Desire Guidance Mechanisms and Covert Advertising: A Case Study

of Xiaohongshu

Changlu Li

School of Social Work, China University of Labor Relations, 100048 Beijing, China

Keywords: Covert Advertising, Symbolic Consumption, Consumer Motivation, Emotional Resonance, Resonance.

Abstract: With the rapid development of the internet, social media has gradually evolved to offer many new features to

meet user needs. As a popular social media platform, Xiaohongshu occupies an important position in the

advertising field with its large group of young users and unique "experience sharing" culture. With the

development of the platform, the definition of "advertising" and "experience sharing" is difficult to clear.

Many hidden advertisements cover the essence of "advertising" by releasing flashy "experience talk",

accompanied by copy and pictures and inducing words from the first perspective. It is found that the current

academic research on individual marketing of the Xiaohongshu platform mainly focuses on the "profit model"

and "development strategy". Through online field investigation, it is further found that, compared with the

marketing mode dominated by the implicit advertisement of Key Opinion Leader (KOL) on traditional media

platforms, the ordinary creators on the Xiaohongshu platform cover up the underlying desire guidance

mechanism through elaborate speech techniques, thus forming a new implicit advertisement mode. This

phenomenon reveals the blurring of the line between advertising and non-advertising content in platform

content creation and highlights the increasingly important role that ordinary creators play in modern digital

marketing.

1 INTRODUCTION

This study focuses on the desired guidance

mechanism of covert advertising in the we-media

platform. The reason why this mechanism can

successfully act on consumers is that ordinary

creators use and transform the mechanism of

consumerism. In a theoretical sense, this study

complements the existing research gaps on covert

advertising published by ordinary creators on social

media platforms. In a practical sense, this paper is

expected to help consumers improve their ability to

identify advertisements and strengthen the

supervision of Xiaohongshu platform.

The ultimate goal of the research is to reveal the

mechanism of covert advertising on Xiaohongshu

platform and provide a theoretical framework and

practical guidance for understanding and coping with

the impact of covert advertising in the broader social

media environment. This paper comprehensively uses

three research methods to promote the development

of research comprehensively and concretely. Firstly,

the literature analysis is adopted to discuss the

mechanism of covert advertising, Xiaohongshu

advertising, and consumerism from three dimensions,

aiming to deeply explain the operation mechanism of

individual marketing on the Xiaohongshu platform.

Secondly, using the case analysis method combined

with the existing theoretical framework, the "desire

guidance – resonance – consumption" model is

constructed to further analyze the marketing path of

the platform. Finally, this study conducted an in-

depth observation of ordinary creators through online

field investigation. It analyzed the transformation of

their advertising launch form in the process of

transferring from a Xiaohongshu platform to a private

contact. The results show that this change represents

the gradual transformation of covert advertising to

explicit advertising.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Research on Covert Advertising

Relative to the concept of "explicit advertising",

covert advertising mainly refers to the form of

advertising that is hidden in the carrier and together

with the carrier constitutes the information content

Li, C.

Desire Guidance Mechanisms and Covert Advertising: A Case Study of Xiaohongshu.

DOI: 10.5220/0014108500004942

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Applied Psychology and Mar keting Management (APMM 2025), pages 137-142

ISBN: 978-989-758-791-7

137

perceived by the audience and can unconsciously

show the information of the product or brand to the

audience (Fan et al., 2005). For a long time, there has

been a phenomenon of narrowing the scope of

research on covert advertising in China. In the

definition of covert advertising, Zhao Shan interprets

covert advertising as "embedding advertising" or

"embedded advertising". In the interpretation of

covert advertising, the types of implantations and

placement are regarded as the same type (Zhao,

2007). Hong Qiong divided covert advertising into

the category of film and television advertising and

defined the role of covert advertising as the strategic

integration of products or brands and their

representative visual symbols and even service

content into the content of movies, TV plays, or TV

programs. Through the reproduction of scenes,

viewers can leave a deep impression on products and

brands, and then achieve the purpose of marketing

(Hong and He, 2011). Zhao Suxin defines covert

advertising from the perspective of embedded

advertising, which can be embedded in any plot

(Zhao, 2007). Based on the concept of "embedded",

Zhang Huiji analyzes the implantation methods and

advantages of covert advertising in movies more

pertinently (Zhang, 2008). The relationship between

covert advertising and media communication is

analyzed by taking covert advertising, product

placement, and soft advertising as a whole. In many

studies, the implicit advertisement is generally

referred to as implant advertisement.

This definition makes the scope of implicit

advertisement broader, and it is difficult to investigate

the "implicit" connotation of implicit advertisement.

