ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Commun.
Sec. Advertising and Marketing Communication
Examining the Empowering Effect of Femvertising from the Corporate Social Responsibility Perspective: A Survey-based Online Experimental Study in China
Provisionally accepted
- City University of Macau, Taipa, Macao, SAR China
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Femvertising is a marketing communication strategy in which brands encourage and inspire women by incorporating information supporting them to gain profit and social impact. From the theoretical perspective of corporate social responsibility, this study tries to explore the empowering effects of femvertising exposure on Chinese female consumers. Through a survey-based online experiment on 300 respondents, the study found that femvertising can significantly enhance self-esteem and self-efficacy, but has no significant effect on self-control. For female-oriented products, consumers’ perception of female empowerment in femvertising is significantly higher than that in traditional advertisements, while there is no significant difference between the two for general product advertisements. The perception of female empowerment influences volunteering behavior intention related to women’s rights through a sense of moral elevation. This article expands the application of corporate social responsibility theory in the Chinese femvertising practices. It helps practitioners to evaluate better whether relevant marketing and communication activities strike a balance between commercial interests and social responsibility.
Keywords: Corporate social responsibility, empowerment, Femvertising, Moral elevation, Online experiment
Received: 28 Sep 2025; Accepted: 03 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Feng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ran Feng
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.