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Purpose: In keeping with recent body image social trends, consumer demand for the adoption of plus-size models is increasing, although the use of thin models remains prevalent. The current study explores how consumers process information about fashion products displayed on different sizes of models in advertisements, focusing on model and consumer body sizes and both genders. As an underlying mechanism explaining how the relationship between model and consumer body sizes shapes consumer purchase intention, this study explores the role of guilt, shame and mental imagery. Design/methodology/approach: The current study uses a text analytics technique to identify female consumers' general opinions of thin models in advertising. Employing a 3 (consumer body size: normal, overweight, obese) × 2 (model body size: thin, plus-size) × 2 (gender: male, female) between-subjects online experiment (n = 718), the main study comparatively analyzes the influences of plus-size and thin models on consumer responses. Findings: The results reveal that, despite body positivity movements, thin models still generate negative emotions among female consumers. For obese female consumers, advertisements featuring plus-size models produce fewer negative emotions but not more mental imagery than advertisements featuring thin models. Conversely, for obese male consumers, advertisements featuring plus-size models generate more mental imagery but not more negative emotions than advertisements featuring thin models. The results also reveal that the relationship between consumer body size and guilt is moderated by perceived model size, which is also moderated by gender in generating mental imagery. While guilt plays a mediating role in enhancing mental imagery, resulting in purchase intention, shame does not take on this role. Originality/value: This study is the first to present an integrated model that elucidates how consumers with varying body sizes respond to different sizes of models in advertising and how these responses impact purchase intentions. Research limitations/implications: Our findings only apply to contexts where consumers purchase fashion clothing in response to advertisements featuring thin versus plus-size models. Practical implications: Exposing normal-size consumers to plus-size models generates less mental imagery, and thus, practitioners should seek to match the body sizes of the models featured in advertising to the body sizes of their target audience or ad campaigns that include both plus-size and thin models may help improve message persuasiveness in fashion advertising. Moreover, guilt-appeal advertising campaigns using thin models would appeal more to thin consumers of both genders than shame-appeal advertising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Universitas, Revista de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas is the property of Universidad Politecnica Salesiana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Universitas, Revista de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas is the property of Universidad Politecnica Salesiana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Global fashion brands have embraced size-inclusive advertising featuring plus-size models, yet the responses of Asian consumers to such advertising—where the average body size of women is smaller than in Western markets—have garnered little attention. This study, utilizing the S-O-R model, aimed to investigate whether the relationships among perceived actual and ideal self-congruence, perceived attractiveness and familiarity of a fashion model, and purchase intention vary based on the body size of the fashion model. We tested the hypothesized relationships using ANCOVA, confirmatory factor analysis, and multi-group structural equation modeling, analyzing 623 online survey responses from South Korean female consumers. Actual self-congruence had a greater influence on perceived familiarity in consumers exposed to a thin-sized model compared to those exposed to a plus-sized model. In contrast, ideal self-congruence had a more significant positive impact on the perceived physical attractiveness of the plus-size model than the thin-size model. Furthermore, the plus-size model's perceived physical attractiveness had a more significant positive effect on purchase intention than that of the thin-size model. This study highlights the importance of crafting advertising images that portray plus-size models as physically attractive to elicit favorable responses from Asian consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research study explores the representation of men in fashion advertising and investigates whether societal and fashion evolution has contributed to a departure from traditional stereotypes. The research methodology comprised three phases: content analysis, surveys, and in-depth interviews with an expert panel, examining how men's clothing has been communicated in fashion over a span of 50 years, with a focus on three renowned brands: Lacoste, Burberry, and Hugo Boss. The findings reveal a notable shift in fashion advertising targeting men, characterized by increased racial diversity among models and a more diverse depiction of attitudes and poses. However, homosexual or bisexual couples remain largely unrepresented. The study highlights the influence of advertising on shaping the image