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New data collection methods and processing capabilities facilitate online personalization of advertisements but also challenge youth's understanding of how these methods work. Teenagers are often unaware of the commercial use of their personal information and are susceptible to the persuasive effects of personalized advertising. This raises questions about their ability to engage in privacy-protecting behaviors. This article examines teenagers' coping responses to commercial data collection and subsequent personalized advertising, considering their limited knowledge. Ten focus groups with 35 teenagers aged 12–14 were conducted. The findings show that teenagers hold certain folk theories (i.e., incomplete and/or inaccurate representations of reality) about how and why their personal information is being collected for commercial purposes (e.g., commercial data collection is unavoidable or all principles of privacy statements are the same). Their coping responses regarding commercial data collection (e.g., limiting information disclosure or refusing to accept privacy policies) and personalized advertising (e.g., trying to change settings or avoiding interaction) are often based on these folk theories and embedded in their everyday practices. Despite teenagers' efforts, we argue that their responses might not always be effective. Implications for educators, advertisers, and policymakers are discussed.

It has been traditionally estimated that children begin to understand the persuasive intent of advertising at about the age of 8 which is when they acquire the skills of adult consumers. The ability to identify and interpret the persuasive content that minors are exposed to via mobile phones was analyzed through semi-structured interviews of children aged 10 to 14 years along with their parents in 20 households. Although minors seem to be able to recognize the persuasive intent of advertising, this does not necessarily mean that they have a deep understanding of the new digital formats that combine persuasion and entertainment. Data analysis of the interviews shows low recognition of the persuasive intent of commercial messages that are not explicitly identified as such, particularly on social networks. Data collected after minors viewing of different examples allowed researchers to conclude that standardized advertising is mainly identified by its format. Three levels of advertising processing were detected in minors: the liking of the advertisement, the affinity for the advertised product, and the ability to contrast the claims with searches for comments, forums or opinions of influencers. Recent research verified that conceptual knowledge of the persuasive intention of the advertising does not suffice for minors to interpret the message, a fact that must be taken into account when developing advertising literacy. For parents, the amount of time spent on these devices and the type of use minors make of their cellphones or the relationships they establish on them are more relevant than exposure to advertising itself.

Our study stresses the importance of developing understandable and easily recognizable ad disclosures for adolescents as a specific target group of social media influencer (SMI) advertising. A comprehensive advertising literacy concept that includes a cognitive, performative, and attitudinal component builds the theoretical background of the present research. We examine the effectiveness of ad disclosure in the native language of adolescent Instagram users, explore their understanding of the economic mechanism behind SMIs' advertising activities, and their skepticism toward sponsored content. Furthermore, we analyze the role that sponsorship transparency on Instagram stories plays in adolescents’ responses to advertising. A three-level between-subjects survey-based experimental design (manipulating the absence of ad disclosure versus ad disclosure in the participants' native language versus standardized paid partnership ad disclosure in English) was conducted online with female adolescent participants (N = 241) in a European country. Findings showed that adolescents who understand the economic model behind SMI advertising have positive intentions toward the SMI and intend to spread online information about the promoted brand. However, even if ad disclosure made in the adolescents' native language improved ad recognition, such knowledge did not result in more sophisticated defense mechanisms in the form of critical evaluations of the ads.

Obesity, and particularly childhood obesity, is considered an epidemic by the WHO because of the health problems it causes and its impact on the lives and environment of those who suffer from it. In this article, the term "obesogenic features" refers to the set of supposedly aggravating risk factors that could intensify the proven effect on minors of exposure to food-related media content. The article explores the characteristics of food-related content in YouTube videos aimed at children, with the objective of identifying videos that pose a high risk due to the presence of obesogenic arguments, as well as videos with innovative media trends. It presents an exploratory study of 293 videos (22 hr 41 min) aimed at children and containing food and/or food brands, posted from May 2020 to April 2021 on 28 YouTube channels of food brands and child YouTubers with the largest numbers of subscribers. Child YouTubers often appear to explicitly promote calorie intake as a diet alternative and to disseminate content in which the presence of low-nutrition foods undermines childhood obesity prevention policies. The sensitivity of this target audience and the highly emotional nature of the formats in which messages with obesogenic features appear, such as "challenges," point to an urgent need to adopt ethical standards and legal measures to regulate such content.

Influencers have established themselves as key allies for brands by cultivating a powerful public image to promote them. In the case of Instamoms, these collaborations can offer moms a means of achieving economic stability. In a country like Mexico, where the gender gap in the labor market remains a contentious issue, digital work represents an opportunity for women. The similarity between the organic content and commercial content created by these profiles has strengthened the presence of hybrid advertising. This means of advertising has not spelled the end for the original content, and audiences may struggle to spot ads if sponsorship is not disclosed properly. It is important for consumers to be able to identify ads so their persuasion knowledge can be activated. This article examines the commercial messages and types of disclosure used by Mexican Instamoms to inform their followers of the commercial nature of their collaborations. The types of disclosure are analyzed based on language, location, and type of text. After a content analysis of 10,135 stories and more than 330 posts, 40% and 47% of the sample, respectively, was identified as advertising content. The analysis revealed that less than 5% of the Instamoms sponsored content was tagged as such and that sponsorship disclosure does not form part of the usual protocol for influencer-brand collaborations in a country where no legislation is yet in place and the sector is making little effort to control these practices.

