By: Estefania M Limo, Diana Bellino & Margaret Chan
Our presentation focused on fast fashion, public health implications of fast fashion, consumers of fast fashion, and consumer behaviors. Fast fashion is defined as, “an approach to the design, creation, and marketing of clothing fashions that emphasize making fashion trends quickly and cheaply available to consumers,” (Merriam-Webster). Fashion, particularly fast fashion, leave a devastating impact on the environment. The Environmental Protection Agency views several textile manufacturing factories as hazardous waste generators, the fashion industry is the second-largest consumer of water, discarded clothing is filling up our landfills at a rapid pace, and the most used man-made textile is polluting our oceans (Claudio, 2007; Drew and Reichart, 2019; McFall-Johnsen, 2019). Through research, it was found that the major consumer of fast fashion is women aged 18-34 living in the United States with middle or high incomes (the Apparel United States, 2020; Common Objective, 2018; Hitwise, 2019). Also, it was found that impulse buying is a tactic used by fast fashion companies to encourage consumers to buy more and buy frequently in order to gain feelings of pleasure and excitement (Lidholm et al., 2017). Understanding the background of fast fashion is helpful when analyzing campaigns about the industry.
The first media chosen is a Patagonia advertisement, which can be viewed on the company’s website and was also in the New York Times during the Black Friday shopping season in 2011. This ad features an image of a Patagonia jacket with large bold print telling consumers to not but the jacket (Patagonia). The target audience for this media is any Patagonia consumer, any New York Times reader, and any consumer during the Black Friday season. The motive behind this media was to inform consumers about the environmental impacts of the clothing industry and to rethink buying behaviors (Patagonia). The persuasion technique used was to appeal to adult behavior. Adults do not like being told what to do, so seeing this ad may encourage consumers to continue to buy products, or buy more. The second media is #SecondHandSeptember, a viral challenge that encourages people to not buy new products for the month of September (Oxfam). The audience for this media is Instagram users as this challenge was primarily done through the social media platform (Oxfam). The motive for this media is similar to the first one: helping consumers rethink their buying habits and informing people on the environmental impacts of the fashion industry. The persuasion for this media is the incentive of knowing when you take their pledge you are saving clothing from landfills which helps save the planet.
Both of these media sources did an adequate job of reaching their target audiences. The Patagonia advertisement seemed to reach its target audience more effectively since it aired during the time of year with the most consumers out shopping. Also, this advertisement was featured in the New York Times where it could be viewed by anyone. Although #SecondHandSeptember was spread through Instagram, there were only 50 thousand posts related to the campaign and this was limited to people who have Instagram accounts and actively use their accounts. Patagonia also seemed to have the better persuasion technique. This advertisement was very eye-catching and played to adult behavior to influence consumers. Patagonia played with the behavior of adults by telling them not to buy their products but also understanding that adults do not like being told what to do. Therefore, consumers would be more likely to buy products from Patagonia. The #SecondHandSeptember persuasion strategy was not strong enough to make as big of an impact as Patagonia made. Overall, having an understanding of fast fashion and consumer behavior helped to analyze different media related to fast fashion.
References
Apparel United States. (2020). Statista.
Claudio, Luz. (2007, September 1). Waste Couture: Environmental Impact of the Clothing
Industry. Environmental Health Perspectives. Retrieved from https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/ehp.115-a449
Common Objective. (2018, May 14). Volume and Consumption: How Much Does the World
Buy? Retrieved from
https://www.commonobjective.co/article/volume-and-consumption-how-much-does-the-
World-buy
Drew, D., Reichart, E. (2019, Jan. 10). By the Numbers: The Economic, Social and Environmental Impacts of “Fast Fashion”. World Resources Institute. Retrieved from https://www.wri.org/blog/2019/01/numbers-economic-social-and-environmental-impacts-
Fast-fashion.
Hitwise. (2019, April 3). Fashion’s Super Nova. Retrieved from
https://www.hitwise.com/en/2019/04/03/fashions-super-nova/
Lidholm, S. H., Radon, A., Sundström, M., & Balkow, J. (2017). Understanding On-Line Fashion Buying Behavior on Impulse. Advances in Business Information Systems and Analytics Advanced Fashion Technology and Operations Management, 235–249.
doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-1865-5.ch010
McFall-Johnsen, M. (2019, Oct. 21). The Fashion Industry Emits More Carbon Than International Flights and Maritime Shipping Combined. Here are the Biggest Ways it Impacts the Planet. Business Insider. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/fast-fashion-environmental-impact-pollution-emissions- waste-water-2019-10
Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Fast Fashion. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fast%20fashion
Oxfam. (n.d.). #SecondHandSeptember. Retrieved from https://oxfamapps.org/secondhandseptember/
Patagonia. (n.d.). Don’t Buy This Jacket, Black Friday and the New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.patagonia.com/stories/dont-buy-this-jacket-black-friday-and-the-new-york-ti mes/story-18615.html
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