Page 164 - Sustainability Communication Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Theoritical Foundations

13 Communicating Sustainable Consumption 147

Communication Promoting Sustainable
Consumption Patterns

The increased efforts to popularise sustainable consumption do not appear to have
had the success once hoped for. A qualitative jump beyond ‘more of the same’
might result from a reflection on the theoretical premises of sustainability commu-
nication. In fact many of the findings of media and communication sciences have
been taken up by communicators of sustainability and many of their efforts can be
considered state of the art. These include the following elements: messages should
appeal to benefits and motivation that are either potentially personal or specific to a
particular type of consumption (health, fitness, taste experiences, savings, conve-
nience, wealth in time, social recognition etc.) instead of simply doing without con-
sumer goods; it should be viable in everyday life, i.e. understandable and easy to put
into practice as well as containing any needed service elements. The timing of the
message also plays a role. In certain personal life transitions, such as the birth of a
child or following an illness, the willingness to change habitual behaviour seems to
be higher. From a technical perspective messages should be target-group specific
and use a variety of media, including more visual media such as film, television and
the internet and the formats successfully used in such media. The unspecified use of
the prefixes eco and environmental now has a negative connotation and should be
avoided, with positively connoted ‘brand names’ being used instead. While fear-
provoking images certainly have a place in sustainability communication, they must
be used selectively, and with caution. If people do not feel ecological and social
threats are significant issues, using fear-provoking images is likely to cause denial,
apathy and avoidance (O’Neill and Nicholson-Cole 2009).
According to the “ecotainment” concept (Lichtl 1999), mass medial entertainment
concepts can be a suitable approach, especially when addressing consumer types who
are otherwise critical of sustainability or disinterested. Emotion, experience and enter-
tainment precede knowledge and will power. Aesthetics and surprise effects are part
of an approach that uses art and culture as a medium of communication for sustainable
development. The idea is that artists will offer their creative, aesthetic and artistic
skills for the development of a culturally based sustainability discourse and spread the
topic of sustainability through sensual-aesthetic experiences.
Especially these newer approaches to medialising sustainability have potential,
because they are better suited to a post-modern, visually-oriented image and con-
sumption culture of the ‘generation Y’ than traditional ‘cognition-biased’ formats
(Jansson 2002). Multi-sensual formats are far more effective in allocating a particular
symbolic meaning to products and consumption practices, which can then be decoded
and evaluated by the target groups. This is a basic function of communication from a
symbolic interactionism perspective. In a time of information overload and consumer
confusion, these formats and media have a greater chance of being perceived in the
first place. Without doubt there will still be groups that show no interest at all in the
topic of ‘sustainable consumption’ or that have taken an explicitly defensive posture.