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The purpose of this paper is to offer a clear understanding of the use of femvertising in Lebanon and its effects on consumers in general.

Data was collected using an online survey questionnaire, administered to a random sample of 318 individuals. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses.

Lebanese people positively perceive the implication of women empowerment in advertisement. Gender, trust in ads, support of women’s rights and feminist self-identification, all have an impact on consumer behavior toward femvertising. However, the educational level and age do not affect the attitudes toward femvertising.

The practical contributions of our research derive from the importance of our findings on the uniqueness of the knowledge and information in the Middle East region. The importance of increasing knowledge of gender roles and Marketing in the Middle East is highly related to the gender dynamics embedded within broader globalization debates.

While studies have been extensive on the utilization of femvertising as a marketing strategy, the contexts under which these studies have been published, are mainly focused in the West. Hence, the Middle East in general and Lebanon, in particular, has witnessed no comprehensive and serious research on the subject. Consequently, this study is considered important and a major step toward establishing a theoretical base and underpinnings on the subject of utilization of femvertising in brands’ marketing strategies.

This purpose of this study was to investigate how consumers’ degree of rurality and preference for specific ad types are associated with their attitude toward femvertising (pro-female advertising).

An online survey of US-based respondents over 18 years of age was administered by Qualtrics Panels from February 7 to February 15, 2018. The final sample included 418 respondents.

The more urban the respondents’ location was, the more educated they were, leading to more support for gender equality but not a more positive attitude to femvertising. Liking of ads described as “funny,” “with a message” and “emotional” was associated with a more positive attitude toward femvertising.

The findings were limited by the use of a convenience sample and the limited variance in participants’ rurality owing to the prevalence of respondents based in or near metropolitan areas. Future research should seek to understand how, if at all, femvertising has affected rather than only reflected social change across a variety of cultural settings.

Marketers can expect femvertising appeals to be relatively effective across the rural–urban divide. Femvertising campaigns should consider using or continue to use humor, inspiration/moral reasoning, and emotion in their messages.

The relative lack of controversy surrounding femvertising indicates gender equality may be embraced across social divides, possibly because in the current economic environment, women’s empowerment is linked to monetary gains for both companies and households.

As the demand for companies to take a stance regarding socially charged issues increases, there is a critical need to understand the factors that impact consumer demand in the context of pro-female messaging. This study expands the literature on the effects of two such factors – rurality and ad type preferences – on attitudes toward advertising promoting egalitarian values. No previous research has investigated the role of these variables in cause-related marketing.

Existing research demonstrates that consumers prefer advertising that aligns with their values and beliefs but can also be distrustful of claims of corporate social responsibility. The purpose of this paper is to explore consumers’ perceptions of femvertising in relation to their worldview. Femvertising is defined as “advertising that employs pro-female talent, messages, and imagery to empower women and girls” (Skey, 2015).

A survey of US adults (n = 419) was used to investigate attitudes toward femvertising as they relate to gender, age, support for women’s rights, feminist self-identification, political affiliation and trust in advertising.

Structural equation modeling revealed several antecedents and consequences of attitude toward femvertising. The findings suggest that women’s rights supporters and self-identifying feminists seem highly receptive of femvertising.

Taken together, the findings clarify how femvertising can be an effective strategy for marketers and how it fits within the current advertising literature.

Luxury brands seek to differentiate themselves from competitors by engaging in corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. Although many luxury brands participate in CSR activities, it is unclear if luxury brands communicate these CSR activities to consumers. Therefore, this study aims to explore two questions: are luxury jewelry brands communicating CSR (including women’s empowerment) in their advertising? And how should luxury jewelry brands communicate CSR messages in their advertising?

This paper uses a content analysis of luxury jewelry print advertisements and in-depth interviews with 20 female jewelry consumers analyzed using grounded theory to construct the luxury brand CSR advertising strategies theory.

