Abstract

This study investigates the underlying mechanisms of how young adolescents process social advertising (i. e., advertising on social networking sites which shows how many and which of the user’s friends have ‘liked’ the brand’s page). Particularly, two experiments examined the role of brand trust in adolescents’ attitude formation and how brand trust is predicted by theories of social proof and persuasion knowledge. In addition, the moderating role of brand familiarity and brand value is investigated. The first experiment (N = 142) showed that higher brand trust was induced for social advertising for unfamiliar but not for familiar brands through the principle of social proof. This means that friends’ likes may reduce uncertainty and increase trust in unfamiliar brands through social advertising, something which enhances brand attitudes. Persuasion knowledge could not explain the effects of social advertising. The second experiment (N = 72) showed that social advertisements are more effective for brands that are symbolic (versus non-symbolic). Managerial and policy implications regarding social advertising targeting adolescents are discussed.