Dissertation - Natalia Sousa 65875 - Msc Management

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Detecting Consumer Cynicism toward Ethical Marketing in Real/Natural
Beauty Campaigns (RNBCs) through the use of Semi-Structured Interviews
Author:
Natalia Rodrigues Memoria Sousa
Candidate Number: 65875
A dissertation submitted to the University of Bristol in accordance with the requirements
of the degree of Master of Science by advanced study in Management in the faculty of
Social Sciences and Law
School of Economics, Finance and Management
September 2014 Word Count: 15,870

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Abstract
This paper seeks to detect whether or not consumers are cynical toward the hypocritical
behaviour of fashion and cosmetic companies who undertake real/natural beauty
campaigns (RNBCs). It does this through the explorative use of semi-structured
interviews, before framing the data within a pre-existing theoretical framework of
consumer cynicism devised by Odou and Pechpeyrou (2011). In order to do this, several
steps are taken. Firstly, in the comprehensive literature review, hypocrisy is defined as a
disparity between practice and message. Hypocrisy is then identified within four
companies undertaking RNBCs (Dove, Body Shop, Selfridges, and Victoria Secret).
Consumer cynicism is defined, and the framework of Odou and Pechpeyrou’s ‘four types
of consumer cynicism’ (2011) is adopted for the subsequent interpretation of data. Prior
recoded examples of cynicism toward RNBCs are summarised in order to place the later
discussion in a broader context. During the methodology, philosophical assumptions are
outlined, before the method and approach are justified. Thematic analysis is then chosen
as the most suitable means of data refinement. During the results section the data is
documented and organised. Within the findings section, the results are interpreted within
the aforementioned framework of the ‘four types of cynicism’. The results will then be
discussed in relation to the literature review during the discussion section. The paper will
be concluded with an examination of the importance and ramifications of the research,
potential future research, and a final recapitulation of the achievements of the paper.

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Dedication and acknowledgements
I am dedicating this dissertation to everyone that took part in the dissertation and that
supported me during my studies. First of all I would like to say thanks to my tutor
Annalaura Marini, for helping me get through this challenging phase of my Master’s degree.
Secondly, I would like to dedicate this dissertation to my parents for supporting me all
these years through my studies. I also would like to acknowledge the help of my boyfriend
Greg Williamson for proofreading and transcribing the interviews. Finally, I would like to
thank all participants who took part in my study.

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Author’s Declaration
I declare that the work in this dissertation was carried out in accordance with the
Regulations of the University of Bristol. The work is the original except where indicated by
special reference in the text and no part of the dissertation has been submitted for any
other degree.
Any views expressed in the dissertation are those of the author and in no way represent
those of the University of Bristol.
The dissertation has not been presented to any other University for examination either in
the United Kingdom or overseas.
SIGNED: DATE:

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction 8
2. Literature Review 10
2.1. Message and Practice 10
2.1.1. Defining Message and Practice 10
2.1.2. Examples of Practice 12
2.1.3. Examples of Message 12
2.2. Real/Natural Beauty Campaigns (RNBCs) 14
2.2.1. Exemplar RNBCs 15
2.2.2. Potential Hypocrisy in RNBCs 17
2.3. Consumer Cynicism 22
2.3.1. Consumer Cynicism toward CSR 25
2.3.2. Consumer Cynicism toward RNBCs 26
2.4. Summary 27
3. Methodology 28
3.1. Research Question 28
3.2. Research Philosophy 28
3.3. Research Method 30
3.3.1. Induction, Deduction and Exploration 30
3.3.2. Qualitative and Quantitative Data 31
3.4. Research Design 32
3.5. Participants and Materials 33
3.6. Ethical Compliance 33
3.7. Questions 34
3.8. Data Collection and Collation 35

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3.9. Proposed Analysis 35
3.10. Limitations 37
3.10.1. Data Collection 37
3.10.2. Analysis 38
3.11. Summary 38
4. Results 40
4.1. Themes 41
4.2. Categorisation and Frequency 43
4.3. Relations, Pattern, and Overlap 44
5. Findings and Discussion 46
5.1. Findings 46
5.2. Discussion 48
5.2.1. Defensive Cynicism 48
5.2.2. Subversive Cynicism 49
5.2.3. Comments on Victoria Secret campaign 50
6. Conclusion 51
7. References 52
Appendices 57
Appendix 1: RNBCs of Dove, Body Shop, Selfridges and Victoria Secret 57
Appendix 2: Interview Questions 62
Appendix 3: Transcriptions 65
Appendix 4: Screen Shots of the Coding Process 105
Appendix 5: Direct Quotes (plotted on the four types of consumer cynicism) 106
Appendix 6: Application for Ethical Approval 109

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List of Figures
Figure 1: 1997 – Self-Esteem Campaign 16
Figure 2: 2000s UK – The Body Shop Magazine Advert 16
Figure 3: 2000s UK – The Body Shop Magazine Advert 19
Figure 4: The Body Shop Advert 19
Figure 5: The Body Shop Magazine Advert 19
Figure 6: The Body Shop Magazine Advert 19
Figure 7: Four types of cynicism 23
Figure 8: Six phases of thematic analysis 36
Figure 9: Categorised themes with frequencies of occurrence 43
Figure 10: Visual Schema of relationships, patterns and overlap of themes 44
Figure 11: Data plotted against the four types of cynicism 46

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1. Introduction
In this paper, a trend is identified in which marketing campaigns emphasise the real and
natural beauty of women in their adverts. However, the organisations which are discussed
in this paper are in the odd position of running real/natural beauty campaigns (RNBCs),
which celebrate unadulterated and diverse images of female beauty, while simultaneously
selling cosmetics or fashion items. Particularly, RNBCs from Dove, Body Shop, Selfridges,
and Victoria Secret have been identified as hypocritical using a measure of message versus
practice. Measuring hypocrisy by comparing message and practice is based in large part
on the work of Fassin and Buelens (2011), in which an organisation’s communication is
compared with implementation in order to locate it on a hypocrisy-sincerity continuum.
The research question for this paper is: Are consumers cynical about the intent behind
RNBCs of potentially hypocritical organisations? Will consumers identify and condemn the
hypocrisy of these companies?
Research on this question has not been found to exist at the time of writing. Consequently,
it is unclear what, if any, predictions can be made as to what the answer may be. Some
cynicism has been detected in the past literature, however this was not in experimental
conditions and many of the cynics were critics and commentators (such as Dye, 2009;
Austen-Smith and Galinsky, 2007), or consumer activists. Therefore, any prediction would
be an educated guess and not theoretical.
This research will therefore be explorative yet directional. For this reason, it will be carried
out using semi-structured interviews. The data will be coded and treated to thematic
analysis. The results are then interpreted using a theoretical background of the ‘four types
of cynicism’ devised by Odou and Pechpeyrou (2011). This is done so as to aid in the
interpreting of large quantities of data, which can be challenging without a prior
framework (Braun and Clarke, 2008). In answer to the research question, the results do
detect some forms of cynicism within the data. Specifically, defensive cynicism and to a
lesser extent subversive cynicism (Odou and Pechpeyrou, 2011) are found. The discussion
will refer the results and the findings back to the literature review, particularly any
documented examples of cynicism toward RNBCs, to place the research in a wider context.
In summary, the achievements of the paper will be: define hypocrisy as a disparity
between practice and message; delimit and explore the area of interest, namely RNBCs;
identify hypocrisy within the area of interest; define types of (consumer) cynicism and

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determine their respective characteristics; summarise prior instances of cynicism toward
RNBCs for the later discussion. Following this, the paper will: justify the method and
research approach of this work; expound the means of analysis; document the results;
interpret the results within a theoretical framework of consumer cynicism; discuss the
results with relation to literature; before finally concluding with an examination of the
importance and ramifications of the work.

