Femvertising and consumer behavior: challenging gender stereotypes through feminist advertising in India

Gender representation in advertising has long been identified as a site of social and ideological disagreement; however, its implications for consumer behavior remain unclear in the marketing literature (Catterall, Maclaran, & Stevens, 2005). Early research documented how advertising systematically objectified women, portraying them as sexualized or decorative figures whose worth was portrayed by their domestic role and physical appearance rather than their agency or social contribution (Belkaoui & Belkaoui, 1976; Friedan, 1997; Kilbourne, 1999; Zimmerman & Dahlberg, 2008). Advertising has since been widely criticized for undermining women’s image through stereotypical depictions, objectifying imagery and the ongoing reinforcement of gender hierarchies (Sharma & Das, 2019; Das and Sharma, 2023; Feng, Chen, & He, 2019). Against this essential backdrop, a significant shift has occurred in how certain brands connect with consumers. Consumers today are becoming increasingly socially conscious, incorporating ethical, social and political values into their purchasing decisions and preferring brands that actively address ongoing issues of inequality toward women rather than reproducing them (Webster, 1975; Mohr, Webb, & Harris, 2001; Webb & Harris, 2001).

Hence, to cater to these socially conscious consumers, marketers have devised innovative campaigns, one such approach being femvertising (Drake, 2017; Das and Sharma, 2023), which discusses gender equality and encourages feminism, a trend that has emerged in recent decades (Scholz, 2012). Over the past decade, femvertising has gained prominence as brands seek to appeal to value-driven consumers. There has been a significant improvement in women’s rights, and with the latest advertising strategy, such as femvertising, consumers are becoming increasingly aware of societal issues; hence, brands have begun incorporating feminist themes into their marketing campaigns (Drake, 2017). Femvertising enables marketers to actively challenge and redefine long-standing gender norms while offering a broader societal appeal by transcending traditional images.

Empirical research demonstrates that consumers with a feminist viewpoint are more likely to connect with femvertising, as it fosters an emotional connection and positively impacts brand attitudes and purchase intentions (Gill, 2008; Eisend, 2019; Teng, Hu, Chen, Poon, & Bai, 2021). Femvertising advertisements can be of various types, such as Dove’s #Stopthebeautytest, which promotes body positivity and discourages body shaming of girls at a young age. Also some advertisement symbolizes the daily experiences and disparities women encounter including unequal household labor and women getting less sleep than men, as evidenced by statistics from initiatives such as Ariel India’s #ShareTheLoad campaign, which challenged the unequal distribution of domestic labor by encouraging men to share household responsibilities, is a well-known example and repositioned as a product category traditionally associated with women doing household chores as a vehicle for gender equality advocacy (Lee & Heere, 2018). Hence, advertisements by brands such as Ariel’s #ShareTheLoad can be called femvertising, as they promote equality and aim to reduce stereotypes about women’s roles.

Consumers who hold feminist values usually react favorably to such advertisements and can therefore engage with the content shared, which enhances favorable brand attitudes and stronger purchase intentions, according to studies on feminism (Gill, 2008; Eisend, 2019; Teng et al., 2021). However, some studies have shown that femvertising is frequently criticized. According to Goldman, Heath and Smith (1991), Banet-Weiser (2018) and McRobbie (2009), commodity feminism describes how brands use feminist principles as innovative marketing tools instead of making sincere commitments. Liberal feminists claim that these initiatives, stripped of feminism’s structural and oppositional meanings by “commodity feminism,” are reduced to a consumable lifestyle esthetic (Goldman & Smith, 1991; Banet-Weiser, 2018; McRobbie, 2009). Feminist advertising becomes a symbolic performance rather than actual devotion when brands utilize feminist terms and phrases without aligning their organizational practices. This phenomenon is called femwashing (Varghese & Kumar, 2020; Sterbenk, Champlin, Windels, & Shelton, 2022). Studies also suggest that the effectiveness of femvertising depends on the alignment of advertising messages with broader gender-equity practices, as any mismatch between the cause promoted and the message promoted about feminism heightens perceptions of femwashing (Bhattacharya & Sen, 2004; Vredenburg, Kapitan, Spry, & Kemper, 2020).

