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Introduction
Clothing is becoming a disposable product, resulting in a sharp consumption increase (Renner, 2004). In 2012, on average, every man, woman, and child in the US market spent $898 to purchase 62 garments (American Apparel & Footwear Association, 2014). Every year an average US consumer throws away 70 pounds of clothing, which adds up to 3.8 billion pounds of waste to the landfills (Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles, 2012). The fast growing rates of apparel products consumption and waste lead to an environmental crisis (Renner, 2012).
To address the problems associated with increasing rates of apparel consumption, a new paradigm has been emerging within the socially responsible (SR) domain that fulfills the needs of environmentally and socially conscious consumers (Ottman, 2011). In response, textiles and apparel companies have established Sustainable Apparel Coalition (n.d.), a trade organization with a goal of creating common metrics and approaches to reduce social and environmental impacts of apparel and footwear. For example, Nike collects old and worn-out athletic shoes and water bottles for recycling and transforms them into footwear and apparel (Nike Inc., 2015). Patagonia, a global outdoor clothing retailer recognized for its environmental practices (Chouinard and Stanley, 2012), not only encourages consumers to purchase environmental friendly products and to recycle them but also to consume less (Patagonia, 2011). Such anti-consumption campaigns are sometimes criticized and viewed as hypocritical because they might simply spur acquisition of some products over others (Stock, 2013). Furthermore, consumers tend to be skeptical about advertising with SR messages (Obermiller et al., 2005) and attempt to evaluate companies’ underlying motives (Pomering and Dolnicar, 2009). This anti-movement is a new phenomenon and little is known about how its promotion in the form of advertising is received by consumers.
In 2011, Patagonia took its anti-consumption campaign to a new level by placing an advertisement (ad) featuring its best-selling jacket in one of the world’s top newspapers, The New York Times, with the message “Don’t Buy This Jacket.” The fact that the ad was published on “Black” Friday, the ultimate consumption day for US consumers, has further contributed to the controversy and impact of the message. The company went against the mainstream of shopping madness by urging consumers to not buy its products unless they really...