ABSTRACT
This study explores advertising literacy among Generation Z on the social media platform TikTok, and focuses on their ability to recognise persuasive (commercial) content in short video formats. As entertaining and commercial messages increasingly merge on social media platforms, the ability to identify advertising has become a key aspect of media and advertising literacy among young audiences. The research is based on a quantitative survey conducted with 399 respondents aged 18 to 25. The study examined their ability to recognise various forms of advertising on TikTok, including branded content and native advertising formats resembling organic user-generated videos. The results revealed significant deficiencies in respondents’ ability to recognise advertising on TikTok. Participants had difficulty distinguishing between entertainment and persuasive communication, particularly when advertising messages were seamlessly integrated into engaging and authentic-looking content. No significant relationship was found between their time spent on social media and their advertising literacy. These findings suggest that even digitally native users demonstrate limited advertising literacy when confronted with hybrid content formats typical of TikTok.
KEY WORDS
Advertising Literacy. Commercial Communication. Content on TikTok. Generation Z. TikTok.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.34135/mlar-26-01-04
Advertising Literacy in the Age of Tiktok: Recognition of Commercial Content among Generation Z © 2026
by Denis Javořík, Ľudmila Čábyová, UCM Trnava is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license.