Racialized environmental injustice and green advertising: how color-conscious and colorblind strategies influence majority and minority consumers’ green cognitions

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The environmental injustice and racial equality social movements, together, have shed light on the racial disparities in environmental issues, challenging the notion that green advertising is an uncontentious, neutral form of brand social advocacy. The effectiveness of racialized environmental injustice messaging—as an emerging strategy intersecting green advertising and identity brand activism—has not been sufficiently explored in advertising and communication literature. To fill this gap, the present research examines how environmental injustice brand activism strategies (i.e. color-conscious, colorblind, apolitical/control) influence racial minority and majority consumers’ green cognitions and commercial responses. The results showed that the color-conscious messaging optimizes Black Americans’ green and commercial responses, while White Americans responded positively to the colorblind approach. More importantly, this study revealed that two green cognition responses—perceived brand greenwashing and racialized environmental injustice ideology—mediated the joint effects of environmental injustice messaging strategy and audience racial identity on commercial outcomes. By forefronting environmental injustice/racism to address the overlooked critical aspects of green advertising and reveal its social impacts across communities, this work charts new frontiers for green advertising research but also offers unique theoretical, practical, and social insights into diversity, equity, and inclusion in advocacy campaign strategies.