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Consumer scepticism about the credibility of green advertising around the world is growing. The article aims to provide a comprehensive assessment and trend analysis of green advertising practices of international firms over a 20‐year period.

The study identifies 473 international green advertisements during the 1988‐2007 period and content‐analyses them on five major axes: advertiser profile, targeting features, message aspects, copy characteristics, and situation points.

The content analysis reveals significant trends in all major areas examined and identifies important interaction effects between certain dimensions of green advertisements.

The findings could be augmented by combining them with changes in the external environment, input from consumers about advertising effectiveness, the views of advertisers and advertising agencies, and secondary data referring to the performance of the specific company/product advertised.

Green advertising research mainly focuses on domestic rather than international advertisements; examines important issues in isolation from other issues; partially analyses message, copy, and situation characteristics; and covers a short period. This study fills these gaps by systematically evaluating international green advertisements over a long period and using an integrated framework of analysis that is based on the extant literature. It also explores potential interaction effects between key dimensions describing these advertisements.

Examines the differences in types of environmental claims used in advertisements in Australia, Canada, the UK and USA. The advertisements are examined using a content analysis schema with four categories (product orientation, process orientation, image orientation or environmental fact) which have been developed and reported in the literature. The four types of environmental advertisements can be “compressed” into two groups: substantive claims (product and process based) and posturing claims (image and environmental fact based). Suggests that claims in advertisements may be a proxy for firm behaviour and therefore firms using substantive claims in their advertisements are more environmentally involved than firms using posturing claims in their advertisements. Finds that US advertisements use the most posturing claims and least substantive claims, with Australian advertisements using the most substantive claims and least posturing claims. This may suggest that US firms (i.e. the companies making these claims) are less environmentally involved compared with firms in the three other countries examined.

The study examined how consumers responded to apparel advertisements with varying environmental claims. Respondents were 274 undergraduate students at a US university. Three attitudinal perceiver variables (environmental knowledge, concern and commitment) were analysed in relation to perceptions of credibility of environmental messages. Although significant differences in perceptions of credibility among certain types of environmental ad claims were found, results suggest that the sample of consumers did not respond more positively to advertisements with environmental messages. Environmental advertisement claims were not effective in generating more positive consumer response to apparel advertisements.

Environmental claims in advertising (green ads) provide competitive advantage to firms. This study aims to understand what kinds of environmental claims advertisers make in a developing nation like India. Further, implications for policymakers and advertisers are discussed.

A content analysis of 279 green print advertisements was conducted using a comprehensive list of claim categories identified from the advertising literature. These categories included advertiser profile; ad promotions – type, sector, appeal; claim – nature, type, focus, validity, emphasis; executional elements – illustration setting, presenter, format/structure and environmental issue, identified from past studies and practitioner interviews.

The findings suggest that majority of the advertisers using green ads are manufacturers. Consumer durables, real estate and power sector together constitute one-third of the total green ads. Further, most of the green ads are aimed at influencing consumer behaviour. Though most of the ads contain strong emphasis on environmental attributes, they are ambiguous. A large proportion of claims are credence in nature and lack product identification through environmental certifications. This study also identifies areas of concern including interpretation of the term green, use of multiple certifications, greenwashing and advertisers showing environmental responsiveness through event-based green advertising. Policy recommendations are made based on green advertising regulations governing them across developed and other developing countries.

The content analysis of the green advertisements in this study was limited to newspaper advertisements within the print media. Future studies may use advertisements from different media types, such as the internet ads and television commercials, to examine the effect of media type on the nature of green advertisements. It would also be interesting to examine the role of regulations as a moderator, influencing the claims made in green advertisements.

The findings of this study provide a comprehensive overview of the nature of green advertisements in India. Marketers may use these insights to design effective green advertising strategies.

Most of the extant literature has examined environmental claims in the context of developed nations, where regulations are well established. Very few studies have examined this issue in the context of developing countries. In addition, most of the previous studies have focused on specific issues like greenwashing, appeals and execution elements. The present study contributes to green advertising by examining environmental claims in case of a developing nation like India using a comprehensive list of claim categories. This study also identifies areas of concern and suggests recommendations for policymakers and advertisers.

The purpose of this paper is to explore influences of green advertising and social activism during one of the worst adverse public relations episodes in history: the British Petroleum (BP) Deep Water Horizon oil spill.

The study uses self-congruency theory and perception of fit to explore the influence of green advertising and social activism on attitudes toward BP’s advertising, commitment to the environment, brand, and company. The survey data cover periods before, during, and after the spill.

Mean ratings for the BP brand were lower during the oil spill for respondents who viewed an environmental ad as compared to those viewing an ad lacking environmental content. Comparison of attitudes toward BP’s environmental commitment, advertising, company, and brand reveal differences between activist and non-activist respondents across all four attitudinal scales during the oil spill.

The study finds that lack of fit between corporate social responsibility communications and social responsibility performance raises the potential for a significant backlash against BP.

The paper utilizes unique data that include survey responses before during and after the BP Deep Water Horizon oil spill. Empirical analyses of attitudes toward advertising, company, and brand over the life cycle of an adverse public relations event are among the first of their kind. Similarly, analyses of differences in activist and non-activist attitudes toward a company operating in a high-environmental risk industry are also among the first ever.

Consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about ecological degradation and are getting conscious of the potential advantages that environmental sustainability can offer, which is also driving them towards the consumption of green products. In view of this, the purpose of this study is to operationalize and test the conceptual model of green purchasing behaviour by incorporating consumers’ perception towards green marketing stimuli including eco-label, eco-brand and environmental advertisements with perceived environmental knowledge in an emerging sustainable market.

