Potential Negative Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility Advertising in the Context of a Socially Stigmatized Industry

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumer attitudes toward CSR advertisements in the stigma industry. Stigmatized industries' CSR effectiveness may be limited because the source of their negative perceptions lies in the core characteristics of their products. As a result, this study first looked at the differences in CSR advertising effectiveness between stigmatized and non-stigmatized industries. Following that, we investigate the mechanisms underlying the disparities in CSR effectiveness between stigmatized and non-stigmatized industries. This paper investigate how perceived appropriateness of persuasion tactics mediates industry and CSR. Finally, we investigate how the fit between the CSR cause and the company's core business influences the effectiveness of CSR advertising in both stigmatized and non-stigmatized companies.An experiment was carried out to investigate the effects of advertiser type (stigmatized versus non-stigmatized industry) and product-cause fit (high versus low) on consumer attitudes toward the company. The experiment used a two-by-two full factorial design with advertiser type (stigmatized versus non-stigmatized industry) and product-cause fit level (high versus low). Three pilot tests were carried out in order to develop the experimental stimuli. The first and second pilot tests were used to select appropriate stigmatized and non-stigmatized industries for manipulating advertiser type, while the third pilot test was used to manipulate product-cause fit. Participants rated CSR in non-stigmatized industries more positively than CSR in stigmatized industries, indicating that the perceived appropriateness of the PKM was discovered to be an important factor. The perceived appropriateness was a significant factor influencing consumers' attitudes toward the industry. Finally, participants in non-stigmatized industries rated a company’s CSR campaign more positively when the fit between the company's business area and the topic of the CSR ads was high, whereas participants in stigmatized industries rated the company’s CSR advertisement more favorably when the fit between the company's business area and the topic of the CSR advertisement was low. This study is valuable because it explains how consumers interpret socially stigmatized industries based on the appropriateness of persuasion tactics. This study is significant because it empirically applies theories on the appropriateness of persuasion tactics to provide insights into consumer attitudes. It also compares the effectiveness of CSR in stigmatized versus non-stigmatized industries, as well as the impact of the fit between the core industry and the CSR cause in stigmatized versus non-stigmatized industries. This raises awareness of the fact that CSR in stigmatized industries may be less effective than it should be, highlighting the importance of carefully examining CSR strategies in stigmatized industries.