of the "new man", evident through the diminishing gender boundaries in clothing and accessories and the persistent struggle to break free from stereotypes. The study underscores the significance of ongoing efforts to promote diversity and inclusivity in fashion advertising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2013, Israel’s Act Limiting Weight in the Modelling Industry first came into effect, requiring advertisers to disclose when images of commercial models have been digitally altered. The Act, which was the first of its kind, has come to be known as Israel’s “Photoshop Law” and was designed to help models maintain healthy weights and to ensure transparency in fashion advertising. Now, in response to growing concerns over body image issues linked with youth social media consumption, several nations around the world, including Norway and the United Kingdom, have proposed or enacted regulations that require social media influencers to add disclaimer labels to retouched images of their body in promotional posts. The prevalence of social media among youth has been heavily associated with body dissatisfaction and disordered eating, as adolescents are constantly exposed to unrealistic body standards. As government entities intend to address these issues through greater transparency by influencers online, it is unlikely that such laws will be practical or enforceable in the broad landscape of social media, thus ultimately failing to improve body image issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores visual English on the storefronts of commercial fashion businesses in Souq Al-Sultan in Amman, Jordan. A corpus of 120 signs displaying various types of commercial fashion businesses (i.e., clothing, beauty tools, accessories, bags, and footwear) was obtained. Drawing on a multilayered analysis model which includes the distributional analysis of linguistic landscape (Ben-Rafael et al., 2006), geosemiotics (Scollon & Scollon, 2003), and the degrees of multilingual writings (Reh, 2004), the study analyses and discusses the extensive use of English and the minimal display of Arabic on fashion storefronts. To provide some ethnographic context for the data, 10 interviews were also conducted. Results suggest that English largely serves as the lingua franca of Jordan's visual fashion discourse, and the overwhelming visibility of English on fashion signs is significantly attributed to economic and global considerations. Other foreign languages, particularly Turkish, French, and Italian, have featured several signs, but to a lesser degree than Arabic, which can be explained for Turkish and European stereotyping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a letter from the editors of Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture. It highlights several articles featured in the journal. One article analyzes the use of fashion films as lifestyle manifestos, while another explores the concept of upcycling and its creative potential. The letter also mentions an article that examines the connections between clothing, trauma, and memory, as well as an article about a British internet personality who focuses on vintage dressing. Additionally, the letter mentions a review of an exhibition that explores the connections between food and fashion. The letter concludes by introducing a new section on archives and reviewing a book that challenges traditional narratives about fashion and time. [Extracted from the article]

In a context dominated by the worsening effects of climate change, as professors of a degree in Advertising and Public Relations, our students are made up of people who are not only members of generation Z -the main target audience for fast fashion- but also future creators of narratives capable of creating ecological awareness among citizens. This article presents the results of an exploratory research that responds to two objectives: to know the profile of said students as fashion consumers; and to know if the university can contribute to create an ecological conscience about the production and consumption of fashion in future advertising professionals. The research is organized into two studies, each designed to respond to each objective. A quantitative methodology is used, through the application of a questionnaire prepared ad hoc, together with a quasi-experimental methodology, with a training intervention developed within the framework of the "ConSuma Conciencia" initiative. The analysis reveals a profile of the student body that is hardly concerned by the problems represented by the fashion industry, largely unaware of its environmental impact and with few sustainable fashion consumption habits. However, the changes shown because of their participation in the training intervention allow us to be moderately optimistic since the data reflect that knowledge, attitudes and even previous behaviors of the student body in relation to sustainable fashion are modified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social and environmental impacts of the global fashion industry face increasing scrutiny. As such, consumers and brands look towards 'sustainable fashion' for low‐impact alternatives. Simultaneously, visual social media platforms such as Instagram have become prevalent places for fashion advertising and discourse. To investigate this under‐researched area, the current study utilises visual content and social network analysis