Toward Cognitive Computational Advertising—A Review of Computational Advertising: Evolution, Transformation, and the Cognitive Turn

Abstract

This review examines Computational Advertising: Evolution, Transformation, and the Cognitive Turn (in Chinese 计算广告的发展、流变与认知转向), edited by Duan Chunlin and published in 2025, and assesses its attempt to reposition computational advertising through a cognitive orientation that foregrounds human–machine collaboration, semantic understanding, and mechanism-based explanation. The book traces the evolution from programmatic delivery to cognitive computational advertising and articulates how data infrastructures, platform mechanisms, and generative AI are jointly reshaping creative production, distribution coordination, and effect measurement. It further proposes conceptual and methodological pathways—most notably the TKLI framework—as an alternative to linear knowledge hierarchies, arguing for closed-loop processes of semantic interaction, knowledge collaboration, and reasoning-based decision-making. This review highlights the book’s contributions to clarifying disciplinary boundaries and advancing a research agenda that moves beyond correlation-focused optimisation toward cumulative explanatory models. It also identifies areas where the argument could be strengthened, including clearer specification of key constructs, more explicit empirical validation strategies, and tighter discussion of governance implications under privacy, bias, and cross-cultural constraints. The review concludes by highlighting how the book’s cognitive turn provides a coherent agenda for future work on advertising communication mechanisms, methodological renewal, and the theory–practice interface in intelligent communication.