In addition, there are three research focuses on the

study of covert advertising: First, film and television

series product placement is a hot field of research,

because the earliest covert advertising is the product

placement in film and television series, product

placement is also the most common form of covert

advertising, so the research on covert advertising is

mainly focused on film and television series product

placement. Second, examines covert advertising from

the perspective of advertising laws and regulations.

China's advertising law requires advertisements to be

identifiable so that the audience can independently

identify them as advertisements. However, the

"implicit" nature of covert advertising infringes on

consumers' right to know and misleads consumption

decisions when they reduce their vigilance. And

through the establishment of the characteristics of the

covert advertising rules and advanced legal

supervision system to regulate covert advertising

behavior (Meng, 2007). Third, with the advent of the

Internet era, the research focus has shifted from

traditional covert advertising to online covert

advertising. However, the research on online covert

advertising is mostly from the perspective of

advertising regulations and development status and is

limited to online celebrity advertising. In social

media, ordinary covert advertising in the form of

Posts and comments has long been rampant. There is

little research on this kind of covert advertising.

Foreign research on covert advertising in social

media is relatively comprehensive. Some scholars

have recognized the concealability of covert

advertising and suggested that media platforms

should take appropriate measures. For example,

scholars like Tina Toma Z et al. define covert

advertising as a communication method designed to

inform potential buyers about products or services,

aiming to persuade and motivate them to make a

purchase. In their research results, they illustrate the

deliberately false and deceptive characteristics of

covert advertising through cases. In conclusion, it is

pointed out that journalists and editors are the ones

who protect the public from hidden advertisements

and other manipulations and should be responsible for

their actions (Tomažic et al., 2014). Some scholars

also take the YouTube platform as an example to

study "consumers" response to hidden advertisements

on social media" and believe that hidden

advertisements on social media are a kind of cheating

behavior, that will damage the image of companies’

brands, and media managers should be aware of the

possible damage to the reputation of the platform

(Göbel et al., 2017). However, based on the collection

of literature, no scholars have conducted in-depth

research on the covert advertising situation of

"ordinary creators" and clarified its action path.

Therefore, the results of this study can fill the gap by

helping consumers better understand and recognize

covert advertising, avoid unnecessary consumption,

and assist platforms in identifying and controlling

such users to maintain their image.

At present, there is research on the marketing path

of online anchors in the platform of Xiaohongshu, and

the researchers mostly focus on Xiaohongshu as a

corporation and analyze the marketing strategy or

native advertising and information flow advertising

of Xiaohongshu. For example, Yu Yunqi analyzed the

word-of-mouth marketing of female users of

Xiaohongshu APP and put forward suggestions for

optimizing the word-of-mouth marketing strategy of

brands in Xiaohongshu APP (Yu, 2021). Wei Ruolan

analyzed the communication advantages,

communication elements, and communication

characteristics of native advertising in Xiaohongshu

APMM 2025 - International Conference on Applied Psychology and Marketing Management

138

APP, and analyzed the communication mode of

native advertising in Xiaohongshu APP from two

perspectives: theoretical basis and practical basis

(Wei, 2020). Secondly, the research on individual

users focuses on three subjects: Key Opinion Leader

(KOL), Internet celebrities, and stars. For example,

Deng Sha takes Xiaohongshu as an example to

summarize the factors that influence KOL's "planting

grass" on users' purchase intention. Song Qiuyan tries

to find a legal path to define the legal responsibility

of stars in the process of recessive marketing (Deng,

2022). He Yihong takes the hidden advertisement of

a Xiaohongshu network as the research object to

analyze the characteristics of hidden advertisements,

and further explore the problems that are difficult to

identify, difficult to confirm, and harmful, to put

forward effective management strategies (He, 2022).

On the whole, due to the characteristics of difficult to

identify and sample covert advertising, there are only

a few relevant studies on covert advertising. In the

research on the marketing of Xiaohongshu Plain

creators, there is more blank research on the

mechanism of the combination of covert advertising

and consumer psychology, which requires

researchers to enrich the research content.

2.2 Research on Consumerism

Mechanism

Since the 1960s, with the progress of science and

technology, the rapid development of productive

forces and the turn of social movements, the private

commodity economy has been highly developed in

western capitalist countries. Under this background,

the industrial era led by modernism gradually

transitioned to the post-industrial era led by

postmodernism. The core of social operation has

shifted from traditional production to consumption,

and unprecedented material wealth encourages the

public to actively participate in consumption. As

some scholars have pointed out, "the saga of the

producing protagonist has now given way to the

consuming protagonist." In the past, people's single

consumption of goods was upgraded to the

consumption of symbols of goods, symbols began to

control the exchange value of things, and all kinds of

different symbols became the symbols to distinguish

social classes and measure the meaning of value.

