Professional Dimension

Examples

Professional dimension

Greenwashing: Marketing professionals, including campaign managers or brand strategists within companies like Shein, contribute significantly to greenwashing tactics. Their roles involve crafting and executing campaigns that promote surface-level sustainability without addressing the deep-rooted environmental impact of the fashion industry. For instance, the TikTok challenge #SHEINcares, created by these professionals, gained large engagement, but it did not prove a commitment to sustainability with concrete actions to mitigate the fashion industry's profound ecological effects. Marketing executives' involvement in creating such campaigns perpetuates greenwashing, presenting a facade of corporate social responsibility without substantively addressing environmental concerns.

Solutions

Transform consumption habits

Partnerships with influencers

Slacktivism: Within the Shein #SHEINcares campaign, employees or contracted influencers might engage in slacktivism by promoting the campaign without a comprehensive understanding of its impact. These professionals, while holding key roles in crafting and endorsing the campaign, might lack deeper insights into the actual sustainability efforts or the fashion industry's environmental impact. Their participation, while aiming to create a corporate image of social responsibility, often lacks critical evaluation. By sharing or endorsing #SHEINcares without genuine awareness of the campaign's substantive actions toward sustainability, these professionals unintentionally contribute to slacktivism.

Public awareness campaign

References

It is crucial that SHEIN's customers understand the environmental and ethical implications of supporting fast-fashion companies, such as contributing to animal exploitation. A good starting point would be researching the move of slow fashion and cruelty-free brands to understand how their production processes differ from those of the fast-fashion companies. Once the customers are well-educated on the topic, it is more likely that they change their consumption habits by switching more towards the sustainable fashion brands.

Creating a public awareness campaign about the environmental and ethical consequences of animal exploitation in the fashion industry is suggested to create awareness among the consumers. Social media should be used as a primary communication channel to ensure a far-reaching impact. If properly designed, such campaigns will promote general awareness, environmental actions, and a positive change in consumer behaviors.

• Borawska, A. (2017). The role of public awareness campaigns in sustainable development. Economic and Environmental Studies, 17(44), 865–877. https://doi.org/10.25167/ees.2017.44.14

• Law, J. (2021, August 12). Shein launches eco campaign amid copycat accusations. Jing Daily. https://jingdaily.com/shein-animal-campaign-fast-fashion-environment/
• Liu, M. (2022). Determining the role of influencers’ marketing initiatives on fast fashion industry sustainability: the mediating role of purchase intention. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.940649
• Morlock, T. (2020, January 4). How to avoid slacktivism: A guide for digital activists. Medium. https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-avoid-slacktivism-a-guide-for-digital-activists-81b4d7b12530

Partnering with influencers who actively promote ethical fashion choices would allow for reaching a wide audience within a relatively short time. Furthermore, given that the chosen influencer has previously shown committment to sustainability issues, their support for an environmental campaign within the fashion industry should appear as a genuine action, thereby gaining high rates of engagement.