Chapter 5 — full chapter
5.6.2 Case study — Patagonia: challenging the conventional purpose of marketing
On Black Friday in 2011, Patagonia published a full-page advertisement in The New York Times featuring one of its best-selling fleece jackets under the headline “Don’t Buy This Jacket.” Rather than presenting the product only through its benefits, the advertisement disclosed the water, carbon emissions and production waste associated with making it and asked readers to consider whether they genuinely needed to purchase it.
The campaign represented a radical departure from conventional marketing. Advertising normally creates urgency, stimulates desire and removes barriers to purchase—particularly on Black Friday. Patagonia used the same commercial space to question unnecessary consumption and acknowledge that even a durable product made with recycled material still carries an environmental cost. Marketing was therefore used not only to promote a product, but to challenge the assumption that business success must depend on continually selling more new products.
Its credibility came from the connection between message and system. Patagonia did not simply ask customers to consume differently: it accepted responsibility for product quality, repair, resale, and end-of-life recovery. This made the campaign an early example of circular communication supported by services and operational commitments.
The case nevertheless contains a tension. The campaign strengthened Patagonia’s reputation, distinctiveness and customer loyalty, potentially making the brand—and its products—even more desirable. Anti-consumption communication can therefore still function as powerful brand marketing. Its circular value depends on whether it leads to fewer unnecessary purchases and longer product use, rather than simply generating trust and additional sales.
Discussion prompt: What made Don’t Buy This Jacket more than a provocative advertising slogan? Could a brand use the same message credibly without providing durability, repair, resale, and take-back systems?
Figure 5.15. Patagonia, “Don’t Buy This Jacket,” 2011. Published on Black Friday as part of the Common Threads Initiative, the advertisement reversed the conventional logic of marketing by using commercial media to question unnecessary consumption and disclose the environmental cost of the product shown.
Image credit: “Don’t Buy This Jacket,” Common Threads Initiative, Patagonia, 2011. Originally published in The New York Times. © Patagonia.