Green advertising on social media is increasingly conducted through influencers. However, the rise of such green influencer marketing also creates grounds for greenwashing, where brands exaggerate or falsify environmental advertisements in order to appear more sustainable. When these acts of greenwashing are mediated by influencers with whom followers maintain strong parasocial relationships, consumers may be particularly vulnerable to persuasion, as their critical evaluation of advertising content can be reduced.

Although greenwashing has been widely studied in traditional advertising, little is known about its prevalence and persuasive impact in the influencer context. This project investigates how influencer-based greenwashing operates, how parasocial relationships shape susceptibility, and how consumers can recognize and resist misleading appeals. By combining content analysis and experimental methods, the project seeks to examine how followers and non-followers of influencers process greenwashed advertisement, as well as identify individual factors such as environmental knowledge and advertising literacy that moderate vulnerability.

The project has three overarching aims:

• To identify and assess greenwashing in the context of influencer marketing and, in particular its prevalence on social media.
• To identify how parasocial relationships and individual traits affect susceptibility to greenwashing.
• To develop and validate intervention strategies that enhance green advertising literacy and empower consumers to cope with influencer-based greenwashing.