to explore how sustainable fashion is presented on Instagram, specifically: (a) what visual characteristics are present within sustainable fashion content, and (b) in what broader contexts and communities is discussion of sustainable fashion taking place? Posts included under the hashtag #sustainablefashion (N = 650) were inspected for visual characteristics, including type of clothing, presence of person, post setting, presence of nature, and post format. Most posts were photographs located indoors with no person and no nature‐based elements. The hashtags used alongside #sustainablefashion were analysed with Gephi software to establish a social network and community groups of related topics. Network analysis revealed four key community groups: online‐promotional, artisan‐traditional, eco‐ethical, and Malay‐online‐selling. Secondhand fashion also appeared to be the most prominent sustainable fashion alternative on Instagram. This study is one of the first to investigate the characteristics of user‐generated #sustainablefashion content on Instagram. Whilst social media is a burgeoning avenue for research, existing studies primarily investigate how these platforms can be harnessed for advertising, rather than what users themselves are already posting. Implications for brands who use this platform and opportunities for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) models continue to be underrepresented in advertising within the fashion and beauty industry. The present research project aims to evaluate the impact of same-raced model adverts on consumer behavior as well as testing consumer-model racial congruence with a specific focus on Black models and consumers, the latter of whom feel especially underrepresented in advertising campaigns. Two studies were conducted. In Study 1, 120 female participants (38 Black, 82 Caucasian) viewed 28 perfume advertisements featuring 14 Black and 14 Caucasian models. Participants rated their likelihood of purchasing the perfume and how much money they would be willing to spend. In Study 2, 99 female participants (34 Black, 65 Caucasian) made the same ratings in Study 1, but this time they rated images fragrances without any models present. Participants were divided into three conditions: (1) participants who received no priming, (2) participants were primed with images of Black models, and (3) participants were primed with images of Caucasian models. Both studies highlighted that Black participants showed an increased intention of buying as well as a willingness to spend a higher amount of money when the product advertised is accompanied by images of Black models. Consumer-model racial congruence was not supported for Caucasian participants. This article highlights a participant-model racial congruence for Black participants and underlines the positive impact of inclusive fashion on BAME consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fashion business is regarded as one of the most important industries in the world and contributes significantly to the world economy's benefits. In the era of technology, applying the right management techniques for advertising is very important to succeed among commercial competitors in competitive markets. Even though advertising has so many positive effects, it also has a negative side, such as it could create unrealistic beauty and body standards due to the marketers using attractive, slender, and tall models which promotes the ideal body image in culture. The purpose of this research is to determine how impactful body diversity in advertising affects consumers' attitude toward advertisements and their desire to buy clothes, to determine what kind of models to utilize in fashion goods commercials to strengthen consumer perceptions of advertisements and buy intent, and to explore the effects of size inclusivity as the moderating variable of diversity in advertising and attitude toward the advertisements. The methodologies used in this study were qualitative and quantitative. As a result, the purpose of this study is to determine whether or not advertising that promotes body positivity has an impact on how consumers feel about advertisements and their intentions to buy from fashion retailers, which type of model's body, a larger or slimmer one, has a greater effect on the consumer's perception of the advertising and their desire to purchase according to the customer's body type and sizes, and how size inclusivity becomes the moderating variable between advertisements and purchases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to explore the relationships between particular personal values (environmental, hedonic and utilitarian) and the intention to purchase slow fashion through the mechanism of attitude toward slow fashion in Indonesia. Design/methodology/approach: This quantitative study uses an online questionnaire to obtain survey data from 429 respondents in cities in Indonesia. The respondents were mostly aged between 18 and 45 years, with the majority between 18 and 22 years (63.40 per cent). Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling are used to test and validate the proposed model's scale validity and relationship. Findings: Environmental, utilitarian and hedonic values are positively related to attitudes toward slow-fashion products. Further, attitudes toward slow-fashion products positively influence purchase intention. Practical implications: The study suggests marketing strategies to stimulate the intention to purchase slow fashion through advertising that emphasizes utilitarian, environmental and hedonic values, such as the pleasure in using slow-fashion products. Originality/value: This study is the first to investigate the relationship of environmental and motivational values (hedonic and utilitarian) to the intention to purchase slow-fashion products. The findings contribute to the theoretical and practical understandings of slow fashion by identifying pre-positioned values that trigger positive attitudes toward slow-fashion products, thereby increasing purchase intention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines digital fashion advertising discourse on social media from a multimodal perspective. The focus is on Facebook clothing posts published by 'H&M' and the effect of gender on determining the semiotic modes used in such advertisements. The data consists of 8 clothing posts for the two genders published by the company on Facebook during (2020-2022). The data were analyzed using Kress and Van Leeuwen's (2006) Visual Grammar paradigm to explore the role of gender in the choice of visual modes employed in these posts. The findings show that digital fashion clothing ads widely involve visual semiotic modes as a tool that creates meaning and enables interaction with the target audiences. The results also indicate that gender is a primary factor in the selection of such visual semiotic resources. In particular, the construction of visual meaning, especially representational and interactive meanings, is different from that in male ads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I extend the theory of tax incidence under Cournot-Nash oligopolistic competition to study the effects of an ad valorem sales tax on Web services that are provided free of charge to users, and produce advertising space sold to businesses. Ads are more valuable to advertisers the more users are served by a Web service. Users have ads-neutral preferences and Web companies compete in a Cournot-Nash fashion on the advertising market but enjoy monopolistic power in the service market they serve. I demonstrate that the equilibrium market price may be reduced by such tax, while ads sold increase. The conditions for such a tax-induced change depend upon the functional form and the elasticity assumed for ads demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discourse on filter bubbles and echo chambers applies to the use of social media analytics and consumer profiling for behavioural advertising in the fashion industry, this being relevant to an individual's autonomy and control of personal information. However, we need to expand on the concept of filter bubbles and echo chambers to define the contours of self-exposure within the algorithmic context applied to the social and personal aspects of fashion. This paper claims that filter bubbles and echo chambers in fashion have an impact on the parameters and conditions of the right to privacy, influencing an individual's perception and self-relationality. An analysis of the ECtHR's interpretation of Article 8 of the ECHR Convention reveals that we need to shape notions of personal development and autonomy to include an individual's plurality of needs, desires, and beliefs, as well as unconscious associations with fashion identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Nabo is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Fashion, as one of the largest industries in the world, causes serious social and environmental issues. Sustainable fashion aims to reduce pollution and improve working conditions in the industry. This article suggests ideas for improving advertising and better understanding consumer behavior in order to promote sustainable fashion. While there is still a lack of academic studies on consumer behavior and sustainable fashion, there is a need of the fashion industry to become more sustainable. Further work on improving sustainable fashion advertising as well as better understanding the target audience is to date necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How Should Fashion Brands Use Advertising to Increase Sales while Remaining Exclusive? Fashion consumption signals a consumer's status to the broader population, so fashion brands and their consumers value exclusivity. Consequently, fashion advertising must balance sales generation with exclusivity loss. In this paper, we develop a model with these features of fashion and estimate it using advertising, price, and sales data for two styles of handbags and sunglasses. Our analysis provides insights for advertising budgeting and scheduling and finds that advertising optimally should decrease as the product increases in popularity and vice versa. This exerts a braking force on sales oscillations so that the fashion cycle decays as does the optimal advertising path. In addition to demonstrating how advertising cycling can impact a fashion firm's profitability, we show how different styles of a fashion brand can cycle at different rates. By connecting advertising cycles to fashion cycles, we provide prescriptions for how fashion firms should manage different styles of the same brand. This paper uses dynamic optimization to study the optimal advertising of fashion products over time. For fashion products, brand advertising and exclusivity are important sales drivers. Therefore, we