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2. Literature Review
During this literature review several things will be achieved. Firstly, a means of classifying
organisational hypocrisy will be developed. This will then be applied to several companies
and their respective Real/Natural beauty campaigns (RNBCs) in order to determine
whether or not they are hypocritical. It will be demonstrated that the RNBCs of Dove, Body
Shop, Selfridges, and Victoria Secret can be deemed hypocritical and potentially
susceptible to consumer cynicism. Literature on consumer cynicism will be used to refine
a working definition of consumer cynicism suitable for this research. ‘The four types of
consumer cynicism’ (Odou and Pechpeyrou, 2011) will be described and evaluated as a
theoretical framework within which the subsequent data of the research may be
positioned. Lastly, documented cynicism toward RNBCs will be summarised and will later
serve as context in the discussion.
2.1. Message and Practice
In this section two terms will be defined: message and practice. The distinction is not a new
one. Indeed, the following framework should be seen as a variation on the work of Fassin
and Buelens (2011) in which the authors developed a sincerity/hypocrisy continuum on
which corporations can be located. Their work weighs a corporation’s actions against their
subsequent communication of said actions before plotting the various results upon the
sincerity/hypocrisy continuum. Finally, salient examples of organisations’ practice and
message will be reviewed in order to highlight the distinction in real world scenarios.
2.1.1. Defining Message and Practice
In their work on establishing the sincerity/hypocrisy continuum, Fassin and Buelens
(2011) draw the distinction between an organisation’s implementation of ethical
behaviour and their efforts in communication of their ethical behaviour. Their distinction
is one which will be central to determining whether or not an organisation is hypocritical
and therefore susceptible to consumer cynicism.
The distinction drawn here, however, will be between the message which an organisation
promotes through marketing communications, particularly in advertisements, and the
practice of the organisation. There is a subtle difference between the
implementation/communication distinction and the practice/message distinction, namely
the latter dichotomy (practice/message) is broader and entails the former
(implementation/communication). The term implementation refers to those activities

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which involve corporate social responsibility. The term practice however refers to all the
activities of the company. Moreover, the term communication is used by Fassin and
Buelens (2011) to refer to that communication of an organisation which reports its
implementation, its ethical efforts. The term message will here be used more broadly, again,
to refer to any attempt to communicate an ethical standpoint of the organisation, whether
it be reporting ethical efforts or simply running an advertising campaign which makes use
of a fashionable ethical topic. This broadening of the definition of ‘hypocrisy’ consequently
includes potential scenarios which the definition of Fassin and Buelens would exclude,
despite intuitively being examples of hypocrisy. For example, many companies stress the
importance of healthy eating and avoiding fatty foods, while simultaneously advertising
low-fat cereal bars which have high levels of refined sugar. It is not clear whether
situations like this would conform to the definition of hypocrisy as distance between
implementation and communication within the paradigm outlined by Fassin and Buelens
(2011), despite intuitively being a perspicuous example of what many people would deem
hypocritical behaviour. Following the definition expounded here of practice/message it is
clear that this situation can be identified as hypocritical behaviour.
In continuation then, ethical marketing practice can be defined, following Brenkert
(2008:40), as “a kind of practical [marketing] activity that encompasses broader value and
normative bases of a social and moral nature” and is “not constituted by some narrow form
of self-interest”. Conversely, an ethical marketing message may, but need not, agree with
any particular beliefs or behaviour. Consequently, the action of communicating an ethical
message and the act of practicing ethical marketing need not necessarily coincide. Indeed,
a company can practice ethical marketing behaviour without communicating a particular
message to the public, likewise a company may communicate an ethical message without
acting in a way which conforms to ethos of the message. Real world scenarios will probably
involve both ethical practice and an ethical message. But each case could potentially differ
in the amount of practice relative to the amount of communication involved.
Fassin and Buelens (2011) argue that by quantifying and calculating a given organisation’s
implementation in relation to its communication, one can place the organisation on a
sincerity/hypocrisy continuum. This practice will prove useful when formulating
predictions with regards to the consumer opinions which will be elicited during research.
If an organisation can be located on the sincerity/hypocrisy continuum we would expect
to find that consumer opinions of the organisation may, at least indirectly, reflect this.

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2.1.2. Examples of Practice
According to Bokaie (2008:24) Asda won the title of “2007 Environmental Multiple
Retailer of the year” at the Retail Industry Awards as a result of devoting funds which it
could have spent on promoting its efforts to be “green”, to initiatives like further cutting
prices for its customers.
Other such praiseworthy practice comes from Marks & Spencer, which the Bokaie (2008)
states recently kept the title of the ‘green crown’ in the 2008 Chatsworth FTSE 100 green
survey for going through with its plans to be green as opposed to broadcasting its efforts.
These are occasions during which organisations had the opportunity to publicise positive,
and importantly true, messages which highlight their ethical behaviour. Instead of which,
the organisations chose to redirect their resources into further ethical practice, or
implementation in the terms of Fassin and Buelens (2011).
According to Batson, Collins and Powell (2006) a good example of moral agency is the well
reported story of Aaron Feuerstein the then owner of Malden Mills in Massachusetts. In
1995 the textile factory was destroyed by the largest fire Massachusetts had suffered in
recent history. As the owner, Feuerstein could claim roughly $300 million in insurance,
with many expecting him to retire or move the company to an area with cheaper labour.
However, “Feuerstein did neither. He stayed in Lawrence to rebuild the only hope of a
decent job for many of its citizens. He also paid all Malden employees their full salaries for
60 days during rebuilding – at a cost of over $25 million.” (Batson, et al.:333). Again, this
is a clear example of ethical practice without concern for relaying the news to the public.
2.1.3. Examples of Message
Starbucks pride itself for promoting a mutual beneficial relationship with coffee farmers
by paying fairer prices than most of its competitors and in return it receives high-quality
coffee from their farmers. Furthermore, they claim to sell fair trade coffee in their
restaurants. However, as highlighted by Bloomer (2006), recently Starbucks seems to have
a very limited commitment to its claim of being a fair-trade company. Bloomer (2011)
writes, in an article in The Guardian, that “there’s a real opportunity here for Ethiopia to
capitalise on the consistently high quality of its coffees by being able to trademark their
coffee name and control how these names are used by others”, however Starbucks appears
to be opposed to this idea as behind the scenes it is “using its power and influence to
oppose this initiative so it can continue to charge up to £14 per pound for speciality

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Ethiopian coffees, while the farmer who supply that coffee earn between 30p and 59p for
their crop”. According to Bloomer (2011) these costs are barely enough to cover
production, which therefore demonstrates Starbucks’ hypocrisy of being a fair-trade
company. Its communications boast of being a fair-trade company and can be seen in a
number of platforms. For instance, on its corporate website, Starbucks claims to be
“committed to buying and serving the highest-quality, responsibly grown, ethically traded
coffee to help create a better future for farmers” (‘Being a Responsible Company’ N.D.). As
can be seen, Starbucks is a company that highly communicates its message of being an
ethical business, despite at times not appearing to practice in accordance with its message.
According to Marciniak (2010) there is a growing consumer demand for ecological
products which led many companies to jump on the ‘green wagon’ in order to gain an
advantage in the market. However there are companies that falsely respond to this
growing segment by claiming to be green, this can be referred as ‘greenwashing’. Precisely,
greenwashing can be defined as “a marketing instrument used mainly by large
corporations in order to give impression of ecological issues concern” (Marciniak,
2010:53). According to the author, there are six signs of greenwashing that companies use
in order to deploy a positive image to their customers, they are:
-Hidden trade-off (When a company claims that their package can be recycled
but it contains some hazardous elements)
-Fibbing (When a company lies that it is eco-friendly by placing a recognisable
eco-logo in its package when it has no authorisation to do it)
-Irrelevance (When a company claims to do something that is compulsory by
the law)
-No proof (When a company claims to be eco-friendly but has no proof to show
that their actions are really making a difference)
-Vagueness (When a company do not provide customers with full information)
-Lesser of two evil (When a company, for example, claims that their cigarettes
are organic, even though smoking is bad for people’s health)
Marciniak (2010:55) also points out that a frequently employed tactic in the field of
greenwashing is spending more money on advertising environmental credentials rather
than on actually acting in an environmentally responsible manner. For instance, according

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to Stoll (2002) Phillip Morris, a tobacco industry, launched a campaign named “People”.
The campaign was created to promote the philanthropic donations that Philip Morris had
donated to charities, however the price of the campaign far outweighed the donations
made to charities. Stoll (2002) argues that when an organisation spends substantially
more on publicising itspraiseworthy behaviour, than on the praiseworthy behaviour itself,
it is rather unclear whether the actions are worthy of praise at all, he concludes that this
type of behaviour is unfairly misleading. Phillip Morris’s eagerness to communicate a
message of ethical behaviour outweighed the company’s actual ethical behaviour. This is
a clear instance of message outweighing practice. Such behaviour is consequently deemed
hypocritical according to Fassin and Buelens (2011).
2.2. Real/Natural Beauty Campaigns (RNBCs)
Advertising is a function of business that is pervasive in people’s life. It can be found
everywhere, such as “on television, radio, magazines, newspapers, handbills, posters,
billboards, direct mail and the Internet” (Cohan, 2001:324). People normally do not
believe that advertisements impact their lives, however the fact that advertising is so
ubiquitous in everyday life has led many to begin worrying about the content and
effectiveness of such messages. For instance, according to Schor (1998) people that tended
to watch television, spent an extra 2,080 dollars than they would per year compared to
people that did not watch television. Furthermore, society has been increasingly worried
about the messages that advertisements send to young girls and women, distorting their
perception of beauty and encouraging them to stop eating in order to look as thin as the
models in the adverts. There are many studies by social scientists trying to understand the
impact of exposure to advertisements, using idealised images of women, on female self-
esteem (Engeln-Maddox, 2005; Groesz, Levine and Murnen, 2002; Blechert, Nickert,
Caffier and Tuschen-Caffier, 2009). Richins (1991:81) researched the role of social
comparison and the impact of idealised images of advertising on female university
students. She concludes that “advertising generates social comparison” and that
“satisfaction was lower among subjects exposed to idealised advertising images”.
Furthermore, the subjects that were first introduced to the idealised images of women,
and then subsequently introduced with adverts using ‘average’ women, tended to rate
average women as less attractive than the subjects that were only shown images of
average women. Monro (2005) investigated the impact of media-portrayed idealised
images. Her research, like this research, also used female university students as subjects.

