Expressions of positive attitudes toward the environment are only weakly related to the consumption of alternatives to products that are environmentally unfriendly. Yet, socially concerned marketers and public policy makers still appeal to general environmental concern (GEC) when trying to demarket environmentally sensitive products or market more friendly alternatives. In this article, we propose that GEC has an indirect effect on purchase intentions for environmentally related products and the relation is mediated by product‐specific attitudes about consequences of using the environmentally related product as well as the product's environmental attributes. We tested the model among 210 users of disposable diapers, a product that is not environmentally friendly. The results support the proposition that GEC has only an indirect effect on purchase intentions for disposable diapers. Implications for marketers and public policy makers are discussed.