Are you blind to advertising? : A qualitative study regarding youths advertising literacy and how it affects their approach towards advertising on TikTok

The social media app TikTok has recently grown enormously worldwide, especially among young people. The purpose of this study is therefore to investigate seven high school students' knowledge regarding advertising literacy between the ages of 17-18, and how it affects their approach to advertising on TikTok. The study uses theories such as the reception theory and previous research studies that are within the subject. These studies consist of stealth marketing, influencer marketing and media literacy. The study used a qualitative method by conducting semi-structured interviews that were based on showing the respondents two TikTok videos before and after the interview as well as an interview guide that contained the areas and themes the interview would revolve around. These interviews would be the foundation of answering the studies three primary questions: How do the respondents answer towards stealth marketing on TikTok? What strategies do the respondents use to identify influencer marketing on TikTok? And how does the respondents' way of viewing a TikTok video change after an interview that highlights marketing? The results of the study indicate that the respondents’ approach to stealth marketing on TikTok is influenced by their motivation to take part of the content as well as identifying a certain uncertainty regarding their stance towards stealth marketing. The overall strategies the respondents use to identify influencer marketing on TikTok are through tags and hashtags in the description, when company logos and trademarks appear, noticing the influencer's tone of voice, and if the influencer's content is different from what they normally do. And last but not least, the respondents became generally more critical towards the two TikTok videos after the interview had taken place. The conclusion of this study is to encourage Swedish schools to become better at teaching students about source criticism and stealth marketing on social media platforms since this study has shown a pattern of uncertainty among the respondents regarding their criticism skills on social media platforms