Kacy Kim, Bryant University

Changju Kim, Ritsumeikan University

Hsuan-Ting Chen, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Yoon Hi Sung, Yonsei University

Influencer advertising has become a central form of brand communication, evolving beyond traditional supplementary social media tactics. Brands increasingly leverage influencers, creators, livestream hosts, virtual personalities, and AI-generated personas to communicate persuasive messages and build consumer relationships. The special issue examines influencer advertising as a distinctive form of persuasive communication, recognizing that its power stems from embedded messages in personal narratives, lifestyle content, entertainment, and creator-audience relationships, increasingly enhanced by AI and synthetic content.

The effectiveness of influencer advertising raises important concerns about unintended consequences. When consumers perceive influencer content as overly commercialized, deceptive, or inauthentic, it may generate skepticism and distrust. Emerging challenges including deepfakes, manipulated content, synthetic media, and privacy concerns highlight the need to examine both the persuasive power and potential harms of influencer advertising.

Appel publié par International Journal of Advertising. Lire l'appel complet sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• Influencer advertising as a distinctive form of advertising and persuasive communication
• Influencers as advertising sources, endorsers, creators, brand partners, cultural intermediaries, and social influence agents
• Boundaries among authentic expression, commercial persuasion, sponsored content, branded entertainment, native advertising, electronic word-of-mouth, and public relations
• New theoretical frameworks for understanding influencer advertising
• Source credibility, expertise, authenticity, relatability, attractiveness, perceived similarity, and trustworthiness
• Influencer–brand fit, product fit, audience fit, and value congruence
• Message design, storytelling, humor, emotion, lifestyle appeals, visual execution, language, tone, and aesthetics
• Product demonstrations, reviews, tutorials, testimonials, livestreams, short-form videos, and experiential advertising formats
• Attitudes toward influencer ads, sponsored content, influencers, and brands
• Persuasion knowledge, skepticism, advertising recognition, advertising literacy, and resistance
• Parasocial and trans-parasocial relationships, emotional attachment, perceived intimacy, reciprocity, interaction, and co-creation
• Brand attitudes, purchase intentions, brand trust, brand equity, consumer loyalty, and long-term brand relationships
• Effects of influencer advertising across the customer journey and across product, service, nonprofit, health, public policy, and social cause contexts
• Virtual influencers, AI-generated influencers, synthetic creators, digital avatars, and AI-assisted content production
• Generative AI, deepfakes, synthetic media, and manipulated influencer content in advertising
• Personalized and tailored influencer advertising and consumer receptivity to personalized influencer messages
• Privacy concerns, perceived intrusiveness, surveillance concerns, consumer autonomy, and perceived control
• Livestream interaction, real-time persuasion, social commerce, and shoppable content
• Authenticity, identity, humanness, anthropomorphism, disclosure, and trust in synthetic or AI-assisted influence
• Conditions under which influencer advertising backfires, including distrust, avoidance, influencer fatigue, and perceived inauthenticity
• Hidden persuasion, sponsorship disclosure failures, deceptive advertising, misinformation, and corrective interventions
• Deepfakes, manipulated influencer content, synthetic media, fabricated endorsements, and AI-generated claims
• Consumer well-being, vulnerable audiences, representation, diversity, sustainability, regulation, and public trust

Timeline

• January 15, 2027: GMC Tokyo 2027 submission deadline
• July 22, 2027: GMC Tokyo 2027 Conference
• September 1, 2027: Special issue submission window opens
• September 30, 2027: Special issue submission deadline

Eunjin (Anna) Kim, University of Southern California

Robert Kozinets, University of Southern California

The proliferation of AI tools and digital platforms is transforming advertising storytelling into an adaptive, multi-authored process where narratives are created, circulated, and remixed across humans, algorithms, and channels. This raises critical questions about how stories function as persuasive and cultural resources when they are fragmented, personalized, and constantly recombined by algorithms and influencers. The special issue addresses gaps in understanding what makes advertising narratives compelling in this evolving landscape.

While established psychological mechanisms like transportation, empathy, and identification explain narrative effectiveness, these mechanisms are being tested in environments of short-form content, emerging formats, and AI-generated narratives. Simultaneously, cultural and ethical dimensions remain underexplored—including the role of authenticity, the risks of manipulation, the tension between entertainment and persuasion, and how algorithmic storytelling interacts with human creativity and consumer meaning-making.

Appel publié par International Journal of Advertising. Lire l'appel complet sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• (Re-)Conceptualizing advertising storytelling in contemporary contexts
• Exploring AI-generated content that circulates alongside human imaginaries and narratives
• Moving beyond 'do narratives work in advertising?' toward 'how do they work in contemporary media environments?'
• Investigating the craft of advertising storytelling from the creator's perspective
• Revisiting narrative advertising persuasion mechanisms such as transportation, empathy, identification, and mental simulation in fragmented and multi-platform environments
• Comparing effectiveness of narrative versus non-narrative advertising approaches
• Investigating questions about authorship, coherence, authenticity, and credibility when campaigns function as adaptive or transmedia flows
• Examining how algorithmic and human-authored narratives interact to create or fracture meanings for consumers
• Brand storytelling strategies where advertising narratives function as cultural resources
• Researching the human craft of advertising storytelling built on relationships
• The role of retro-narratives, nostalgia, and other human and cultural elements in advertising
• Micro-narratives in TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts: narrative advertising strategies for persuasion in seconds
• Examining forms, structures, and impacts of influencer storytelling around the globe
• Cross-device coherence in narrative advertising across TV, mobile, and digital formats
• Algorithmic sequencing and recombination of story fragments and implications for narrative coherence and persuasion
• Brand integration challenges in short-form storytelling advertising and risks of the 'vampire effect'
• Tensions between advertising messages and social and political issues
• Exploring the dialectical relationship between brand storytelling and consumer resistance, skepticism, or counter-narratives
• Story fatigue and manipulation: consumer overexposure, cynicism, and narrative distrust
• Dark narratives: how persuasive stories may normalize harmful stereotypes or glamorize risky behaviors
• Ethics of AI-augmented storytelling and deepfake narratives
• Gap between brand narrative promises and reality in terms of truthfulness and accountability
• How storytelling in advertising creates context for identity, authenticity, and the quest for the 'real'

Timeline

• November 11, 2026: Manuscript deadline
• November 11, 2026: Submissions open
• December 11, 2026: Submissions close