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A Critical Analysis of

Westinghouse Advertising MediaGreenwashing, Nuclear Power and Society

Leadership and Management Communication

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Abstract

The following piece of work was created to understand why and howWestinghouse might use greenwashing and intentionally bringing across amessage in its advertising media. The application of semiotics from a CriticalDiscourse Analysis perspective explored whether the Nuclear Power Company was

engaging in greenwashing and how they have done this through their marketing. The

use of certain images, language and signs are used within the advert to portray an

image. Through the analysis of these features the advert is clearly trying to distract

from the problem or create an association with nature and cleanliness to change the

perceptions of the reader. The use of these features has caused an effect on the waythat the advert has been read. This report should be used to improve the standards set

for this kind of practice and avoid companies being able to do this in the future.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Literature Review

2.1 Westinghouse Nuclear

2.2 Greenwashing

2.3 The Nuclear Debate and Society

3. Methodology

3.1 Strategic Function of Advertising Text

3.2 Mass Communications, Critical Discourse Analysis and Semiotics

4. Analysis

4.1 Top Section4.2 Three images

4.3 Main Body of Text

5. Conclusion and Recommendations

6. References

7. Appendix


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1.Introduction

Nuclear power is an issue that is frequently in the media and has been a polemictopic since its creation, most recently the Fukushima disaster in March 2011catapulted many countries and political figures into questioning their currentview on nuclear power.

It is clear that the politics of nuclear power were changed by thedisaster in Japan - and may be changed further by Germany'sdecision. (BBC, 2011)

The following essay consists of an analysis of a business text from WestinghouseNuclear advertising media. The analysis performed on the text will be done usingthree approaches in a combined method. The use of certain sign systems will beidentified through the application of Semiotic theory and these will beconsidered from a Critical Discourse perspective that views Westinghouse as aninstitution trying to exercise its power and alter perceptions of the public.Halliday (1973) produces a framework that can link social and political activitythrough linguistic form by identifying the text as having a strategic direction. Thethree approaches will be described in more detail in the methodology section of

this project. The questions behind my research will address the following issues.How does Westinghouse, a nuclear power company using greenwashing topresent an environmentally friendly image though its discourse?

For what reason may Westinghouse have to do this? And how do the publicperceive the advert?

In this case it seems the company is involved in a phenomenon calledgreenwashing, defined as the act of misleading consumers regarding theenvironmental practices of a company or its environmental benefits of a productor service even with the best of intentions (Friend, 2009 p.78) This definition

will be utilized when defining if it has been used within the advertising textselected.

This report will also include a literature review providing backgroundinformation on current and relevant pieces of work, a methodology sectiondescribing the tools used for analysis, the analysis of the text itself and followingthis a conclusion and discussion of findings and recommendations for the future.

In order to provide good reasoning for my arguments I will be drawing upon thework of scholars such as Halliday (1973), Schaeffner and Chilten (1997) andPaltridge among others. A copy of the text to be analysed is included in the

appendix of the paper.


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2. Literature Review

The following literature review attempts to understand the way companies usegreenwashing. It will also address the nuclear power debate to understand thearguments for and against nuclear power, to discover the possible reasoningbehind the creation of the advert. Much of literature reviewed is from recentnews articles and websites as the advert to be analyzed was recently published.This will ensure that the current climate surrounding nuclear power is taken intoaccount. This will allow for greater understanding of the use, if present, ofgreenwashing in the advertising text selected.

2.1 Westinghouse Nuclear

This information is taken from the official annual report by Toshiba. Toshibabought Westinghouse for a massive $76 billion, since the disaster Toshibareported losses of approximately $8.1billion in the Social InfrastructureSegment, which includes the nuclear power company. This annual report iswritten and given to stakeholders to create confidence in the company but eventhe company itself is uncertain of its future in the nuclear power industry as isobvious by the following extract from the annual report.

With respect to the nuclear power business, since the incident thatoccurred at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, there is apossibility that, to some extent, the project plans and ordersobtained by the Group may be reconsidered.reputation may be

adversely affected, as a result of a natural disaster, the threat oroccurrence of a terrorist incident, or of an accidentleads toenvironmental pollution or the potential for such pollution.

