Introduction to the special issue on the role of sustainability in advertising

Sustainable practices are not just a trend; they are becoming essential for the long-term viability of businesses. Companies that adopt sustainable advertising early on stand to gain a competitive advantage (Arseculeratne and Yazdanifard 2013). In the present landscape, consumers are growingly expecting companies to showcase social responsibility, thereby fostering positive relationships with their customer base (Chen 2010; Islam et al. 2021) and enhancing overall business value (Green and Peloza 2011; Saeidi et al. 2015). According to Crawford (2020), nearly one in every five packaged goods is now sustainably marketed. These products are growing seven times faster than their traditional counterparts. These overarching trends emphasize the necessity for companies to effectively communicate their sustainability initiatives to consumers, making sustainability integral to product branding and advertising (Kong, Witmaier, and Ko 2021; Simpson and Radford 2012).

For instance, a 2019 study conducted by the creative research platform VisualGPS in collaboration with the market research firm YouGov found that 81% of respondents expected companies to incorporate environmental consciousness in their advertising and communications. Moreover, a new generation of environmentally conscious consumers is emerging, embracing a sustainable lifestyle and valuing environmentally friendly and ethical practices (Deloitte 2021). In the same survey by VisualGPS and YouGov, 69% of respondents claimed to be doing everything possible to minimize their carbon footprint. PwC’s June 2021 Global Consumer Insights Pulse Survey¹ reported that half of the global consumers surveyed had become even more eco-friendly. These heightened consumer needs have propelled sustainability to the forefront of contemporary industry trends, resulting in a noticeable increase in advertising practices centered around sustainability.

Both business practices and existing advertising literature are predominantly grounded in environmental sustainability, such as green advertising and marketing, taking precedence over other areas like social and economic sustainability. This focus has primarily resulted in a wealth of research on advertising dedicated to understanding and promoting eco-friendly products (Alamsyah, Othman, and Mohammed 2020; Barbarossa and De Pelsmacker 2016), addressing climate change issues (Hartmann et al. 2023), and exploring green washing (Neureiter and Matthes 2023; Schmuck, Matthes, and Naderer 2018). Moreover, the attention given to other components of sustainability advertising, including the advertising context (e.g. macro environment, platform for ad execution), source characteristics (e.g. brand reputation, brand endorsers), and message design (e.g. new types of message appeals, delivery style, visuals, and imagery), has been comparatively limited. Recognizing these gaps, our Special Issue aims to address the need for more diverse and nuanced perspectives on sustainability and advertising. By exploring and contributing to these neglected dimensions, we seek to enhance our understanding of the role of sustainability in advertising within this Special Issue.

This issue comprises eight original research articles, many of which stood out as the top papers presented at the 2023 Global Marketing Conference in Seoul. Each article underwent a rigorous selection process through regular peer review by the International Journal of Advertising (IJA). Together, these articles contribute significantly to the field of advertising research. They cover a spectrum of topics, including (1) presenting a comprehensive overview of sustainability advertising research, while guiding future research direction (Rathee and Milfeld 2023); (2) aggregating the segmented research and exploring the intricacies of green advertising (Kwon et al. 2023; Lima et al. 2023; Muralidharan, Ferle, and Roth-Cohen 2023; Shen et al. 2023); (3) examining assertive messaging and its impact on ad effectiveness (Choi et al. 2023; Milfeld and Pittman 2023); and (4) scrutinizing social media as the contextual platform for sustainable advertisements (Yan et al. 2023).

The first article in the issue (Rathee and Milfeld 2023) examines extensive literature on sustainability advertising, consolidating findings to address two central inquiries: (a) What factors contribute to the effectiveness of sustainability advertisements? and (b) What motivates certain consumers to embrace sustainable behaviors? The authors tackle these questions by presenting a framework for assessing the effectiveness of sustainability advertising. They thoroughly explore components such as ad context, source characteristics, message design, and consumer drivers. Within each of these components, the authors summarize empirical research and outline potential avenues for future research. This paper offers a comprehensive perspective on the efficacy of sustainability advertising, aiming to stimulate further exploration in this timely and crucial realm of advertising.

The prevalence of interest in environmental sustainability is evident in our special issue. Significantly, the articles in our issue collectively bring together the current literature on green advertising from diverse perspectives and delve into a previously unaddressed research question in the field. For instance, Shen et al. (2023) examine experiment-based studies that focused on exploring the persuasive influence of green messages in advertisements. They construct a research model to illustrate the connections between crucial variables. Through a meta-analysis, the authors demonstrate that, in general, green advertisements have noteworthy impacts on attitudes toward ads, brand attitudes, and purchase intentions. Nevertheless, these effects exhibit variations influenced by moderating variables like shallow vs. substantive claims, visual vs. verbal messages, product involvement, and brand familiarity. Relatedly, Lima et al. (2023) conduct a literature review that establishes a connection between two research areas: the effectiveness of green advertising and the determinants of pro-environmental behavior. Their primary objective was to formulate a specific conceptual framework for green advertising. This framework integrates the stages of cognitive processing in persuasive messages and the value-belief-norm theory of environmentalism. It also incorporates other internal and external motivating factors, such as personal capabilities, contextual elements, and affective variables. The aim was to comprehend the process by which a green message transforms into sustainable decisions and how it interacts with individuals’ pro-environmental predispositions and intrinsic motivations.