Furthermore, postfeminist media culture (Gill, 2008; McRobbie, 2009) provides a cultural backdrop for how femvertising is viewed and why individuals are sensitive or insensitive to women’s causes. Rather than rejecting feminism outright, postfeminism views gender equality as substantially achieved, shifting the emphasis from communal politics to individual expression (Gill, 2008; McRobbie, 2009; Lazar, 2009). This rationale generates divergent responses. For consumers with ingrained postfeminist premises, believing that gender equality is largely achieved and that feminist advertising is therefore commercially rather than politically motivated, femvertising generates skepticism in consumer mindsets. For consumers who experience gender inequality which is still deeply ingrained and whose feminist consciousness is grounded in the lived experience of patriarchal constraint, femvertising generates resonance. Thus, postfeminist discourse situates femvertising while fostering the diverse consumer orientations identified in this study.

Little research has examined how sensitivity and insensitivity toward women’s causes translate into purchasing behavior induced by advertisements (Pereira & Aguilar, 2021; Duarte & Silva, 2020). These findings emphasize a significant theoretical gap: previous research has classified consumer attitudes toward femvertising as broadly positive, but very few studies addressed skepticism, without adequately theorizing or empirically testing the duality of consumer mindsets, the coexistence of sensitivity and insensitivity toward women’s causes and the differential impact of each orientation on ad-induced buying (ADB) behavior. In addition, studies have found that consumers, such as millennials or Gen-Z, are more likely to favor gender equality (Thangavel et al., 2021). Demographic moderators, such as age and gender, have received little attention as factors shaping how consumer orientation translates into purchasing behavior (Barthwal, 2024; Grau & Zotos, 2016). Most importantly, this gap has been studied mostly in Western and European contexts, leaving an area unexplored to comprehend effectiveness of femvertising in the Indian market where patriarchal norms rooted in caste, religion and institutional structures coexist with rapidly expanding feminist consciousness among urban consumers (Bannerji, 2016; Batliwala, 1995) also since India is positioned 131^st out of 148 countries, down two places from 2024 in Global Gender Gap Index. India has one of the lowest parity scores in South Asia, at 64.1% (World Economic Forum, 2025).

This study attempts to fill these gaps by analyzing the impact of feminist advertising and its ramifications on Indian consumers. It analyzes how sensitivity and insensitivity toward women’s causes influence advertisement-induced buying behavior and whether age and gender influence these interactions. In doing so, it integrates two analytically distinct consumer orientations such as sensitivity toward women’s cause and insensitivity toward women’s cause within a unified empirical framework and situates this framework within the Indian sociocultural context, where there is still a concoction of feminist ideals and patriarchal norms in mindset of individuals which creates a conducive setting for investigating femvertising effectiveness (Eisend, 2019; Segal, 2015; Pereira & Aguilar, 2021). Thus, this study responds to calls to investigate femvertising and its implications for consumers in non-Western contexts and meaningfully accounts for diversity within a unified framework, in response to Barney’s (2020) call for research that meaningfully extends theory.