propose a dynamic model of the sales of multiple styles of a fashion brand based on these variables. The model is estimated using a particle filter method on data from two fashion categories (handbags and sunglasses) and has good fit and prediction. We also derive explicit analytical solutions of the optimal, closed-loop advertising control and use it to explain advertising and fashion cycles. A managerial prescription is that advertising cycling should be out of phase with sales, for example, trend down when fashion sales is trending up. Thus, advertising flattens the fashion sales cycle over time rather than reinforcing it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Administração FACES Journal is the property of Revista de Administracao FACES Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article offers an exposition of the J. Peterman Company's Owner's Manual, a mock-vintage clothing catalogue that promises customers 'things that make their lives the way they wish they were'. Written in dramatic, long-form prose and illustrated in watercolour – both uncommon in today's mail-order fashion industry – the Owner's Manual is at once appalling for its misogyny and enticing for its nostalgia. This article argues that the Owner's Manual and its enduring success confound existing paradigms for interpreting both fashion media and the body's gendered relationship to attire. Are the Manual 's millions of subscribers beset by false consciousness, imagining themselves into an oppressive sex/gender field and endorsing the catalogue's misogyny with their desire? The Manual is not fully intelligible within either structuralist or phenomenological interpretive modes – fashion theory's two most prevalent schools of thought – but, rather, begets an interpretive paradigm that forces us to reconcile individuals' desires for, and identification into, historically mediated gender performance with the fact of individuals' dignity, agency and autonomy. I argue that the Owner's Manual achieves this reconciliation by foregrounding sartorial objects, rather than individuals, as the bearers of gender fantasy and by demonstrating how these objects, laden with historical associations, have detached from the highly gendered contexts of their origins while nevertheless retaining aspects of their original semiotic potencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The One Hour Dress was considered a "sensation" when introduced in 1923 by sewing and fashion expert Mary Brooks Picken (1886–1968) of the Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Through demonstrations held at American department stores between 1923 and 1925, Picken sought to stop a national decline in sales of sewing equipment and supplies. Endorsement by film actress Mae Marsh (1894–1968) linked the dress with Hollywood glamour at a time when celebrity and mass consumption were changing the fashion industry and advertising. Reconstructing the One Hour Dress led to a re-examination of the Michigan State University Museum's historic dress collection, where was found a garment constructed along similar lines. The authors offer guidelines to identify One Hour-type dresses. The One Hour Dress, as a teaching tool, offers a case study for studying the past to merge pre-industrial dressmaking (local production, customization) and modern standards of quality and style. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In March 2020, the new SARS-CoV-2 virus arrived to stay amongst us, bringing the most important global pandemic known up to now. The entire world was affected by a health crisis that spread to all sectors of society, leading to company clousures, rises in unemployment rates and many changes in ordinary lifestyle. This pandemic has also had an impact on changes in society's consumption habits and a relevant increase in the use of social networks due to the months of lockdown, which has leaded to important changes in various areas and, specifically, in the fashion and influencers sector. In addition to the pandemic problem, there is the trouble of adapting to the new Spanish regulation, code of conduct on social networks, from January 2021. This research aims to analyze, using a mixed methodology, the changes produced in fashion influencers jobs before, during and after the pandemic, the evolution of fashion brands in digital media and new trends in influencer marketing that have been caused by this new situation. To do so, we have performed a content analysis and interviews with professionals from the fashion sector. Conclusions show a greater control of content, an increase in number of followers and a closer link with brands. Comparisons with the dynamic in other international markets, as well as the future adaptation of the professional activity to current regulations, are the most relevant questions to be addressed in order to be able to expand the study in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The consumer culture in socialism, the socialist advertising and fashion in Romania in the 1970s are historical research subjects that outline the fundamental context for the analysis of the visual documents represented by the advertising published in the Moda [Fashion] magazine. Considering the means of disseminating the advertising message, namely through the Moda magazine, the characteristics of the advertising discourse present over time in its issues and of the audience sphere (in