Audience Reactions to Native Advertising in @putridistaki's TikTok Content

Abstract

TikTok as one of the most popular social media in Indonesia is closely tied to commercialization practices. One prominent form of content commercialization is native advertising, which involves embedding promotional content in a format that resembles original content, thereby does not directly disturb the user experience. This study aims to analyze audience responses to native advertising practices on the TikTok @putridistaki, which consistently integrates product promotion into it’s narrative-based content. This phenomenon is worth examining as it demonstrates how promotional material can be seamlessly embedded within entertainment content, often without audience’s explicit awareness. This research employs a qualitative method using content analysis, focusing on audience responses, derived from top comments across five of the TikTok @putridistaki’s popular contents. The findings indicate that native advertising practices on TikRok @putridistaki successfully incorporates product placement into light and engaging content. Most audiences are more drawn to the storyline of the content, thus product placement in the content not being their main focus. Beside that, audiences who recognize the presence of advertising do not express negative reactions, some of them responded affectively by relating their personal experiences to the narrative shown in the content.