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Around the mid-2000s, the first wave of young Thai women who attained fame organically on the internet emerged when their photos and profiles were widely shared by friends and fans in web communities and discussion forums. Comprising mainly of students, these women were known as “net idols” and celebrated primarily for their looks, as online conversations focused on their beauty, cosmetic and dressing skills, and overall pleasant appearance. Since then, some of these net idols have parlayed their online popularity into commercial exchanges and partnerships by advertising for clients, evolving into a commercial form of microcelebrity known as “influencers” (Abidin, 2016), while still others progressed into different forms of internet celebrity confined only to online fame as social capital without further tangible returns. In this chapter, we review the conceptual history of net idols and a subset of influencers known as “beauty bloggers” in Thailand, drawing on observations and content analyses of net idols’ Instagram posts, beauty bloggers’ Facebook posts, conversations from selected discussion boards, and popular sentiment about these internet celebrities in tabloids and online websites. Most of the content is originally in Thai and translated by the first author.

This study aims to examine how young consumers perceive the advertising effectiveness of endorsements by virtual idols and how endorsements by virtual idols differ from endorsements by real human celebrities such as traditional celebrities and online influencers.

An experimental study was conducted with 400 randomly selected young respondents in China in December 2022. A 3 × 2 factorial design was used to test how the type of celebrity endorser and level of product involvement influence the persuasiveness of advertising aimed at young adults. Among 400 respondents, the average age was 21.5 years. A total of 193 male and 207 female respondents participated in the experiment.

Young consumers find virtual idols, online influencers and traditional celebrities attractive. Although virtual idols are the least credible among the three types of celebrity endorsers, young consumers tend to be more convinced by their endorsements of products with low levels of consumer involvement than those with high levels of involvement. Among the three types of celebrity endorsements, young consumers find traditional celebrities the most effective. In addition, young consumers’ attitudes toward celebrity endorsers mediate the impact of celebrity endorsers’ attractiveness and credibility on their attitudes toward the advertisements. The perceived level of product involvement moderates the transfer of meaning from the attitude toward the celebrity endorsers to the attitude toward the advertisement.

First, when choosing celebrity endorsers to advertise products targeting young consumers, marketing communication practitioners should give priority to the endorsers’ perceived credibility, as young consumers have a variety of views about them that can significantly affect their attitudes toward the advertisement. Second, real human celebrity endorsers are more effective than virtual idols in celebrity endorsements. However, virtual idols may be suited for use in advertisements to promote products with low involvement levels, such as soft drinks.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first experimental study to attempt to analyze the effectiveness of virtual idols in advertising aimed at young consumers. This is also the first comparative study to introduce virtual idols as celebrity endorsers in product advertising and to compare their effectiveness with that of the two other types of commonly discussed celebrity endorsers, traditional celebrities and online influencers.

During the second decade of the twenty-first century, the phenomenon of ‘kawaii metal’ has garnered significant attention in English-language mainstream press alongside more limited discussion in metal journalism. An ostensible fusion of metal and Japanese aidoru ‘idol’ music, kawaii metal artists frequently juxtapose the traditional aesthetics of kawaii ‘cuteness’ with those of metal, emphasising a combination of influences distinctly Eastern and Western. Prominent among kawaii metal artists, Babymetal have generated substantial press coverage in the Anglophone world. Despite emanating from the Japanese idol industry and singing almost exclusively in Japanese, touring the United States, and Europe (producing live CDs and DVDs recorded in the United States and United Kingdom) have made Babymetal one of the most visible Japanese bands in Anglo-America. This chapter explores Babymetal's fusion of idol and metal by analysing the lyrics for the band's first two albums, Babymetal (2014) and Metal Resistance (2016). Following an introduction to kawaii metal through the lens of Anglo-American press, the author elucidates Babymetal's origins as a sub-unit of the idol group Sakura Gakuin. With this background established, the author investigates the use of wordplay and themes relating to childishness and adolescence in the lyrics on Babymetal's debut album. Examining the lyrics of the band's second album illuminates a more thorough integration of idol and metal tropes, including more English-language lyrics, seemingly designed to align Babymetal with a more global metal audience, managing the interplay of Western and Eastern influences.

“Idol pilgrimage tour” is a popular trend among young Chinese fans who travel for idol-related purposes, engage in interactive events and have co-created experiences at destinations. With the growing market size of fan economy, fan tourists generate significant revenue for the local. However, many destinations have not fully utilised this opportunity, and there is a lack of research on this niche form of tourism. This research was undertaken to address this research gap.

This study adopted an idol worship–motivation–co-created experience–tour satisfaction–destination loyalty framework in the context of idol pilgrimage tours. In addition, this study investigated the direct influence of idol worship on the other four constructs. Data were collected from 354 Chinese fans who had such experience through online questionnaires. The partial least squares–structural equation modelling technique was used to examine the research model.

It was demonstrated that idol worship has a direct influence on motivation, co-created experience, satisfaction and loyalty and that there is a positive relationship between motivation, co-created experience, satisfaction and loyalty. The results advance the brand sacralisation literature by studying worship in a tourism context and contribute to interactive marketing literature by clarifying the interactive mechanism between relationships among the idol, fans and destinations. The study suggests some practical implications for destination management organisations attempting to target tourist fans.

This is the first study introducing the concept of the idol pilgrimage tour. Empirical results of this study reveal the underlying mechanism of how idols influence fans' travel-related psychology and behaviour.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of parental and peer norms on idol worship as well as the effect of idol worship on the intention to purchase and obtain the idol’s music products legally and illegally.

