The Influence of Intensive Digital Advertising on Young Consumers Purchasing Behavior

Abstract

This research aims to identify the impact of the abundance of digital advertisements on the purchasing behavior of youth among students of the College of Applied Arts in Baghdad, using the descriptive analytical method. A questionnaire was designed consisting of three main axes: density of exposure to advertisements, negative effects and advertising fatigue, and impulsive response and emotional purchasing. It was applied to a stratified random sample of 100 male and female students from various colleges and specializations. The results of the first axis showed that 68% of students are exposed to a very large number of digital advertisements daily, 58% notice the same advertisement repeatedly across multiple platforms, 64% have difficulty remembering advertised products due to their abundance and crowding, and 62% are forced to wait before viewing the content they are looking for. Regarding the second axis, the results revealed that 72% feel boredom and distress when the same advertisements are repeated more than three times a day, 78% skip digital advertisements immediately upon appearance without looking or listening to them, 64% feel that advertisements "haunt" them everywhere on the internet, which reduces their desire to interact with them, and 50% lose confidence in the quality of the advertised product due to the abundance of advertisements. In the third axis, the results showed that 62% are influenced by time-limited offers (such as discounts for a short period) and make immediate purchase decisions, 52% find it difficult to resist buying products they have dreamed of when seeing an advertisement for them, and 44% sometimes regret purchasing products they saw heavily advertised after discovering that they do not meet their real needs. The results also revealed gaps in advertising literacy among students, as more than half of them cannot distinguish between honest and misleading advertisements.