Romania and abroad), the elements that compose the message of the advertisement and the photomontage directly, the present study also notes the touristic connotation of the advertising message. The advertisement represents a tourism incentive and stimulation, despite the fact that its foreground contains the efforts for promoting a lifestyle and a clothing model, as well as the means for procuring it. The main goal of the present study resides in the contextualisation of socialist advertising in several registers of historical and economical analysis (regarding consumption in socialism), of the socialist advertisement in particular and of the interpretation of the power discourse on the presentation of the modern lives of the citizens of modern socialist Romania in the 1970s (fashion and the promotion of tourism are associated with the daily modern socialist culture). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Mediterranean Journal of Communication / Revista Mediterránea de Comunicación is the property of Revista Mediterranea de Comunicacion / Mediterranean Journal of Communication and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this article, we argue that Teen Vogue has evolved to encompass aspects of intersectional, feminist activism that is particularly evident in the 2017 "Voices" section of the magazine. This evolution challenges previous research that has found that, historically, teen magazines focus heavily on heteronormativity, ideals of beauty, and consumerism. Our analysis of the content of this section of Teen Vogue in 2017 demonstrates that teen magazines can be reimagined as legitimate sources of intersectional activist feminist information for readers. Despite these positive changes, however, Teen Vogue continues to advertise clothing brands that many adolescent girl readers are likely unable to afford, thereby reinforcing superficial postfeminist notions of empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: There is extensive research where consumer emotions of brand love and brand hate are investigated. However, the studies where a transition in consumer-brand emotions is explored are scant. This paper aims to investigate the mediating effect of brand jealousy in the relationship between brand love and brand hate among luxury fashion brand consumers. Also how value expressiveness moderates the relationship between brand hate and negative word of mouth (NWOM) is examined. Design/methodology/approach: The study is based on a cross-sectional survey conducted among 273 luxury fashion consumers from Pakistan. The structural equation modeling (SEM) technique is employed to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings: All the proposed hypotheses are supported. Brand jealousy mediates the relationship between brand love and brand hate. Furthermore, value expressiveness buffers the relationship between brand hate and NWOM. Practical implications: The luxury fashion marketers should focus on strengthening the symbolic identity of a luxury fashion brand via advocating its visual elements. Moreover, there is a need to advertise luxury fashion brands as exclusive to individual customers. Finally, some rewards can be offered to consumers to generate positive word of mouth (WOM) about luxury fashion brands. Originality/value: The study of an emotional transition among luxury brand customers via a mediating role of brand jealousy is a unique theoretical contribution. Moreover, the moderating role of the value-expressiveness function examining the hate-to-NWOM path is also unique to this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has received significant attention and has become a global trend that challenges the role of business. The purpose of this study is to examine how the fashion industry responds to public pressure in terms of sustainability by promoting its CSR commitments through CSR advertising. Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative content analysis was conducted to examine how the fashion industry advertises its CSR commitments on social media. To explore the trend and various perspectives of CSR advertising presented by the fashion industry, the top six fashion brands that are well known for their sustainability performance were selected and their Instagram posts from 2019 were fully investigated. Findings: The findings from the study indicate that the fashion industry uses different strategies for CSR advertising campaigns. It provides evidence that fashion brands, overall, focus on sustainability efforts for the environment and visually communicate their CSR practices through a framework that highlights greenness and environmentally friendly messages in CSR advertising. Originality/value: CSR allows organizations to communicate with consumers about how business can be operated for a sustainable future. CSR advertising is an emerging field as company's CSR practices can create strategic benefits when the practices have high visibility. However, little work has been done to analyze CSR advertising on social media. Therefore, the present study adds values to the existing literature on CSR advertising, which is important to both academic researchers and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Childhood are increasingly present in certain digital media, where commercial messages directly appeal to children's participation, enabling them to express their identity and establishing