Message design for guilt-based green advertising: whether and how to highlight moral transgression, personal responsibility, and efficacy

Guilt appeals are frequently used in green advertising. However, there has yet to be an agreement reached on the development of guilt appeals. Based on appraisal theories and extended parallel process model, our study proposes that three appraisal-related message components (i.e. morality component, responsibility component, and efficacy component) are important to elicit guilt and improve green advertising effectiveness. A total of 402 participants were recruited for a 2*2*2 between-subject experiment. The findings revealed that when the morality component was present, it was critical to also present the responsibility component in order to elicit guilt. Moreover, the presence of all three message components was critical in improving positive attitudes toward green advertisements. Our study moves forward the research in developing guilt-based green advertising.