Greenwashing in Digital Advertising: A Study of Consumer Perception and Sustainability Awareness among Indian Youth.

The current study was an endeavor to explore the phenomenon of greenwashing in online advertisements and its effects on the attitudes and awareness of the younger adults in India with regard to environmental sustainability. As the results indicate, although environmental awareness seems to be increasing, the skills to critically analyse the sustainable messages are lacking. This implies that there is an enormous difference in how much the sustainability messages are being perceived and comprehended.   The paper has identified the contribution of the online channels in forming perceptions of environmental responsibility. The influence of social media, influencer marketing campaigns and e-commerce campaigns was substantial as it helped to raise the awareness of the claims of green but it was not enough to guarantee the consumer. As a matter of fact as shown above consumers can read these claims in terms of how they perceive brands, social media influencers and words used.   One of the major lessons learned during the research is an attitude-behaviour gap amongst the Indian youth. Although the respondents had a positive attitude concerning the green products, they had more practical intentions when it came to buying the green products; issues of price, convenience, and availability were the significant influence on their buying intentions. The conclusion is that, when positive economic and information conditions are not present, sustainable consumer action does not reflect an environmental concern.   The other result of the study is the insufficient knowledge of sustainability and regulation. The respondents did not know any eco-labels and advertisement guidelines that would enable them to identify between false claims. However, respondents were in favour of regulations to enhance green advertisements.   On the whole, from this study, it can be inferred that greenwashing in the digital advertising industry is a consequence of more than just the actions of organizations. The issue of greenwashing in online advertisement is caused by the fact that consumers do not have the necessary information about the environmental problems and have a propensity to trust the message in the online advertisement due to the persuasive power of the message in the online ad.   Overall, by paying attention to the population of Indian youth, the present paper contributes to the literature on the issue under discussion.  

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