Lucy Atkinson

Signaling the green sell: : the influence of eco-label source, argument specificity, and product involvement on consumer trust

Consumers cannot verify green attributes directly and must rely on such signals as eco-labels to authenticate claims. Using signaling theory, this study explored which aspects of eco-label design yield more positive effects. The study uses a 2 (argument specificity: specific versus general) × 2 (label source: government versus corporate) × 2 (product involvement: low versus high) experimental design (n = 233). Specific arguments consistently yield greater eco-label trust and positive attitudes toward the product and label source, but only with low-involvement products is source important, with corporate labels yielding more positive attitudes. Findings are discussed in terms of theoretical and managerial implications.

Putting Environmental Infographics Center Stage The Role of Visuals at the Elaboration Likelihood Model’s Critical Point of Persuasion

Infographics, which integrate visuals and text, can increase audience engagement with message content. Relying on two experiments, this study demonstrates the role of visuals for decisions to critically evaluate pro-environmental messages. Using the Elaboration Likelihood Model as a theoretical foundation, we demonstrate that individuals engage in greater levels of issue-relevant thinking when shown infographics compared to messages that rely just on text or just on illustration, with learning preferences and visual literacy as moderators. The findings demonstrate that visual content is an important factor for persuasive message processing, and infographic messages hold opportunities for the communication of environmental issues.

Special Issue on Green Advertising

© 2013 American Academy of Advertising. All rights reserved. Permissions: www.copyright.com ISSN 0091–3367 (print) / ISSN 1557–7805 (online) DOI: 10.2753/JOA0091-3367410400 The Journal of Advertising first devoted a special issue to green advertising in the summer of 1995. The guest editor of that issue, Easwar Iyer, indicated that the use of the word “green” in describing this particular type of advertising was meant to connote pro-environmental behaviors on behalf of both companies and consumers. Green advertising was further defined as a message promoting environmentally oriented consumption behavior (Kilbourne 1995); as a promotional message that may appeal to the needs and desires of environmentally concerned consumers (Zinkhan and Carlson 1995); and as a message that features an environmental attribute for a product or service (Schuhwerk and Lefkoff-Hagius 1995). That issue, consisting of six papers, covered a range of topics that created what might be considered the first comprehensive framework around environmental messages, addressing the complex relationship between attitudes, behaviors, consumers, and advertising. Most notable in this issue was the framework proposed by Kilbourne (1995) that explicated the political and human relational elements of green attitudes. The political aspect of the framework was further explicated in papers addressing policy issues and agency management. To address the human relational element, other papers addressed the interplay of strategy and consumers, looking at how different positioning appeals (sick baby versus well baby) affected consumers. In the nearly two decades since that special issue, the environment has become even more of a hot button topic among consumers, corporations, and policymakers. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chairman Jon Leibowitz noted, “In recent years, businesses have increasingly used ‘green’ marketing to capture consumers’ attention and move Americans toward a more environmentally friendly future.” A 2010 study of advertising practitioners indicated that more than three-quarters of surveyed practitioners planned to increase their advertising and marketing spending on green messages in the future. That increase is due to numerous polls showing that many U.S. consumers are willing to pay more for “green” products (e.g., GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media and the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies 2008; Integer Group and M/A/R/C Research 2011; Mintel 2010). This trend holds true around the world, with recent polls showing that consumers in China (Ogilvy Mather 2011), Japan (McKinsey 2010), and Europe (FoodDrinkEurope 2011) are looking for ways to integrate sustainability into their lifestyles. This trend is complex, however, with studies showing that consumers’ green intent does not always translate into actual green purchase behaviors (Grail Research 2009; Lindqvist 2011). For example, a 2011 study by Nielsen reports that half of Americans say they prefer eco-friendly products, but only 12% of consumers are willing to pay more for them. The patterns are similar in other countries. This attitude–behavior gap reveals a discrepancy between consumers’ environmentally friendly, socially desirable orientations and their real-world marketplace choices. The green advertising landscape is further complicated by questions of ethics and the numerous contradictory and sometimes misleading messages in green advertising. At the forefront are concerns about greenwashing, where messages overstate the environmental benefits of products and services. Since that first special issue in 1995, green advertising has gained considerable academic attention in the marketing and advertising fields. Evidence of this now-widespread interest can be seen in the breadth and depth of the papers in this issue. The 1995 special issue laid the framework for the role of “green” messaging in advertising, and this issue builds on that framework in this unique way. Starting with those cuttingedge papers, this special issue extends those groundbreaking exploratory and descriptive studies, and brings much-needed theoretical rigor to the field of green advertising. The 10 papers here represent a variety of methodological approaches, including experiments, surveys, depth interviews, and content analyses, as well as theoretical frameworks ranging from signal theory and regulatory focus to prospect theory and the theory of planned behavior. They also cast a broad geographic net, with studies drawing samples from FROM THE GUEST EDITORS

Green moms: the social construction of a green mothering identity via environmental advertising appeals

This study explores emerging green motherhood discourse as framed by green advertising in pregnancy magazines. It takes an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing on reflexive modernization, feminist studies and critical discourse analysis and reveals how advertising represents a double bind for mothers. Textual analysis of a sample of green ads in FitPregnancy indicates ads present expectant mothers with solutions for resolving the challenges of parenting in an age of widespread environmental threat, while simultaneously reinforcing those same lifestyle choices that are thought to exacerbate the environmental crisis. This green mothering discourse appears to empower mothers and offer solutions to the risks of pregnancy, while in reality relegating the mother to the sidelines, rendering her nearly invisible while the child is promoted as the primary subject and brands as sources of expert knowledge. These results speak to the broader ways in which seemingly neutral texts work to frame and reinforce certain ideologies.

