Navigating Troubled Waters: A Tri-Country Study on Disaster Marketing Advertisements Post-Fukushima Wastewater Release

This study applies situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) to examine how deny, diminish, and bolstering strategies employed in advertising influence consumer responses in the context of the Fukushima wastewater release. Focusing on the seafood industry, which has been significantly affected by the disaster, we conducted experiments in China, Japan, and South Korea to test how these strategies influence consumer-based brand reputation (CBR) and attitude toward ads, with individual-level uncertainty avoidance (UA) as a moderator. Whereas the pooled data show that diminish and bolstering significantly improve ad attitude through enhanced CBR (with deny showing no effect), multi-group structural equation modeling reveals substantial cross-country variation: diminish and bolstering are both effective in China, only diminish works in Japan, and only bolstering works in South Korea. In addition, CBR consistently mediates the effects of effective strategies on ad attitude, and UA moderates this process such that as UA increases, the positive indirect effects of diminish and bolstering through CBR weaken. These findings extend SCCT to the context of disaster-related advertising and highlight that strategy effectiveness is culturally contingent. Practically, the study underscores the need for brands to localize crisis strategies based on both psychological and cultural profiles to maintain favorable consumer responses during external crises.