Gender representation in advertising remains a topic of academic debate in international contexts, with studies frequently documenting the subordinate, objectified and domestically confined roles assigned to women in commercial communications (Belkaoui & Belkaoui, 1976; Hawkins & Coney, 1976; Kilbourne, 1999). Matthes, Prieler and Adam (2016) found that the existing culture significantly influences these patterns, with gender stereotyping more prevalent in societies that score higher on Hofstede’s masculinity dimension, a finding directly relevant to the Indian context, as India has a Hofstede Masculinity score of 56, which places it as a masculine society compared to the global average of 51. Advertising has historically confined women to domestic roles or positioned them as objects of sexualized appeal, reinforcing patriarchal norms and diminishing women’s societal roles (Gulati, 2014; Munshi, 1998; Das, 2011; Saha & De, 2022). Moreover, these portrayals were not limited to stereotypical depictions of women, but began in early childhood. A study by Shinoda, Veludo-de-Oliveira and Pereira (2021), in a systematic content analysis of print advertising spanning multiple decades, shows that women are largely absent as primary protagonists, instead relegated to peripheral or supporting roles that render their experiences and presence in crucial roles invisible to the consumer gaze. The socialization of gender norms through commercial culture begins well before consumers encounter adult advertisements. Fine and Rush (2018), in an scientific examination of gendered toy marketing, establish that the gendering of children’s products – pink for girls, blue for boys – actively constructs and reinforces gender schemas in childhood that persist into adult consumer orientations and perceptions toward gender equality and hence sensitivity as well as insensitivity toward women’s causes not randomly distributed in the population but they are structurally reproduced through decades of gendering of products through commercials which influenced consumer mindsets. Recently, another study by Sagheer, Gurrieri and Aleti (2026) provided an integrative review of the gendered marketing of children’s toys, arguing that the systematic elimination of gender-binary marketing practices is a structural prerequisite for achieving the gender equality outcomes that femvertising campaigns claim to promote. A finding that reveals a fundamental contradiction in the commercial ecosystem in which femvertising operates: the same brands that use feminist empowerment themes in adult advertising frequently reinforce gender-binary norms in children’s product marketing, thereby reducing the effectiveness of femvertising in consumer minds at the representational level.

These representational patterns reflect the broader patriarchal social architecture rooted in caste, religion and gendered division of labor that has mostly assigned women to the domestic sphere while excluding them from public and economic life (Desai & Krishnaraj, 1987; Chakraborty, 2003; Dube, 2001). Gender representation in Indian media has long been embedded in a patriarchal context (Das and Sharma, 2023). Socio-economic shifts, including urbanization, rising female education levels and growing workforce participation, have begun to reshape gender identities and consumption practices in India (Srinivas, 1995; Gopalan & Rivers, 2017). Additionally, several feminist scholars have focused on aspects such as whether household chores (influenced by Hochschild’s work on the gendered division of labor) are a woman’s job or a survival skill (Hochschild & Machung, 2012) and whether male dominance should exist in society or not (Manne, 2017). Views on topics such as the “all men were created equal” idea during the French Revolution also made women realize they wanted their share of equality too (Tekeli, 2017, p. 131). In the context of Indian feminism, gender, caste, class and religious identity intersect as interdependent axes of women’s oppression, reflecting the intersectional perspective articulated by Mohanty (2003). This perspective calls for a contextually grounded understanding of how feminist advertising messages are received rather than the direct application of Western feminist ideals (Raychaudhuri & Jana, 2016; Sharma, 2021). As a result, advertising in India is formed by a continual contradiction between tradition and modernity and between the patriarchal social imaginaries that feminism professes to attack and the financial imperatives it serves (Das & Sharma, 2023). Understanding femvertising effectiveness in the Indian context is crucial, and the impact of femvertising on Indian consumers requires further study. Consumer orientation toward women’s causes shapes advertisement-induced buying behavior in this specific sociocultural context (Gangoli, 2007; John, 2023).

Femvertising, coined by SheKnows Media in 2014, refers to advertising that employs empowerment-focused narratives, challenges gender stereotypes and promotes gender equality as its central communicative strategy rather than merely product promotion (Drake, 2017). According to a SHE Media research study, 52% of women purchased products because of favorable representations of women in advertisements; over half felt good about supporting such brands, and the majority said femvertising helped break down barriers between genders (Castillo, 2020). These initiatives are especially effective among consumer segments that identify with feminist ideals, leading to increased emotional involvement, favorable brand perceptions and purchase intentions (Gill, 2008; Eisend, 2019; Teng et al., 2021). Importantly, perceived believability and authenticity are critical to this effectiveness: consumers who perceive feminist advertisements as authentic and promote gender equality have significantly higher purchase intentions.