A stratified, two-stage, cluster sampling procedure was applied to a list of high schools obtained from the Ministry of Education in Taiwan. A return rate of 80 per cent yielded 723 usable questionnaires, the data from which were analysed by the LISREL structural equation modelling software.

The results suggest that both social worship and personal worship have a significant and positive impact on the intention to purchase music. However, personal worship has a negative impact on the intention to pirate music while social worship appears to strengthen it.

The findings suggest that idol worship is more complex than previously understood. The constructs chosen in this research should be seen only as a snapshot but other variables such as vanity trait, autonomy, romanticism or involvement are not taken into account. Future studies would benefit from inclusion of these variables and a wider geographical scope.

The findings contain many implications to help marketing executives and planners better revise their existing marketing and communication strategies to increase their revenue.

Existing research has tended to examine the impact of idol worship as a whole on the reduction of music piracy, but overlook the two-dimensional aspects of idol worship, hence ignoring the fact that many music firms have not properly utilised idol worship to deal with the challenges associated with music piracy. The findings broaden existing understanding about the causes of two different dimensions of idol worship and their different impacts on the intention to music piracy.

“Fostered idols” refer to entertainment idols and young stars-in-the-making who begin their careers as amateurs. Today, the fostered idol model has become increasingly popular in China, and fans demonstrate incredible consumption power. Despite the booming market, little is known about this phenomenon. Therefore, this study aims to explore fans’ motivations and consumption practices from the consumer’s perspective within the framework of self-determination theory.

In all 20 in-depth interviews with fostered idol fans were conducted through online phone calls. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and subsequently analysed using a grounded approach.

The results indicate that fans’ consumption practices are motivated both intrinsically and extrinsically. Intrinsic motivation includes sensory pleasure while extrinsic motivations are composed of a sense of being needed and a sense of success. Extrinsic motivations play a dominant role and reflect the needs of relatedness and competence. Additionally, consumption practices are found to be consistent with motivations.

The results show the crucial role of psychological satisfaction experienced by fans in the consumption of the fostered idol and highlight the importance of a relatedness- and competence-supportive environment to secure fans’ persistent consumption and loyalty.

This study focuses on fans of fostered idols that has not been explored in existing studies and offers valuable insights regarding the similarities and differences between fan consumption in China and other Asian countries. The results will inform marketing practitioners for the development of effective strategies and business decisions.

This paper seeks to report from a qualitative study of the global television concept Pop Idol with the aim of evaluating children's and teenagers' involvement as consumers, both in their roles in purchasing goods and services, and being targets for well‐designed promotional activities.

Based on content analysis and interviews with children, the paper analyses the dynamics between marketing strategies, program content and child audiences.

The paper discusses how young consumers distinguish between two “regimes of truth” in the television concept: first the creation of a superstar, and second the broader phenomenon that Pop Idol represents, which is mainly about creating consumers through participation.

The paper contributes to acknowledging children's perspectives and childhood as not only valuable but necessary to inform consumer research, since children are deeply and unavoidably enmeshed in consumption in fundamental ways.

This paper aims to examine the importance and concept of idol attachment, model its antecedents and moderators and assess its influence on human brand loyalty.

This paper includes two studies. In Study 1, survey questionnaires were distributed by mall intercept to quasi-random samples across Australia and Taiwan for completion and return. The return yielded 1,135 and 736 usable questionnaires, respectively, from which the data were analysed using LISREL structural equation modelling software. In Study 2, an experiment was used to examine whether idol attractiveness is likely to positively moderate the relationship between vanity traits and attachment.

The results suggest that achievement vanity, variety seeking and peer norms have a positive impact on the phenomenon of idol attachment, which in turn positively affects human brand loyalty. Contradicting previous studies, the physical appearance of vanity was not found to be associated with idol attachment. However, the results of the experiment show that idol attractiveness has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between vanity traits and human brand attachment.

The findings suggest that idol attachment is more complex than previously understood. The constructs chosen in this research represent an initial step but other variables such as liking, involvement, affective commitment and brand love are not taken into account. Future research models should therefore include such variables.

The findings contain many practical lessons for planners of marketing strategy for the music industry in an international context.

Two existing theories of psychology are integrated with the concept of idol attachment to explain human brand loyalty in an international context.

This chapter examines Francis Bacon’s influence on Émile Durkheim and demonstrates that Bacon’s theory of mental “idols” has a significant presence in Durkheim’s work. Both Bacon and Durkheim sought to demarcate new methods of inquiry against contemporary contenders. Both were wary of unfettered philosophical abstraction, as well as the pseudo-scientist’s preoccupation with immediately practical results. Thus, it is fitting that Durkheim would explicitly characterize perceived dangers to sociological knowledge in terms of Bacon’s idols – as objective obstacles which habit substitutes for fact in the absence of a sufficiently powerful epistemological mechanism. In preparation against these idols, Durkheim and Bacon offer rhetorically and logically similar remedies of self-imposed discipline and restraint. A close reading of key texts reveals that Durkheim’s references to Bacon capture surprisingly deep similarities, suggesting that Bacon influenced Durkheim to a greater degree than is commonly recognized.

This study illustrates how youth and young adults use boundary-making processes to create a regulated community online.

Ethnographic methods are used to compare deviance models of internet participation with work on digital youth culture.

This paper finds that digital youth draw boundaries around three categories of participation (n00bs, trolls, and idols) to identify new people who need help, ward off bullies, and uphold community ideals.

Contrary to deviance perspectives, this study finds that digital youth use boundary-making processes to cultivate a civil online community.