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The results of the study indicated that after the subjects viewed the advertisements of
idealised images they reported an increase in appearance anxiety. Striegel-Moore,
Silberstein, and Rodin (1986) have reported that the standardized body-image for women
has become increasingly slimmer and uniformly attractive. Finally, Richins (1991) notes
that certain commentators suggest that the ubiquitous use of slim, attractive models in
advertisements create such self-esteem issues that girls and young women develop
unhealthy eating habits or disorders. As can be seen, it is widely accepted by many authors
that the ideal images of advertisements is pervasive in women’s life and health. With so
much research and attention focused on the negative effects of unrealistic beauty
standards on young women, a new antithetical trend has developed which aims to
promote ‘real’ or ‘natural’ beauty. Campaigns which make use of this trend are the focus of
this study and will consequently be addressed in this section. The term RNBC will be used
as an abbreviation for ‘Real/Natural Beauty Campaign’, it will be used according to the
following definition: A marketing campaign which encourages female self-esteem through
celebrating female ‘real’ or ‘natural’ beauty. Although, much research has been carried out
on the impact of unrealistic beauty standards on women’s self-esteem, very little research
could be found on women’s perception toward RNBCs. The aim of this research is to
investigate whether young females are sceptical about ‘ethical’ campaigns that promote
the natural and real beauty of women or whether they believe these RNBCs have a genuine
interest to help improve women’s self-esteem.
2.2.1. Exemplar RNBCs
To combat this ideal image of women (tall and very thin), there have been an increasing
number of companies, in the cosmetic and fashion industry, promoting the real and natural
beauty of women. For instance, the Body Shop went against the standard industry practice
of using highly attractive models when it launched an advertising campaign which
featured a Barbie-style doll that had the proportions of a real woman in order to “highlight
the ways in which the industry as a whole engages in marketing practices that prey upon
women’s insecurities in a patriarchal youth obsessed society” (Stoll, 2006:127). See Figure
1 and 2 below. In addition, the luxury French cosmetic house Lancôme launched a 35
million dollars campaign which featured models with natural flaws and imperfections
(Cohan, 2001). According to Cohan (2001: 324), a spokesman of the brand stated that “this
[advertisement approach] offers women a much more human, approachable, intimate
interpretation of beauty”.

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Possibly the most notable and successful RNBC is that of Dove and its ‘Campaign for Real
Beauty’. The ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ was first introduced in 2004 (Kurtzleben, 2013)
and encouraged women to reconsider the narrow perception of beauty with a campaign
which “featured ‘normal-looking’ women, with curves, wrinkles, freckles, and other
imperfections” (Austen-Smith and Galinsky, 2007:3). Moreover, Dove’s tongue-in-cheek
tagline for its firming product, designed to reduce cellulite, was “‘Let’s face it, firming the
thighs of a size two supermodel is no challenge. New Dove Firming: As tested on real
curves” (Austen-Smith and Galinsky, 2007:3.). Lastly, in 2006 Dove started the ‘Dove Self-
Esteem Fund’ to help every female feel positive about her appearance. Since then Dove has
aired a plethora of other Real Beauty advertisements. Most recently, Dove created an
advertisement in which four women, ostensibly members of the public, undergo a trial to
improve their appearance through a “RBX Patch”. At the end of the trial the women report
feeling more beautiful and confident, before it is revealed to them that the RBX patch is a
placebo (Knowmore, 2014). Certainly, with 10 years behind it, Dove’s ‘real beauty
campaign’ qualifies as an exemplar RNBC.
The high-end fashion retailer Selfridges recently jumped on the bandwagon when it
created a six week ‘Beauty Project’. According to an article in the Metro (Cossar, 2014) the
Figure 1 (Source: ‘Campaigns’ (N.D.))
1997 – Self-Esteem Campaign
Figure 2 (Source: The Advertising
Archives (N.D.))
2000s UK – The Body Shop Magazine
Advert

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point of the project is to explore the modern concept of beauty. The article quotes make-
up artist Sali Hughes, who believes that women feel uncomfortable with their appearance
because there is only one version of beauty portrayed in the media, which is normally
associated with young, slim and tall Caucasian women under 35. According to Sali Hughes
the point of the beauty project is to show many diverse definitions of beauty (Cossar,
2014). Hughes believe that “when we have a wider range of ideals to look at, women will
feel better about how they look and not feel disappointed they don’t look like the lipstick
advert in their magazine” (Cossar, 2014). As part of the Beauty Project, Director Kathryn
Ferguson also called for “A Return to Natural”, in a short film which showed black men and
women talk about their hair (‘The Beauty Project, 2014a). Norbert Schoerner, the
photographer behind the portraits which were used throughout the beauty project, claims
that, due to the lack of retouching, the beauty project contained an “unusual level of
realism for a beauty campaign”(The Beauty Project, 2014b). As can be seen, Selfridges
were keen to explore the themes of real and natural beauty during their ‘Beauty Project’.
In 2010 Victoria Secret even launched a short lived RNBC named ‘Body for Everybody:
Love My Body Campaign’ (Portuguez, 2010). The campaign looked at first glance to be
another self-esteem boosting RNBC, despite the fact it featured typically attractive Victoria
Secret models claiming to love their body, because their website encouraged visitors to
share what they loved about their own body. However, ‘body’ was the name of a new range
of underwear and the ‘body’ which the models ultimately loved was the underwear.
Consequently, it may be hard to justify calling this campaign a true RNBC, although it
certainly seems that Victoria Secret intended it to be perceived in this way. Indeed, it may
be likely that Victoria Secret wanted to cash-in on some of the success of Dove’s RNBC.
Of the companies mentioned above (Body Shop, Lancôme, Dove, Victoria Secret, and
Selfridges), all manufacture and/or sell beauty enhancing products, whether they be
clothes or cosmetics. Consequently, the business of these companies does not sit
comfortably with the message of celebrating ‘real’ or ‘natural’ beauty. Needless to say,
potential hypocrisy is an issue which each company must avoid in order to appear
consistent.
2.2.2. Potential Hypocrisy in RNBCs
This section, in part, develops previous work done during the second semester submitted
for the course ‘Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility’. In that work it was

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argued that using a Kantian framework of deontology -a theory of ethics in which
behaviour that is performed from a duty to do what s ‘right’ is favoured- Unilever (the
parent corporation of Dove) could be accused of acting unethically on counts of hypocrisy.
With regard to message and practice the question can thus be asked; do these companies
practice in a way that conforms to the message they espouse? Or is this message merely a
ploy to exploit current ethical trends in an attempt to appeal to females who do not meet
the unrealistic body image which is otherwise ubiquitous?
With regard to their RNBC, The Body Shop released the statement: “we believe that true
beauty comes from confidence, vitality and inner wellbeing. We strive to use imagery
which doesn’t play on women’s insecurities and to bring you products that enhance your
natural beauty and express your unique personality” (‘Activate Self Esteem, N.D.). Despite
this message and their advertisements which feature their fictitious Barbie-style doll
named “Ruby” (See figure 1 and 2, above), Body Shop used many idealised and
stereotypically beautiful models before and after the introduction of their RNBC. In
addition many of the advertisements, before and after the RNBC, idealise attractive males,
seemingly ignoring the Body Shop’s own protestations against the objectification of
women (see Figure 3-6, on the following page). It is interesting to note that although Body
Shop was keen to feature its doll Ruby in many advertisements, the RNBC did not feature
any real women who fitted this body-type. Perhaps this is because Body Shop understands
that customers do not expect a brand of makeup to make them look like a doll in an
advertisement, yet customers may expect makeup to make them look like a real woman
which does not conform to the idealised standard of beauty. Indeed, it is because
customers want to look like the models in the advertisements that the Body Shop used,
and still uses, models which fit the narrow definition of beauty.

