OPINION:
Fear sells. And companies are increasingly doubling down on this marketing strategy to target an American public that is more distracted, ad-weary and indebted than ever.
To capitalize, companies massively overstate or completely invent risk in order to create a nonexistent problem, which their products can solve. They define risk down to play up their products.
Chipotle is the poster child. It implicitly or explicitly implies that there is a risk of ingesting the food from its competitors as a marketing strategy to boost its profits.
Take its boasts that its meat is “antibiotic free,” which suggests meat ingested elsewhere may actually include antibiotics. What it doesn’t mention in its advertising is that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires all animals go through a withdrawal period before entering the food supply, so no antibiotic traces are left in the meat. Fear sells, truth doesn’t.
Or how about its claim that its foods are only GMO-free — “G-M-Over it,” as Chipotle says in its marketing campaigns. Again, this suggests that ingesting genetically modified organisms is somehow risky. It doesn’t matter that all the major national and international health organizations have declared GMOs perfectly safe, and there has never been so much as one documented stomachache attributed to genetically improved foods. (Chipotle’s GMO claim is also hypocritical considering that it uses genetically improved high-fructose corn syrup in its sodas, and its animal suppliers use GMO feed, but we digress.)
We pick on Chipotle because it is the obvious case of defining risk down. But the entire $30 billion “organic” food industry is guilty of this “healthwashing” to push its products. “Grass-fed,” “free-range,” and even “organic” have huge marketing appeal. How else can a company get people to pay double- to triple-digit premiums on products unless they believe they are mitigating a (nonexistent) risk?
Other consumer companies follow the same strategy by playing up fears of perfectly safe and necessary chemicals in everyday products to try to position themselves as the safe alternative. Actress Jessica Alba’s Honest Company is a good example of this. Contrary to scientific consensus, it implies that products with bisphenol A — better known as BPA — are unsafe, marketing its products as “BPA free.” One scientific study by Canadian government researchers found that you would more likely die from overeating before being exposed to any potentially dangerous levels of BPA.
Sometimes this marketing strategy backfires, as was the case with Honest Foods’ sunscreen. Stripped of its protective chemical agents, its users suffered horrific sunburns.
What makes Honest Company’s approach especially pernicious is that it sells baby products. These are marketed to new parents who are particularly desperate to do whatever is best for their baby. It’s worked. Honest Company has been valued at $1.7 billion.
Seeing this strategy’s success, the activist community has followed suit in an attempt to sell the public their bill of goods. Mothers Against Drunk Driving, for instance, completely overstates the risk of being killed by a drunk driver to advance its agenda of ending driving with even a drop of blood alcohol content. In reality the chance of being killed by a drunk driver — excluding the driver’s passengers — is one in every 1.4 billion miles traveled. No wonder MADD never uses this statistic. Few would pay attention to its mission if they knew the risk was so low.
Or consider animal rights activists who trump up the risk of mercury in tuna, even though it only contains trace amounts. Scientists at the FDA suggest there is a greater risk to children from avoiding this affordable food, while missing essential fatty acids and protein.
Most liberal special-interest groups employ a similar strategy to advance their agendas. Evidence the fear-mongering done by environmental groups including the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace to increase donations for their radical goals of ending the use of traditional energy sources.
Though effective, the strategy of selling fear is highly immoral. But consumers can take heart in the fact that when the agenda is exposed, it becomes impotent.
As Chipotle’s negative publicity suggests, their phony fear marketing may be Exhibit A for an advertising strategy that jumped the shark.
• Richard Berman is president of Berman and Co., a Washington public affairs firm.
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