However, critical femvertising studies underscore the commodification of feminist discourse, often referred to as femwashing or commodity feminism, which leads to consumer skepticism (Goldman & Smith, 1991; Sobande, 2020). Postfeminist critics argue that femvertising portrays empowerment by tying it to consumption rather than structural change, mirroring broader postfeminist media logics (Gill, 2008; McRobbie, 2009; Rottenberg, 2014; Lazar, 2009; Banet-Weiser, 2018). Consequently, brands that use feminist branding without a meaningful commitment to gender equality are increasingly perceived as performative rather than authentic (Varghese & Kumar, 2020; Sterbenk et al., 2022; Guèvremont & Robinot, 2022). Therefore, the effectiveness of femvertising initiatives depends on their alignment with broader corporate social responsibility commitments, especially when consumers are aware of the gap between feminist advertising claims and the organizational practices they follow (Bhattacharya & Sen, 2004; Vredenburg et al., 2020).

Research suggests that customer responses to femvertising are multifaceted, reflecting the greater diversity of attitudes toward gender equality among consumers. According to studies, the younger generation, such as millennials and Gen-Z – individuals born between 1981 and 1996 and between 1997 and 2012, respectively – are consumer segments that are more likely to identify as feminists and respond positively to femvertising, showing stronger emotional resonance, more favorable brand assessments and higher purchase intentions (Sternadori & Abitbol, 2019; Kassem, Negm, & Gharara, 2024). Consumers with conventional gender role attitudes, hostile sexism beliefs and perceptions of male dominance, on the other hand, are indifferent or resistant to gender equality messaging, even when it is embedded in commercially appealing advertising (Glick & Fiske, 1996; Swim, Aikin, Hall, & Hunter, 1995; Connell and Messerschmidt, 2005; Kroska & Elman, 2009). This variability is reflected in the study’s two fundamental constructs: sensitivity to women’s causes (SWC) and insensitivity to women’s causes (INWC), which form the basis of the theoretical and empirical foundation.

In this study, sensitivity toward women’s causes (SWC) refers to a consumer orientation characterized by awareness of gender-based inequalities, ideological alignment with feminist values and a disposition to evaluate advertising that addresses women’s empowerment favorably drawing theoretically on the feminist consciousness literature, which distinguishes awareness of gender injustice as a prerequisite for feminist attitudinal response (Gurin, 1985; Tolleson-Rinehart & Josephson, 2016) and on Glick and Fiske’s (1996) conceptualization of egalitarian gender attitudes as the attitudinal foundation for feminist-aligned behavior.

Insensitivity toward women’s causes (INWC) refers to a consumer orientation characterized by indifference, skepticism or resistance toward feminist causes in advertising, encompassing positions ranging from those identified by Glick and Fiske (1996); it includes four distinct positions: (1) hostile sexism (overt resistance to feminist claims), (2) benevolent sexism (paternalistic support for traditional roles in women), (3) postfeminist skepticism (belief that equality is already achieved, claiming feminist appeals unnecessary) and (4) structural ignorance (lack of awareness of systemic inequality that exists in society) (Gill, 2008; Rottenberg, 2014; McRobbie, 2020). The construct of INWC is ideologically variegated, and the viewpoints converge into a single construct, despite their reliance on distinct psychological mechanisms. This variability is crucial for understanding that insensitivity toward women’s causes (INWC) positively predicts ADB. This effect is likely due to multiple pathways: postfeminist skepticism and structural ignorance align with peripheral processing [based on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM)]. Both constructs were operationalized as binary constructs in this study, which is a methodological approximation of a theoretically continuous spectrum, justified by the study’s exploratory objectives and in line with previous studies that have similarly operationalized feminist orientation as a two-dimensional structure in cause-related advertising contexts (Mohr, Eroǧlu, & Ellen, 1998; Bhattacharya & Sen, 2004). Although there are multiple issues regarding feminism and women’s empowerment, for the sake of understanding the effectiveness of feminist based advertising, the concerns have been simplified into binary framing, a limitation this study acknowledges, and that future dimensional measurement should address (Morgan, 2005; Ogletree, Diaz, & Padilla, 2019).