I drink it anyway and i know i shouldn't: Understanding green consumers' positive evaluations of norm-violating non-green products and misleading green advertising

Consumers increasingly report concern for the environment and acceptance of green products, but few opt for them in stores. This mixed-methods study adds context and helps specify the details of this attitude–behavior gap. First, a preliminary study relies on framing theory to conduct an exploratory content analysis of green advertising frames in four cross-platform womens lifestyle programming (website, magazine, and TV shows). Data indicate green-ad frames are commonplace in beauty, food, and household products advertisements, but claims are ambiguous and unsubstantiated. Drawing on theories of motivated reasoning, evolutionary psychology and the Persuasion Knowledge Model, the main study incorporates data from focus group interviews to understand how green consumers rationalize their non-green attitudes and positive evaluations of environmentally inferior products. Although consumers are skeptical of these green ads, they are ultimately accepting of the claims and rationalize their norm-violating positive evaluations in ways that amplify the non-green claims.

Portrayals of Technoscience in Video Games: A Potential Avenue for Informal Science Learning

Given the proliferation of video games and their potential to contribute to informal science learning and perception formation, we provide an assessment of how commercial video games portray technoscience. Our examination was guided by theories commonly applied in studies of entertainment media’s contributions to public understanding of science. Results indicate that technoscience and its practitioners are common fixtures within video games and that their presence is often conspicuous and enthusiastic. Our findings challenge common assumptions about the treatment of science in media and compel research examining the role of informal gaming in cultivating future generations of scientists.

A Humanistic approach to understanding child consumer socialization in US homes

We present findings from a qualitative, multisite, multi-method, longitudinal study of parents and their preschool-aged children that explores the intersections of marketing influences in the home and in the larger outside world of children. Findings indicate that preschoolers represent complicated and nuanced “consumers in training” beyond predictions based on their “perceptual stage of development.” Specifically, our data revealed interesting ways in which marketing and consumer culture can foster a number of pro-social consumer outcomes (e.g., charity, gift-giving, financial literacy). We also noted an emerging understanding by preschoolers of the social meanings of goods for identity construction and product evaluation. Finally, through a presentation of an idiographic case, we show how consumer socialization cannot be attributed to one factor such as media but is based on multiple and concurrent factors—parents, siblings, peers, and home environment—that act to moderate, mediate, and provide meaning for marketing messages.

Good green mothers consuming their way through pregnancy: roles of environmental identities and information seeking in coping with the transition

ABSTRACT We explore the consumption experiences of women who opt for an environmentally conscious approach to pregnancy. Our findings reveal that environmentally conscious mothers conduct extensive scientific research about the products that they purchase during pregnancy and the associated risks of using such products. They believe that their efforts to find and process such information make them experts on what is best for their babies’ health and proclaim some micromanaging powers in an uncontrollable environment. Alas, consumption decisions are simultaneously coupled with tensions between (1) needing to make informed choices and being overwhelmed with information; (2) feeling confident about seeking consumption information and lacking the confidence to share it; and (3) pursuing external expertise and resorting to internal instincts. Thus, although consumption is often perceived as a helpful coping mechanism when transitioning to new life roles, we find that it also contributes to the complexity of such transitional situations.

Responses Toward Corporate Crisis and Corporate Advertising

This article investigates how individual differences affect consumer responses to corporate advertising during a corporate crisis. Study 1, based on qualitative data, showed brand ownership, involvement with the crisis, and news media exposure were important factors in understanding consumer response toward the crisis and the company. Study 2, a survey, empirically demonstrated that prior attitude toward the company was the most critical factor affecting advertising-related behaviors. The study further suggested consumers of the brand were more likely to view the company favorably, to know more about the company, and to be more involved in their following of the crisis.

Popular Climate Science and Painless Consumer Choices: Communicating Climate Change in the Hot Pink Flamingos Exhibit, Monterey Bay Aquarium, California

Using critical discourse analysis, we examine the communicative potential of science centers to engage the public in climate change science. Drawing on a theoretical framework combining climate change engagement and communication, science centers as sites of engagement and communication, ecological citizenship, and insights from social cognitive theory, our analysis shows that along with popularizing climate science and making it accessible to the general public, the Hot Pink Flamingos exhibit prioritized individual, marketplace-based action on climate change over solutions requiring large-scale social change or collective action. Responsibility for climate change was individualized, and the political realm was mostly reduced to lifestyle choices.