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Exploration of Parental Advertising Literacy and Parental Mediation: Influencer Marketing of Media Character Toy and Merchandise

Abstract This study uncovers parents’ advertising literacy and their mediation strategies of influencers’ commercial videos that contain media character merchandise. Thirty-five semi-structured interviews were conducted with parents of preschool-aged children currently living in the United States. Few parents could articulate how influencer marketing works on social media in detail. For a majority of parents, influencer marketing was powerful and alluring but also inappropriate for young children. Popular media characters were limitedly discussed as a strategy to attract young children. While multiple mediation strategies were shared, parents with higher affective and moral advertising literacy tended to practice either restrictive mediation or active mediation. Practical implications for scholars and educators are discussed.