Despite this growing body of research, existing studies largely treat consumers as a homogeneous group and focus predominantly on the favorable outcomes of feminist advertising, such as positive attitudes and purchase intentions. However, the inherently conflicted nature of femvertising, where empowerment narratives coexist with skepticism, remains underexplored, particularly in developing contexts like India. Furthermore, the coexistence of sensitivity and insensitivity as distinct consumer orientations and their differential effects on ADB have not been adequately theorized or empirically examined (Grau & Zotos, 2016; Eisend, 2019; Segal, 2015; Pereira & Aguilar, 2021). Second, while age and gender have been identified as potentially relevant demographic factors in consumer response to femvertising, their role as moderators of the relationship between consumer orientation and buying behavior has been underexamined (Barthwal, 2024; Duarte & Silva, 2020). Third, the vast majority of femvertising research has been conducted in Western and European contexts, leaving its effectiveness in India a significant gap where patriarchal norms rooted in caste, religion and institutional structures coexist with rapidly growing feminist consumer consciousness empirically unexplored, despite India’s 131st ranking out of 148 countries in Global Gender Gap Report 2025 (World Economic Forum, 2025; United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); Bannerji, 2016; Batliwala, 1995).

This study fills all three gaps by integrating sensitivity and INWC into a single empirical framework, investigating their effects on ADB behavior in the Indian femvertising context and testing age and gender as demographic moderators of these relationships. In doing so, it responds to calls for research that broadens femvertising theory beyond Western consumer contexts (Barney, 2020; Duarte & Silva, 2020), advancing a more theoretically nuanced and contextually grounded understanding of why femvertising may be effective or not so effective in influencing consumer purchasing decisions.

This study employed a non-probability convenience sampling technique, a method frequently used in theory testing and exploratory advertising research (Calder, Phillips, & Tybout, 1981; Malhotra, Nunan, & Birks, 2017). Consumer opinions on femvertising and its impact on advertising-induced purchase intention were investigated using a survey design. An fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) femvertising campaign that prioritized social issues over product attributes, such as gender equality and home labor, was chosen. Male family members are shown in the selected advertisement acknowledging and pledging to alter patriarchal household responsibilities (see Supplementary File for details). An after-only research design was employed (Campbell, 1963). The study employs a one-group posttest-only (after-only, no control group) design in which respondents are exposed to a stimulus (an advertisement) and their reactions are assessed later. This design is widely used in advertising and consumer behavior research to examine evaluative and attitudinal responses. The items were derived from the literature (Appendix Table 9 in Supplementary file). Principal component analysis (PCA) was used. PCA is a data processing technique that extracts a small number of variables, known as principal components, from a large number of measured variables to understand the desired outcome. The principal components are projections of the data ordered by variance and mutually uncorrelated (Hadi, Abdullah, & Sentosa, 2016).

Age, gender and education data were collected, with gender included as a moderator to investigate differential effects, in line with previous advertising research (Eisend, 2019). The same advertisement was shown to all respondents. Internal validity was improved by using the same advertisement as the stimulus (Peracchio & Meyers-Levy, 1997). The Google Form included a YouTube link to the advertisement, and the respondents watched it before responding to the questionnaire. Participants were only briefly asked about cause-related advertising and whether they were aware of it, which may have created a priming effect (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee, & Podsakoff, 2003). One advertisement was shown to all respondents, provided via a Google link (see Supplementary File Appendix section for details of advertisements). It was chosen based on earlier femvertising studies and has demonstrated the need for women’s empowerment and gender equality. In the FMCG product category, detergents are mass-consumption products that most consumers can relate to. After data cleaning, 280 valid questionnaires were retained in accordance with sample size standards (Arrindell & Van der Ende, 1985; Kline, 2023). The demographic information is provided in Supplementary File Table 1. A 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) was used to quantify the statements. A range of 1 to 7 was used because it enables respondents to express their opinions effectively (Joshi, Kale, Chandel, & Pal, 2015). The reliability of the items was checked before conducting any statistical tests. The well-known Cronbach’s alpha was used to measure the reliability of the items. Zainudin et al. (2012) propounded that a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.60 provides a valid measure of internal consistency, whereas a score of 0.70 reveals that the instrument has high reliability. The reliability of the items was assessed and found to be 0.81.

