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Cited by 114Environmental Sustainability in BusinessDigital Marketing and Social MediaConsumer Perception and Purchasing Behavior

Greenwashing and Bluewashing in Black Friday-Related Sustainable Fashion Marketing on Instagram

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Sailer, Astrid, Wilfing, Harald, Straus, Eva·2022·Sustainability
DOI 10.3390/su14031494
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Abstract

Growing awareness of the fashion industry’s negative impact on people and the environment has led to considerable growth of the sustainable fashion market. At the same time, Black Friday purchases increase annually as the sales event develops into a global phenomenon. As sustainable fashion brands are choosing to participate in the event, many communicate their offers via the social media platform Instagram. To gain a competitive advantage and maintain their sustainable corporate images, some brands use greenwashing and/or bluewashing strategies. The first part of this study explores which strategies were employed in Instagram content posted by sustainable brands, using quantitative and qualitative content analysis. We propose a research-based model of nine greenwashing/bluewashing strategies. The second part of the study examines predictive factors for consumer evaluations of Black Friday ads by sustainable brands, using an online survey and a stepwise multiple regression analysis. Findings show that consumers’ critical attitude towards Black Friday and high ad skepticism predict positive evaluations while sustainable purchase behavior predicts negative evaluations. These insights suggest that ‘sustainable’ Black Friday campaigns may appeal to consumers who show a general concern for the environment and issues of social sustainability, but not to those who exhibit actual sustainable behavior.

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  • Previous research on greenwashing in the case of sustainable clothing has been scarce.

    “Previous research on greenwashing in the case of sustainable clothing has been scarce (e.g., Sailer et al., 2022).”

    From Sustainable clothing: Why conspicuous consumption and greenwashing matter (2023) · cites this paper as Sailer et al., 2022

    The Research Focus section identifies a gap in greenwashing and bluewashing research on sustainable small and medium-sized businesses, including fashion brands. It does not establish that research on greenwashing in sustainable clothing generally has been scarce; its stated gap is narrower. (LLM, conf=0.83)

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Sailer, A., Wilfing, H., & Straus, E.
Affiliations
University of Vienna (AT)
Corresponding author
Wilfing, Harald
ORCID
Venue
Sustainability
Publisher
MDPI AG
Published
2022-01-27
Volume
14
Issue
3
Pages
1494
ISSN
2071-1050 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3390/su14031494
OpenAlex
W4210421619
Cited by
114
References
4
Citations by year
2026: 20 · 2025: 32 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 9 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 2
FWCI
18.18
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Sustainability (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • HAL (submittedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Environmental Sustainability in Business
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Marketing and Social Media
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Consumer Perception and Purchasing Behavior
Keywords
greenwashing, bluewashing, sustainable fashion, Black Friday, Instagram marketing, social media advertising, consumer skepticism, corporate sustainability communication, environmental concern

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