On the 15th of December 2023, the Ph.D. candidate Mihai Chirică defended his doctoral thesis entitled Advertising endorsed by digital celebrities. A comparative perspective of Instagram and TikTok usage. The thesis was defended within the Doctoral School of Communication, Public Relations, and Advertising.
The thesis is a comprehensive analysis on the way advertising endorsed by digital celebrities (influencers) and its disclosure influences emerging adults. The research approaches this topic in a comparative manner, by comparing Instagram and TikTok platforms. The methodological part is composed of a set of focus-groups and an online survey-based experiment. The results show that the respondents tend to criticize the influencers that, aiming to attract new followers, use TikTok only to repost the Instagram content. Likewise, they raise the ethical importance of disclosing advertising content. Strongly linked with the focus-groups’ insights, the experimental data emphasizes that acknowledging and disclosing advertising content used by influencers raises their level of credibility. Furthermore, a high level of credibility determines more positive attitudes on the promoted brand and a higher purchase intention.
Relying on the Persuasion Knowledge Model, the thesis is relevant for rethinking this theory within the very dynamic phenomenon of influencer marketing. Marketing and branding specialists can better understand the effect of advertising messages endorsed by digital celebrities. Thus, the present thesis becomes both a guide and a petition that fights for regulating advertising disclosure and for enforcing ethical concerns.