Background: Companies believe that consumers can fully comprehend the green messages and their belief increases gradually when they read the green advertisings. Each consumer has a different preference toward green products, so the way they perceive each green advertising is also different. This study analyzes how consumers interpret green advertisements on social media, which focuses on Gen-Z consumers at Jönköping university.

Purpose: This thesis aims to identify how green advertising appeals to customers and demonstrate how readers perceive text complexity and understandability in green advertisements.

Method: To fulfil the purpose of the thesis, a reader response technique was applied in this study. The data was collected with semi-structured interviews to gain deep insights into consumer interpretation of green advertising. Fourteen interviews were conducted digitally with participants from Jönköping University. The data analysis for this study was created by an inductive approach.

Conclusion:  This study has revealed that environmental brand activism has both positive and negative impacts on consumer reading of green advertising among Gen-Z. Another main finding in this thesis was that language design and advertising appeal also play a vital role in how consumers read the green advertising. Finally, complexity in ads by having unnecessary text explanation while the image communicates the message leads to confusion, misunderstanding and readers skip the ad.