"Objects, as symbols, become the only symbol

worshipped by the unconscious masses, which in

reality is manifested as the worship of consumption",

at the same time, human subjectivity also begins to

lose in the face of the dominance of symbols.

In the research on the "mechanism of

consumerism", there is no relevant research to clarify

the connection between consumerism and covert

advertising. In previous studies, the dynamic

mechanism of consumerism has been elaborated and

the "social-cultural psychological" support behind it

has been put forward, that is, consumption meets

people's various needs (Chu, 2017). The emphasis is

on eliciting a high level of respect and self-fulfilling

psychological satisfaction. Driven by business

interests, consumer goods are artificially labeled with

various labels to stimulate people to consume. Zuo

Luping and Zhu Yuli put forward the concept of

"cultural consumption", which is the national

consumption mania in the shape of a consumerism

cultural atmosphere (Zuo and Zhu, 2021). At present,

consumerism enters people's daily lives by means of

multiple means such as media publicity and creates a

cultural atmosphere of universal consumption for

people.

2.3 Theoretical Overview

According to S-O-R new behaviorist learning theory

by Howard and Sheth, motivation is the core driving

force of consumer purchasing behavior, which

includes biological and psychological needs, desires,

and wishes (Sugimoto, 2024). This motivation not

only directly affects the purchase behavior of a

particular product, but also indirectly affects the level

of information and reaction of consumers by

adjusting their excitement level. In addition, Engel,

Kollat, and Blackwell's consumer decision model

further refines this process, dividing consumer

decision making into multiple stages, including desire

cognition, information exploration, pre-purchase

selection evaluation, purchase, consumption, and

post-purchase evaluation. In these stages, motivation,

as the fundamental psychological tendency that

drives consumer action, guides consumer choice and

behavior by stimulating excitement.

In general, the consumerist desire guided model

influences the purchasing decision-making process

by stimulating consumers' internal motivation and

external stimulus. Based on these theories, this study

constructs a "desire guidance – resonance –

consumption" model to illustrate how covert

advertising can guide consumers' desire from the

"potential purchase motivation" of consumers and

stimulate consumers' excitement by building a

"cultural atmosphere" in the comment section, so as

to promote the generation of "consumer behavior".

Desire Guidance Mechanisms and Covert Advertising: A Case Study of Xiaohongshu

139

3 CASE STUDY

3.1 Consumer Psychological

Mechanism Driven by Desire

Under the trend of "enthusiasm for postgraduate

recommendation" in Chinese society, colleges and

universities take whether to participate in discipline

competitions, business competitions, and science and

technology competitions as a major standard to

measure whether undergraduate students can

participate in postgraduate protection. On the

Xiaohongshu platform, searching keywords like

"college students", "competition", and "research

support" reveals many individual users sharing their

competition experiences, often accompanied by

certificate photos and detailed experience posts. In

the comment section, messages like "PPT and plan

book for sale, please DM me" can also be found. In

addition, they will answer questions in the comment

section carefully and leave their contact information.

Taking a certain amateur blogger on the

Xiaohongshu platform as an example, the content

they post often includes titles such as "Didn't expect

to win first place in the competition on my first try –

experience sharing", "Please, don’t slack off in

sophomore year – join these competitions", "Please,

this provincial competition template is super useful",

and "If you want to secure a postgraduate

recommendation, you can't be too honest". These

types of titles have a tendency to "induce

consumption", using exaggerated language to attract

users' attention, but in essence, they are covert

advertisements.

In terms of content, the description of competition

experience is very brief, but it is accompanied by

several award certificates. This amateur blogger posts

a pinned comment in the comment section: "Paid

sharing of PPT and proposal, please contact me"

Through extensive interaction and discussions with

users in the comment section, a strong "atmosphere of

competition discussion" is created. Behind this

behavior is a drive to stimulate users' consumption

desires. In the positive atmosphere and responses,

consumers choose to add the amateur blogger on

WeChat for deeper information exchange.

3.2 The Relationship Between

Consumerism Culture and

Advertising Invisibility

"Experience sharing" is the interaction between the

blogger and the fan, the blogger publishes the relevant

content of the product he has personally experienced,

and the fans participate in it because of their interest

and love, and express their emotional experience

through comments, forwards, likes, barrages, private

messages, etc., and then generate collective interest

and resonance, and the products they share are

recognized and accepted by fans, which can be

regarded as a successful interaction. However, the

potential profit-making behavior under the sharing of

experience, and the generation of implicit advertising

is obscured. In this case study, the interactive

behavior of competition-related bloggers involves

using so-called "experience sharing" to create the

illusion that "winning competitions is easy" and

"postgraduate recommendation qualifications are

within easy reach", thereby stimulating users to

engage in deeper interactions (adding on WeChat)

and purchase competition-related derivative products

(project proposals, PPTs, etc.), thus achieving the

marketing goal of covert advertising.

