Deceptive Labeling: An Annotated Bibliography

Adams, Rebecca. "This Is Why It's More Expensive To Be A Woman." The Huffington Post.
TheHuffingtonPost.com, 23 Sept. 2013. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
This article is about how many beauty products women versus men use in their morning routine.
Of course, as expected, woman use more than men do. This results in women spending $151
billion more on products than men. Due to companies knowing this, they markup beauty
products for women because they will still pay the extreme prices. They took a poll of 1,000
people to find out their statistics and came up with these results; 35% of women use one or two
products daily, while 17% use three or four products and 7% use six or more items. 54% of men
do not use products in the morning, 33% use one or two, and a very small 1% use six or more.
The goal of this article is to inform readers of the extensive gap between how much women
spend on products and how much men do. The writer is trying to let people know that the big
companies know this and increase the prices of beauty products that women use because the
demand is so high, that they are able to do that without backlash. She also wanted to see which
gender is more high maintenance when it comes to how many expensive products they use a
day. Adams conducted her own research survey to answer this specific question. She is qualified
to be writing this article because she has a BA in journalism from The University of Texas at
Austin. She has been working for The Huffington Post for over two years, but before that she
was an editorial intern for a publishing company in Paris.
This article will benefit my topic because it provides the needed information of how much we
spend on beauty products. It helps the value section of my essay due to it being based on the fact
that there are deceptive properties on the labels of so many products we buy. So we are wasting
our money purchasing these items, and now, thanks to this article, I know that women are the
primary contributors to the industry and that they spend about $151 billion more than men do on
such products. I figured that women would be the gender that puts more money toward beauty
merchandise but I never thought it would be so much more, I did not even think the industry
made numbers into the billion on make-up, lotions and etc.! So this source taught me some
information I did not know.
"Cracking the Advertising Code." Films On Demand. Films Media Group, 2006. Web. 23 Apr.
2014. Film.
This film was about the tactics of advertising in the media. They explain a specific one that
caught my attention because I had never heard of it before, bait and switch. It is where you see a
commercial or ad for a great deal on a wonderful product. But once you go to the store, they are
conveniently out of the advertised item, but they probably have something more expensive yet
similar. They have baited you with the good merchandise, and then switched it around and
charged you more, this is illegal. At the end, for policy, they do have some good ideas for how to
deal with such instances. For example, they have the actors present questions you should be
thinking of before or when you are contemplating a purchase.


I feel like this is a very credible source because many of the experts in the video agree with each
other, making the issue something that is easily validated due to an amount of people saying the
same thing. I do not think there is any bias on the topic, they seem to have facts that are not
personally linked or beneficial. The goal is most likely to inform the public on the devious ways
of how companies get people to buy products. This source is very useful for everyone in the
general public, because it is material that can help them stay knowledgeable on making the right
choices when they go to the store.
My research can be benefitted and my essay improved through the information I received from
this film mainly in the policy claim. I really liked the policy elements they presented in the video
and I think I can use them to help my argument. It changed my view on the topic because I had
never thought about those ways to help stop the deceptive advertisements, and now I actually
want to use those ones for adding to my own policy claim.

Darke, Peter R, Laurence Ashworth, and Robin J.B Ritchie. "Damage From Corrective
Advertising: Causes And Cures." Journal Of Marketing 72.6 (2008): 81-97.
Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
This story tells the audience how much it affects corporations when they are fined with illegal
advertisements. The FTC does not always fine them, but if they do, the amount is usually so high
that it is equivalent to how much the make in eight years. They explain that word of mouth helps
spread this kind of thing to other industries and they will hopefully be scared enough of being
fined the same way that they will not release any false ads.
This source is not biased, it is also a very reliable, and it is from a scholarly journal of marketing
and communication. They know what is going on in the industries of advertising and
commercialism and how it is all affecting the consumers as well as with the corporations
themselves. The goal is just kind of to report on what is happening, but also to inform the public
of events that are transpiring behind the scenes, some of the stuff they do not always get to see
on the news or hear about.
I will incorporate this article into my essay using the facts such as how the companies get fined
and that they hope it will scare the other companies into presenting more honest ads and being
less deceptive about their products.

Editorial: Misstep in FTC Diet Claim Fight." Advertising Age Viewpoint RSS. Ad Age, 25 Nov.
2002. Web. 18 Apr. 2014.
This article is on how the FTC went after a few specific companies a couple years ago and told
them that their claims in advertisements were wrong and bordering illegal. They were targeting
one in particular that said their product made people lose weight without diet or exercise. This


does not promote good health or healthy habits, it is not a solution to the underlying problems the
people who want to take the medication have already and will continue to have whether it be
psychological or physical. They need to see a doctor and get the right medical regime. The story
goes on to say that this one bureau cannot fix this problem by themselves, others need to jump in
and help them. It can be other government service or individuals who care enough to do
something not just see it done for them. The FTC has, in the past, tried to get celebrities to give
up money they made while advertising falsely for a company or product.
The purpose of the article is to report on issues in the industry of advertising and what is being
done about it in the way of the regulators, not the people. This seems to be a reliable, credible
source because it is a periodical solely based on reporting things in the advertisement business.
They know what they are talking about due to only publishing things on that topic.
This fits into my essay because it talks about how the one group cannot fix all the deception by
itself. I want to use that as maybe a quote for my policy claim to prove that even if help does not
come directly from the individual level, that it needs to come from somewhere, we cannot expect
the big corporations to do everything for us, we need to put our two cents in about how we want
it fixed and at least try to change it.

