Methodology for evaluating green advertising of forest products in the United States: A content analysis

Environmental (green) advertisements fall into one of three categories: they can express a positive relationship between a product or service and the environment, they can present a corporate image of environmental responsibility, or they can promote a green lifestyle. The forest products industry began publishing green ads several years ago. This study, which examined 323 issues of 6 magazines published between January 1995 and March 2000, used content analysis to measure the level of greenness of an individual advertisement and to help give suggestions for increasing it. Methodology was based on the MECCAS model, which describes an effective advertisement. Five levels of greenness were defined, ranging from more to less green: extra green, green, light green, green-brown, and brown. Fifty-seven percent of the collected advertisements fell into the extra green and green categories. Suggested improvements include making ads look green (using pictures of natural landscapes, animals, and green colors), referring to the production process or recycling stage of the product life cycle (rather than the more commonly mentioned raw material stage), and utilizing animal life or personal health as the basic value promoted by the ad (instead of the overused planet preservation). The authors note an interesting shift in the target audience for the forest products industry's environmental ads, with companies now focusing their advertising mainly on architects.