The proposed model is based on an integrative and cognitive approach to consumers’ environmental beliefs-behaviour relationship. The 549 valid responses were received from selected metropolitan regions of India and analysed by direct path coefficients along with a bootstrapping method for testing indirect effects.

The results revealed that perception of eco-label and environmental advertisements had a positive influence on green purchasing behaviour, however, the direct relationships of eco-brand and environmental knowledge were not supported in the model. While environmental advertisements and environmental knowledge posed an indirect influence on green purchasing to some extent.

The generalizability of the findings needs to augment an extensive approach of a cross-sectional survey. Theoretical, managerial and policy implications were recommended to promote green products towards sustainable consumption.

The operationalization of green purchasing behaviour using marketing stimuli has remained scant in the Indian setting. The insights gained from this study contributes to the knowledge domain of green consumer psychology in the backdrop of an emerging market.

Even with the evidence that participation in home-sharing is highly ecologically sustainable, the existing consumer communication studies in the hospitality sector have predominantly focussed on the social and economic benefits. This study aims to examine how the environmental sustainability benefits of home-sharing services can be effectively communicated to consumers.

Two scenario-based experiments (Study 1: n = 377 and Study 2: n = 290) examined the effects of consumers’ consumption orientations, and the appeal of environmental sustainability benefits emphasised advertising on their home-sharing adoption intentions.

Study 1 demonstrated that when consumers with either a hedonic or utilitarian consumption orientation book travel accommodation, their home-sharing adoption intentions increase depending on whether advertisements are designed as hard- or soft-sell appeal, respectively. Study 2 showed that the influence of an environmental sustainability benefits emphasised advertisement that has considered consumers’ consumption orientation and applied the corresponding advertising appeal design is as effective as a home-sharing service that offers economic benefits and is even better than an advertisement that emphasises social benefits, particularly for utilitarian-oriented consumers.

This study is the first in the lodging sector examining the ways in which the environmental sustainability benefits of home-sharing services can be effectively communicated to consumers. The findings shed light on corporate practices pertaining to information that home-sharing service marketers can control and provide an essential basis for further advertising, consumer differences, environmental sustainability awareness and collaborative consumption studies.

The purpose of this study is to explore how different types of environmental claims may affect the communication effectiveness of environmental advertising. Two two moderating variables include the perceived eco‐friendly image of the originating country and consumer involvement.

The examination involves the analysis of the responses of 1,200 subjects in Shanghai, China, to mock advertisements containing environmental claims using a 2 x 3 factorial design.

Environmental claims enhance the communication effectiveness of advertisements for both high‐ and low‐involvement services. For high‐involvement services, substantive environmental claims generate more favorable attitudinal responses than do associative environmental claims.

This research focused on a single Chinese city and on two service categories with contrasting degrees of involvement. While such a confinement can enhance the internal validity of the findings, their external validity has yet to be established.

These findings suggest that marketers should adopt a situational perspective by taking into account environmental claim type, country disposition, the degree of environmental consciousness of their target consumers, and service type when designing their environmental advertising campaigns.

Although a number of previous studies have focused on the application of environmental claims to advertise products, similar investigation into how these claims may help advertise services is virtually non‐existent. In this respect, the present study can be viewed as the first empirical work devoted to closing this research gap.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of green marketing strategies on consumer purchasing patterns in Mauritius. The present research also explores the possibility of introducing greener patterns of consumption into contemporary lifestyles in the current context where green products are increasingly available.

This paper reviews the theory of green marketing to identify how customers are persuaded to purchase greener products. It also reports the empirical results of a consumer survey on green marketing strategies by the questionnaire method. The survey questionnaires were administered to 150 respondents visiting various hypermarkets and supermarkets. The questionnaires were processed and analysed with the statistical programme SPSS, using descriptive, correlation and factor analysis.

The findings provide some interesting clues regarding customers’ perceptions on environmental concerns and green products. Further findings suggest that most consumers have expressed a great interest in the protection of the environment and they are strongly concerned about the environment and its degradation. Hence, business executives should host workshops and seminars so as to educate customers on environmental protection and environmental‐friendly products. Results also indicated an overall positive correlation between effective green marketing strategies and customers’ purchasing patterns for green products. Therefore, there is a powerful urge for companies to promote green branding, eco‐labelling and green packaging strategies in order to encourage a greener pattern of consumption among consumers in Mauritius.

The paper suggests a stepping approach to consumer purchasing patterns for greener products could be exploited more within consumer groups that have strong environmental concerns and beliefs in Mauritius. The results also offer precious knowledge on the effectiveness of green marketing strategies which can assist both private and public enterprises in developing and designing appealing green products that will be favoured by customers.

Although green marketing has been an important research topic for several decades, hardly any research has been focused on the impact of green marketing strategies on consumer purchasing patterns in the context of developing countries. This paper has analysed the strength of environmental concerns and beliefs and has provided some insights on green marketing strategies and the various managerial implications have been fully addressed in order to favour the consumption of greener products in Mauritius.

This study examines how consumers in China perceive and respond to company‐sponsored environmental advertising claims. Based on a survey of 914 Chinese respondents in Beijing and Guangzhou, the study has derived some important findings. First, it confirms the casual observation that environmental advertising has already been widely used in the country. Second, it indicates that Chinese consumers, in general, rate print environmental advertisements more favorably than broadcast ones. This is probably due to the pragmatic orientation of Chinese consumers, who consistently seek concrete and substantiated product information from advertisements to guide their shopping. Regression analyses on the collected data further reveal that “perceived credibility of the claim”, “relevance of the advertised product to daily lives”, “education level” and “media type” are all significant factors that would positively affect green purchase intention of Chinese consumers. In addition to providing researchers with further understanding of Chinese consumers' attitudinal and conative responses toward environmental advertising, these findings provide advertisers with useful insights into fine‐tuning their environmental advertising strategies in China.