Commercial Communication in the Digital Age

Brigitte Naderer, Desirée Schmuck and Jörg Matthes

2.3Greenwashing: Disinformation through Green Advertising

Abstract: As environmental issues are of growing importance in today’s society, consumers are more likely to take environmental concerns into consideration when making their purchase decisions. As a consequence, companies tend to advertise their products as sustainable or eco-conscious. While many green advertisements communicate sincere green claims, some companies use advertisements as a tool to overstate or even falsify the minimization of the environmental impact of their offerings. This advertising practice is called greenwashing. This practice involves spreading disinformation concerning the services or products in question by telling ...