This article focuses on consumer movements that seek ideological and cultural change. Building from a basis in New Social Movement (NSM) theory, we study these movements among anti-advertising, anti-Nike, and anti-GE food activists. We find activists' collective identity linked to an evangelical identity related to U.S. activism's religious roots. Our findings elucidate the value of spiritual and religious identities to gaining commitment, warn of the perils of preaching to the unconverted, and highlight movements that seek to transform the ideology and culture of consumerism. Conceiving mainstream consumers as ideological opponents inverts conventional NSM theories that view them as activists' clients.S ocial movements are intentional collective efforts by activists to transform the social order (Buechler 2000). This article focuses on consumer movements, which are particular kinds of social movements that attempt to transform various elements of the social order surrounding consumption and marketing. As consumption has come to play an increasingly central role in contemporary society, consumer movements have arisen to challenge and transform aspects of it by propagating ideologies of consumption that radicalize mainstream views.As we seek to increase our understanding of the dynamics and complexities of consumer culture, we need theory that conceptualizes consumer movements and their ideological role. As we follow the historical trajectory of a culture of consumerism that seems in many accounts to be globally ascendant and apparently unstoppable, conceptualizing consumer movements that stand in opposition to it may be viewed as increasingly important. Sklair (1995, p. 507) terms the mutually reinforcing integration of consumer culture and consumerist ideology the "culture-ideology of consumerism" and concludes that it is a "fundamental institutional support of global capitalism." The purpose of this article is to arrive at a theory-based understanding of con-*Robert V. Kozinets is assistant professor of marketing at

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The interaction between marketing actions with a social dimension and marketing actions with an economic orientation is at the heart of this study. The authors introduce institutional theory as the theoretical lens used to inform this research. Results from an experiment in a retail context show that there is a minimum acceptable level of marketing actions with a social dimension, below which the effectiveness of a firm's economic-oriented actions is hindered significantly.In an attemptto gain a foothold in the British premium ice cream market while challenging market leader Haagen-Dazs, Ben & Jerry's has been engaging in "publicpurpose marketing" for [its] competitive advantage (Nicholas 1994, p. I).By giving heavily to community projects, The Body Shop International has engaged in "enlightened capitalism" as it intertwines brand and cause (Richards 1995, p. 24).With its "Bring it home-the U.S.A." buy-American policy; its record of donation to community charities; and its commitment to family values; Wal-Mart topped $100 billion in sales in 1996,emerging as one of the largest companiesin the world in termsof gross sales (Fortune 1997).I ncreasingly, companies are successfully intertwining public purpose marketing or enlightened capitalism with their economic-oriented marketing strategies. This marketing activity has been referred to as marketing with a social dimension, or marketing that includes noneconomic criteria (Drumwright 1994(Drumwright , 1996. Such marketing practices are indicative of corporate social responsibility (Brown and Dacin 1997;Robin and Reidenbach 1987).Marketers are becoming increasingly aware of the positive impact that marketing actions with a social dimension can have for their organizations. A survey of American Marketing Association members found that, on average, social responsibility is viewed by Association members as an important component of organizational effectiveness (Singhapakdi et aI. 1995). Furthermore, Brown and Dacin (1997) find evidence to support the contention that a firm regarded as socially responsible will have a more favorable corporate evaluation from consumers. This in turn leads to a more favorable evaluation of the firm's products.

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