Running Head: FALSE JUNK FOOD ADVERTISING

DOES FALSE JUNK FOOD ADVERTISING HAVE AN IMPACT ON CONSUMER

WELL-BEING?

Aiman Irfan, Komal Mohanlal, Natasha Rajani and Zainab Ali Memon
Institute of Business Administration

FALSE JUNK FOOD ADVERTISING

Does False Junk Food Advertising Have an Impact on Consumer Well-being?

Literature Review
Advertising is extensively used worldwide to develop favorable consumer
opinions of the products or services that a business tries to sell. It is used to persuade
consumers to make purchase and to differentiate company products from competing
brands (Irinescu, 2014). Advertising contributes greatly to any organization but since it
is a costly investment, the businesses aim to gain the highest possible returns from it
(Edman, 2001). In order to get the highest returns along with the lowest cost,
consumers are deceived through the use of false advertising.
According to Edman (2001), with the increasing competition, the businesses
want to show that their products are better than that of competitors. This urges them to
adopt unethical marketing strategies and advertising tricks that may mislead the
consumers. All else being equal, the more aggressive the marketing in an industry, the
greater the chances that the firms will resort to deceptive marketing that distorts,
misrepresents, or conceals facts.
Each year thousands of people are misled by these food advertisement based on false
claims. Given the pivotal role that advertisement plays in consumers buying decision, it
is important to identify the effect of these on their wellbeing.
We observe that there are studies which examine misleading advertising in
general or in industries such as pharmaceutical. Surprisingly, there is very little data
available on misleading fast food advertisements and how these are affecting the

FALSE JUNK FOOD ADVERTISING

consumers. This research paper studies the impact that deceptive advertising has on
consumers wellbeing and expectations.
Hattori and Higashida (2011) said that with increasing consciousness of eating
healthy along with a rise in the number of people suffering from diabetes, consumers
want to ensure that they get the product actually advertised when they make the
purchase.
However, the advertised products contrast sharply with that recommended by public
health advisers, and themes of fun and fantasy or taste, rather than health and nutrition,
are used to promote them. Meanwhile, the recommended diet gets little promotional
support. Many advertisements show the food to be really healthy but in reality the
portrayed image may be very different from the actual food. There may be ingredients in
the actual food which might not be shown in the advertisement, but which the
consumers might dislike or may even be allergic to.
CNBC conducted a research to compare the actual food items with their
advertisements. This research showed that since companies want to deceive
consumers by showing greater food portions, they mislead them by advertising food that
is not fully cooked. This is because after being cooked, the meat and vegetables
reduces in size.
Moreover, when CNBC emailed renowned fast food brands such as Burger King
and McDonalds asking about their food styling practices for advertising, none of these
food chains replied back. They all show false appearance, quality, quantity and
ingredients in their advertisements to make them look appealing and wonderful. Fast

FALSE JUNK FOOD ADVERTISING

food advertising is never true because it is always put in the positive light in order to
make the food look delicious and desired (Johnson, 2014).
Misleading advertisement results in a lower chance that the advertised product
will be purchased. This is because it discourages the consumers to make the purchase
when they lose their trust in the company (Cawley et. al, 2011). Due to the false
advertising claims, consumers may consume products that may adversely affect their
health or may be deceived into buying goods that are not desired and hence this would
result in waste of money and reduced consumer satisfaction.
Sayed (2014) showed in his research that there is a strong link between
deceptive advertisement and consumer purchase behavior. A lot of consumers fall prey
to these false advertisement claims and purchase something that varies greatly from
what they have been promised and shown through the advertisements. Especially
children

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5
References

Edman, T.W. (2001) Lies, Damn Lies, And Misleading Advertising: The Role of Consumer
Surveys in the Wake of Mead Johnson v. Abbott Labs. William & Mary Law Review vol.
43. Retrieved from
http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1424&context=wmlr&seiredir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fscholar.google.com.pk%2Fscholar%3Fstart%3D30%
26q%3Dmisleading%2Badvertising%26hl%3Den%26as_sdt%3D0%2C5#search=%22mi
sleading%20advertising%22
Hattori, K. and Higashida, K. (2011) Misleading Advertising and Minimum Quality Standards.
Discussion Paper Series. Retreived from http://192.218.163.163/RePEc/pdf/kgdp74.pdf
Irinescu, L. (2014) The Misleading and Comparative Advertising: Effects and Perspectives.
Journal of Public Administration, Finance and Law vol. 5. Retrieved from
http://www.jopafl.com/uploads/issue5/jopafl_issue_5.pdf#page=201
Johnson, K. (2014) Fast Food Advertising: Truth vs. Reality. Retrieved from
http://www.fastfoodmenuprices.com/fast-food-advertising-truth-vs-reality/
Cawley, J., Avery, R., and Eisenberg, M. (2011) The Effect of Advertising and Deceptive
Advertising on Consumption: the Case of Over-the-Counter Weight Loss Products.
Retrieved from http://www.iza.org/conference_files/riskonomics2011/cawley_j6697.pdf
Sayed, I. (2014) Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Global Business,
Economics, Finance and Social Sciences (GB14Chennai Conference). Retrieved from
http://globalbizresearch.org/chennai_conference/pdf/pdf/ID_C410_Formatted.pdf