Children and YouTubers
Navigating the Maze of Sponsored Content and Advertising for Merch
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7149515 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Fredrika Thelandersson (0000-0002-4978-645X, Department of Communication Lund University Lund Sweden, corresponding author), Carolina Martínez (0000-0002-5692-0995, Department of Childhood, Education and Society Malmö University Malmö Sweden), Helena Sandberg (0000-0001-9467-8020, Department of Communication Lund University Lund Sweden) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 39 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 1068-1078 |
| Publication date | 2025-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Children & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0951-0605 • E-ISSN: 1099-0860 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/chso.12975 |
| OpenAlex | W4410634305 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 33 |
Recent scholarly attention has focused on YouTubers' advertising practices and their influence on young followers' understanding of commercial content. Although previous studies primarily explore children's advertising literacy, they often treat YouTubers' influencer marketing as a unified phenomenon. This article distinguishes between two types of advertising: sponsored content and merchandise (merch) advertising. Merch advertising is viewed as more personally connected to the YouTuber than third‐party sponsorships. The study examines how children, ages 10–13, interpret these forms of advertising within parasocial relationships with YouTubers. Based on group interviews with 19 Swedish children, the analysis explores appropriation, moral economy and parasocial relationships. The findings reveal that children find sponsored content more intrusive and deceptive than merch advertising, which is discussed more as a product. These results highlight the importance of a nuanced understanding of YouTubers' advertising practices in research involving children and YouTubers
Advertising · Business · Child Development and Digital Technology · Digital Games and Media · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Mathematics · Psychology
Television And Everyday Life
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Fostering Parasocial Relationships with Celebrities on Social Media
Capitalizing intimacy
Doing Cultural Studies The Story Of The Sony Walkman
New mobile advertising formats targeting young audiences
Creation of a Code of Ethics for Influencer Marketing
Teenagers’ moral advertising literacy in an influencer marketing context
The urgent need for more research on influencer marketing
Social Media Influencers and Followers
Exploration of Parental Advertising Literacy and Parental Mediation
Making sense of YouTubers
From vernacularized commercialism to kidbait
Insights in adolescents’ advertising literacy, perceptions and responses regarding sponsored influencer videos and disclosures
It’s Just Addictive People That Make Addictive Videos”
Branding Kidfluencers
Social media literacy
From persuasive messages to tactics
The mass production of celebrity
Is every YouTuber going to make a coming out video eventually
Self-branding, 'micro-celebrity' and the rise of Social Media Influencers
I Guess A Lot of People See Me as a Big Sister or a Friend
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |