Uncharted territory in research on environmental advertising: Toward an organizing framework

Author(s)
Jörg Matthes
Abstract

In light of increasing awareness of environmental issues, advertisers around the world have developed numerous campaigns to communicate environmentally friendly attributes. The aim of this article is to review the existing literature to identify research gaps and future directions. It is suggested that content analytical research should be expanded to audiovisual media and comparative research designs. Greater analytical precision is needed for the detection of greenwashing in advertising messages. Effects research is called to use more complex and especially audiovisual stimuli, employ behavioral measures, and examine long-term effects of environmental messages. To push the boundaries of environmental advertising research, this article suggests a novel organizing framework. Based on this framework, it is suggested to focus more on explaining advertising exposure as well as attention allocation. Also, the consideration of implicit attitudes as independent, dependent, and moderating variables marks a particularly pressing and promising avenue for future research.

Organisation(s)
Department of Communication
Journal
Journal of Advertising
Volume
48
Pages
91-101
No. of pages
11
ISSN
0091-3367
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2019.1579687
Publication date
2019
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
508007 Communication science, 508014 Journalism
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Communication, Marketing, Business and International Management
Portal url
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/uncharted-territory-in-research-on-environmental-advertising-toward-an-organizing-framework(8e8a7b43-3ef0-414f-ad50-49dfdeda17a9).html