This study explores teenager perceptions towards advertising in the online social networking environment. The future of online social networking sites is dependant upon the continued support of advertisers in this new medium, which is linked to the acceptance of advertising on these sites by their targeted audience. This exploratory study used the qualitative research methods of focus groups and in-depth personal interviews to gain insights from the teenager participants. The literature review in Chapter Two examined the previous research into advertising theories, consumer attitudes and issues such as advertising avoidance, advertising as a service and trust and privacy in the online social networking environment. The teenage consumer was also examined as were the influences of social identity theory. From this literature review eleven propositions were formed which provided a structure to the analysis of the research. Chapter Three outlined the multi-method research approach of using focus groups and in-depth interviews. The key findings were outlined in Chapter Four and Chapter Five provides discussion regarding these findings and the implications for theory and advertising practice. The main findings from this study suggest that teenagers have very high levels of advertising avoidance and are sceptical towards advertising on their online social networking sites. They have an inherent distrust of commercial messages in the online social networking environment; however they are extremely trusting with the information that they disclose online. They believe that if their site is classified as private, then the information disclosed on this site is not accessible to anyone. The study explores the reasons behind these views. This research has resulted in the identification of seven motivations behind online social networking use. A new model of advertising avoidance in the online social networking environment is also presented and discussed. This model makes a contribution towards filling the gap in available research on online social networking sites and advertising perception. The findings of this study have also resulted in the identification of the characteristics of online social networking sites as an advertising medium. The newness of online social networking sites coupled with the enthusiastic adoption of online social networking by the teenage demographic means that this exploratory study will be of interest to both academics and practitioners alike.

Marketing has become obsessed with word of mouth. Though long known to be important for consumer decisions, social media has put it into overdrive, providing the infrastructure to launch big campaigns that nonetheless enters people’s consciousness on a very personal level thanks to messages being passed along by friends. This thesis explores what social media users think about this part of their user experience, attempting to answer how widespread awareness is and how their attitude to it affects their own use. Results show that a large majority of users in Sweden are aware that their spreading the word about a product or service can be considered a form of advertising, and that it also affects their own method of sharing. However, how much they use these services is not affected. Implications for social media providers and marketers are discussed.

Online behavioral targeting (OBT) are customized ad messages based on personal information to enhance advertising effectiveness. Greater personalization typically increases relevance but is also told to cause privacy concerns. This study examines the constructs of advertising engagement and advertising avoidance on Instagram. Using the Critical Incident Technique, it identifies a typology of the three antecedents of both engagement and avoidance: relevance, degree of personalization and traceability of data source. While a high degree of personalization and relevance was found to be prevalent in both engagement and avoidance scenarios, tractability of data source was identified as an ethical boundary for research subjects and a decisive criterium in whether privacy concerns were being raised. The results propose common trigger combinations for both engagement and avoidance scenarios, yet there are cases falling outside the norm with suggests that acceptance and reactions to OBT is a highly complex construct were many external variables and as well as personal character traits might be at play. / Online beteendeinriktning (OBT) är anpassade annonsmeddelanden baserat på personlig information för att förbättra reklameffektiviteten. Större personalisering ökar vanligtvis relevansen men indikerar också att orsaka integritetsproblem. Denna studie undersöker konstruktioner av reklamengagemang och reklamundvikande på Instagram. Med den kritiska incidenttekniken identifieras en typologi av de tre föregångarna för både engagemang och undvikande: relevans, grad av personalisering och spårbarhet av datakällan. Emedan en hög grad av personalisering och relevans befanns vara vanligt i både engagemangs- och undvikelsesscenarier, identifierades datakällans spårbarhet som en etisk gräns för forskningsämnen och ett avgörande kriterium för huruvida integritetshänsyn togs upp eller inte. Resultaten föreslår vanliga utlösarkombinationer för både engagemangs- och undvikelsesscenarier, men det existerar fall som faller utanför normen men antyder att acceptans och reaktioner på OBT är en mycket komplex konstruktion där många externa variabler och personliga karaktärsdrag står på spel.

During recent years, the global digital transformation has led to changes in the advertising industry, where advertisers use new strategies to reach customers to advertise their products and services. Online behavioral advertising emerged as a new advertising process, which allowed companies to collect and use online behavior to create tailored personalized advertisements. Online behavioral advertising has led to privacy concerns. The purpose of this study is to examine the viewpoint on online behavioral advertising for students in Sweden. By reviewing previous literature on the subject of online behavioral advertising this study constructed statements that examined the attitude of students in Sweden on privacy concerns, privacy violations, advertising avoidance as well as advertising acceptance. This study examined this by sending out an online questionnaire to a sample of students attending LTU (Luleå University of Technology). By analyzing the empirical findings this study found that students are somewhat indifferent about statements on online behavioral advertising. They are somewhat concerned about their privacy but not as intensely as previous research would suggest. Students at LTU are also indifferent about avoiding these types of advertisements. Concerning advertising acceptance, students at LTU are somewhat indifferent and tilted towards disagreement regardless of how the argument is framed for allowing behavioral tracking.

