Journal of Mass Communication & Journalism

The Rise of Green Advertising

Abstract

Rucha Dande

The last decade (2000) has witnessed an influx of green brands in the market due to consumer demand thus, permitting green marketing to emerge into a multidimensional strategic tactical process. Since consumers will always have environmental concerns there will be parallel rise in environmental advertising accompanying increased consumer interest in the environment. The purpose of the study was to establish that there is a difference over a time period in advertisements representation of the environment and then to identify how this difference in representation has been constructed. The study was conducted based on the 7 step methodology. It ranged from selection of medium, year and magazine, data collection and analysis, preparation of timeline and conclusion. To study the change in the contents of green ads 1 National Geographic magazine (print medium) was selected from 1960 to 2010 and 324 green ads were collected over 60 years. These ads were categorized in the sectors of automobiles, oil/cement, organizations and technologies. The second categorization of ads was based on the quality of ads i.e. strong, casual and emotional ads. To understand the changing trends and messages of green ads an institutional, political, communications and environmental timeline was made from 1960-2010.The timeline helped trace major
events which have brought about environmental awareness amongst masses and also have triggered the rise in green advertising in the particular year due to the occurrence of the particular environmental event.
The findings suggested that the major investment in green advertising came from the automobile sector and also the advertisements are changing from strong to casual at a rapid pace. A comparative analysis of ads from before and today led to conclude that the messages and contents in green ads have been gradually changing from genuine environmental concern to the sole objective of ‘product sale.’