The study employed both partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and co-variance based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) to achieve methodological triangulation. While PLS-SEM in SmartPLS helped us understand the formative constructs in the measurement model and evaluate the predictive significance of the model, CB-SEM in analysis of moment structures (AMOS) was used to evaluate the overall model fit and test the theoretical hypotheses (Hair & Alamer, 2022; Sarstedt et al., 2022).

Before conducting the SEM analysis, as the statements were derived from various literature sources, including marketing and feminist literature (Appendix Table 9 in Supplementary file), a preliminary PCA was conducted to understand the latent structures in the dataset. Afterward, both CB-SEM and PLS-SEM were conducted, and since all constructs were reflective (i.e. latent constructs derived from PCA), PCA proved to be a useful tool in the study. PCA was used to evaluate dimensionality (Hadi et al., 2016) (detailed in Supplementary File Tables 2, 3 and 4).

SEM is a multivariate approach that explores the relationships between constructs and their indicators, as well as the associations among the constructs. Previously, covariance-based SEM has been utilized in various studies; therefore, analyzes in AMOS and statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) were conducted using this approach (Jöreskog, 1970). However, there has been an emergence of variance-based SEM, known as partial least squares structural modeling, which offers flexibility and is widely used in marketing research (Wold, Eriksson, Trygg, & Kettaneh, 2004). Both methods were used in this study for methodological validation.

The results of PCA are shown in Supplementary File Tables 2, 3 and 4. The sensitivity toward women’s causes is positively correlated with emotional appeal, believability and empowerment, indicating that advertisements that emphasize these aspects are likely to resonate with individuals sensitive to gender equality issues. Conversely, insensitivity toward women’s causes is strongly correlated with patriarchal values, suggesting that advertisements promoting traditional gender roles may appeal more to individuals who exhibit this ignorance. ADB is significantly influenced by advertisements that emphasize emotional appeal, believability and the potential for empowerment, leading to higher purchase intentions and positive word-of-mouth recommendations.

A structural equation model, generated using AMOS, was employed to test the relationships (Supplementary File Figure 1). To validate the model, the same dataset and constructs were used, and the moderation of age and gender was also examined using PLS-SEM. Additionally, education does not systematically alter the intensity of behavioral or attitudinal reactions to advertisements about gender equality (Mohr et al., 2001; Banerjee & McKeage, 1994). Consequently, education was excluded from the moderation/mediation analysis. The analysis was conducted using SmartPLS. The results are displayed as such. The measurement model and the moderator relationship are displayed in Supplementary File Tables 5, 6 and 7. Moderating variables, such as age and gender, were examined to gain new insights (Andersson, Cuervo-Cazurra, & Nielsen, 2014).

The results are also discussed in Supplementary File Tables 5, 6 and 7. Advertisement-induced buying (ADB) is influenced by SWC and INWC. Additionally, age significantly moderates SWC and advertisement-induced buying (ADB), strengthening the effects of SWC on ADB (Supplementary File Figures 2 and 3). However, gender did not serve as a moderator (Supplementary File Tables 5, 6 and 7). As a further validity check, in line with the PLS-SEM moderation results, independent-samples t-tests were conducted. Age-based comparisons showed significant or marginal differences in SWC, ignorance toward women’s causes and ADB, consistent with the structural model and suggesting that age significantly influences how perceptions related to femvertising translate into purchase responses. (Supplementary file Table 8). The table shows that the relationship between advertisement-induced buying (ADB) and sensitivity toward women’s causes (SWC) is strongly moderated by age, suggesting that the beneficial effect of feminist sensitivity on advertisement-induced buying (ADB) increases with age. However, the impact of ignorance of women’s causes is not considerably mitigated by age. When assessing femvertising messages, gender neither demonstrated a significant direct effect nor a moderating influence, indicating that ideological orientations toward feminism may have a greater impact than biological sex.

