A cross-cultural examination of the environmental information on packaging: implications for advertisers

This study presents a cross-cultural analysis of environmental information on packaging. We used judges and packages from four countries (Australia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and we asked judges to determine their own environmental information. Results suggest that whilst there is some consistency in judges' views, there are also important information differences across countries. Judges were found to infer environmental information from material that has not been considered to be environmental in nature. Our results may have important connotations for advertising, where environmental information might be offered as part of the array of product benefits being presented to consumers.