Cette thèse étudie le rôle de la religion et du scepticisme vis-à-vis de la publicité dans l’évaluation par les consommateurs de visuels publicitaires sexuellement choquants. L’étude qualitative 1 a pour objectif d’explorer les questions éthiques et culturelles contribuant au développement du scepticisme envers publicités sexuellement choquantes. La méthodologie choisie s’est composé 22 entretiens semi-directifs auprès de consommateurs indonésiens. Les publicités à contenu sexuel choquant sont perçues comme trompeuses et irritantes et que les consommateurs développent fréquemment une forme de scepticisme face à ces visuels. L’étude qualitative 2, une netnographie montrent que les consommateurs ont la capacité de juger le motif de l'utilisation du contenu sexuel créé par le marketing que nous avons identifié comme le symptôme du scepticisme publicitaire. Enfin, l’étude quantitative a poursuivi une méthode quasi-expérimentale afin d’étudier le rôle du scepticisme, de la religiosité et des exécutions publicitaires sur les réactions des consommateurs envers les publicités sexuellement choquantes et les conséquences pour la marque. 1024 réponses de consommateurs indonésiens ont été recueillies au moyen de questionnaires en ligne. Les sceptiques expriment non seulement une attitude négative envers les publicités, ils sont aussi moins intéressés par la marque qui est mise en avant. Les résultats suggèrent également que les facteurs de religiosité influencent l'effet d’exécution de la publicité (congruence de publicité) sur l’irritation perçue, l’attitude envers la publicité, et l’embarras ressenti. / This doctoral thesis aims to understand the role of religion and advertising skepticism in shaping consumers’ perspective and behavior regarding sexually appealing advertising. The first qualitative study explores the ethical and cultural issues regarding sexually appealing advertising with 22 semi-structured interviews among Indonesian consumers. Results show that sexually appealing advertising is perceived as deceptive and irritating and that ad skepticism is a frequent response to the excessive use of sexual content in ads. The second qualitative study is a netnography which aims to better understand the characteristics of skepticism toward sexually appealing ads and identify its consequences on consumers’ attitude and behavior. Results show that consumers have the capability to judge the motive behind the use of sexual content created by the marketer that we identified as the symptom of the ad skepticism. Finally, the quantitative study was performed with a quasi-experiment method in order to investigate the role of skepticism toward sexually appealing advertising, religiosity, and advertising executions on consumers’ ad reactions and brand consequence. 1024 responses from Indonesian samples were collected through web-based questionnaires. The skeptics not only express the negative attitude toward the ads, they are also less interested in the brand being advertised. Results also suggest that religiosity influence the effect of ad-execution construct (i.e. ad congruity) on perceived ad irritation, attitude toward the ad, and embarrassment.

