Applying a Causal Ambush Marketing Framework to Social Media: The ‘Pleasure is Diverse’ Campaign and the Australian Marriage Amendment

Abstract

The present study applies Pope and Wæraas’ (2016) CSR-washing conceptual framework in a social media context using the recent case involving Streets ‘Pleasure is Diverse’ campaign and the Australian marriage amendment. Sentiment analysis examined the posts to Unilever's Magnum ice-cream campaign. We applied the framework's five conditions, and the findings indicated support for the operationalisation of Pope and Wæraas’ (2016) washing framework. The findings suggest that consumer sentiments in this case of causal ambush marketing had four general themes: (1) Supportive Advocates; (2) Anti-Advocates; (3) Moral Detractors; (4) Sceptics.