When Source Meets Frame: Exploring Perceived Authenticity in Sustainable Luxury Advertising
(A2026-131937)

AUTHORS

Lan Guo, University of Portsmouth; SHYNAR DYUSSEMBAYEVA, UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH; Giampaolo Viglia, University of Portsmouth; Yuksel Ekinci, University of Portsmouth

ABSTRACT

Sustainability initiatives have become integral to luxury brands, and they also introduce tension: messages about environmental responsibility can appear inconsistent with luxury’s symbolic associations of indulgence and rarity. Consequently, how brands frame sustainability narratives have become crucial for maintaining authenticity. The research aim was to investigate how combinations of message framing (emotional/rational and subjective/objective) and influencer type (human vs. AI-generated virtual influencers) influence consumers’ perceived authenticity of luxury fashion sustainability messages. This study employed a 2 (Message Appeal: Emotional vs. Rational) × 2 (Message Style: Subjective vs. Objective) × 2 (Influencer Type: Human vs. Virtual) between-subjects experimental design. The results find that human influencers elicit higher perceived authenticity than virtual influencers, and perceived incompatibility negatively affects perceived authenticity. Moreover, among virtual influencers, rational and objective message framing leads to higher perceived authenticity than rational and subjective message framing, and among human influencers, rational and objective message framing leads to higher perceived authenticity than emotional and objective message framing.