The language used in this case shows that the company is threatened to a degreeby external forces and allows us to understand why the company is trying tocounter act these threats. It is important to note that this annual report waswritten for the fiscal year ending on March 31st2011, This is interesting becausethe industry segment was already in decline before this disaster and mostrecently Toshiba has published a report in September 2011, for the 6 months

following the disaster and attributes the economic losses in the power segmentto the sharp yen appreciation and the Japanese economy, not the disaster. Aftera large investment, to be losing money in this sector is negative and possibly forthese reason they are trying to increase confidence and levels of investment inthe company.

2.2 Greenwashing

The term greenwashing was derived form Whitewashing by environmentalactivists to describe the efforts made by corporations to portray them selves asenvironmentally responsible in order to try hide the actual environmentalwrongdoings (MacDonald, 2007).


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There is an increasing trend in being an environmentally conscious consumerthere has been growth in the market named environmental consumerism(Carlson et al., 1993). Many companies are following the trend to be green asconsumers are becoming more environmentally responsible but some have onlyfocused on marketing this image that may have nothing to do with reality itself.

This is where societys values come into play, changing external environmentsmay have motivated Westinghouse to advertise itself in the particular way that itdid. According to Estes many companies will change their marketing campaign inthe hope that if they generalize their message to include children, grass andmountains someone will buy from them. The definition of greenwashing remainsthe same through all recent literature; I believe this is because it is aphenomenon brought on by recent changes in society. Various guidelines existfor identifying greenwashing in organizations promotional campaigns.Organizations including Greenpeace, EnviroMedia Social Marketing and theUniversity of Oregon (2009), TerraChoice Environmental Marketing (2009), andthe Committee of Advertising Practice (2009).

Greenwashing is an approach to marketing a company and is considered aproblem for a few reasons. It is misleading to the consumer and dishonest, alsocompanies that are true to being green may have their credibility underminedby companies that implement greenwashing. Furthermore, the creation of anillusion of environmental sustainability could have negative social consequences,as consumers will continue to use products and support companies that furthercreate environmental degradation and reduce the quality of living conditions forfuture generations (Davis, 1992). Future research should focus on how manycompanies are using greenwashing, how it has been used and for what reason. It

should be identified and studied across more industries in order to avoidcompanies implementing this marketing technique.

2.3 The Nuclear Debate and Society

Nuclear power is a topic that is closely related to politics, as the people in powerare the ones who create the government policy on nuclear power for eachcountry. Nuclear power is constantly under scrutiny from politicians as they arethe ones who make the decisions in nuclear policy. Partly because if they need toaddress it, control it and ensure the safety of the people of their country. For

these reasons I believe that this topic can be classed as a political topic and forthese reasons there is a political motivation to win over the public opinion.

Nuclear Power has been in the spotlight since the Fukushima nuclear disasterlast year in Japan and there is a lot of literature for and against the creation ofenergy in this way. So from a business point of view, where the aim of a firm is tomake a profit, Westinghouse may have to improve its marketing communicationsin order to continue to receive external investors. In addition, organizations suchas Greenpeace label Nuclear power as an unacceptable risk to the environmentand to humanity. According to them it creates much more nuclear waste that is

toxic and difficult to store. Some of the key concerns surrounding nuclear powerare the nuclear waste it creates; the huge cost of introducing it and the danger is


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poses.

On the other hand Nuclear power is emission free and this is attractive tobusiness that need to reduce their carbon emission due to laws imposedaccording to Whitman, companiesthat rely on 24/7 power to meet theirelectricity needs are contributing to emission-reduction goals by includingnuclear in their energy mix. This is highly favorable aspect of nuclear power forlarge companies and provides a motivation for Westinghouse to advertise itspower plants. From this advert with the target audience that Forbes Magazinehas they can achieve investors and more businesses as clients.