Taking a different approach, Kwon et al. (2023) conduct a content analysis of green advertisements posted by global corporations on Instagram across the years 2019, 2020, and 2021. Their objective was to scrutinize the content of these green advertisements and explore any misleading or deceptive characteristics in the claims made. The findings from their content analysis indicate a doubling of the proportion of green advertising compared to previous years, reaching 3.5% in 2021. Additionally, the analysis reveals that corporations, in response to consumer demand, actively promote their environmental efforts, with over 70% of the claims being deemed misleading. The results suggest that corporations leveraged the appeal of green elements to establish a green identity, predominantly using visual elements. The authors also find that misleading environmental advertising tends to employ specific frame types, including gain, thematic, future generation, organizational responsibility, and prognostic frames.

Muralidharan, Ferle, and Roth-Cohen (2023) address a previously unexplored research question in their exploration of green advertising. Their research aimed to investigate the impact of green advertising on different generational cohorts—Gen-Z, Gen-Y, Gen-X, and Baby Boomers. The authors evaluate environmental values (egoistic, altruistic, and biospheric) to discern their varying effects on ad attitudes and behavioral intentions across the four cohorts. The results indicate that biospheric ads (featuring plants and animals) are more persuasive for Gen-Z and Gen-Y, with no clear preference observed among Gen-X and Baby Boomers. Notably, significant differences emerge only for biospheric ads. Consequently, the authors amalgamate the four cohorts into Gen-ZY and Gen-XB and focus solely on egoistic and biospheric ads. Subsequent analysis reveals that Gen-ZY exhibits a preference for donating money in response to a biospheric ad under low-information conditions, while demonstrating a motivation to volunteer time when presented with a high-information biospheric ad. Regardless of ad appeal (egoistic or biospheric), Gen-XB exhibits stronger intentions to donate in response to advertisements with high-information content compared to those with low information.

Our special issue delves into a third area of focus, exploring the utilization of assertive messaging and its influence on advertising effectiveness. Choi et al. (2023) aimed to reconcile the paradox between the widespread use of assertive messages in prosocial advertising and scholarly evidence suggesting potential negative consequences. In pursuit of this goal, the authors investigate how consumers’ reactions to assertive (versus non-assertive) messages would vary when they receive price discounts (versus no discount) during their purchases, with hedonic versus utilitarian purchase intentions as moderating factors. The findings reveal that discounts alleviate the guilt associated with hedonic consumption, leading to gratitude and a willingness to reciprocate by adhering to assertive (versus non-assertive) prosocial messages. Conversely, for utilitarian consumption, non-assertive and assertive messages are equally persuasive, irrespective of the presence of a price discount. Milfeld and Pittman (2023) sought to investigate strategies for ensuring that an assertive message attains more positive source attitudes and higher behavioral compliance intentions, particularly among consumers with lower environmental concern (LEC), a group for whom such messages are known to backfire. To address this, the authors introduce a novel concept—altercast framing—that preserves the essential assertive message while exploring its impact. The results of three experimental studies indicate that altercast framing improves brand attitudes and behavioral intentions for LEC consumers, but this effect is observed only when the message source belonged to a high (as opposed to low) market-share brand.

The last paper (Yan et al. 2023) of the special issue investigates ad context for sustainable advertisements, particularly how the context of social media platforms influences the effectiveness of eco-friendly advertising. The authors investigate multiple platforms, including WeChat, Zhihu, Facebook, and Mixi, across diverse cultures such as China and Japan. They explore the matching effect between ad appeal (concrete vs. abstract appeals) and the tie strength (strong vs. weak) of social media, examining its impact on consumer responses to eco-friendly advertising. The results indicate that individuals on strong-tie social media platforms respond more positively to concrete appeals than to abstract appeals. In contrast, individuals on weak-tie social media platforms exhibit more favorable responses when abstract appeals are utilized. The authors propose that this matching effect is driven by processing fluency.

In summary, the papers featured in this special issue consolidate the diverse landscape of prevailing research on sustainability and green advertising. They tackle unanswered questions in this domain and offer a roadmap for future research opportunities. Furthermore, the articles extend beyond the current literature on environmental sustainability by exploring additional dimensions of sustainability advertising, including message design (e.g. assertive appeals) and ad context (e.g. social media platforms).

In my role as the guest editor, I express my gratitude to the authors who submitted their work and demonstrated patience through multiple rounds of revisions for this special issue. My appreciation extends to the reviewers who offered constructive comments on the submissions. Furthermore, I extend my thanks to Charles “Ray” Taylor, the journal editor, for his encouragement in submitting the proposal for this special issue and for entrusting me with its editorial responsibilities.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/consumer-markets/consumer-insights-survey-feb-2023/archive/consumer-insights-survey-2021.html