Intrusive, irritating, ignored: understanding Gen-Z’s resistance to in-stream advertising

Abstract Purpose In-stream advertising has grown in popularity as a mobile social media advertising option. However, consumers often skip these advertisements, highlighting the need to understand the underlying psychological mechanisms driving such avoidance. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) mechanism underlying consumer annoyance and avoidance of in-stream advertising on mobile social media, with anger and perceived threat to freedom serving as key organismic states. Research design/methodology A survey was administered to Facebook and YouTube users through mobiles from Gen-Z (N = 995) at universities, colleges, shopping malls and parks in major cities of Pakistan. Partial least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) technique was employed to test the research model. Findings Gen-Z users displayed ad annoyance and ad avoidance behaviors (i.e., zipping, muting, and zapping) when exposed to in-stream advertising. Additionally, results indicated that ad intrusiveness and ad irritation (stimuli) directly influenced anger and perceived threats to freedom (organism), which then resulted in annoyance and avoidance of in-stream ads (response). Originality/value This study enhances the literature on in-stream advertisement annoyance and avoidance by empirically validating the stimulus-organism-response model to elucidate consumers’ reactions to in-stream ads on mobile social media, offering significant managerial insights for advertising professionals and marketers, and social media operators.