Grotesque Advertising: Investigating the Effect of Grotesque Advertising on Consumer Attitudes towards Sustainable Luxury Brands

Abstract

The luxury market has been booming at an unprecedented pace in recent years, with revenues of US$247 billion reported in 2017 and an annual growth rate exceeding 10.8 percent. At the same time, amid growing concerns about business responsibility and environmental degradation, the magnitude of the sustainable luxury market has spurred research interest in the marketing and consumption of sustainable luxury brands. Despite this interest, there are knowledge gaps in the exiting literature around advertising strategy for promoting luxury brands and sustainable luxury brands – and their products. With artistic links to the nature of luxury branding, grotesque advertising has been the subject of recent research focus, in particular because it is recommended as compatible with luxury brands, thereby enhancing consumer attitudes toward the brand. However, the negative emotion (i.e., disgust) evoked by grotesque advertising has been neglected. In addition, advertising research on sustainable luxury brands is nascent. Thus, the purpose of present research is to investigate the effect of grotesque advertising on sustainable luxury brands. In order to address these knowledge gaps, this research adopts an experimental approach to determine a causal relationship and underlying mechanism behind the effect of grotesque advertising on general luxury brands and sustainable luxury brands. The results of three online experiments provide empirical support for the significant negative effect of grotesque imagery on consumer attitudes towards sustainable luxury brands, with the disgust elicited by grotesque images identified as the emotion mechanism underlying the effect. Most importantly, this research emphasises that grotesque advertising has a stronger negative impact on evaluations of sustainable luxury brands by consumers due to their inherently higher moral aspect compared to general luxury brands. Overall, the findings of the present study contribute both academic and managerial implications for marketing research, advertising research, consumer behaviour research, and sustainable luxury consumption.