Commercial Advertising as a Tool of Sustainab...

Commercial Advertising as a Tool of Sustainability Education (CATSE))

Author Name : Dr. Anand Saxena, Dr. Anubha Mukherji, Dr. Rita Nagpal

ABSTRACT

It is not difficult to envisage that such a professionally competent industry as advertising consciously incorporates sustainability ideas in the commercials it designs for its clients. As this industry mediates between business clients and their audiences, the potentiality of incorporation of these concerns gets amplified. On the one hand businesses desire to project their pro-social and pro-environmental performance and image.  They, thus subscribe to the marketing concept that embraces sustainability. On the other hand, there has been a definite progress on awareness, interest, buying and behaving “green” and “responsible” among the consumers. Thus, there is an expectation of environmentally educative commercials from the advertising firms.  In an earlier work, one of the authors has underlined the need for such behaviours across diverse stakeholders through the ideas and ideals of conscientious commerce. This paper looks at the potential of commercial advertising as a tool of sustainability education. The authors posit that advertisements have an immense power of communicating ideas and influencing behaviours. This endows the advertisements with an educational value. The authors draw on personal experience as educators of using these commercials as learning objects in the classroom for the undergraduate courses. To the authors, use of advertising as a tool of education generally and environment education particularly is rather an innovative pedagogy that the fellow educators may adopt. Thus, the paper has a practical utility.

Keywords: Advertisements, Sustainability Education, Marketing Concept, Learning Objects