Call for Submissions


Journal of Advertising


Special Issue: “Green” Advertising – Using Environmental Benefits in Persuasion   

  

 

Submission deadline: April 1, 2012.

 

Manuscripts are being solicited for an upcoming special issue of Journal of Advertising devoted to advertising and the environment: the relationship between advertising, consumers and green messages that have become more frequent in the media over the past decade. “Green” messages connect environmental benefits with the purchase of products or services or with the adoption of specific pro-environmental behaviors in the minds of consumers. Authors may submit empirical or theoretical papers, including literature reviews that offer strong theoretical frameworks for research programs, content analyses, surveys, experiments and depth interviews or other qualitative methods. Papers that adopt a longitudinal and/or cross-cultural perspective are encouraged.   

  

Since 1995, the environment has become more of a hot button topic with consumers, corporations, and policy makers. A 2010 study of advertising practitioners indicated that more than 3/4 of surveyed practitioners planned to increase their advertising and marketing spending on green messages in the future. That increase is due to numerous polls that show many U.S. consumers are willing to pay more for so-called ‘green’ products (e.g. GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media and the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, 2008; Marketing Daily, 2010; Mintel, 2010: Integer Group and M/A/R/C Research, 2011). This trend holds true around the world, with recent polls showing consumers in China (Ogilvy Mather 2011), Japan (McKinsey, 2010), and Europe (Insites, 2011) are looking for ways to integrate sustainability in to their lifestyles. This trend is complicated, however, with studies that show consumers’ green intent does not always translate into actual green purchase behaviors (Grail Research, 2009; Lindqvist, 2011). 

  

Research questions and topics that may be addressed include but are not limited to: 

 

  • The Green Gap: why it exists, among whom, and how it can be understood theoretically and addressed in practice. 
  • Advertising’s perceived influence on social norms and green consumer behavior  
  • Role of different message frames (gain v. loss, risk v. reward, etc.) in green advertising 
  • Frame alignment in green advertising and its influence on consumption-oriented social movements 
  • The magnitude, scope, and character of green messages in advertising
  • Communication strategies and message appeals for green products 
  • Semiotics of green advertising 
  • Consumer attitudes toward green messages, including cultural perspectives 
  • Advertising’s relationship to sustainable lifestyles 
  • Critical-cultural approaches to green advertising, such as an ecofeminist perspective 
  • Cross-cultural approaches to green advertising 
  • Practitioner attitudes toward green messages  
  • Green advertising and the acquisition of green attitudes and behaviors among children 
  • The role of eco-seals in green campaigns 
  • Public policy issues related to green messages and greenwashing 
  • Sustainability and CSR communications 
  • Green advertising’s agenda setting role in contemporary discourse about the environmental crisis  
  • The role of new media and/or social media in green advertising 
  • Third person effect and perceived influence of green advertising in self and others’ environmental orientations and consumer behavior 
  • Green imagery as a persuasion tool 

  

Submission Requirements & Information 

 

Submissions should follow the manuscript format guidelines for the Journal of Advertising. Manuscripts should be submitted electronically to jaeditor@austin.utexas.edu and in the subject line type: “Green Advertising.”

 

Submission deadline is April 1, 2012.

  

In the body of your email, please provide: 

  • Title of Paper 
  • Primary contact person’s name, affiliation, mailing address, phone number, fax number, and email address 
  • Names of other co-authors/participants, their affiliations  
  • Key Words: 3 to 5 key words that identify the topic and the methods used in the research. 

  

Blind review: Because reviewing will be blind, authors should refrain from identifying themselves or their affiliations in the body of the paper and in footnotes. Please note that it is the submitting author’s responsibility to make sure that the document does not contain any identifying information when saved as a Word file. (Right click on the file in Windows Explorer and go to “Properties” and then “Summary” to ensure that all identifying information is removed.) 

  

Electronic format for submission: Your submission will be a word document sent as an email attachment.  All submissions should be scanned for viruses. Make sure to save a copy of your submission information until notification of the final decision. Please ensure that submissions do not have author names on the title page. 

  

Acknowledgement of receipt: The primary contact person will receive an acknowledgement of receipt of your submission by email. If you do not receive an acknowledgement email within a week of submission, you should send an email inquiring about the status of your submission to Kim Sheehan or Lucy Atkinson. 

  

Kim Sheehan                                        Lucy Atkinson 

1275 University of Oregon                      Dept. of Advertising and PR 

Eugene, OR 97403                                Mail Code A1200  

ksheehan@uoregon.edu                         University of Texas 

                                                           Austin, TX 78712

                                                           lucyatkinson@mail.utexas.edu