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Archives (N.D.))
Advert
Figure 4 (Wagner (2013))
The Body Shop Advert
Archives (N.D.))
2008 UK – The Body Shop Magazine
Advert
Archives (N.D.))
Advert

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Much criticism of Dove’s real beauty campaign stems from the fact that Dove’s parent
company, Unilever, also owns the Axe/Lynx brand which has gained attention for its
extensive objectification of women (Bethel, 2013; Clinch, Osland and Dorso, 2011;
Harrison, 2008; Kurtzleben, 2013; Gordon, 2013). Besides this, however, some authors
have noticed inconsistency within the context of the real beauty campaign itself (Austen-
Smith and Galinsky, 2007; Dye, 2009).
Although Dove promotes ‘real beauty’ in advertisements which target women, the
advertisements of Lynx, which are directed toward men, contain “fantasy babes” who have
“long hair, small waists, and large breasts” (Dye, 2009:120). Harrison (2008:47) has
expressed concern with Unilever’s two-facedness, stating that the complicated nature of
‘the market’ is no excuse for hypocrisy, and “There is incredible inconsistency in a
corporation that happily promoted the sexualisation and objectification of women through
one brand, while arguing that it is the champion of women’s rights through another brand”.
An inconsistency within the Dove RNBC which has been noted by Austen-Smith and
Galinsky (2007:3) is that, despite its message of ‘real’ beauty, “Dove was still selling beauty
products. Beauty products, by definition, are sold because they touch on women’s
insecurities. Dove purportedly wanted to eliminate those insecurities through its
campaign”. Dye (2009) also highlights this paradox, although she notes further
inconsistencies within the ethos of the campaign regardless of the Lynx connection.
Amongst these is the fact that a campaign for ‘real beauty’ further encourages females to
consider beauty, real or otherwise, as a significant aspiration worthy of time, effort, and
money. It continues to endorse the practice of females altering their appearance in order
to boost self-esteem. Moreover, Dye (2009) uncovers a more subtle problem within the
conception of the campaign, namely “By encouraging images of ‘real women’, Dove implies
that women who do fit the ideal are not real women” (p120 emphasis added). Thus, despite
an attempt to broaden the definition of beauty, by stating that ‘Real women have real
curves’ Dove has excluded females who lack curves.
Like Dove’s Campaign for ‘Real Beauty’, Victoria Secret’s ‘Love my Body’ campaign appears
to encourage women to be happy in their own skin. Both campaigns show young women
in their underwear, however Dove campaign uses curvaceous women to promote the
campaign, while Victoria Secret’s ‘Love your Body’ campaign uses the stereotypical
idealised image of women (tall and skinny) to promote their campaign. It is important to
note that there is more than one body type and unlike Dove, Victoria Secrets’ Campaign

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uses only one body type even though their advertisement states that ‘there is a body for
everybody’. Barhydt (2012) points out that Victoria Secret’s Campaign is not much about
love your body, it’s more about buying a new line of Victoria Secret lingerie. The website
Women in advertising notes that “one can tell that ‘Love my Body’ may not have been the
correct name for the campaign” (‘Dove vs. Victoria’s Secret’, N.D.) as the advertisement
features only one body type. It certainly appears that the ’Love my Body’ campaign was
half-hearted at best, and little to no effort was channelled into avoiding hypocrisy.
The purpose behind the Selfridges beauty project is clearly that of redefining beauty to be
more inclusive by, according to Sali Hughes (Metro, 2004), providing “a wider range of
ideals to look at”. Moreover, each of the portraits central to the project is accompanied by
a quote, the portrait of one model, Monique, is accompanied by the quote “My definition of
beauty has a space for everyone." Yet, despite their call to redefine beauty as something
more inclusive, their catalogue still exclusively features models which conform to the
narrow and exclusive ‘ideal’ body image. In addition, throughout the Selfridges “return to
natural” advert made by Ferguson, black men and women talk about their ‘natural’ hair
(‘The Beauty Project, 2014a) despite the fact that they talk at length about their favourite
hair products and their frequent use of hair straighteners. They are perhaps speaking
against using extensions although that is not explicitly stated, and this is not a practice
common amongst black men. Lastly, in the photo portraits central to the project, the
models are not only wearing makeup, but also the pictures were subject to post-
production (‘The Beauty Project, 2014b). Again, the company seems eager to associate
itself with the notions of ‘natural’ and ‘real’ beauty, without it being entirely clear what
relation its business has to these terms.
It can be suggested that perhaps these companies are making use of what Dye (2009) calls
‘commodity fetishism’. “Commodity fetishism represents the illusory view that a material
object (that can be purchased) has the ability to provide meaning that have little or nothing
to do with the object itself” (2009:121). This idea that products come to embody meanings
and values created in part by advertisements and marketing campaigns, is summarised by
Comor (2008:77) who writes: “people prospectively value commodities not in terms of the
skills, sweat, and time employed in their creation but, instead, in terms of the socially
constructed meanings associated with them”. Interestingly enough, through clever public
repositioning of values carried out in RNBCs, fashion and cosmetics companies have
managed to imbue their products with values which stand in direct opposition to the

22
purpose for which the product was created, and for which it will ultimately be used by the
consumer. Incredibly, products which alter the appearance of women, and further fuel the
modern preoccupation with appearance, have come to embody the contrary values of real
and natural beauty.
2.3. Consumer Cynicism
Consumer Cynicism has existed for decades and can be found in many forms, such as
consumer boycotts, pressure groups, or simply in the form of a defensively motivated
consumer. This section will discuss the forms of consumer cynicism as outlined by Odou
and Pechpeyrou (2011), the growing trend of cynicism toward ethical campaigns in
general, and lastly it will consider documented consumer cynicism toward RNBCs.
According to Odou and Pechpeyrou (2011:1799) in order to realise how pervasive
cynicism is in our society, one must ask oneself the following statement: “Can you read the
newspaper, watch television and generally try to keep informed about what is going on in
the world without becoming cynical?” The authors go on to say that the due to the
seemingly constant disappointment and betrayal by the political and economic sectors,
people find it hard to trust any altruistic discourse.
The terms scepticism and cynicism are normally used as roughly synonymous, although
Mohr, Eroglu and Ellen (1998) have defined scepticism as mistrust in the validity of the
content of a message, and cynicism as additional mistrust of the motives behind the
message. Cynicism generally entails a degree of scepticism, and consequently it is more
fruitful to discuss consumer cynicism than to limit the scope of discussion to consumer
scepticism alone. Cynicism involving a great deal of scepticism is considered by authors
such as Pollay (1986) and Koslow (2000) to be a tool used to defend oneself against
persuasion and manipulation. Defensively motivated consumers are sceptical of attempts
at persuasion, particularly within the domains of politics and advertising. Being cynical in
these contexts may help consumers to avoid disappointment. For instance, Koslow (2000)
notes that consumers are sceptical of advertising not only because adverts are recently
thought to be misleading or manipulative, but also because adverts are seen to care more
about the viewers’ money than the viewers’ well-being.
Cynicism is a critical tool that can be helpful not only for situations related to consumers
being resistant to the techniques of marketing, but also in a sense that people become more
critical in every aspect of life, from a simple conversation to a friend to a political

23
statement. Odou and Pechpeyrou argue that cynicism helps people avoid manipulation
and gain control of their life, it “will help consumer to unveil the ‘hidden facet of
marketing’, to see the manipulation behind the persuasion attempt, to decipher the
consumption code imposed by the consumerist society” (Odou and Pechpeyrou,
2011:1800).
According to Odou and Pechpeyrou (2011) there are four types of consumer cynicism:
Defensive Cynicism, Offensive Cynicism, Subversive Cynicism and Ethical Cynicism. In
order to better understand consumer cynicism it is important to briefly outline these four
types of cynicism. Furthermore, this framework is used to facilitate the interpretation of
the results within the discussion section of this paper. The summary of these can be seen
in Figure 7.
Figure 7. Four types of cynicism (Source: Odou and Pechpeyrou, 2011:1801)
Defensive cynicism refers to resistance toward the manipulation attempts of marketing
practitioners. This may refer to distrust of sales people, resistance to telephone selling, or
doubt with regard to claims made during advertisements (Odou and Pechpeyrou, 2011).
The critical belief that people hold toward the techniques which marketing professionals

24
use to manipulate and persuade people to buy their products is known as ‘marketplace
metacognitions’. Wright (2002:677) describes marketplace metacognition as “people’s
beliefs about their own mental states and the mental states, strategies, and intention of
others as these pertain directly to the social domain of marketplace interactions”. Odou
and Pechpeyrou (2011:1800) note that marketplace metacognition enables consumers to
be aware, and to detect attempts at manipulation or persuasion and consequently being
able to defend oneself against them.
Offensive cynicism is defined as acting out of self-interest, not just marketers but also
consumers. The authors note that “the conception of the consumer as victim of a cynical
capitalist system, if not totally false, is incomplete” (Odou and Pechpeyrou, 2011:1802).
Furthermore, they argue that the consumers may exploit any perceived opportunities
within the marketplace in order to get ahead, this may include waiting for incentives such
as offers and free samples while resisting the temptation to spend further money. This
behaviour can be seen as playing the game, engaging in the market and aiming to benefit
wherever possible (Odou and Pechpeyrou, 2011).
While defensive cynicism involves high levels of mistrust and detachment from the
marketplace, offensive cynicism involves interacting with the marketplace in an
opportunistic and self-interested manner.
Odou and Pechpeyrou (2011:1804) describe subversive cynicism “as a provocative and
discursive practice”, it is not just blankly defensive but rather denounces the market
critically. Foucault (1997) considers this process of self-deconstruction, examination, and
evaluation within the context of one’s contemporary society as part of the ‘technology of
the self’. Foucault (1997:89) defines the ‘technology of the self’ as a “reflection on modes
of living, on choices of existence, on the way to regulate one’s behaviour, to attach oneself
to end and means”. If, within contemporary western society, the prevalent ideology is that
of consumerism, then this could account for the commodification of ethical trends such as
real/natural beauty. A subversive cynic in the present research can perceive the
inauthentic nature of this commodification, or ‘commodity fetishism’ (following Dye,
2009), and would be greatly sceptical and deconstructive of the motivation of RNBCs.
Ethical cynicism is defined as a “spiritual quest for a natural self”, a rejection of the
commercialised nature of consumerist society (Odou and Pechpeyrou 2011:1804),
something akin to Maslow’s ‘self-actualisation’.

