Current Issue Summary
March 2024 (Vol. 64, Issue 1)
Special Issue Introduction
How to Use the Power of Advertising to Enhance Social Good: Introducing a Special Issue on Prosocial Advertising Messages
In the fall of 2022, JAR Associate Editor Marla Royne Stafford (University of Nevada, Las Vegas Lee Business School), launched a call for papers on prosocial advertising messages. Over several months, more than 50 manuscripts were submitted, resulting in a dozen or so accepted papers. Six of those comprise this special edition, following three published last September, with more scheduled for later this year. Such avid interest in the topic suggests that contributors are keen to aid advertisers in helping consumers make smart decisions on health, the environment and other issues that have consequences on society at large. “Accordingly,” Royne Stafford writes, “the appeals and approaches examined in this issue inspire positive actions, such as charitable donations, environmental conservation, and healthy behaviors.” What’s more, the messages span a full range of media, “providing insights that offer immediate actions … and may be implemented by advertisers, organizational leaders, policymakers, and consumers.”