drawing connections between the Common Core's emphasis on "close reading" and media literacy. Also see Part 1 (media text) and Part 2 (photography).
Do I question what influencers sell me? Integration of critical
Adopting an advertising literacy approach and aiming to foster the development of critical consumers, it is crucial to gather data on the presence of critical thinking dimensions when children and ...
Critical Thinking in Marketing: Elevate Your Strategy
The Five Elements of Critical Thinking. In the world of marketing, honing critical thinking abilities is essential for success. There are five key elements of critical thinking that can be honed through application and experience but need to be expressed effectively in writing to establish authority.
Why I Teach Advertising: Critical Voices
Advertising plays a significant role in advancing society and is a vital part of our cultural progress. As such, the content we teach is alive. It grows and adapts with these changes. Every semester we teach, we get to do something different. I teach advertising because I believe my students are the leaders of this change.
Why Critical Thinking Is So Important For Digital Marketing
Critical thinking is important for digital marketing because the solutions for problems are what make or break businesses. Critical thinkers can analyze the problem and generate theories to solve ...
The Blueprint for Strategic Advertising: How Critical Thinking Builds
The Blueprint for Strategic Advertising's step-by-step approach takes a comprehensive and exclusive look into the strategic use of visual, verbal, social media, integrated, and global of advertising communication. Its deconstructive process analyzes one aspect at a time, creating an invaluable research tool that students, professors, small business owners and entrepreneurs will refer to ...
PDF The effects of an advertising-based intervention on critical thinking
positive impact on a central component of critical thinking - argumentation skills. In the remainder of this paper, we provide a brief overview of the literature on the development of advertising knowledge, describe our project and the results from our study, and finally conclude with a discussion about the importance of
How to Apply Critical Thinking to Marketing Campaigns
1. Identify your goals. Be the first to add your personal experience. 2. Gather relevant data. Be the first to add your personal experience. 3. Generate creative ideas. Be the first to add your ...
The Blueprint for Strategic Advertising
The Blueprint for Strategic Advertising's step-by-step approach takes a comprehensive and exclusive look into the strategic use of visual, verbal, social media, integrated, and global of advertising communication.Its deconstructive process analyzes one aspect at a time, creating an invaluable research tool that students, professors, small business owners and entrepreneurs will refer to, time ...
The Blueprint for Strategic Advertising How Critical Thinking Builds
The Blueprint for Strategic Advertising's step-by-step approach takes a comprehensive and exclusive look into the strategic use of visual, verbal, social media, integrated, and global of advertising communication.Its deconstructive process analyzes one aspect at a time, creating an invaluable research tool that students, professors, small business owners and entrepreneurs will refer to, time ...
Critical Thinking and Reflective Learning in the Marketing Education
Marketing educators have long espoused the importance of critical thinking as a means of developing students' higher-order problem-solving skills. In this article, we utilize an historical approach to investigate how educators have defined, operationalized, and empirically evaluated the critical thinking construct.
Visual Arguments, Media and Advertising
In this chapter, we will be exploring the use of visuals (images, charts, graphs, etc.) in the presentation of arguments. Like any other piece of support, images and other visuals are compelling when used correctly. They also can be used in ways that contribute to all of the flaws, fallacies, and faulty reasoning we have been exploring all along.
The Implications of Social Media For Adolescent Critical Thinking From
This research seeks to understand the effects of social media on adolescents through the lens of information and advertising literacy. This research reviews the existing literature on adolescents' abilities to identify misinformation and sponsored content on social media, the two measures for critical thinking used in this research.
What Is Critical Thinking?
Critical thinking is the ability to effectively analyze information and form a judgment. To think critically, you must be aware of your own biases and assumptions when encountering information, and apply consistent standards when evaluating sources. Critical thinking skills help you to: Identify credible sources. Evaluate and respond to arguments.
Critical Thinking Skills for the Marketing Professional
In today's business environment, developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills is essential to a marketing professional's - and their organization's - success. The ability to think critically to solve problems, leveraging a systematic and repeatable process, sets individuals apart from their peers and makes them sought-after ...
Developing and assessing critical thinking skills in marketing students
Abstract. Applied research is a course that has been taught to develop and effectively assess critical thinking skills in marketing students. A modified version of the problem-solving model using explicit problem-solving processes is employed in the design of course material and delivery.
Critical Thinking and Advertising
In this lecture from his Fayetteville State University Critical Thinking class, Dr. Sadler discusses how advertising works, what perspective a critical think...
What Are Critical Thinking Skills and Why Are They Important?
According to the University of the People in California, having critical thinking skills is important because they are [ 1 ]: Universal. Crucial for the economy. Essential for improving language and presentation skills. Very helpful in promoting creativity. Important for self-reflection.
Leaders want strategic and critical thinking more than anything
Apple CEO Tim Cook has long lauded soft skills, which go hand in hand with creative and strategic thinking. In 2022, he said he seeks out the ability to collaborate, creativity, and curiosity in ...
Bridging critical thinking and transformative learning: The role of
In recent decades, approaches to critical thinking have generally taken a practical turn, pivoting away from more abstract accounts - such as emphasizing the logical relations that hold between statements (Ennis, 1964) - and moving toward an emphasis on belief and action.According to the definition that Robert Ennis (2018) has been advocating for the last few decades, critical thinking is ...