An independent-samples t-test was conducted to examine age and gender differences in sensitivity toward women’s causes (SWC), insensitivity toward women’s causes (INWC) and advertisement-induced buying (ADB). This classification is based on generational cohort distinctions in consumer research: younger (millennials and similar cohorts) and older consumers (aged 40 and above). To account for generational variations in consumer research, respondents were divided into two age groups for the age-based analysis: 21–40 years and 40 years and older. While older consumers typically adhere to relatively traditional gender norms, which influence their reactions to feminist and women-empowerment advertising, younger consumers typically display more progressive attitudes and react more favorably to gender equality messaging (Varghese & Kumar, 2020; Pew Research Center, 2022).

This study contributes to the femvertising literature in several ways. First, it demonstrates that skepticism toward feminist messaging does not always reduce the intensity of ADB. Despite their paradoxical nature, sensitivity toward women’s causes (SWC) and insensitivity toward women’s issues (INWC) emerge as distinct orientations that contribute to ADB. This study extends the femvertising research, which has mostly been conducted in Western nations, to the sociocultural setting of India, which is characterized by ideological inconsistencies and ongoing gender inequalities.

The association between ADB and insensitivity toward women’s causes (INWC) can be explained via the ELM. It states that consumers use either the central or peripheral pathways to process persuasive communications. Consumers who exhibit insensitivity toward women’s causes (INWC) tend to be less involved with feminist or empowerment-based messages and often display skepticism toward such appeals (Mohr et al., 1998; Ellen, Webb, & Mohr, 2006). Therefore, the positive influence of insensitivity toward women’s causes on ADB is driven not by the feminist message shown, but by peripheral brand-related cues.

The fact that consumers’ insensitivity toward women’s causes (INWC) contributes to buying intention is one of the study’s most significant findings. This result empirically concurs with the findings of commodity feminism and femwashing literature, which demonstrate that modern society promotes feminist ideas and ideologies by transforming empowerment through marketing messages and commercials that highlight gender equality and feminism (Goldman et al., 1991; Gill, 2008; Banet-Weiser, 2018). Consumer skepticism arises because brands frequently employ feminist rhetoric to appear progressive, yet their organizational commitment to promoting gender equality is minimal. As a result, consumers question the validity of such advertising. Simultaneously, the development of digital media and improved feminist media literacy are likely to enhance consumers’ understanding of the importance of feminist representation; hence, brands need to develop a genuine corporate commitment to gender equality (Banet-Weiser, 2018; Mohr, Webb, & Harris, 2001). Consumers often question the authenticity of such feminist messages. The results demonstrate that persistent skepticism can coexist with positive behavioral outcomes as sensitivity toward women’s cause (SWC) also positively impacts ADB, The relationship between ADB and sensitivity toward women’s concerns (SWC) is aligned with studies which shows that consumers who are concerned about women’s issues and favor feminist ideologies react favorably to feminist advertising (Abitbol & Sternadori, 2019; Kapoor & Munjal, 2019; Varghese & Kumar, 2020).

In terms of moderation effects, the results appear to clarify that age acts as a moderator, and the slope analysis shows that younger consumers (millennials and Gen Z) have a more favorable attitude toward femvertising and movements like digital feminist discourse (e.g., #MeToo); hence, they exhibit stronger ideology-driven responses as age interacts with sensitivity toward women’s causes. Consumers aged 41 and above, who are more likely to accept postfeminist ideals about achieving equality, responded less strongly. Additional t-test results support the PLS-based moderation results, with age serving as a significant moderator but not gender. According to a generational study, younger consumers prefer brands that associate themselves with social causes. Femvertising involves advertising with a deep message that often challenges societal stereotypes (McRobbie, 2009; Banet-Weiser, 2018). However, no significant gender difference was found in advertisement-induced buying (ADB), suggesting that femvertising-driven buying is not gender-specific among consumers, despite the presence of gender differences at the attitudinal level, as there is a significant difference in men and women consumers’ perception when it comes to latent constructs such as insensitivity toward women’s cause (INWC) and sensitivity toward women’s cause (SWC).

Given in Implications section in Supplementary File.

Given in the Limitations and Future Scope section of the Supplementary File.

The supplementary material for this article can be found online.