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2.3.1. Consumer Cynicism toward CSR
Now that consumer cynicism has been briefly characterised following the paradigm
outlined in Odou and Pechpeyrou (2011), the focus will turn to whether consumers are
cynical toward ethical campaigns or whether they believe these campaigns are altruistic.
According to The Economist the public are less inclined than ever to believe the big
corporate claims to “get the world out of its current mess” (‘Faith in World Leaders: Busted
Trust’, 2012). And in light of all the CSR messages conveyed by corporations, yet all the
reports of irresponsible and immoral practice carried out by one-and-the-same
corporations, consumer scepticism and consumer cynicism with regards to corporate
social responsibility (CSR) is ever increasing (Skarmeas and Leonidou, 2013).
A recent trend in CSR was for an organisation to be perceived as ‘green’, or
‘environmentally friendly’. As mentioned above, this became a popular marketing trend
which was later dubbed ‘green-washing’. Green-washing is characterised as a
dissemination of disinformation by an organisation in a bid to appear environmentally
responsible without implementing such claims; “talking the talk without walking the walk”
(Vos, 2009:674), or in the terms of this paper; having a green message without having the
corresponding practice.
Many examples of mismatch between a ‘green’ message and actual practice are given by
Jahdi and Ackidilli (2009). For instance petroleum giant Shell stated ‘tackling climate
change and providing fuel for a growing population seem like an impossible problem, but
at Shell we try to think creatively’ (p107). However, Shell’s practice was ultimately kept a
secret and no figures for its renewable energy budget were released. In addition, car
manufacturers have overstated the environmental credentials. Indeed, Toyota was
eventually called up on its exaggerated green claims by the Advertising Standards
Authority (ASA). Lastly Jahdi and Ackidilli give the instance of EasyJet which, again, was
called out by the ASA after a customer complaint concerning the way EasyJet portrayed
itself as more environmentally friendly.
As the practices of green-washing corporations were found not to correlate with the
corporations’ message, consumers become cynical of apparent green claims “[making] the
task of communicating with, and more importantly convincing, an organisation’s
stakeholders vis-à-vis its CSR credential even more difficult” (Jahdi and Ackidilli
2009:103).

26
What is interesting to note is that CSR activity is often active endeavour aimed at
increasing “corporate dominations” as opposed to simple ‘image management’ (Jahdi and
Ackidilli, 2009:111). If this behaviour is overlooked by consumers then they may easily
overlook the fact that RNBCs are not carried out for the benefit of their self-esteem, but
rather for the sake of ‘increasing corporate dominations’. The following section collects
several cynical opinions of RNBCs from critics, commentators and some examples from
consumers, which demonstrate that professionals and the public are not necessarily so
naïve.
2.3.2. Consumer Cynicism toward RNBCs
On the Business Insider website, Stampler (2013) notes that many viewers liked the ‘Real
Beauty Sketches’ campaign, in which a FBI agent draws one sketch of women based on
their own description of themselves, then another based on a stranger’s description of the
same women. However, she goes on to write that other viewers found many flaws in the
advertisement. For example, Stampler (2013) reports on a blogger, “jazzylittledrops” who
noted that the video was predominantly focused on white girls with blonde eyes and blue
hair, and of the 6:36 minutes of footage, people of colour feature for less than 10 seconds
of screen time. Stampler (2013) also provides a quote from a woman who commented on
Dove’s Facebook page that the new advert “is not empowering or comforting. It’s
patronizing [sic], insulting and belittling”. She finished by suggesting that the ultimate
purpose of the campaign was “to make more profits for your [Dove’s] soap”.
According to Lachover and Brandes (2009) some people in Dove’s website forum were
severally critical of Dove and its RNBC, claiming that it exploited popular ethical trends
amongst women with a view to increase sales and garner a name for itself amongst the
public by appearing to promote an atypical, although not entirely revolutionary, message
within the beauty industry. A significant part of the forum dealt outright with the fact that
Dove’s RNBCs are, ultimately, marketing campaigns. One of the participants stated that “if
you really think Dove is talking to you women who are flat-chested, freckled, chubby, and
old out of a genuine desire to improve your morale and self-confidence, you are very
wrong! Dove is doing it because they want to make more money this year!!” (Lachover and
Brandes, 2009:310).

27
On the Fox News website, McKay (2010) reports on cynicism toward the Victoria Secret
‘love my body campaign’ quoting Nadja Koglin, a high-profile public relations expert who
said: “The word 'curves' is abused today and the consumer is starting to reject illusions,
and demands reality from brands. Most women are neither 5'11 nor thin, and I predict that
any brand that reflects a more "real" body type it will be rewarded by the consumer”
(McKay, 2010). Moreover, celebrity stylist Phillip Bloch concurs reflecting the mood of the
public he states “considering this is a company that is based on body and lingerie, you'd
think they'd have a bigger variety of body shapes […] where's the model with a little junk
in her trunk?” (McKay, 2010). The majority of cynicism toward Victoria Secret’s RNBC
seems to be directed at the fact that Victoria Secret did not even try, on even a superficial
level, to correlate the models within the adverts themselves with the purported message
of the campaign.
As mentioned above, much consumer cynicism regarding RNBCs has been directed toward
Dove, with some easy criticism targeted at Victoria Secret’s ‘love my body’ campaign. This
research will further document consumer cynicism with regard to RNBCs. However, it will
be in a controlled and investigative manner and will cover some RNBCs which have been
the subject of less discussion.
2.4. Summary
In summary, Fassin and Buelens’ (2011) means of detecting organisational hypocrisy or
sincerity, by comparing levels of communication with levels of implementation, was
adopted and expanded, to become the comparison of message and practice. By comparing
the message and practice of the companies Dove, Body Shop, Selfridges and Victoria Secret,
it was concluded these companies can be considered hypocritical and would consequently
be subject to consumer cynicism. Consumer cynicism was then better defined and ‘the four
types of consumer cynicism’ devised by Odou and Pechpeyrou (2011) was identified as a
theoretical framework in which to organise the data which will be collected during this
research. Lastly, examples of cynicism toward RNBCs have been documented. These
examples of cynicism will be compared to any cynicism detected during the present
research. Ultimately the research will discover if any cynicism, like that found amongst
critics and commentators, can be found in an experimental situation. At the time of writing,
no prior research detecting consumer cynicism toward RNBCs has been found to exist.

28
3. Methodology
In order to establish the design and methods which will be employed during the research of this
paper, some preliminary steps must be taken. The design and methods must be informed by
research philosophy, which in turn should be informed by the research question under
investigation.
3.1. Research Question
The question providing the impetus for the research of this paper has not been explored in
experimental conditions before. Moreover, no theory is being tested per se, although the four types
of cynicism is used to aid in interpretation. Instead, the purpose of the research will be to provide
a controlled and unbiased insight into a topic which has not yet been explored in academic
research. The research question in its most clear and explicit form is as follows:
Are consumers cynical about the intent behind RNBCs of potentially hypocritical
organisations? If so what form does the cynicism take?
This research hopes to answer a very real question with real world implications. For example, if a
large number of consumers are sceptical of RNBCs then it may damage the reputation of the brands
employing RNBCs. If consumers are not cynical of RNBCs then it may be considered a very tenable
marketing strategy. This research, therefore, has a pragmatic impulse behind it, because it has
practical ramifications, as opposed to being overly theory-laden.
The data collected in order to answer this question will be beliefs and opinions. Consequently, this
research question could ultimately be answered in one of two ways: by using a large sample in
order to attempt to calculate the ratio of people who explicitly state that they are cynical, or at least
sceptical, of RNBCs to those who are not; or alternatively gather a corpus of consumer opinions
and beliefs from a considerably smaller sample. The first of these methods assumes that cynicism
has a simple, objective, and quantifiable ontological status. The latter on other hand treats these
psychological positions to be nuanced, subjective, and more abstract in nature. The dilemma of
which stance to take toward the ontological nature of cynicism is the topic of the following section.
3.2. Research Philosophy
The matter of how the question of this paper is to be answered will depend on the ontology of our
area of interest, this is a question of what type of existence the entities concerned in this study
have. Is the social world a domain of objective facts, or of subjective interpretations?
Objectivism in sociological studies is a methodological framework which concerns itself with
describing and quantifying the influence of social structures on the members of society. For
example, an objectivist could look at examples of management structures across companies and

