Megamarketing and sustainability in contested markets: a longitudinal analisys of media discourses about palm oil

Palm oil is an ingredient largely used in the context of baked products, desserts, energy, and cosmetics. However, the use of this product has been significantly criticized by many stakeholders because its consumption has been considered unhealthy for human beings, while its production has been deemed environmentally unsustainable and even associated with human rights abuses. We consider this to be a fruitful context to observe how different meanings about a contested product emerge and evolve over time as a result of delegitimating and legitimating processes. In particular, through a qualitative and quantitative content analysis, we examine a sample of 1,155 LexisNexis articles published from 1993 to 2016 and dealing with the concept of palm oil. We demonstrate that discourses about palm oil have changed over time across three different periods. In Phase I (1990s), health concerns result to be the dominant dimension in palm oil discussions. During Phase II (2000s), environmental issues become the main discussed topic and, in Phase III (2010s), human rights tend to be the salient argument. We discuss these results in light with institutional theory and, particularly, with the concept of megamarketing (Kotler 1986) in contested markets. Future directions are also presented at the end of the paper.