Research Guides: TCID 2080: Investigating Misleading Communication: Your Assignment Goal

This guide helps you complete the TCID 2080 Unit 8 assignment on misleading corporate communication practices known as washing. You’ll write a 4+ page workplace-style report and create a presentation analyzing a real-world case of washing.

Use this guide to:

Understand types of washing
Find credible sources for your case
Analyze and Cite your sources correctly

Course Context

In TCID 2080, students explore how communication shapes public perception in professional settings. This assignment focuses on how companies use marketing to appear more ethical, sustainable, or health-conscious than they truly are. Your report will analyze a real-world case and explain its impact on reputation, trust, and industry practices.

Unit 8 Washing Assignment Wahl
Always refer to the assignment instructions in Canvas and ask your professor for help.

What Is “Washing”?

Washing is a communication strategy where companies exaggerate positive traits to distract from harmful practices or appeal to consumers.

Common types include:

Greenwashing – Misleading environmental claims
Healthwashing – Marketing unhealthy products as healthy
Wokewashing – Using social justice language to sell products
Sportswashing – Using sports to distract from human rights issues

Tip: these practices are often studied under the language ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ or ‘CSR.’ Use that term to locate academic and business ethics publications related to workplace communication.Try searching "Corporate social responsibility" and "washing" in the library OneSearch for academic studies.

Review these sources to learn more about ‘washing’ in marketing and business communication. Start with these selected studies and academic articles and then use their reference lists to expand your search based on Journal titles, authors, and key words.

CSR-Washing is Rare: A Conceptual Framework, Literature Review, and Critique
Growth in CSR-washing claims in recent decades has been dramatic in numerous academic and activist contexts. The discourse, however, has been fragmented, and still lacks an integrated framework of the conditions necessary for successful CSR-washing. Theorizing successful CSR-washing as the joint occurrence of five conditions, this paper undertakes a literature review of the empirical evidence for and against each condition. The literature review finds that many of the conditions are either highly contingent, rendering CSR-washing as a complex and fragile outcome. This finding runs counter to the dominant perception in the general public, among activists, and among a vocal contingent of academics that successful CSR-washing is rampant.
The Harm of Symbolic Actions and Green-Washing: Corporate Actions and Communications on Environmental Performance and Their Financial Implications
We examine over 100 top performing Canadian firms in visibly polluting industries as we seek to answer four research questions: What specific environmental issues are firms addressing? How do these issues differ between industries? Are both symbolic and substantive actions financially beneficial? Does green-washing, measured as the difference between symbolic and substantive action, and/or green-highlighting, measured as the combined effect of symbolic and substantive actions, pay? We find that substantive actions of environmental issues (green walk) neither harm nor benefit firms financially, but symbolic actions (green talk) are negatively related to financial performance. We also find that green-washing (discrepancy between green talk and green walk) has a negative effect on financial performance and green-highlighting (concentrated efforts of the talk and walk) has no effect on financial performance. In this article, we provide explanations of our findings and put forth future research directions.
Transparency and corporate washing in the age of sustainability: an operational research agenda to evaluate corporate sustainability disclosure
This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the various frameworks associated with financial corporate washing. It examines the factors influencing these practices and explores their connection to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategies, through the use of operations research methods. ESG investors thoroughly evaluate a company's environmental, social, and governance factors before investing, reflecting the growing global emphasis on sustainability. As climate change risks rise and sustainability becomes more important, many organizations have begun to adapt, though some resort to greenwashing, misleadingly presenting their practices as eco-friendly despite ongoing harmful activities. This book offers a thorough examination of the strategies used by financial institutions, such as greenwashing, bluewashing, social washing, and pinkwashing. It aims to address corporate washing by highlighting its various forms within the financial sector, providing policymakers and stakeholders with insights to develop effective strategies and practices to counteract these deceptive practices.

Kraemer Family Library

TCID 2080: Investigating Misleading Communication

Innovation and Design Librarian

Other Helpful Guides

Course Context

What Is “Washing”?