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Parenthood ushers in many situations with which individuals have little experience. Given today’s technology-integrated environment, parents can instantly gain support from a large audience using social media. This support often includes “sharenting,” or regularly using social media to share information about one’s child. Using consumer vulnerability and communications privacy management theory as theoretical foundations, the authors focus on mothers’ vulnerability and how it may translate into increased children’s consumer vulnerability. The in-depth interviews in Study 1 offer insights into mothers’ expressions of vulnerability and how these expressions can be linked to their motivations for sharing children’s personally identifiable information (PII) on social media. In Study 2, the authors observed mothers of young children participating in a Twitter chat hosted by a major children’s brand, examining expressions of mothers’ vulnerability, the extent to which they posted child PII, and the extent to which mothers both expressed vulnerability and posted child PII. The authors discuss public policy and managerial implications for this understudied dimension of children’s online privacy and our increasingly technology-integrated society.

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Purpose The present research aims to examine selfie-marketing from a consumer behavior perspective. Creating and sharing selfies are gaining popularity among millennials. The authors seek to understand how this popularity relates to classic research on narcissism and self-concept and to determine the effectiveness of selfie-marketing in visual user-generated content. Design/methodology/approach A mixed methods approach is used across two studies. Study 1’s qualitative exploration uses the grounded theory method by analyzing semi-structured interviews with millennials. The findings produce three research propositions. These propositions are further developed into testable hypotheses in Study 2’s quantitative investigation, featuring analysis of the variance of online survey data collected from millennials. Findings The findings suggest that narcissism positively relates to millennials’ attitudes toward and intent to participate in selfie-marketing on visual content-sharing apps. Results also demonstrate that millennials seek to use selfies to present their self-concepts differently in various visual content-sharing environments. Originality/value The present research is among the first to focus on the importance of self-presentation and narcissism in regard to consumers’ attitudes and behavioral responses toward selfie-marketing. For marketers, this underscores the importance of understanding the unique nature of user-generated visual content on social media.

This study examines the effect of consumer health-consciousness on attitude toward dietary supplements as well as consumer perceptions of supplement risks and benefits when compared to their prescription drug counterparts. The authors investigate three conditions (insomnia, depression, and high cholesterol) with both a prescription drug and dietary supplement regimen available. Results indicate that health consciousness is positively related to attitudes toward dietary supplements, which is positively related to perceived supplement benefits, but negatively associated with perceived supplement risks. Mediating effects of attitudes toward dietary supplements are also found. Moreover, familiarity with direct to consumer advertising (DTCA) moderates the relationship between health consciousness and attitude toward dietary supplements. Our findings suggest that knowledge may play a key role in attitude and perception formation and that both benefit and risk information about supplements should be provided to consumers so they can make informed decisions about their health.Over the past two decades, US consumers have been targeted with ever-increasing amounts of product information related to health-enhancing products and services. The broadened use of advertisements and other types of promotions in support of these offerings has drawn much greater scrutiny from a variety of regulatory, media, and consumer advocacy sources. As the level of scrutiny and content of regulatory directives differ markedly across product categories, consumers have become inundated with seemingly conflicting information about various types of healthcare goods and services. For example, consumers may be exposed to an ad touting the healthy heart benefits of MegaRed ® Omega 3