The Role of Disinformation in Promoting CSR Conscious Brands

This exploratory study examines how consumers respond to CSR conscious brands’ disinformation. With the use of a case study of a Korean beauty brand, whose advertising campaign was criticized for false claims of eco-friendly packaging, we analyze online posts of three YouTube clips from August of 2020 until August of 2022. Following a content-thematic analysis of three threads of over 150 posts, two main themes emerged that of exploitative disinformation, and inadvertent misinformation. Our findings reveal that consumers express their criticisms against the brand into two directions: (1) accusing the brand of the intentional spreading of disinformation, and (2) accusing the brand of the unintentional spreading of misinformation. The level of the negativity of the criticism towards the SCR brand depends on the brands’ role in such incidents as perceived by the consumers (e.g. the brand as a creator/producer/enhancer versus the brand as a victim/purveyor), and if they perceive the action by the brand as intentional (e.g. a brand’s malicious-deceptive intention versus a brand’s good-honest intention). The theoretical and practical implications of our findings with regards to the role of disinformation in brands’ promotional activities conclude the study.