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Purpose: Social media celebrities are getting popular in promotions, and more people have experienced social media to receive information on diet and health tips. This research presents a study showing how social media can influence young people's diet behavior through collaboration with social media celebrities. Design/methodology/approach: Through recruiting on various social media and online education forums, this research recruited 196 young Hongkongers to participate in an online survey developed based on the AIDA (Action, Interest, Desire, Attention) marketing communication model on how youths access diet information from social media celebrities in Hong Kong. Findings: Hong Kong youths consume diet information from social media celebrities through instant messaging systems, social networking sites and online videos, and, in particular, information on food calories and nutrition. However, sponsorship from vendors would decrease their desire to agree with the messages from social media celebrities. After receiving this information, some participants would follow tips and guides from social media celebrities. However, they seldom share such information. Interestingly, males are more willing to follow these tips and guides. Originality/value: First, this study fills the gap of prior research, which did not study much on how social media celebrities contribute to diet promotion to youths in Asia. Second, through the AIDA Model, this study shows how social media can affect the awareness and accessibility of diet information by young Hongkongers, followed by initiating their interest in this topic and retrieving more relevant information. Furthermore, the authors further understand their desire to follow and improve their behavior as promoted by social media influencers and how they practice such behavior. Based on these findings, health-related brands could consider using social media influencers helping to promote their products and services, and these brands could further use social media to secure customer engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to provide insights into the drivers of student engagement in food waste reduction strategies in educational institutions. The proposed research model integrates social media celebrities' attractiveness, expertise and trustworthiness with the value belief norm (VBN) theory to explore their influence on students' behaviour towards food waste reduction. Design/methodology/approach: The data were collected from 417 students enrolled in public and private universities in the Riyadh and Macca regions of Saudi Arabia to evaluate the proposed model. The partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to analyse the responses. Findings: The results showed that VBN theory's components, such as values (biospheric, altruistic and egoistic), beliefs (new ecological paradigm, awareness of consequences and aspirations of responsibility) and norms significantly and positively influence food waste reduction behavioural intentions. It was also discovered from the results that social media celebrities' attractiveness, expertise and trustworthiness influence food waste reduction behavioural intentions. Originality/value: This study contributes significantly to the literature by identifying factors influencing student engagement in food waste reduction strategies in educational institutions where limited research exists. It fills this research gap by developing a novel theoretical framework integrating social media celebrities' attributes with the VBN theory to explain these factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this study is to investigate the impact that online celebrities had and still have on Malaysian customers' intents and purchasing behaviours. The use and gratification theory, the source credibility model and the source attractiveness model are the three theoretical frameworks that form the foundation of this study. These models provide the foundation for this research. 384 respondents who are older than 18 and use social media provided answers to the questionnaire which takes the form of an online survey. SPSS software (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) was used for the data analysis and regression analysis was chosen as the method to use in order to establish the significance of hypotheses based on the data collected in order to determine whether or not the data collected supported the hypotheses. This study found that in order for social media celebrities to successfully influence consumers' intentions to make a purchase through the internet, they need to demonstrate that they are reliable, appealing and knowledgeable. In the context of Malaysia, these are the characteristics that are particularly important in determining whethe r or not a customer will make a purchase over the internet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TikTok’s rapid growth in the past few years, especially in the younger demographic, may signal a market shift. With children, teens, and young adults reportedly making up 40% to 60% of its user base, the platform is becoming the strongest challenger to YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. The most followed TikTok celebrities are mostly young people who have either grown up with the platform or recently extended their popularity from other platforms to reach new audiences. This research investigates the discursive strategies and persona performances employed by the top 25 TikTok celebrities under the age of 25 in both popular content and content marked as advertising. A large sample of TikTok content metadata was collected using API interrogation. From each of the 25 young TikTok celebrities, up to 1,000 videos per user (N = 22,650) are explored using quantitative approaches. Two subsamples are analysed using visual, rhetorical, and narrative analysis to evaluate the most popular content (Np = 226) and content marked as advertising using the TikTok ad flagging (Na = 213). The findings include the identification of seven persona performance types and a significant difference in terms of performed ordinariness in content marked as advertising.

TikTok's rapid growth in the past few years, especially in the younger demographic, may signal a market shift. With children, teens, and young adults reportedly making up 40% to 60% of its user base, the platform is becoming the strongest challenger to YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. The most followed TikTok celebrities are mostly young people who have either grown up with the platform or recently extended their popularity from other platforms to reach new audiences. This research investigates the discursive strategies and persona performances employed by the top 25 TikTok celebrities under the age of 25 in both popular content and content marked as advertising. A large sample of TikTok content metadata was collected using API interrogation. From each of the 25 young TikTok celebrities, up to 1,000 videos per user (N =22,650) are explored using quantitative approaches. Two subsamples are analysed using visual, rhetorical, and narrative analysis to evaluate the most popular content (Np =226) and content marked as advertising using the TikTok ad flagging (Na =213). The findings include the identification of seven persona performance types and a significant difference in terms of performed ordinariness in content marked as advertising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how the value of sponsored Instagram advertisements (ads) can enhance consumer ad-related involvement (cognitive and affective) and flow experience, which consequently impacts product purchase intention. To comprehend this issue, we propose a framework that combines the extended Ducoffe's web advertising value model and the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) model. We conceptualize S - stimuli - as perceived advertising value of sponsored Instagram ads; O - organism - as consumer ad-related involvements, comprising cognitive, affective, and flow experiences; and R - response state - as purchase intention. Based on an online survey, data was collected from 337 Malaysian Instagram users. The findings indicate that sponsored Instagram ad-related entertainment, informativeness, credibility, incentives, and celebrity endorsement, are conducive to raising the effectiveness of ad-stimuli, which in turn, enhance consumers' cognitive and affective ad involvement and flow, to influence purchase behavior. The research offers empirical evidence to support the S-O-R framework and helps to expand the scope of sponsored advertising value research and its effect on consumers' purchase intention. Furthermore, it benefits marketers and advertisers in promoting effective advertising campaigns using sponsored Instagram advertising. It also provides a platform where marketers can design ads that can help them to reach their marketing goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the cultural and economic logics of social media celebrity constitution under the contemporary conditions of advanced capitalism. Although the past two decades have witnessed a great deal of interest in the constitution of social media celebrities in the new media ecosystem, little research directly deals with the constitution of this kind of 'statue' and contemporary capitalism nexus. In this sense, the present article, through the lens of immaterial labour theory, will focus on the following research question: how are Turkey's economic and political transitions reflected in the new media ecosystem, especially within the rising concept of neoliberal individualism? By taking up this question, this article will regard the cultural and economic logics of social media celebrities as immaterial labour and evaluate their role in the new media ecosystem by regarding Turkish YouTubers as its case study. This study argues that the constitution of social media celebrity and contemporary capitalism's commodification logic are strongly tied to each other. The present study has found that the constitution of social media celebrity under the contemporary conditions of capitalism is reproduced by the macro transformation process into a new media ecosystem, especially in the case of Turkish YouTubers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]