Consumers and sources are embedded in cultural contexts that influence how those sources are read. We examine how consumers stigmatized for being fat collectively read advertisements for luxury fashion brands featuring plus-sized sources. We unveil individual and cultural resources stigmatized consumers rely on to collectively develop readings of advertising sources.

Most religious teachings support the idea that money and materialism are at the root of all evil. However, reality is not so rigorous and many times materialism seems even a blessing. The purpose of this study is to investigate and compare religious and non-religious consumer on their perspective toward materialism, and through it, luxury brand and purchase intention. The total sample consisted of 491 university Asian students. Results show that religious consumers are not necessarily against neither materialism nor luxury brand possession. Consumers’ religiosity did not influence their perspective toward materialism or luxury goods. This creates an opportunity for managers to promote luxury brand toward religious consumers especially in Asia, where religion is more prevalent.

Peer pressure and popularity have always been important issues for teenagers, potentially impacting on teenagers’ attitudes towards luxury, social consumption motivation and their self-concept clarity (how clearly teens view themselves). We empirically investigate these relationships using data from a sample of Brazilian teens and find that self-concept clarity has a significant effect on peer pressure, popularity and social consumption motivation, which itself directly impacts attitudes towards luxury items. The total sample consisted of 558 teenagers between the ages of 12 and 19 (grades 7 through 12). Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling.