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36 Loy. Consumer L. Rev. 23 (2023)
Healthwashing: Corporate Communication Strategies in a Legal Gray Zone

handle is hein.journals/lyclr36 and id is 31 raw text is: HEALTHWASHING: CORPORATE COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES IN A LEGAL GRAY ZONE Anna Galmiche, Felix Delerm, Melanie Levy ABSTRACT In an age of rising prevalence of non-communicable diseases, transnational companies of the tobacco, alcohol, and food industries wash their risk-creating commercial activities and unhealthy products and incidentally mislead consumers. This paper examines industries' quest for legitimacy through elaborate communication strategies. It conceptualizes the practice of healthwashing as a new form of a com- mercial determinant of health, revealing the inherent tension between commercial and public health objectives. Healthwashing consists of deceptive, multi-level communication strategies, including labeling and advertising, that trick consumers into believing they support com- panies whose practices align with their values. The paper is the first to present an original definition of healthwashing, establishing three dif- ferent levels. Healthwashing occurs when health is used as a selling argument by implying benefits or unharmful effects of a product when the reality is different, when health is instrumentalized to a corpora- tion's advantage, or when consumers are influenced to adopt a lifestyle with unhealthy products. Healthwashing aims to maintain a brand im- age or sales and divert consumers' attention from the company's con- troversial products or poor practices. Finally, the paper critically ex- amines the challenges of tackling corporations' healthwashing practices through existing legal tools to protect public health. Corpo- rations design these tools mainly to steer consumer behavior through sin taxes, advertisement restrictions, or labeling requirements for un- healthy products. Through a case study of consumer protection laws, the paper reflects on the current mismatch between the traditional un- derstanding of corporations' behavior and a much messier reality in which corporations gloss over or outshine their activities and products to adhere to the expectations of a socially responsible corporation. The 23

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