ABSTRACT
“Donna Karan Bunny Butcher,” “Bloody Burberry”: Not-for-profit (NFP) campaigns regularly take brands hostage. These shock tactics are meant to bring publicity to targeted companies’ practices that are deemed socially and environmentally irresponsible. The aim is to coerce such firms into complying with NFPs’ demands, for fear of consumers’ backlash. Surprisingly, there is scant evidence showing the impact of these messages on consumer behavior. This paper examines consumer response to messages targeting brands in the context of the luxury fashion industry. Two experiments, involving repeated measurement and between-subjects message manipulation (framing and target), were conducted. Results show that eco-involvement and product involvement are moderators of consumer response.