Through my research it was an interesting discovery to learn that Westinghousewas managing all nuclear power plants in Japan at the time of the disaster, butthe plant was not their own design. It most certainly damaged the view of societyon nuclear power but probably also the image of Westinghouse itself. According

to BBC News (2011) following the Fukushima disaster in March 2011, Germany,one of the top performing economies in Europe announced its plans to shutdown nuclear power completely by 2022, just one among many who are leaningtowards the end of the nuclear age. In this analysis, the view of nuclear power asa threat to humanity and nature is taken into consideration.

3. Methodology

The research project will be based on secondary data, which consists of thecollection of Westinghouse media. The actual advert that is being analysed was

found at random, while carrying out research for a previous project. Themedium, genre and context of the text will all be considered before the analysisis produced and the purpose of the analysis must be clear. In this case theanalysis will try to identify the hidden messages and their motivations inWestinghouse media. The text that was chosen was the advert found in amagazine and was chosen because personally I had not seen an advert fornuclear power and many questions arose. Why would a nuclear power companybe advertising in a magazine? In addition, the uses of certain sign systems thatseemed irrelevant to the topic of Nuclear Power caught by attention. I believethat through the analysis of the text itself from both a semiotic and critical

discourse analysis standpoint I will be able to discover the purpose of this textand any underlying meaning it may portray.

3.1 Strategic Function of Advertising Text

The workings of Schaeffner & Chilton will be looked at in order to define functionin an attempt to attribute thems within the language used in the text. Accordingto their work if the text has been produced to be for example, coercive, theparticipatory analysis of linguistic detail will help to identify this within the text.This will allow us to consider how the strategies are enacted by the choices inlanguage and other sign systems. They defined four strategic functions and they

will be used to identify speech acts within the text. This will uncover the possibledesired effect of the discourse on the reader and therefore attempt to


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understand the reasons behind the production of the text. Originally designed asfunctions to characterise Political Discourse according to Schaeffner and Chiltonit can also be adapted to social life, however we politicize them if we view themin this manner. It is adequate to view the issue Nuclear Power as Political as it isan important topic in todays society. To balance any shortcomings in the

analysis of the text through CDA and Semiotics the functions will be defined tolink the linguistic analysis to the reason behind the creation of the text.

3.2 Mass Communications, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Semiotics.

The studies surround the subject of marketing are limited to marketing booksand journals as they provide the context, practices and process behind thecreation of advertising but not what they have produced. The advert beinganalysed is a form of mass communication, which differs from the study of themarketing and looks at persuasion and manipulation. It is mostly studiedqualitatively and using interpretation, critical or cultural approaches. (E.g.

OSullivan 1997, McQuail 2005.) In this project a critical and interpretiveapproach will be taken to the analysis of the discourse.

CDA is used on the analysis of mass media texts as demonstrated by studiesedited by Fulton (2005), they assume and as this research will assume that theconstruction of verbal and visual text ideologically and evaluatively position amass readership. The media is studied from a great number of differentdisciplines, the application of a combination of CDA and Semiotics will allows usto identify sign systems and vehicles which are the most important within thetext and uncover their hidden meaning. In order to effectively discover the

underlying messages within the text CDA is a useful tool as it helps to revealsome of the hidden and often out of sight values, positions andperspective.discourses are always socially, politically, racially andeconomically loaded. (Paltridge, 2006 p.178) The tools will be used inconjunction to combat the weaknesses of each tool used alone. The analysis isdone systematically from top left to bottom right, which according to Brierly(2005) is the way adverts are designed to be read. Based on these assumptionsthe analysis will start with the first words on the page.