relations with their peers, who become opinion leaders. The aim of this exploratory qualitative research is to analyse a child's perception towards sexualized girls depicted in fashion advertising in a digital environment. The investigation conducts a qualitative methodology among Spanish girls between 8 and 11 years old corresponding to the target audience of fashion brands advertising that has been categorized in different levels as sexualizing. The results point out that girls generally reject the images of their peers and models whenever they are portrayed more sexualized because the style does not correspond to real life and does not seem chosen by the girls depicted. Furthermore, girls associate the combination of sexualizing contexts, postures and gestures with personality traits negatively considered -self-centred, defiant, rebel, sad, alone-and are afraid of the normalization among children of make-up and certain behaviours not keeping with their age. In light of the results, the study recommends an ethical reflection by advertisers that use an adult style transgressive and the study of images that depict boys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study synthesizes research on evolutionary psychology, emotional appeals, and viral advertising in order to develop a novel perspective on how sustainable luxury brands can be effectively promoted on social media. The results of two experiments show that the emotional appeals of pride and gratitude increase consumer intentions to spread electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) about sustainable luxury brands via two discrete mechanisms. Study 1 establishes that featuring the pride appeal increases eWOM intentions by heightening the luxury dimension of sustainable luxury brands, whereas featuring the gratitude appeal increases eWOM intentions by heightening the sustainability dimension of sustainable luxury brands. Study 2 shows that these discrete effects of emotional appeals influence consumers to adopt different types of eWOM behaviors toward sustainable luxury brands. Specifically, the pride appeal increases consumer intentions to broadcast eWOM via status attainment motives. In contrast, the gratitude appeal increases consumer intentions to narrowcast eWOM via affiliation seeking motives. The findings offer novel theoretical insights and provide managers with tools to promote sustainable luxury brands in a digital environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Ubiquitous Internet access and social media make visual consumption possibly the most vital characteristic of the experience economy. A cumulative, integrative framework for the analysis of visual artefacts has thus been called for as existing analytical tools and theoretical frameworks (such as semiotics, discourse analysis, content analysis, iconography, rhetoric and so on) each provide in isolation only a restricted perspective. To advance best practice towards shaping brand perception and consumer engagement, this paper provides a crucial analytical tool to uncover the unique and specific characteristics of identitary luxury fashion brand discourse by introducing and applying such an integrative framework. Design/methodology/approach: A rigorous grounded theory approach was applied to a corpus of primary data, print advertising in Vogue (UK and US) and Vanity Fair (UK). Outcomes were distilled to first principles of meaning-making and aggregated in a framework which also integrates long-existing classics from diverse fields of knowledge to present a broad cumulative perspective for the analysis of visual discursive practice. This paper demonstrates the methodological rigour and validity of the framework, that is, its practical adequacy and explanatory power in uncovering the identitary brand discourse of luxury fashion. Findings: An application of the integrative framework breaks new ground in uncovering the discreet identitary characteristics of the discursive practice of the luxury brands under investigation, Chanel and Gucci, which can be encapsulated as gendered technology of the confident self (Foucault) and spectacle (Debord), respectively. Research limitations/implications: To advance theory that illuminates understanding and shaping of brand perception and consumer engagement with luxury fashion brands, the proposed framework is the first to integrate insight from a rigorous analysis of primary data with long-existing classics from salient fields of knowledge. It, thus, provides a broader, more inclusive perspective that elucidates the multifaceted layers of meaning of luxury fashion discourse in a new and comprehensive way which existing approaches with focus on an isolated dimension such as semiotics or nonverbal behaviour and so on would not have been able to reveal. Practical implications: The inclusive, practicable theoretical framework provides a parsimonious and practical tool that can be applied by non-experts across disciplines to unlock meaning in fashion discourse as a route to shaping brand image and engaging consumers. Originality/value: The paper provides a new perspective on the communication practice of luxury fashion advertising as the new integrative framework illuminates layers of meaning crucial to understanding the intricacies of identitary brand discourse and to shaping brand perception and engaging consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research analyzes