Research On The Influence Of Celebrity Endorsement On Youth Materialism

Web2.0 with its emphasis on social networking and other aspects has transformed the landscape of advertising,the social media being in growing popularity such as short videos,microblogs and online shopping,and the definition of "celebrity" is expanded as well.Reality TV shows featuring ordinary people are replacing traditional TV sitcoms starring expensive professional actors,and nowadays previously unknown ordinary people can develop their online roles to gain attention and then become stars via social application performances uploaded.In the new marketing environment,how will these new celebrity endorsements affect materialism among youth through social media and what mediums are involved in it?This study based on the persuasion theory of Scott Hovland has set up a framework,from the points of the original features of celebrity endorsements including attraction and credibility,the establishment of quasi social relationship between users and celebrities to influence upon users' attitudes toward such advertisements,increase in shopping desire,and eventually their materialism.Meanwhile,specific objects are selected and independent variables composed of macro social media contact length and degree of contact and interaction with fashion-related content to research the above influence.A questionnaire survey is conducted,470 respondents involved.And empirical analyses are performed to verify both the above frame and hypotheses.The theories of quasi social interaction and social psychology are applied during the course.Within this framework,we determine that in the social media environment,celebrities interact with the media and influence the materialism among youth via a series of mediums.Specifically,through mediating effects of quasi social communication and advertising attitude,celebrities exert the influence on such materialism positively and significantly.As for social media contact,the above length and degree exercise similar influence,but only contact and interaction with fashion-related content take effect on quasi social communication between users and celebrities.So we come to the conclusion that social media wield greater influence on the materialism among the youth who develop more interest,operation and interaction in or with the fashion-related content than those pure content viewers.This dissertation produces much research fruits with both theoretical andpractical significance.The theoretical aspects include benefits in further knowledge of cyber influence on contemporary youth,empirical evidence of celebrities' original features in settings of social media,verification of the relationship between materialism among youth and micro focusing on contact and interaction with fashion-related content,realistic proof of study in “Phenomena Class” figure Li Jiaqi.And practical aspects assist stress and improvement,building and maintenance,on or of user community,vigilance in trap of symbol consumption and conversion to spiritual consumption.