If greenwashing is present in the advert it will be obvious through the use ofpurposefully chosen language, imagery and content in general. Semiotics willdefine features of the advert that should be questioned in the lights of a socialand or political standpoint shining the light on encrypted messages within thetext. In this work political will be defined as action, in this case throughdiscourse that involves power or resistance.It is important to consider the paradigms of the text, which are medium, genreand theme used for the advert. The advert was published in Forbes Magazine, onDecember 5th2011 and is a form of mass media. Since the target audience of thismagazine is described by Ricci (2010) as a high-profile consumer in fourdifferent luxury and influential editorial environments: business, investing,luxury, lifestyles and politics we can imagine that the purpose of this particular

advert is to encourage investment and sway the opinions of high profileconsumers. The suggestion that it is there to increase confidence and investment


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is backed by the fact that the articles preceding the advert are articles aboutinvesting in nuclear power, so we expect the advert to reinforce the messagesthere and be persuasive. The genre of the text seems to be informative as itprovides us with factual information about the nuclear power plants, forexample more than 200 times safer than.

4. Analysis

4.1 Top section

For a strong economy, Westinghouse is focused on safe, clean nuclear energy.In this case the sign system is language and the phrase is relevant to the presentday where there are many fears of a weak economy, it is also relevant to theNuclear Power Company and states that Westinghouse is safe and clean. Theaudience, being aware of the current economic climate will be inclined to believe

that Westinghouse can directly affect the state of the economy, as it seems todirect it personally. The structure in which they have chosen to lay out is takenfrom another genre of text, the structure of a letter. It begins as if it wereaddressing the rest of the advert to a strong economy. Our target audience,being educated and involved in business will be able to relate to the importanceof a strong economy and this advert suggests that Westinghouse is the way to getthere. This is a persuasive technique in the form of a coercive function. Itpositions itself in a powerful position, we can affect the economy and thereader is somewhat obliged to temporarily accept this and puts them in a frameof mind that favours the company.

The green leaf-like background emphasises the cleanliness and safety mentionedin the main heading and suggests that nature is behind the whole companyconcept. In the whole advert there is no mention of being an environmentallyfriendly company but the use of the colour green, the leafy background and theother images on the page which all include trees suggest that this company is inharmony with nature. The audience will associate the company with beinggreen and create a favourable reaction towards the company. This can beclassified as greenwashing as the company attempts to portray anenvironmentally friendly image but in reality Nuclear Power is known to bedangerous and produces nuclear waste that is dangerous to the environment.

The reader knows this

4.2 Three Images

As we move further down the page we come across three images; all threepictures have been chosen deliberately to convey a message to the reader. Thefirst on the left is a picture of a nuclear power plant, there is no smog, smoke orharmful looking substances within the visual sign system. It represents one ofthe companies own power plants and so it is important for them to continuepromoting this image of cleanliness. In addition there are trees and a body ofwater next to the plant which emphasises the point that Westinghouse provides

environmentally friendly energy, the damage that is usually expected such ascontaminated water is certainly not included in the picture as they try to combat


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these negative images concerning nuclear power.

The following image is a young child that is irrelevant to nuclear power andthere is clearly a message that is trying to be put through. Westinghouse is tryingto look safe and reliable and they give the appearance that their nuclear plants

are enough to have your own kids play happily next to one. Even the colourschosen go with the whole theme, the setting is a blue sky, very clean and the girlis wearing a green dress with white flowers, this is another reference to natureand another attempt to associate themselves with it.

The third image is a representation of an office block and yet again they haveincluded a reference to nature by including the image of a tree that is a vividgreen colour. In this image business and nature seem to complement each otherand the audience is expected to associate this with the initial message thatWestinghouse can create a strong economy. In all three images they havedeliberately left out the reality that nuclear power creates nuclear waste and canbe extremely dangerous.

4.3 Main Body Of Text

In terms of function this text is looking to persuade and enact authority intodays society. The use of certain language for example technical jargon isfrequent; when targeting a consumer that is unaccustomed to use such jargon itwill make Westinghouse look like an expert in its field and therefore magnifyingits power. The readership of the magazine is more business orientated and willfind this impressive and trustworthy. To enhance this the small print that says A

Toshiba Group Company which is a well-known company known for qualityproducts. Directly below this is the phrase You can be sure.if its

Westinghouse again trying to impose a feeling of trust on the reader byaddressing them directly through the personal pronoun.