29
measure the success or efficiency of those management structures against a constant scale
(Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009). This is an objectivist approach as it assumes that each
organisation is trying to achieve the same goal(s) by measuring efficiency and success as an
objective fact, as opposed to value judgements which can vary from organisation to organisation.
A subjectivist approach, on the other hand, would be more concerned with the meaning that people
attach to the management structure and how these people define success in the context of the
company. A subjectivist approach considers social reality to be a product of people subjective
opinions and beliefs, whereas objectivists see opinions and beliefs as a product of social realities
which exist prior to subjective experiences (Bryman & Bell, 2011). The interests of this paper are
the beliefs and opinions of consumers, and the meanings people ascribe to RNBCs. These are
considered as actual subjective realities throughout the research.
These two, somewhat broad, ontological positions accommodate various epistemological
positions; positions on what it is that constitutes possible and valid knowledge (Quinlan, 2011).
Two of the most prominent epistemological stand points in business research are positivism and
interpretivism.
Positivism maintains that the social world should be described in a manner parallel that of the
natural sciences (Collis & Hussey, 2003). Accordingly, the goal of sociological research is to achieve
“precise and well-founded” knowledge comparable to what we know of other objective sciences
(Giddens, 1989:21). This philosophy may be useful in certain areas however it does not sit
comfortably with the aims of this present research, as cynicism does not appear to be quantifiable
in the same way as natural phenomena. Finally, positivism fits very comfortably with an objectivist
ontology, which, as indicated above, does not fit the assumptions of this research.
Interpretivism is a position which “emphasizes that humans give meaning to social reality before
deciding how they are going to act” (Holborn, 1999:442). In other words, society is seen to be made
of people whose beliefs and values inform the way they behave. Consequently, interpretivism
stands in direct opposition to positivism. While positivism maintains that society shapes people
and their beliefs, interpretivism holds that people and their beliefs shape society. Moreover, an
interpretivist epistemology supposes that beliefs, such as cynicism, are complex and nuanced and
are not easily calculated in an objective manner. Indeed, Saunders et al. (2009) stress that
interpretivists often see positivists as reducing complex insights into law-like generalisations,
thereby overlooking many of the intricacies of people’s opinions and beliefs. The present research
clearly adheres to the epistemological position of interpretivism, that it is people’s beliefs and
opinions that influence their behaviour. So what type of method is implied by these philosophical
assumptions of subjectivism and interpretivism?

30
3.3. Research Method
Two issues with regard to research method will now be addressed those issues are: whether a
deductive approach of theory testing, an inductive method of theory forming, or even an
explorative approach will be adopted; and whether a quantitative or qualitative method of data
collection will be implemented.
3.3.1. Induction, Deduction and Exploration
Inductive research consists of proposing generalisations by looking at specific cases: if a case holds
for one or many instance then it may hold for all cases (Gill and Johnson, 2002). The method of
deductive research, on the other hand, consists of testing generalisations by looking at specific
cases: if a specific case does not conform to the generalisation then the generalisation must be
incorrect. Deductive experimentation, therefore, is more likely to arrive at results that can be
stated with certainty -however only in cases where the hypothesis is disproved- this is called the
falsifiability theory (Popper, 1959). The most famous example is that of black swans. If all of the
swans we see are white, then we may hypothesise that “all swans are white”. This is an inductive
inference; by looking at specific cases, a generalisation is proposed. On the other hand, once this
generalisation or hypothesis has been proposed, finding a single black swan disproves this
generalisation and it must be reduced to “most swans are white”, or discarded. This is deductive
inference; testing a generalisation by looking at specific cases. It is worth noting that even before
black swans were known to exist, every white swan that was observed only strengthened the
probability of the hypothesis that “all swans are white”, but it could never prove the hypothesis.
Induction therefore is used to create a hypothesis, and deduction is used to test a hypothesis by
trying to refute it. If the hypothesis is tested, and is never refuted, then its likelihood increases.
However, this does not mean that it is proved, but only that it holds in an increasing number of
cases.
Deduction is most typically used in the natural sciences where generalisations are expected to hold
due to the nature of physical constants and causality (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009).
Induction, however, is typically used when an area has not been explored in great detail, or strict
generalisations are not as predictable. It allows preliminary hypotheses to be created in a less rigid
framework in which the researcher is permitted to suggest alternative explanations for the
observed data (Saunders et al., 2009). These two types of theory testing can be used in conjunction
although proponents of interpretivism will typically prefer inductive methods (Saunders et al.,
2009), while proponents of positivism prefer a deductive approach as it provides the possibility of
certainty by falsifying a hypothesis. There is another type of approach frequently adopted in
interpretivist studies however, that is: explorative research.

31
An explorative approach is one in which a question is posed and the researcher must seek to find
elucidation in the area with no preconceptions about what the answer may be. Exploration is not
a means of inferring in the way that deduction and induction are. It is, as its name suggest, more
like travelling around new, uncharted areas of knowledge (Saunders et al., 2009). This paper will
be adopting an explorative approach as there have, as yet, been no generalisations formed with
regard to the research topic. Moreover, there is no indication to what the answer to the research
question will be, any guesses would be personal speculation and not theoretically founded. As
pointed out by Adams and Schvaneveldt (1991), the fact that explorative research is flexible does
not mean it is without direction, indeed there is a very specific research questions and the findings
will be interpreted within the theoretical framework of Odou and Pechpeyrou (2011) (see
discussion). However, the question is not framed in a theoretical background. And as such qualifies
as explorative (Saunders et al., 2009). Perhaps some hypothesis may be formulated from the
findings of this paper, and consequently tested in a deductive manner. But, it is as yet unclear
whether we should ever expect opinions and beliefs of individuals to be generalisable at all. As has
been mentioned above, cynicism and scepticism are nuanced and vary from person to person.
3.3.2. Qualitative and Quantitative Data
The two most prominent styles of data collection in the social and business sciences are arguably
the quantitative and qualitative approaches.
Firstly, quantitative research functions to measure quantifiable variables and as such either
implicitly or explicitly presupposes a positivist epistemology. Moreover, quantitative research is
frequently predictive and is therefore conducive to deductive theory testing. It has already been
made clear why these assumptions are not adopted in the present research and so no great effort
will be taken to further reject them. A point of criticism specific to quantitative data collection
methods however is that often complex issues are reduced into simplistic, vague or close-ended
multiple choice questions (Kavali, Tzokas & Saren 2001). Indeed, it is not rare to see issues reduced
to yes or no questions, or at best a 7-point Likert scale. This state of affairs lead Crane (1999) to
argue that there is an overdependence on positivistic reductionism in business ethics generally.
Crane (1999:245) proposes that liberation and “substantial epistemological potential” can be
found in the interpretivist approach of qualitative research.
Qualitative research, in its most general sense, aims to understand meanings. It emphasises words
rather than figures (Bryman & Bell 2011). The role of the researcher is to elicit the beliefs and
opinions of the participants in their own words, before interpreting the data to identify possible
themes for subsequent interpretation (Brand & Slater, 2003).
According to Helm (2004) qualitative methods such as interviews are appropriate for detecting
cynicism because cynicism is generally a conscious and deliberate attitude. The authors argue that,

32
although participants may utilise different terms, they will be able to communicate any scepticism
or cynicism they do have. They conclude: “thus, people are well qualified to report on their own
cynicism, and their understanding and naïve theories are an essential part of the construct” (Helm,
2004:346).
In summary, this research adopts the position that opinions and beliefs, specifically cynical ones,
are important social drivers which have a subjective ontology. They must be interpreted
qualitatively first and foremost. Any subsequent quantification must be carried out after meaning
has been fully attended to. Therefore a qualitative research design is used.
3.4. Research Design
Despite the advice of Holstein and Gubrium (1997) that, in active interviews at least, meaning can
justifiably be, in part, created by the interviewer as well as the respondent. It seems irresponsible
to do so in this case, as the interviewer will have read and written on the subject of ethics in the
beauty and fashion marketplace over the course of two or more years, as a consequence the
researcher will likely have reflected on the issues under question more than the respondents. The
aim of the research is to discover to what extent consumers are cynical of these RNBCs, any
reflections offered by the researcher could instil in the respondents a sense of cynicism that was
not present prior to the interview. It may not be possible to distinguish new cynicism, gained as a
product of the interview, with old cynicism, which is the subject of the study. Indeed, the present
research follows the advice of Gorden (1987) that the purpose of explorative interviews is to
facilitate flow of uncontaminated and reliable information from the participant while avoiding
bias.
When detecting cynicism in consumers, Helm (2004) was likewise concerned about leading
respondents, and thus influencing responses. Specifically Helm worried that if the interviewer
were to offer any views which may be considered cynical, then the respondent may adopt these
opinions in order to avoid seeming naïve. Helm thus made a conscious decision to avoid even
mentioning the word ‘cynical’, ‘sceptical’ or any of their derivations. Likewise, during these
interviews, a conscious effort will be used to avoid these words. A balance must be achieved,
whereby the interviewer provides opportunities for the respondents to voice any cynicism, while
not leading the respondents. For this reason a semi-structured interview was chosen as the means
of data collection.
The interview form adopted will be that of semi-structured interviews. Semi-structured interviews
are built around a general structure which consists of the main questions which need to be
answered. However, the details are worked out spontaneously and a great deal of freedom is
permitted to the respondent in not only how they reply, but also what and how much they say
(Drever, 1995). They are generally not suitable for a large sample but can be useful in small scale

