EXAMINING THE EFFECT OF HUMOR IN ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY ADVERTISING

Environmentally friendly advertising encourages consumers to act in ways that preserve the environment. Despite substantial efforts, this advertising has resulted in limited success, resulting in the need to develop new insights about how to promote environmentally friendly behaviors. This paper pro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Marketing management journal 2018-04, Vol.28 (1), p.30-47
Main Authors: Griese, Kai-Michael, Alexandrov, Aliosha, Michaelis, Christin, Lilly, Bryan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitudes
Behavior
Climate change
Consumers
Consumption
Environmental conditions
Environmental impact
Green economy
Humor
Marketing management
Public service advertising
Social marketing
Success
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Summary:Environmentally friendly advertising encourages consumers to act in ways that preserve the environment. Despite substantial efforts, this advertising has resulted in limited success, resulting in the need to develop new insights about how to promote environmentally friendly behaviors. This paper proposes an approach to environmental promotion through humor. Based on recent research in humorous threat persuasion theory, we examine the effect of humor in pro-environmental advertising. Hypotheses were tested with subjects in China, Germany and The United States of America. Results indicate humorous ads lead to more positive ad attitude and ad engagement than non-humorous ads. Moreover, pro-environmental humorous ads still evoke fear, albeit humor and fear operate differently. Humor increases ad attitude, which subsequently affects ad engagement. Fear, on the other hand, tends to affect ad engagement directly. Based on the research findings, we conclude that humor has a high potential for use in environmentally-friendly advertising.
ISSN:1534-973X
2329-9762