Sustainably framing product advertising

American consumers are ahead of the sustainable-behavior curve in regards to product advertising. They are reducing and reusing at historic rates as is evident in the Municipal Solid Waste trends over the last decade. This change in consumer behavior is due to the changes in household economics invoked by the Great Recession and indicates that not only have consumers switched to cheaper brands as confirmed by market research, it also confirms that consumption overall has declined. It is very likely that these changes in consumer behavior will be long term as was evident in Japan in the decade following the Asian Financial Crisis. In opposition to the more sustainable consumer behavior, many green and non-green products continue to be advertised for their convenience attributes, which typically indicate they are single-use, disposable products. This paper will postulate why it may be timely and relevant to frame product advertising with a sustainability discourse based on present day society and on the philosophy of the Three R's hierarchy (reduce, reuse, and recycle). This framing would replace the current discourse that tends to choose to either reduce, reuse, or recycle and places the future environment at the center instead of the conversation. The goal of the reframing is to counter unethical product advertising and strengthen the new consumer behaviors brought about by the financial crises for the long-term benefits of society and the environment.