Corporate social responsibility advertising in social media: a content analysis of the fashion industry's CSR advertising on Instagram

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PurposeCorporate 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/approachA 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.FindingsThe 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/valueCSR 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.