It's Not Easy Being Green … Or Is It? A Content Analysis of Environmental Claims in Magazine Advertisements from the United States and United Kingdom
Abstract
As corporations seek to appeal to environmentally conscious stakeholders, advertisements containing environmental claims have become increasingly prominent. A corporation's desire for an enhanced corporate reputation, combined with lenient environmental advertising regulation, has created the perfect environment for corporations to use—and misuse—environmental claims, resulting in “greenwashing.” Defined as the act of disseminating disinformation to consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service, greenwashing occurs around the world. This study is a cross-national content analysis of 247 print ads from 84 issues of mainstream magazines from the United States and United Kingdom. Three-fourths (75%) of the ads analyzed contained one or more aspects of greenwashing. Firms advertising in US magazines were significantly more likely to employ misleading/deceptive environmental claims than UK firms and magazines. These findings suggest that without increased environmental advertisement regulation, greenwashing will persist as a disingenuous means for corporate reputation enhancement.
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Greenwashing remains prevalent in advertising.
“Although recent evidence suggests that greenwashing practices have generally declined since the end of the 1990s (Segev, Fernandes, and Hong 2016), greenwashing remains prevalent in advertising (e.g., Baum 2012).”
From Misleading Consumers with Green Advertising? An Affect–Reason–Involvement Account of Greenwashing Effects in Environmental Advertising (2018) · cites this paper as Baum 2012
Most deceptive green ads employ vague instead of false claims.
“That finding is striking given evidence that most deceptive green ads employ vague instead of false claims (Baum 2012; Carlson, Grove, and Kangun 1993; Kangun, Carlson, and Grove 1991; Segev, Fernandes, and Hong 2016).”
From Misleading Consumers with Green Advertising? An Affect–Reason–Involvement Account of Greenwashing Effects in Environmental Advertising (2018) · cites this paper as Baum 2012
Baum (2012) found that three-fourths of magazine advertisements from the United Kingdom and the United States contained at least one aspect of greenwashing, most of which appear in the form of vague or ambiguous claims.
“For example, in her study of magazine advertisements from the United Kingdom and the United States, Baum (2012) found that threefourths of ads contained at least one aspect of greenwashing, most of which appear in the form of vague or ambiguous claims.”
From Misleading Consumers with Green Advertising? An Affect–Reason–Involvement Account of Greenwashing Effects in Environmental Advertising (2018) · cites this paper as Baum 2012
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References 23 · Cited by 198
- Authors
- Baum, L. M.
- Affiliations
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
- Corresponding author
- Baum, Lauren M.
- Venue
- Environmental Communication
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2012-10-03
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 423-440
- ISSN
- 1752-4032 (ISSN-L)
- 1752-4040
- OpenAlex
- W1974906364
- Cited by
- 198
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 29 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 32 · 2023: 34 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 9.11
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Environmental Communication (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Lipscomb University
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Environmental Sustainability in Business
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability
- Keywords
- greenwashing, environmental claims, magazine advertising, misleading advertising, corporate reputation, cross-national comparison, United States, United Kingdom, deceptive marketing
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