Media Justifications: Strategies for Environmentalization of Ethanol Production Through Advertising

Abstract

This article aims to elucidate the strategies used in media discourses to create a favorable social imaginary of ethanol manufacturing, as well as to promote the environmentalization of production. Based on the analysis of advertisements, we seek to demonstrate how the meanings of nature conservation, combatting global warming, protecting biodiversity and producing clean energy are used. In a scenario of increasing environmental concern these elements have gained visibility and importance for consumers, businesses, governments and legislators. This paper suggests that the industry has produced a chimerical image of ethanol production which associates itself to the idea of sustainability, while obscuring the existence of conflicts.