Social networks have become crucial communication channels for brands through awareness, engagement, and word of mouth. Instagram is firmly positioned as a direct gateway between brands and consumers, as it became the fifth most-used social network globally in 2021. As such, branded content is expected to increase the brand’s likability, by capturing the interest and attention of the consumer, which could differ depending on what social media platform is used. This study aims to analyze whether there is a relationship between the branded content published on the Instagram profile of luxury brands (Manolo Blahnik and Loewe) and the interactions of and with its followers, focusing on branded content communication associated to industrial, social responsibility, and commercial issues. A correlational study is presented using a quantitative methodology to test the hypotheses through an ANOVA analysis. The results show which type of content is more productive on Instagram’s social network profile, helping diffusion of the firm, as it provokes more reactions from followers when using branded content related to social responsibility. It is also worth noting the extent of the interactions that branded content shows within the brand, whose influence is detected not in averages but in reach. The study’s conclusions allow us to affirm that branded content directly impacts brand reputation, generating positive engagement in all the cases analyzed. The study contributes to a better understanding of the branded content effect on consumers.

This article takes a quantitative approach to Spanish radio advertising and the stereotypes and female roles that it broadcasts in a medium that has traditionally had high female audience rates in our country. From content analysis of 679 radio ads extracted from the 3 main general Spanish radio stations and collected 10 years apart, the study attempts to show the evolution (or regression) of how radio advertising portrays women. The radio in Spain has always been a medium anchored in the real world that has also provided some degree of space to broadcast social movement. #MeToo, as a phenomenon promoting female empowerment, was no exception. Therefore, this longitudinal study aims to demonstrate whether the social movements that led to increased female activism have been reflected in a change of roles and stereotypes projected by radio advertising messages. The work presented here looks at the concept of role from a dual perspective: firstly, it focuses on the role played by female voices in radio advertising items. Secondly, it works on the concept of role by assimilating it into the female image projected in radio advertising items. The results obtained between the two samples are remarkably similar, demonstrating a clear tendency to polarise the female image and confirming that women are still being portrayed in significantly traditional roles.

A majority of scholars consider Egypt’s urban development a product of the neo-liberal political economy facilitated by the country’s central government. In this article, we want to shift our attention towards the public and its demand for housing. We describe the urban everyday experiences of a population within a country in which a visual culture established via public media creates an urban imagination that does not reflect the lived social, spatial, and economic reality of the majority of the population. Exploration of the general public’s attitudes towards media narratives that focus their advertisement campaigns on high class residential projects launched this investigation. The argument that follows is based on empirical studies within the Greater Cairo Region (GCR). In this setting, a puzzling trend from our collected data guides our central research question: Why aren't ads for luxury housing - a market segment clearly beyond the reach of most Egyptians - condemned by those who cannot afford it? To tackle this phenomenon, we shed light on how the pre - and post-marital demand for housing among young couples and their families influence the market, and particularly, the market for upscale and luxury housing in Cairo. The research consists of four phases, including (1) field interviews with Uber and Careem drivers, (2) an online survey targeting inhabitants across varying urban and social segments of the GCR, (3) the first author’s personal story, which posits that marriage culture acts as a key driver for real estate narratives, and (4) a visual analysis of a real estate advertisement. To conclude, the article discusses how far a hegemonic visual culture that caters to socio-economic links between class, marriage, and real estate engages the support of a large part of the population, which in turn, co-produces a spatially unjust urban development scheme that works against their own interests.

Customer relationships are an important pillar of a business model (Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2010). For years, though, news media has not invested much effort into nurturing rich connections with their consumers and, consequently, neglected the promotion of a participatory culture that could bring benefits for all involved (Neuberger & Nuernbergk, 2010; Rosen, 2006). Vanishing advertising revenue and changing habits of news consumption on the Internet create a situation for changing that situation - especially when considering journalism as a service (Jarvis, 2014). Therefore, this article employs multiple case-study research to analyze and compare how four digital news natives from different countries (The Correspondent from the Netherlands, eldiario.es from Spain, Mediapart from France, and the Brazilian branch of The Intercept) are creating more meaningful connections with their audiences in order to sustain their businesses. We found out that all cases resort in varying degrees to the ideology of journalism, personification, transparency, impactful content, and community as motivations to attract members, while at the same time refraining from advertising becomes a guarantee of independence. Social media is losing ground, as companies use their own platforms and channels, such as emails, to develop routines that take member participation into account in different levels - from intermediate to maximal - though customization is still limited. The challenge for online-born news companies is to manage so many variables while taking into consideration feedback from their sustainable base of members.

This study examines the international activist movement known as Sleeping Giants, a social-media "campaign to make bigotry and sexism less profitable" (Sleeping Giants, n.d.). The campaign originated in the US with an anonymous Twitter account that enlisted followers in encouraging brands to pull their online advertising from Breitbart News. The campaign achieved dramatic success and rapidly spread to regions outside the US, with other anonymously run and loosely allied chapters emerging in 15 different nations (as well as a regional chapter for the EU). Many of these were initially created to take on Breitbart advertisers in their home countries, but in a number of cases they subsequently turned their attention to disrupting financial support for other far-right news media in - or impacting - their home countries. Based on interviews with leaders of eight Sleeping Giants chapters, as well as the related UK-based Stop Funding Hate campaign, this study examines the Sleeping Giants campaign with respect to its continuity with media activism of previous eras, while also seeking to understand its potential as one of the first high-profile activist campaigns to grapple with the impacts of programmatic advertising on the news ecosystem. In particular, we consider how the campaign's interventions speak to the larger debate around the normative relationship between advertising and the performance of the news ecosystem