33
studies like this one. Barriball and While (1994:334) suggest using semi-structured interviews
when the researcher wants to “explore respondents’ opinions, clarify interesting and relevant
issues, elicit complete information and explore sensitive topics within each interview,” while also
allowing “some freedom to probe”. All of which applies to the current research.
3.5. Participants and Materials
The participants consisted of 6 females aged between 20 and 25 years old. All participants were
University students: 1 undergraduate, and 5 postgraduates. The choice of participants was not only
based on convenience, but also appropriate as females are ostensibly the target of these
advertisements.
Materials used during the interviews consisted of pictures of four RNBCs, namely those of; Dove’s
Real beauty campaign, The Selfridges beauty project, The Body shop’s Ruby campaign, and Victoria
secrets’ Love my Body campaign. No video was shown to the participants due to time constraints,
this is regrettable as the Dove and Victoria secret campaigns were predominantly television
adverts. All materials used during the interviews can be found in appendix 1.
3.6. Ethical compliance
As Quinlan (20011:72) notes “when we undertake research, we are representing ourselves and
our institution or organisation in the wider community and must consequently adopt in our
research endeavour the highest ethical standards”. This research acknowledges the importance of
ethics in research for institutions, in this case University of Bristol, which it is representing.
Furthermore, this research acknowledges that it is vital to the well-being of the participants that
the researcher understands and practices the basic tenets of ethical research.
There are several authors and associations that provides guidelines for researchers on how to be
ethical throughout the project and when conducting research. For instance Diener and Crandall
(1978) identified four ethical principles that they believe it’s important to follow while conducting
research, the four principles discussed by the authors are concerned with whether there is any
harm to participants, whether there is informed consent, whether issues of invasion of privacy are
present and whether there is any deception of the participants.
With regard to the first of these principles, harm to the participants, it was necessary to be cautious
when discussing issues of self-esteem and the way in which women are portrayed in the media. In
order to ensure that the participants were comfortable with these questions they were informed
about the domain of the research -RNBCs- although mention of hypocrisy and scepticism was
omitted in order to avoid bias or contamination. This omission was not deemed potentially harmful
to the participants. All respondents consented to the interviews and to being recorded. They also
consented to being transcribed as anonymous respondents. Before the interviews the respondents

34
were informed that they were not obliged to answer any questions. Lastly, the respondents were
not intentionally deceived before, during, or after the interview.
This research was conducted according to the ethos of the Marketing Research Society, the
research was carried out “honestly, objectively, without unwelcome intrusion and without harm
to respondents. Its purpose is to collect and analyse information and not to create sales or to
influence the opinions of anyone participating” (‘MRS Guidelines for Qualitative Research’,
2011:4).
3.7. Questions
As mentioned the interview was semi-structured. The questions, which served as the interview
guide, can be found in appendix 2. In certain cases it was necessary to deviate from the order of
the questions, re-word questions, skip questions, or ask for elaboration. The rationale for the
questions was as follows:
To begin, respondents are shown RNBCs from four organisations; Dove, Body Shop, Selfridges and
Victoria Secret (found in appendix 1). This was done in order to prepare the respondents for the
interview. Questions 1-3 are designed to be introductory questions, establishing the respondents’
knowledge of the companies, their business, and the RNBCs. Questions 4-6 serve to find out the
general opinion of the participants toward the RNBCs. Questions 5 and 6 discover whether the
participants understand that there is a relationship between these campaigns. If participants
answer that they don’t see a common theme, they will need to be informed that for the purpose of
the research the adverts were classified as RNBCs. Questions 7-30 are designed to find out whether
consumers are cynical towards RNBCs. Questions 9-10 ask the participants what they like and
dislike about the RNBCs, thereby motivating the participants to think about the campaigns in a less
superficial, more critical manner.
Question 11-12 discover whether the participants have ever suspected that these RNBCs are a
means of boosting sales. It is worded in the past tense so that their response will focus on their
suspicions before the interview. This will limit the possibility of influencing their responses.
Questions 13-14 ask whether participants believe that RNBCs have an impact on women by
improving their self-esteem and their reasons for believing that. Questions 17-18 directly tests the
cynicism of the participants by asking whether the participants believe that the companies
presented are concerned with women’s self-esteem and their reasons for believing that. Questions
21-30 also directly test the cynicism of the participants. For instance, question 21 asks whether
the participants see anything wrong with RNBCs. Finally question 31 will establish what the
respondents believe the motives behind RNBCs are.

35
3.8. Data Collection and Collation
Interviews took place between August and September 2014 at places that were convenient for the
participants. All interviews were recorded on two devices so that if one recording were to fail,
there would be another. The clearer of the two recordings was occasionally slowed down
anywhere between 0.5–2 times using audio-editing software to make transcribing them easier. The
interviews were transcribed with the help of a volunteer who has been credited in the
acknowledgements. The transcriptions can be found in appendix 3. The letter I is used to represent
the interviewer, while the letter R is used to represent the respondent.
3.9. Proposed Analysis
Despite the fact that this interview had a small sample size and relatively brief interviews of 20-30
minutes, the data gathered were by no means few or straightforward. The main purpose, then, of
the analysis will be to make the data manageable andunderstandable. In the words of Tesch (1990)
the data must be ‘condensed’ and ‘distilled’, these words indicate an active effort on the part of the
researcher. In order to condense, distil and subsequently interpret the large, complex data sets of
this research, a technique called coding will be implemented.
A code is a label which can be assigned to data of any size, from a word to a paragraph, to a whole
text. The codes then facilitates the grouping together of concepts into themes, and helping the
researcher notice potential patterns within the text (Basit, 2003). A code will often apply to several
subparts of a data set, and any given subpart may include more than one code (Bryman & Bell,
2011). As such, it is not a straightforward process and needs to be done gradually and iteratively.
In the early stages of coding, codes can be created, modified or dropped, as concepts become more
or less salient within the data. The researcher may create initial codes only to later find that a
concept was less significant than it first appeared, conversely the researcher may have missed a
concept which is later found to underlie much of the data (Saldaña, 2009). A frequently cited
distinction when coding data is between manifest and latent content (Aberbach, Chesney, and
Rockman 1975; Robson, 1993). Manifest content is that which has been explicitly stated by the
respondents, whereas latent content is implicit, or non-verbal (Elo and Kyngäs, 2007). The analysis
here does not make use of latent content. Lastly, any speech of the interviewer is not considered
data. Therefore, all codes that are identified will be found in the opinions of the respondents.

36
Through the process of coding, the researcher may become aware of patterns, similarities, and
collocations (frequently co-occurring words) across the data sets. These will then be labelled, in
turn, and will be used to construct the themes of the analysis (Saldaña, 2009). Following Braun and
Clarke’s (2006) seminal guide to thematic analysis, the uncovering of themes will be done in six
phases.
Figure 8. Six phases of thematic analysis (Adapted from Braun and Clarke, 2006:87).
Moving through these phases is not linear, but rather is recursive (Braun and Clarke, 2006:86). The
researcher moves backward and forward through the stages when it is deemed necessary.
Due to time constraints, the interviews were transcribed by a volunteer, however to make sure
that the transcription were accurate, and in order to get more familiar with the data, the researcher
listened through all the recordings while reading the transcripts and once the researcher was
familiar with the data, the researcher re-read the transcripts in an active way, making notes and
highlighting relevant and interesting chunks of the data. This stage refers to the first stage
suggested by Braun and Clarke (2008); ‘Familiarising yourself with your data’.
The second phase followed. In this phase initial codes were identified once the researcher was
familiar with the data. This initial coding process was simply the most basic identification of codes
obtained through the raw data, and therefore the researcher was aware that a refinement would
be needed in later stages. The researcher worked “systematically through the entire data set, giving

