Healthwashing

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Healthwashing describes fraudulent or misleading advertising claims about a company's products or services that suggest a non-existent health bonus. Healthwashing does not see itself as a legitimate advertising strategy, but is - like greenwashing - a violation of so-called corporate social responsibility .

backgrounds

Consumers are increasingly realizing the importance of a healthy and wholesome diet and the possibilities for optimizing their health. Studies indicate that consumers would eat healthy and wholesome food, but that they increasingly lack the time due to the increased workload. In addition, it is a fact that the industrial production of food can hardly correspond to a fresh, vitamin and mineral-rich, unpolluted diet. This means that unfair methods and unfair advertising strategies, such as so-called healthwashing, are increasingly used. Healthwashing techniques can be broadly divided into two categories. On the one hand, there are substantial statements that convey tangible, concrete advantages of how consumers can improve or maintain their health. This includes statements such as “sugar-free”, “low in fat” or “without flavor enhancers ”. On the other hand, associative statements are also used. Here one uses mainly the emotions of appealing images, so it is about intangible, concrete statements such as B. Labels, posters or advertisements on which fresh fruit can be seen, although the product in question does not contain anything that has become possible through the use of artificial flavors . With reference to the pathways according to Kroeber-Riel, it can be seen that here a behavior change is to be brought about by addressing the emotions, whereas in the first category the cognitive processes are more likely to be set in motion.

literature

  • Andreas Stangl & Sandra Drobiunig-Stangl: Healthwashing. How the food industry uses advertising research to influence our buying and eating behavior. AV Akademikerverlag, Saarbrücken 2015, ISBN 978-3-639-87632-1 .
  • Patrick Hartmann & Vanessa Apaolaza-Ibáñez: Green advertising revisited: Conditioning virtual nature experiences. In: International Journal of Advertising. Vol. 28, Issue 4, 2009, pp. 715-739.
  • Werner Kroeber-Riel & Franz-Rudolf Esch : Strategy and technology of advertising. Behavioral and neuroscientific knowledge. 8th updated and revised edition. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2015, ISBN 978-3-17-026258-4
  • Werner Kroeber-Riel & Andrea Gröppel-Klein: Consumer behavior. 10th revised, updated and supplemented edition. Vahlen, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-8006-4618-0