In modern consumerism, people's pursuit of

"Symbols" is reflected in the pursuit of "High

Education", "Luxury Cars", "Logomania" and

"Personal Branding". On the Xiaohongshu platform,

every post's image is carefully edited, and the copy is

short yet highly provocative, guiding consumers to

click on the post and browse. On personal

homepages, related covert advertisements are

continuously pushed. For example, a post titled

"Collection! Recent outfit ideas!" is essentially an

advertisement for products. As these types of posts

accumulate on a user's homepage, the consumer is

subconsciously guided by the value orientation

behind consumerism, longing to become a person

filled with "aura", or "symbols". The pursuit of these

"symbols" compels consumers to continuously invest

their time and effort into consumerism. The excessive

pursuit of "personal branding" can prevent consumers

from integrating into real society and accepting the

truth that "achievements require time and effort", thus

leading to a state of psychological anxiety.

3.3 Platform Responsibility and

Supervision

Since most of the interactive users of the competition

are undergraduate students, they do not have social

experience and are eager to find a "shortcut" to obtain

the qualification for further study, so they cannot have

a strong ability to identify such implicit

advertisements. This kind of covert advertising

requires adding the WeChat accounts of ordinary

users to obtain products, creating ambiguity in the

assumption of legal liability. The supervision of such

APMM 2025 - International Conference on Applied Psychology and Marketing Management

140

advertising on Xiaohongshu platform is insufficient,

making it difficult to distinguish between commercial

promotion and genuine user sharing.

Xiaohongshu platform should strictly introduce

rules and regulations and warn consumers in text

form to distinguish the difference between "covert

advertising" and "experience sharing", that is, to

judge whether it is necessary to add the contact

information of individual users who have not been

certified by the platform, and strengthen the

certification audit of "merchants", to distinguish them

from individual marketers and facilitate supervision.

In addition, the platform should stipulate that if the

consumer adds the contact information of individual

users and loses money, the individual shall bear legal

responsibility.

COVERT ADVERTISING AND

CONSUMERISM'S "DESIRE

GUIDANCE – RESONANCE –

CONSUMPTION" MODEL

Through the analysis of the above cases, this study

constructs the "desire guidance – resonance –

consumption" model of covert advertising and

consumerism, involving how covert advertising

stimulates consumers' purchase desire through

subconscious and suggestive means and plays a key

role in consumerist culture. The core of this model is

that covert advertising drives consumer behavior by

manipulating consumers' psychology and emotions,

making them have a strong demand for goods that

they do not have to buy.

Through subtle symbols, images, or "words",

covert advertising makes consumers unconsciously

attracted and have a desire to buy. For example,

metaphors and symbolism in advertising can

associate a product with an ideal lifestyle or identity,

thereby stimulating consumer desire. This strategy is

not limited to direct commercial promotion, but also

involves shaping consumer perceptions through

cultural symbols and media communication. In other

words, by arousing the desire of consumers, covert

advertising makes them pursue the symbolic value

and symbolic meaning of commodities, rather than

just the actual use value of commodities (Baudrillard,

1970). This pursuit of symbolic value leads to

excessive consumerism and intensifies the

consumption of limited resources. By creating a

"false need", advertising convinces consumers that

they need to buy certain products to achieve

happiness and satisfaction.

The model indicates that individual marketing

reduces users' defensive psychology towards

advertising by establishing emotional resonance and

integrates advertising content more naturally into

users' daily lives through the guidance of latent

desires. This represents the core of emotional

resonance and covert advertising mechanisms. At the

same time, driven by consumerism, covert

advertising makes use of users' emotional needs,

expands consumers' false demand effect, and uses

suggestiveness to drive consumer behavior, forming

a two-way mechanism of consumerism and desire

guidance. In addition, through transparent advertising

identification and user education, the platform can not

only meet the advertising needs of ordinary bloggers

but also enhance users' ability to identify

advertisements, to maintain the credibility of the

platform and user experience, while achieving a

balance mechanism between platform supervision

and user education.

Figure 1: "Desire guidance – resonance – consumption"

model (Picture credit: Original)

This theoretical framework is not only applicable

to Xiaohongshu platform but also provides theoretical

support for the research of covert advertising on other

social media platforms. This theoretical model can

make consumers intuitively understand the potential

marketing path of ordinary creators and improve their

ability to distinguish hidden advertisements. At the

same time, managers of social media platforms can

combine this model with AI to build a "hidden

advertisement" identification system for the platform,

accurately add advertising signs to such posts, and

help users avoid unnecessary consumption behaviors.

CONCLUSION

This study believes that by establishing emotional

resonance with consumers, covert advertising on

Xiaohongshu platform reduces users' defensive

psychology towards advertising, making advertising

content more naturally permeate into users' daily

lives. It is further concluded that this mechanism not

only enhances the attraction of advertisements but

Desire Guidance Mechanisms and Covert Advertising: A Case Study of Xiaohongshu

141

also makes consumers accept advertising information

unconsciously, thus affecting their purchase

decisions. Driven by consumerist culture, covert

advertising uses consumers' emotional needs to build

a "desire-guiding" effect. Through suggestion and

guiding speech, covert advertising drives consumer

behavior, while consumers' pursuit of specific

symbols in turn strengthens the effect of covert

advertising, forming a mutually reinforcing closed

loop.

The covert advertising and desire guidance

mechanisms model proposed in this study is not only

applicable to Xiaohongshu platform but also provides

theoretical support for the covert advertising research

on other social media platforms. This model can help

researchers better understand how covert advertising

affects consumers in different social media

environments and how to develop effective

regulatory strategies. This study provides a new

perspective and theoretical basis for future research.

In addition, this study provides reference significance

for future research on covert advertising, especially in

the maintenance of media platforms. Social media

platforms such as Xiaohongshu should be evaluated

through indicators such as user feedback, advertising

transparency, and content authenticity to ensure

advertising compliance. At the same time, consumers'

advertising recognition ability should be enhanced,

user education should be strengthened, and users

should be helped to distinguish the difference

between "covert advertising" and "experience

sharing", to protect consumers from misleading. In

summary, this study not only reveals the mechanism

of covert advertising on Xiaohongshu platform, but

also provides a theoretical framework and practical

guidance for understanding and coping with the

impact of covert advertising in the broader social

media environment.

Future research can further explore the impact of

covert advertising on different consumer groups and

how to promote the healthy development of the

advertising industry while protecting the rights and

interests of consumers. It also looks at how

technology, such as artificial intelligence and big data

analytics, can be used to more effectively identify and

police covert advertising.

REFERENCES

C. Fan, Z. Li, N. Zhang, Analysis of the phenomenon of

covert advertising. Contemp. Commun. 5, 53-55

(2005)

S. Zhao, An initial exploration of covert advertising in film

and television works. Sichuan Univ. (2007)

Q. Hong, X. He, Examining the communication of covert

advertising in films. Art View 6, 100-100 (2011)

S. Zhao, A brief discussion on the realm of covert

advertising. Jin Media, Acad. Ed. 2, 43-44 (2007)

H. Zhang, The commercial games of "big names": Some

thoughts on the brand territorialization in covert

advertising. Sci. Inf. Acad. Ed. 27, 129, 132 (2008)

F. Meng, A discussion on the legal regulation of covert

advertising. Bus. Cult. Acad. Ed. 04, 274-275 (2007)

T. Tomažic, D. Boras, J. Jurišic, D. Lesjak, Covert

advertising as inadmissible presentation of information.

Ind. Manag. Data Syst. 114, 107-122 (2014)

F. Göbel, A. Meyer, B. Ramaseshan, S. Bartsch, Consumer

responses to covert advertising in social media. Mark.

Intell. Plan. 35, 578-593 (2017)

Y. Yu, A study on word-of-mouth marketing for female

users of the Xiaohongshu app. Guilin Univ. Technol.

(2021)

R. Wei, Research on the communication of native

advertising in the Xiaohongshu app. Lanzhou Univ.

Finance Econ. (2020)

S. Deng, A study on the influence of KOL "planting grass"

on users' purchase intentions. Yantai Univ. (2022)

Y. He, An analysis of the characteristics, problems, and

regulatory strategies of influencer covert advertising: A

case study of the Xiaohongshu platform. New Media

Res. 8, 09, 49-52 (2022)

H. Chu, Analysis of the motivational mechanisms of

consumerism. Tongling Univ. J. 16, 05, 19-22 (2017)

L. Zuo, Y. Zhu, The reality, mechanism, and responses of

cultural consumerism. 5, 1002-5707, (2021)

T. Sugimoto, Motivational mechanisms in consumer

decision models (2024)

J. Baudrillard, The Consumer Society (1970)

APMM 2025 - International Conference on Applied Psychology and Marketing Management

142