Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) is an involuntary tingling sensation that is pleasant and relaxing. Given its rapid growth in popularity and increasing appearance in food advertising and marketing schemes, this study investigated whether certain features of food-related ASMR videos are more positively experienced than others. Participants (N = 183) took part in an experiment in which they viewed ASMR videos that varied in camera point-of-view (first-person vs. third-person) and food energy density (higher vs. lower). Results indicated that first-person videos of higher energy density foods generated the most positive emotions and evaluations as well as the most identification. Theoretical contributions and implications are discussed. Research replication and extension are suggested.

In response to the environmental and social challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses are actively seeking ways to generate social benefits while also boosting their financial performance. Corporations are embracing corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices as a means to achieve this dual objective. This study aims to investigate how global corporations have responded to the pandemic by promoting their CSR commitments through CSR advertising. A quantitative content analysis was conducted to examine how leading global corporations promote their CSR practices on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the study examined CSR advertising posts from twelve global corporations’ Instagram accounts across the years 2019, 2020, and 2021, totaling 886 posts. The findings show that corporations immediately responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by adopting CSR practices in myriad areas of social concern and strategically framing those efforts through CSR advertising. This study contributes to the CSR literature by providing an instrument for scholars and practitioners to reevaluate the role of business and CSR initiatives during uncertain times. Furthermore, it highlights opportunities for corporations to prioritize CSR initiatives, not only during the pandemic but also in the long term, to achieve a balance between social, environmental, and economic goals

In view of increasing demand for environmental initiatives from consumers, corporations have actively created green advertising to demonstrate their commitment to the environment. This study conducted a systematic content analysis of green advertising by leading global corporations on social media in 2019, 2020, and 2021. By replicating and extending the seminal study by Carlson, Grove, and Kangun in 1993, we explored changes in green advertising and deceptiveness of advertising claims and executional framework. Although corporations responded to consumer demand by actively promoting their efforts with regard to the environment, more than 70% of the claims were misleading. The findings contribute to green advertising literature not only by providing evidence of greenwashing in recent years but also by suggesting that advertisers and lawmakers take proactive steps when designing green advertising.

Individuals who report perceived stress often eat more unhealthy foods and more calories than those with lower stress levels, though individual differences and contexts are important. This study investigated how visual food cues on fast-food menus may increase calorie consumption intentions due to their potential motivational influences. A 2 (presence or absence of visual cues) x 4 (exemplar fast-food restaurant menu) fractionated experiment administered online (N = 325) indicated that when participants viewed menus with visual cues, they selected a greater number of calories to consume. Additionally, data showed an interaction effect of perceived stress and visual cues revealing that visual elements incentivized participants reporting higher stress to select more calories whereas visual cues did not have this effect for people reporting lower levels of perceived stress. Though important limitations exist, a key takeaway is that food cue exposure is another important factor to consider when predicting how stress may affect eating decisions.

The social facilitation of eating plays a significant role in influencing individuals' eating decisions. However, how social eating cues are processed in health promotion messages is unclear. This study examined individuals' food craving in response to social cues in images (Experiment 1) and emotional experiences, perceived threat, perceived efficacy, behavioral intentions, and motivational coactivation elicited by social eating cues in obesity prevention fear appeals (Experiment 2). Results suggested that the presence of a group of people eating in an image facilitated food craving for the presented foods. Moreover, fear appeals that presented obesity and its consequences with more social eating cues, versus individual eating cues, generated greater positive emotional responses, perceived threat severity, response and self-efficacy, and motivational coactivation indicating more attention and threat vigilance. However, these cues also generated fewer self-reported intentions to change unhealthy eating behaviors. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

The effectiveness of menu calorie labeling in limiting the amount of calories selected has been called into question since it was mandated within the Affordable Care Act. This study examined how contexts that are known to influence motivational and information processing might limit the effectiveness of calorie labeling in order to shed some light on the mixed findings in this area. An online experiment was conducted in which calorie labels were paired or not paired with visual cues in different motivational contexts: greater and lesser variety and energy density choices available. Results contribute to the general conclusion that calorie labels are not particularly effective. Specifically, the only context in which a calorie label succeeded in reducing calories selected was a high variety mix of low and high energy density foods with visual food cues present; however, this type of context elicited the greatest number of calories selected on average, even more than when only highly energy density items were present. The findings from this study add to the body of knowledge about the effectiveness of calorie labeling by defining some boundary conditions on whether and when the presence of calorie labels are likely to reduce caloric intake. This knowledge is helpful in furthering food selection and choice research, but also may help health practitioners design effective intervention strategies.

Purpose Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has received significant attention and has become a global trend that challenges the role of business. The purpose of this study is to examine how the fashion industry responds to public pressure in terms of sustainability by promoting its CSR commitments through CSR advertising. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative content analysis was conducted to examine how the fashion industry advertises its CSR commitments on social media. To explore the trend and various perspectives of CSR advertising presented by the fashion industry, the top six fashion brands that are well known for their sustainability performance were selected and their Instagram posts from 2019 were fully investigated. Findings The findings from the study indicate that the fashion industry uses different strategies for CSR advertising campaigns. It provides evidence that fashion brands, overall, focus on sustainability efforts for the environment and visually communicate their CSR practices through a framework that highlights greenness and environmentally friendly messages in CSR advertising. Originality/value CSR allows organizations to communicate with consumers about how business can be operated for a sustainable future. CSR advertising is an emerging field as company's CSR practices can create strategic benefits when the practices have high visibility. However, little work has been done to analyze CSR advertising on social media. Therefore, the present study adds values to the existing literature on CSR advertising, which is important to both academic researchers and practitioners.