Unboxing the Child Influencer Paradoxes: A Research Agenda (Rotimi et al., 2024)

Welcome to Revise and Resubmit, the podcast where we explore the most thought-provoking research papers, dissect new ideas, and challenge conventional thinking. Today, we’re diving into a world that’s both fascinating and perplexing—the world of child influencers. Imagine children, no older than ten, wielding influence over millions of viewers, unboxing toys on camera. It’s innocent, playful, but behind those viral videos, a web of contradictions and paradoxes emerges. In this episode, we’ll be exploring the paper 'Unboxing the Child Influencer Paradoxes: A Research Agenda,' authored by Irmine Keta Rotimi, Sheau-Fen Yap, and Ben Wooliscroft, and published in the Journal of Marketing Management. This study takes a hard look at the child influencer industry through the lens of paradox theory, uncovering three key tensions at the heart of toy unboxing videos. On the surface, it’s just fun and games, but when you dig deeper, questions start to bubble up. What happens when children, who are themselves the consumers, also become marketers? What ethical lines are blurred in a world where play is monetized? Today, we’ll unpack these paradoxes, examine the hidden complexities, and consider how marketers can navigate this landscape responsibly. But here's the big question: Can the industry balance fun and profit without exploiting its youngest stars? Let’s find out. Reference Irmine Keta Rotimi, Sheau-Fen Yap & Ben Wooliscroft (19 Sep 2024): Unboxing the child influencer paradoxes: a research agenda, Journal of Marketing Management, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2024.2405597