the female stereotypes presented in graphic advertisements for luxury fashion, perfume, and cosmetic brands in Spain. It identifies the beauty stereotypes with which women are portrayed. This empirical work represents a continuation of the studies carried out by Díaz-Soloaga since 2005, to analyze the evolution of the representation of women in graphic advertising. Content analysis of 168 advertisements published in the fashion titles Elle, Glamour, Telva, Vogue, and Woman Madame Figaro was carried out. The main result was the observation of six female profiles that are remarkably similar to those identified in previous studies, thus confirming the permanence of the same beauty stereotypes. Although some progress is observed, advertising of luxury fashion, perfume, and cosmetic brands continues to display stereotypes that contribute to an inaccurate image of women. It is paradoxical that, in the context of current feminine demands, instead of empowering their audience, fashion magazines contribute to their pigeonholing using dependent, narcissistic, and highly sexualized images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines fashion imagery in regard to representations of power as they pertain to the mise en scene of fashion advertising. By employing a specific form of image critique employed by Michel Foucault in The Order of Things (1966), a new methodology for analyzing fashion advertising is proposed and formulated. This form of critique enables elements such as the gaze, light and space to be framed into lines of sight. These lines can be examined in regard to the viewing subject, the staging of the advert, and structures of power. In his critique of the painting by Diego Velázquez Las Meninas (1656), Foucault states: "No gaze is stable, or rather, in the neutral furrow of the gaze piercing at a right angle through the canvas, subject and object, the spectator and the model, reverse their roles to infinity" (2005, 5). These themes enable us to use this methodology to critique fashion imagery and this article offers up a new approach to visual analysis, one that has not been considered before and that can now be added to the fashion theory toolbox. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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There was a lack of quantitative description on the acceptance of luxury fashion brand's new media advertising. In order to solve this problem, based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, marked by characteristics of Chinese new media advertising environment and luxury fashion brands, acceptance model of new media advertising for Chinese luxury fashion brand was constructed. Three independent variables in the original model were retained, including performance expectancy, effort expectancy and social influence. A new variable, perceived risk, was introduced. All variables were measured with Likert seven scales. 212 valid samples were collected by web-based survey. The SEM was used to analyze the effect of each factor on consumer behavior intention and test research hypotheses. The results show that social influence (1.012**) and performance expectancy (0.696**) have significant positive influence on consumer behavior intention. The effect of perceived risk and effort expectancy on behavior intention is not significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Walter Benjamin (1892–1940), while working on the Arcades Project during the final years of his life, produced two extended outlines – he called them Exposés – for "Paris, the Capital of the Nineteenth Century." The third part was titled "Grandville, or the World Exhibitions." An important source for scholars working on world's fairs and international exhibitions, Benjamin's Exposés provide a place from which to explore a broad number of themes related to the development of nineteenth-century modernity and consumer capitalism, from advertising and fashion to entertainment and representation. Spectacular environments that purportedly reproduced the world, international exhibitions were fabulously popular in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They continue to be so today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Standard models of competition predict that firms will sell less when competitors target their customers with advertising. This is particularly true in mature markets with many competitors that sell relatively undifferentiated products. However, the authors present findings from a large-scale randomized field experiment that contrast sharply with this prediction. The field experiment measures the impact of competitors' advertising on sales at a private label apparel retailer. Surprisingly, for a substantial segment of customers, the competitors' advertisements increased sales at this retailer. This robust effect was obtained through experimental manipulation and by measuring actual purchases from large samples of randomly assigned customers. The effect size is also large, with customers ordering more than 4% more items in some categories in the treatment condition (vs. the control). The authors examine how these positive spillovers vary across product categories to illustrate the importance of product standards, customer learning, and switching costs. The findings have the potential to change our understanding of competition in mature markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]