Environmental Messages in Fashion Advertisements: Impact on Consumer Responses

Abstract

This study examined if consumers' environmental concerns influence their responses to fashion advertisements. Photographs of models wearing fashionable casual apparel, either in nature or non-nature settings, were combined with environmental or fashion advertising claims and were reproduced as slides. Independent variables were advertising message (environmental vs. non-environmental) and environmental concern (high vs. low); the dependent variable was the affective response to advertisements. Female college students (N = 120), enrolled in merchandising classes, recorded affective responses while viewing stimulus advertising slides. Environmentallyconcerned subjects reacted more positively to fashion advertisements than did non-environmentally-concerned subjects, regardless of advertising message. As an interaction effect, environmentally-concerned subjects reacted more positively to the fashion advertisements with an environmental message; subjects who were not environmentally concerned reacted more positively to fashion advertisements without an environmental message. These findings demonstrate the importance of consumers' environmental concerns as a mediator of affective response to fashion advertisements, and suggest the need for further research.

An Exploratory Study into the Factors Impeding Ethical Consumption

“…Cowe and Williams (2000) named this the "30:3 phenomenon", since approximately 30% of consumers profess to care about ethical standards, but only 3% of purchases reflect these standards. This phenomenon has been independently noted by other authors and has also been termed the "Ethical Purchasing Gap" (Nicholls and Lee, 2006) and the "Attitude Behaviour Gap" (Kim et al, 1997). Research into ethical consumption has increased significantly in recent years, but few studies have explored the factors responsible for this gap.…”

Investigating the gap between citizens' sustainability attitudes and food purchasing behaviour: empirical evidence from Brazilian pork consumers

“…Interestingly, many consumers seem to give little thought to the links between their consumption behaviours and their attitude towards food production (de Boer et al ., 2009). Hence, this study was also motivated by the well‐known gap between attitude and behaviour (Kim et al ., 1997), in special the gap between pro‐environmental attitudes and pro‐environmental behaviour (Blake, 1999; Kollmuss and Agyeman, 2002; Shaw and Shiu, 2002; Vermeir and Verbeke, 2006; Krystallis et al ., 2009; Bray et al ., 2010; Chatzidakis et al ., 2007). In spite of the growing ethical consumerism, there are few studies about such movement in developing countries (see for instance Vieira and Aguiar, 2009).…”

Exploring consumers' perceptions of eco‐conscious apparel acquisition behaviors

“…Research on the topic includes examinations of apparel discard behaviors (Daneshvary et al, 1998;Domina and Koch, 1999, 2001, 2002Francis et al, 1995;Domina, 1997, 1999;Shim, 1995) and the influence of store atmospherics on purchasing behaviors (Paff Ogle et al, 2004). Other studies have explored consumer response to eco-conscious fashion advertisements (Kim et al, 1997), willingness to purchase apparel made from recycled fibers (Hines and Swinker, 1996), and consumer knowledge of the environmental effects of apparel production (Kim and Damhorst, 1998;Stephens, 1995). Finally, studies by Rucker et al (1995) and Steinbring and Rucker (2003) identified barriers to the consumption of post-consumer textiles and clothing.…”