The thesis explores advertorials, advertising made to look like editorial content, from a consumer behaviour perspective. Introduction                 Consumers are exposed to a staggering amount of advertisements each day. This so-called advertising clutter makes it difficult for marketers to reach the consumer. Therefore, in the late 1980’s marketers started to use unconventional ways of advertising. One of these was the use of advertorials, a form of advertising that borrows the appearance and other features from editorial material. Problem discussion       Since advertorials are made to look like editorial material, but is in reality an advertisement, it is of interest for researchers and practicing marketers alike to know what effects using them has on the brand. Previous research differ in the view on advertorials; some claim that it is a good way to advertise as it is seen as less intrusive and irritating, while others say that the deceptiveness makes people irritated. Purpose                        Through a quantitative case study of Aftonbladet.se, a Swedish news website, from a consumer perspective analyze the effects the level of deception of online advertorials have on 1) brand credibility, and 2) the irritation level, on both the medium and the advertiser. Also, 3) to thereafter examine if possible alterations in irritation and brand credibility trigger changes in brand attitudes towards medium and advertiser. Background                  Newspapers have long been dependent on the revenue from advertisement sales, even more so since the emergence of free newspapers and news web sites. With this in mind, the importance of advertorials stands clear. In the on-line world, where readers jump from article to article and from site to site, the advertorials play an important role in “catching” the reader and make him/her stay on the site. Moreover, advertorials is one of the formats of on-line advertising which commands the highest revenues. Frame of reference        The on-line context provides additional ways of deceiving a consumer, in comparison with print media. Therefore, the frame of reference focuses on previous research on the effects the deception can have with a consumer and the perception of the brands included; irritation, brand credibility, brand attitude, likeliness to return to site, and advertising avoidance. For later testing, 11 hypotheses were defined. Method                        The study uses a mixed method approach, with both quantitative and qualitative data. An experiment, with one control group and two different manipulations formed the basis for the data collection. 19 out of the 103 participants in the quantitative study were asked to participate in the qualitative study as well. Analysis                        As the distribution of the data was found not to be normal, the Kruskal-Wallis test was used to test the hypotheses. All hypotheses but one were accepted. Further, to explore the relationship between variables, hierarchical multiple regression analysis was also performed. Conclusion                   It was not possible to prove that a higher level of blend-in decreased credibility of any of the two brands, neither does induce more irritation. It was also not possible to discern a statistically significant effect on the attitude towards the brands, likeliness to return to Aftonbladet.se, or future avoidance of adverts by Volvo. However, several of the participants of the interviews expressed concern over the long-term effects the use of advertorials may have on the brand of Volvo. Further, advertorials are definitely highly deceptive, and almost half of the respondents did not realize they were reading an advert even at the lowest level of blend-in, which is currently used by Aftonbladet.se and Volvo. / Avhandlingen utforskar advertorials, reklam kommer att se ut som redaktionellt innehåll, från en konsument beteende perspektiv. Introduktion                Konsumenter exponeras dagligen för oerhörda mängder reklam. Detta gör det svårt för marknadsförare att nå konsumenten. Sedan slutet av 1980-talet har vissa marknadsförare därmed börjat använda okonventionella metoder för reklam. En av dessa är användandet av ”dolda annonser”, en form av reklam som lånar utseende och andra funktioner för att smälta in med redaktionellt material i tidningar, på webbsidor och så vidare. Problemdiskussion       Eftersom ”dolda annonser” är gjorda för att likna redaktionellt material, men i själva verket är en annonser är det av intresse för både forskare och praktiserande marknadsförare att veta effekterna användandet har på deltagande företags varumärken. Tidigare forskning skiljer sig i synen på dessa ”dolda annonser”, vissa hävdar att det är ett bra sätt att göra reklam, eftersom det ses som mindre påträngande och irriterande, medan andra säger att dess vilseledande natur faktiskt gör människor uppretade. Syfte                            Genom en kvantitativ fallstudie av Aftonbladet.se, en svensk nyhets-site, från ett konsumentperspektiv analysera effekterna på 1) varumärket trovärdighet, och 2) irritationsnivån, både på annonsorganet och annonsören, när ”dolda annonser” smälter in mer med redaktionellt innehåll. Dessutom, 3) att därefter undersöka om eventuella ändringar i irritation och varumärkestrovärdighet leder till förändringar i attityd mot annonsorganet och annonsören. Bakgrund                     Tidningar har länge varit beroende av intäkterna från annonsförsäljning. I takt med att framväxten av gratistidningar och nyhets-siter har försvårat marknaden har ”dolda annonser” blivit en allt viktigare inkomstkälla. I den elektroniska världen, där läsare kan hoppa från artikel till artikel och från plats till plats, spelar ”dolda annonser” en viktig roll i att fånga läsaren. Referensram                 Online-kontextet ger större möjligheter att vilseleda konsumenten i jämförelse med tryckta medier. Därför är den teoretiska tungdpunkten lagd på tidigare forskning om effekterna vilseledande marknadsföring kan ha på en konsuments  uppfattning av deltagande varumärken vad gäller irritationsnivå, varumärkestrovärdighet, attityd, sannolikhet att återvända till webbplats, samt reklamundvikande. Ur tidigare forskning konstruerades 11 hypoteser för senare prövning. Metod                          Studien använder en blandad metodstrategi, med både kvantitativa och kvalitativa data. Ett experiment med en kontrollgrupp och två olika manipulationer låg till grund för insamlingen av uppgifter. 19 av de 103 deltagarna i den kvantitativa delen ombads att delta i den kvalitativa studien med. Analys                          Eftersom fördelningen inte var helt normalt distribuerad användes Kruskal-Wallis test för att testa hypoteserna. Resultatet var att alla hypoteser utom en godkändes. Relationen mellan variabler undersöktes också genom hierarkisk multipel regressionsanalys. Slutsats                         Det var inte möjligt att bevisa att annonser som smälter in mer leder till minskad trovärdighet för någon av de båda varumärkena, och inte heller lockar fram mer irritation. Det var inte heller möjligt att urskilja en statistiskt signifikant effekt på attityd gentemot varumärken, sannolikheten att återvända till Aftonbladet.se, eller framtida undvikande av annonser av Volvo. Dock uttryckte flera av deltagarna i intervjuerna oro över de långsiktiga effekterna användning av ”dolda annonser” kan ha på varumärket Volvo. Vidare är definitivt annonserna mycket vilseledande, och nära hälften insåg inte de läste en annons även på nivån som används av Aftonbladet.se och Volvo idag.