Does environmental advertising reflect integrated marketing communications? An empirical investigation

We describe an empirical assessment of the degree to which environmental ads may be classified as integrated. A framework discussed by Nowak and Phelps (1994) is applied to a set of "green" ads to determine whether such ads are truly integrated. Because organizations should use more than one approach in order to develop a green posture, integrated marketing commumcations would appear to be a suitable method for forming an environmentally conscious stance. Results indicate that only about half of the environmental ads that were studied were classifiable as integrated according to criteria discussed by Nowak and Phelps. Further, integrated green ads do not appear to be applying the types of direct behavioral inducements that might be optimal for building a positive environmental posture. Such findings may have implications for the recent decline in use of and interest in green advertising.