Environmental Advertising: New Forms of Transnational Persuasion

Environmental Communication is a growing area of academic enquiry. But, whilst there are key texts on environmental communication and new texts on environment-themed media, there is, as yet, no book specifically devoted to ＂green＂ (environment themed) advertising.

Filling this lacuna, this book explores twenty-first century environment-themed advertising with a global reach in relation to three key emerging persuasive themes: governance, morality and transnational rhetoric. Such environment-themed advertising with transnational reach, addressed to transnational publics and produced by global actors (from NGOs to multinationals to the United Nations to celebrities), is now a significant form of environmental communication. This book considers that form and its meanings; the ＂environmental imaginary＂ it builds in the minds of its publics, its ideological and emotional landscapes, and its limitations. Adopting a social semiotic approach, and exploring key examples including Greenpeace’s ＂Everything is NOT Awesome＂ brandjacking advert, Volkswagen’s ＂Think Blue＂ campaign and Unilever’s ＂Why Bring a Child Into This World?＂ advert, Alexander puts forward a number of observations about the ideological character and function of environmental advertising as a new form of transnational persuasion.

The first book to explore the social and symbolic significance of ＂green＂ advertising as a transnational form of environmental communication, this book will be of great relevance to scholars and students with an interest in this growing field.