"Fooled by Food Labels: 9 Deceptive Claims to Watch Out For." CNCA Health Articles. CNCA
Health, Apr. 2010. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.
The article Fooled by Food Labels: 9 Deceptive Claims to Watch Out For, basically gives you,
as promised in the title, nine specific items to look out for on packaging. They are: natural,
healthy, calorie errors, rounded out trans fats, whole grain lies, real fruit, lightly
sweetened, serving sizes, and claims of medical benefits.
This source is not as scholarly as the other ones but it really relates to my topic so I wanted to
use. It is still credible and reliable, it has doctor recommendation and hospital approval. It does
not have one specific author but at the end there is are citations from very credible sources that
were used in the research of the article, among them is the actual FDA website. The purpose of
the story is to give information on nine specific deceptive things to look for on food labels.
I plan to use this article to show that even, sometimes, the FDA realizes that the labels on food
products are deceptive and begins to crack down on putting a stop to it.

LaRochelle, Mark. "The Fine Print." Consumers' Research Magazine 83.5 (2000): 31. Academic
Search Complete. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.
This article outlines all the fine print that is published in commercials, ads, videos, and
magazines. It gives examples like how sometimes ads say a company is number one, but doesnt
specify in what until you read the fine print and it becomes clear it is not anything big or
important that they are number one in. It talks about how the biggest offenders of this trend is


phone companies, like AT&T, when they advertise for really cheap calling or texting rates, but
the fine print gives some ridiculous terms that you have to agree to in order to get those low
prices.
This article has the goal of informing the people who buy such products as phones or boxed
cakes that they should think about reading the fine print before agreeing to any outlandish terms.
They seem to be credible but not completely scholarly because they are geared toward educating
the public not informing the researchers.
I will use this to help my fact claim, proving that there is always deception no matter what
industry, whether it be food or phones. My audience will hopefully feel more like they can relate
to the topic if they can hear about everyday things they buy that are affected by deceptive
advertising.

Lutz, William. Weasel Words: The Art of Saying Nothing At All Language Awareness:
Readings for College Writers. Eds. Paul Eschholz, Alfred Rosa, Virginia Clark. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martins, 2009. 453-465. Print.
This essay gives a list of so called weasel words. Words that advertisers use to push their
products on you and try to convince you buy them. These word include: help (the number one
weasel word), virtually, new and improved, like, up to, and combinations of the words. The point
the author is trying to inform us of, is that we need to watch out for such words. He feels that not
enough people understand exactly how much the advertisements they witness influence them.
There are descriptions of how each word is used along with some examples. It is very helpful in
teaching readers what to be on the lookout for when purchasing items with deceptive labeling.
The information presented in the essay is helpful to anyone who does not know a lot about how
companies try to make false promises through products, but also to people who know about what
goes in behind the label-creating curtain. Because they can use that information to educate
others, they can put together a group or community whose goal is to stop the deceptive labeling
of products. This has about the same credibility as Lead Us into Temptation because the book
they came from is the exact same book. Plus the author has a PhD in Victorian literature,
linguistics, and rhetoric. He also has a law degree, and teaches English at Rutgers University at
Camden.
My essay can use the help of this one because it establishes exactly what words advertisers try to
use to deceive us. It fits perfectly with what I am trying to convey, the deceptive properties of
advertising on labels. I do not know if I will use the exact words that are considered weasel, but
the concept overall is great. To focus on the smaller details of how advertising works is
something that might catch readers attention, and I will consider using the tactic in my own
essay.



Twitchell, James B. Lead Us into Temptation Language Awareness: Readings for College
Writers. Eds. Paul Eschholz, Alfred Rosa, Virginia Clark. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins,
2009. 442-451. Print.
The essay is about all the factors that contribute to the commercialism of our culture. The author
mentions things such as the baby boom, holidays, gift shops, and much more. He says that we
are influencing our children at such a young age to be consumers that it is becoming sad. There
is an example given of a little girl whose grandparents took her to see a play, but her favorite part
was intermission when she got a chance to look in the gift shops. He agrees that it is good to
have a stimulated economy, but at the same time, there needs to be limit.
The author has a PhD and is a professor of English and Advertising. Seeing he teaches on the
subject of advertising, it is right to assume he knows the field a good deal and is a reliable source
for information on the matter of the influences of the industry. I think that the author might be a
little biased depending on which way his advertising studies swayed him, but his argument
against it is strong. This suggests that he is presenting facts and not just using personal feelings
to convince his audience to see things in favor of his opinion.
Lead Us into Temptation helps my argument because it discusses how much advertising
influences us as a whole society. I can use that in my essay to present the idea of companies
using the deceptive labels to advertise their products to us, and get us to buy more useless items
that will not do what the outside packaging suggests. I also want to use the example of the little
girl to prove that the industries are getting children hooked on the products that do not always
present the truth. So basically they are lying to minors whose brains are not fully developed to
understand what certain things mean. These facts will help my value claim.