Green Blushing and Cause Marketing in Pakistani Fashion Advertising Discourse on Instagram

Abstract

This empirical study presents green blushing in cause marketing of Pakistani apparel fashion brands in their advertising discourse on Instagram. The paper comprises two videos from leading players in the apparel industry in Pakistan. Multimodal Interaction Analysis is the primary framework (Norris, 2021) to examine the higher lower and frozen-level mediated actions performed in the adverts. Concerning interaction among the social actors, the research also considers the interactive affordances of the Instagram platform, which enables interaction not only between social actors within the video but also with the viewers, who can provide feedback using comments section. The data comprises the anchoring post, video and the comments’ section on the video. The response analysis incorporates Hall's (1987) theory of audience reception to evaluate how viewers perceive and respond to the discourse produced and disseminated on Instagram. The findings highlight instances of green blushing concerning Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) sustainability goals. The study suggests that brands should voice their narrative more thoughtfully when planning campaigns to better align with ESG principles and resonate with their audience.