There is positive reinforcement of Westinghouse as a company through the useof Reliable Affordable helps they are directly addressing the main concernssurrounding nuclear power, waste, cost and environmental impact. It boastsabout how it is dedicated to safe performance and the most advanced designavailable to legitimize its position and coerce the audience into finding them

believable through factual information such as 15,000 employees. Within thetext we can identify legitimization.

Furthermore, in the use of made possible the company wants to sound likethey made the impossible, possible and is an attempt to be more believablethrough positive self-representation. In addition ENERGIZING THE WORLD FOR125 YEARS is significant as the reader will know in any business experience ismost valuable and again they will feel inclined to trust everything within the textand fail to question the validity of its claims. The reader will have their ownopinion on nuclear power and the reader at this point may be challenging theviews that they have and be persuaded by the impressive facts that

Westinghouse provides 45 percent of the carbon free electricity in the world.These aspects were designed to create this kind of effect.


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5. Conclusion and Recommendations

In conclusion, it is obvious that the advert is pushing the reader to think aboutthe company in an ecological and ethical light which is driven by all the signsystems identified that make reference to nature, children and trust. In terms ofgreenwashing the company is not making any environmental claims but theimages used and language used insist that it is environmentally friendly. Thisbeing not entirely true because it threatens the environment more, nuclearwaste cannot be disposed of. Westinghouse is in fact using greenwashing toappear more environmentally friendly. It portrays itself as a trustworthycompany so that the readership will feel inclined to invest in the company or buyenergy from them. The aim of this text was to persuade the reader to take actionand combat all the negative literature that is currently readily available to thepublic. For these reasons they have constantly used certain signs such as the

colour green, the leaf and the text to oppose the literature of interest groups suchas Greenpeace. From the literature reviewed it is clear to see the motivationbehind improving the image of nuclear power and they have clearly attempted todo this.

Word Count: 3600


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ReferencesBrierly, S (2005) The Advertising Handbook. New York. Routledge Publishers.

BBC (2009) Nuclear power in Germany: The reasons behind Chancellor MerkelsU-turn. BBC News, [online] 20 May. Available at: [Accessed 17 March2012]

BBC (2011) Germany: Nuclear power plants to close by 2022. BBC News, [online]30 May. Available at:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13592208[Accessed 17th March]

Carlson,L. et al. (1993), A Content Analysis of Environmental Advertising Claims:A Matrix Method Approach Journal of Advertising,JSTOR, [online] September.Available at: [Accessed 17March 2012]

Davis, J. (1992). Ethics and Environmental Marketing. Journal ofBusinessEthics, 11:2, pp. 81-87.Vol. 22, No. 3 M.E Sharpe Inc. [Online] Available at:http://www.jstor.org/stable/4188888[Accessed 15th April 2012]

Friend, Gil. et al. (2009) The truth about Green Business. New Jersey. FT Press.

Greenpeace (2012) End the Nuclear Age. Greenpeace, [online] Available at:[Accessed: 12th Apil 2012]

Galitz, W. (2007) The Essential Guide to User Interface Design: An Introduction toGUI Design Principles and Techniques, 3rd ed. Wiley Publishing Inc Indianapolis.

Halliday, M. A. K. (1973). Explorations in the functions of language. London:Edward Arnold.

Ricci, N. (2012) A True Premium Community. Branded Content, [Online]Available at: http://brandedcontent.adage.com/ang/vendor.php?id=11[Accessed 1stApril 2012]

McDonald, C (2007) Encyclopaedia of Business Ethics & Society. Sage Publications
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McQuail (2005) McQuails Mass Communication Theory, 5th ed. SagePublications.

OSullivan (1997), Key Concept in Communication and Cultural Studies, Routledge.

Paltridge, (2006) Discourse Analysis, Continuum International Publishing Group.

Schaeffner and Chilton (1997) Discourse as Social Interaction Vol.2, SagePublications.

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Appendix
http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/ir/en/finance/ar/ar2011/tar2011e.pdfhttp://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/ir/en/finance/ar/ar2011/tar2011e.pdfhttp://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/ir/en/finance/ar/ar2011/tar2011e.pdf

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