Very few (3%) of print advertisements contain CSR messages, including femvertising and the theory presents four paths for brands to consider when promoting CSR practices, namely, ethical sourcing, cause-related marketing product, a signal of product care and quality and signal of an authentic relationship with the consumer.

The model provides four potential CSR advertising strategies and guidelines luxury jewelry brands can use to create successful advertising campaigns.

Luxury jewelry advertising has not been empirically examined and the study fills gaps in the understanding of luxury brands’ communication strategies. It adds to the knowledge and theorizing of the use and appropriateness of CSR appeals in a luxury brand context.

This paper aims to explore how and why ideas regarding “intersectional” approaches to feminism and Black activism are drawn on in marketing content related to the concept of being “woke” (invested in addressing social injustices). It considers which subject positions are represented as part of this and what they reveal about contemporary issues concerning advertising, gender, race and activism.

This study involves an interpretive and critical discursive analysis of so-called feminist advertising (“femvertising”) and marketing examples that make use of Black social justice activist ideas.

Findings illuminate how marketing simultaneously enables the visibility and erasure of “intersectional”, feminist and Black social justice activist issues, with the use of key racialised and gendered subject positions: White Saviour, Black Excellence, Strong Black Woman (and Mother) and “Woke” Change Agent.

This research signals how brands (mis)use issues concerning commercialised notions of feminism, equality and Black social justice activism as part of marketing that flattens and reframes liberationist politics while upholding the neoliberal idea that achievement and social change requires individual ambition and consumption rather than structural shifts and resistance.

This work can aid the development of advertising standards regulatory approaches which account for nuances of stereotypical representations and marketing’s connection to intersecting issues regarding racism and sexism.

This research outlines a conceptualisation of the branding of “woke” bravery, which expands our understanding of the interdependency of issues related to race, gender, feminism, activism and marketing. It highlights marketing responses to recent socio-political times, which are influenced by public discourse concerning movements, including Black Lives Matter and Me Too.

In light of the recent shift in the US culture, this paper investigates the effectiveness of female sexual empowerment as ad appeal in the apparel industry.

Study 1 aimed to understand consumers' reactions to female sexual empowerment in ads in terms of their attitudes toward the ad, attitudes toward the brand and purchase intention. Study 2 investigated the role of gender in perceptions of female sexual empowerment in ads.

This research establishes that consumers display positive attitudes toward female sexual empowerment in the apparel advertisement. These attitudes positively influence attitudes toward the brand, which in turn improve purchase intention. These effects are stronger for women than men.

This research borrows from social power theory to reveal the impact of female sexual empowerment in ads in the apparel industry. Based on the theory of planned behavior, the findings also show that female sexual empowerment can have a positive impact on purchase intention through a serial mediation of attitude toward the ad and brand.

Marketers need to be aware of the impact of female sexual empowerment as ad appeal. Specifically, firms in the apparel industry could benefit from the positive effects of incorporating female sexual empowerment in their campaigns.

This research is the first to investigate the role of female sexual empowerment as ad appeal in improving consumers' responses to ads.

This paper aims to assess the impact of perceived effort related to packaging on overall product evaluations. Perceived effort, defined as the consumer’s perceptions of how much manufacturer effort that lies behind an offer, is assumed to contribute to evaluations by signaling unobservable characteristics of an offer.

Three between-subjects experiments were conducted with soft drink bottles, which were subject to variation in perceived effort.

The results show that perceived effort was positively associated with overall evaluations. The results also show that the impact of perceived effort was mediated by product quality perceptions, which indicates that effort signals quality.

Perceived effort has to date not been examined in the packaging literature. The present findings thus imply that models of packaging characteristics and their impact on consumers would benefit from including the effort aspect.

Today, consumers play an active role in creating, generating and distributing the electronic word of mouth (eWOM) independent of marketers. Customer acquisition through referrals and word of mouth (WOM) has thus become an important goal for firms. In addition, mobile social networks have created valuable opportunities for eWOM. People are now able to discuss products and services of brands with their friends and acquaintances. The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of eWOM information on consumers’ behavioral intentions in mobile social networks.

This study employed the information adoption model (IAM), theory of reasoned action and social exchange theory to investigate the influence of eWOM information on consumers’ behavioral intentions in mobile social networks. The study used 394 respondents to evaluate the proposed model using SmartPLS software.

Results show that the quality and credibility of eWOM information has a positive direct effect on perceived information usefulness. Attitude toward eWOM information mediates the influence of perceived information usefulness on information adoption. Also, attitude toward eWOM information has a significant positive influence on behavioral intentions, such as purchase intention and forwarding of eWOM information. However, information adoption does not have any significant relationship with the forwarding of eWOM information.

This study seeks to address the dearth of research in the field of mobile social networks, especially regarding eWOM information. The study proposes a new model and empirically validates the hypothesized relationships. This research can serve as a stepping-stone for future research in this field.

This research is one of the first studies focusing on the influence of eWOM information, especially in mobile social networks. The research offers comprehensive and empirically validated factors pertaining to eWOM information in mobile social networks. The results of this study may be useful also for practitioners and managers of online companies.

A new eWOM IAM in mobile social networks is proposed based on information characteristics and consumer behavior. The model is validated afterward.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether posting on Instagram contributes to empowerment and through what mechanisms.

A sample of 372 women instagrammers from Kuwait participated in the survey. LISREL 8.2 was used to perform confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling, employing the maximum likelihood estimation method.

Instagram posts have direct and indirect effects on psychological empowerment. The indirect effect appears through two perceptual mechanisms: sense of self-efficacy and sense of community (SOC). The former provides women with a sense of mastery and control and the latter gives them the perception of belonging to a community that equips individual participants with a collective efficacy. Of the two mechanisms, the SOC plays a more significant role in creating psychological empowerment. Having a sense of virtual community, as opposed to participating in real ones, can act as catalyst in creating empowerment.

This study investigates the impact of a recent new technology, namely, Instagram, in regions where women are marginalized for generations. Instagram is important, because images, photo captions, short texts and hashtags are vital elements of communication in the present day. Furthermore, women are twice as likely to think highly of a brand that makes an empowering ad and are more likely to share, comment and like the ads.

Brands today operate in a dynamic business environment, which often requires them to take courageous actions, from taking a stand on controversial issues to responding to changing market needs. However, these actions are not merely strategic but also represent a unique aspect of the brands’ identity, which includes holding up to their core values and being resilient to social pressure. To better understand this positive virtue, the current study introduces the concept of brand bravery – a novel brand archetype that emulates the brand’s distinct identity. This study aims to conceptualize brand bravery and develop a psychometrically sound scale to measure it and investigate its relationship with positive brand relationship outcomes.

Two qualitative studies were conducted to identify the dimensions of perceived brand bravery. Three empirical studies develop and validate the proposed measurement scale and confirm the construct’s nomological validity by proposing a framework that explains the outcomes of perceived brand bravery.

Results from multiple studies support a seven-factor second-order reflective scale of perceived brand bravery, with dimensions altruism, bold, courageous, determined, enduring, fearless and gritty. The construct of brand bravery is found discriminant from other conceptually distinct but related brand attributes. Nomological validity tests further suggest that perceived brand bravery leads to positive consumer-related outcomes such as brand advocacy behaviors, positive attitude and consumer brand identification.

Brand bravery provides a vital roadmap to marketers who have sought to create a leading brand that can stay relevant in times of disruption. The multi-factor scale can help managers track, which dimension of the brand bravery scale is more relevant for shaping overall bravery perception.

The study introduces a novel brand attribute that has not been previously discussed beyond social and moral psychology literature. It conceptualizes brand bravery that will strengthen the understanding of this specific brand characteristic and provides a practical scale to measure brand bravery.