37
full and equal attention to each data item and identify[ed] interesting aspects in the data item that
may form the basis of repeated patterns (themes) across the data set” (Braun and Clarke, 2008:89).
The third phase adopted by this research involved the ‘searching for themes’. In this phase, the
researcher focused on the analysis of a broader level. This phase involved putting codes within the
relevant themes. Furthermore, visual representation are used in order to help organise the
different codes into themes (Braun and Clarke, 2008), a table and a mind-map were used in this
phase and can be found in the results section as figure 9 and 10. The advantage of creating a mind-
map is that it helps identify overarching themes, subthemes and relationships between them.
The fourth stage of thematic analysis involved ‘reviewing themes’. During this stage, some
candidate themes were collapsed into one theme while others were discarded because there was
not enough data to support them. In this stage the researcher had to re-read the entire data set for
two reasons: the first reason is to discover if the themes fit with the data set, secondly to code and
classify additional data which was missed initially (Braun and Clarke, 2008).
The fifth stage of thematic analysis involved ‘defining and naming themes’. This stage require the
researcher to refine the themes and describe them, these definition have been included in the
results section. Finally, the last stage of thematic analysis involved ‘producing the report’. The
report of the present research constitutes the results section and the findings and discussion
section.
Screen shots of the coding process can be found in appendix 4, identified themes with their
frequency of occurrence, and visual thematic schemata can be found in the results section as
figures 9 and 10, and interpretation of the results can be found in the findings and discussion
section.
3.10. Limitations
3.10.1. Data Collection
Sample size: The data of this study were gathered through interviews. This research was
conducted within a very limited period of time, roughly between the beginning of April and the
middle of September. Interviewing is a time consuming activity which does not simply depend on
the goodwill of the researcher. The researcher not only need to look for people willing to give up
some of their spare time, they also need to arrange the time and place suitable to meet the
interviewees, therefore the researcher needs to allocate to different places in order to meet the
respondents. All of these factors demonstrate that it takes time to obtain data and due to the time
constraints it was possible to conduct only 6 interviews.
Time limitations during the interview: In order to conduct the experiment, a selection of
advertising images were selected for each brand (appendix 1), in the case of Selfridges RNBC print

38
screens from their corporate website were shown. These pictures were shown to elicit better
responses from the respondents in regards to questions surrounding the RNBCs. The benefits of
showing these advertising images printed on paper are that they are easy to understand and that
the respondents can always refer back to the images when they want to say something about them.
The downside is that there may have been better resources which could have been shown to the
respondents. For instance, Dove had two RNBC videos that may have elicited interesting responses
from the respondents: the RBX Patch advert and the Sketches adverts (both mentioned in the
literature review). However, these adverts are rather long. The RBX Patch would take 6 minutes
and 14 seconds to show and if this research were to show a video for every RNBC it would take an
inconvenient amount of time and there would be the risk that they would have forgotten about the
first advert by the end of the demonstrations. However, there is the possibility that these
respondents could have given much more detailed and opinionative responses. One last point to
consider, is that by allowing the respondents to look through the images throughout the interview,
it may not represent a real word scenario, as in the real world a person typically look at one advert
at any given time.
3.10.2. Analysis
This research makes use of a thematic analysis. Braun and Clarke (2008) state that one drawback
of thematic analysis is that it can be “potentially paralysing to the research trying to decide what
aspects of their data to focus on”. This potential problem is not encountered in this research,
specifically because the research question was well defined.
According to Guest, MacQueen and Namely (2012) thematic analysis has a tendency to miss
nuanced data. This criticism is one which had to be taken seriously during the analysis because, as
mentioned above, a qualitative means of data collection was used specifically because of its ability
to treat cynicism as a nuanced phenomenon. For this reason direct quotes are used to support the
thematic analysis, so as not to miss the subtleties of the respondents’ replies.
Lastly, thematic analysis can potentially have little to say beyond mere description unless it makes
use of a pre-existing theoretical framework in which to interpret the data (Braun and Clarke,
2008). It is for this reason that the types of consumer cynicism devised by Odou and Pechpeyrou
(2011) will be used to aid in construing the data. Finally the data is linked to the literature on
RNBCs so as to set it in a wider context.
3.11. Summary
In summary, the research is interpretive; it operates on the assumption that people’s beliefs and
opinions are the cause of social realities. It is explorative; it seeks to answer the question of
whether or not respondents are cynical of RNBCs. It uses qualitative data; it is interested in
nuanced data in the form of people opinions and beliefs. It acquires this data through semi-

39
structured interviews. This data is subjected to thematic analysis and is organised using the four
types of consumer cynicism (Odou and Pechpeyrou, 2011). Lastly the data is compared to the
literature review in order to put any identified cynicism of RNBCs in a broader context.

40
4. Results
The results section will be relatively brief. It will include a description of the identified themes, the
categories into which they were grouped, and the patterns which hold between them such as
relationships, collocations etc. The main interpretation of this data will take place in the findings
and discussion section. The results section will simply describe the data objectively.
4.1. Themes
A brief explanation of the identified themes in alphabetical order is given below. These themes are
evidenced by some direct quotes:
Aspiration: Respondents had an aspirational view of supermodels. Society expects
people to aspire to be beautiful. For example, respondent 3 said “The best one, for me,
is Victoria Secret because I relate more to it, because every girl wants to become like
Victoria secret model. So probably my aspirational standard would be Victoria secret”.
In addition, respondent 1 said “Victoria secrets; every women wants to look like her
because it is the society nowadays.”
Brand loyalty: Respondents considered brand loyalty to arrive from liking the
product, more than they thought it came from liking the RNBCs. Respondent 4 believed
that “loyalty comes from actually using the brand not necessarily from advertising. I
think that advertising definitely makes you want to try it but I don’t know if it creates
loyalty. ” Respondent 5 also stated “If I see the advert maybe I wouldn’t say ‘I’m gonna
use this product’, I just like the way they do their campaigns.”
Boosting sales: Respondents often stated that they believed all advertising to be an
attempt to boost sales. As an example, respondent 2 said “Although, I still believe
they’re just trying to sell the products instead of helping women build their self-
esteem. But still that’s a good message to pass.”
Critical of Victoria Secret: Respondents frequently voiced criticism of Victoria Secret
and its marketing strategies. With regards to Victoria Secret’s use of skinny models,
respondent 3 said “To me also it allows the possibility for some to get upset and get
upset about their own bodies, and start not eating enough.”
Cynicism of RNBCs: The majority of respondents voiced cynicism of RNBCs on a
number of occasions. Respondent 3 firmly stated “I think that they are quite fake, all
of them. Because at the end of the day they are always trying to sell products, so some
of them they are trying to sell them say that a body with flaws is more beautiful than a
body without”

41
Cynicism of Victoria Secret: All respondents voiced some form of cynicism toward
Victoria Secret. With respondent 6 suggesting, while discussing Victoria Secrets
attempts to appear as an RNBC, “they are just trying to win brownie points among the
audience”.
Diversity: Respondents stated that RNBCs focus on diversity and include everyone
within their definition of beauty. Respondent 6 noted that “I see it as they always talk
about bringing out the inner beauty in people. And they talk about accepting people of
different body types and skin colour and everything.”
Hypocrisy: Hypocrisy was picked up on several times. A very direct example is made
by respondent 6, who said of Dove “by selling a dove firming product they’re saying
that firm skin is better than non-firm skin. Then it falls flat when they have another ad
that implies that even spotted skin is as good as spotless skin. Because you are talking
about firm products, products to make your body firm. It’s a little hypocritical in my
opinion”.
Insincerity: Respondents at times found the messages of RNBCs to be insincere, at
least to some extent. Respondent 1 suggested that RNBCs just show “what people
would like to see on TV, or on the ads”. Respondent 4 concluded “So I don’t believe all
of this is just for a good purpose”.
Lack of cynicism: There were certain occasions in which respondents were not
cynical in areas which were found to be cynically assessed in the literature review. In
reply to asking whether the respondent believed the RNBCs were trying to send a
message, other than simply selling a product, respondent 2 said “Oh yeah, they
[RNBCs] are more than just selling their product, they’re trying to pass this kind of
concept too.”
Message vs Practice: Respondents noted that there were areas in which the message
and practice of companies did not coincide. On several occasions they were explicitly
denounced for being hypocritical. Respondent 6 noted body shops inconsistency
“Body shop says ‘there are 3 billion women who don’t look like supermodels and only
eight who do’. But they do sell makeup right? You know, so that’s the irony of it.” While
respondent 2 said of RNBCs “If you think I am beautiful enough why do things to
change me?”
Perfection(ism): Beauty was often treated as equivalent to physical ‘perfection’.
Respondents frequently listed physical perfections when referring to models,

42
respondent 4 provides an example “People with perfect bodies, perfect skin, perfect
everything”. Respondent 5 shows how they equated beauty with perfection “they are
beautiful and they are perfect”.
Real: RNBCs were often said to reflect real women, in real life in a way which was
relatable. Respondent 4 said “they [RNBCs] show what real people look like”.
Respondent 3 suggested that the RNBC models “are people you see on your way to get
to the library at the university”.
Real(ity) vs Advertisements: Adverts, other than RNBCs, were often treated as being
too unrealistic. Respondent 4 liked RNBCs “Because, we’re not used to seeing real
people in adverts”. And respondent 5 said “you can see like makeup ads or whatever,
and even women that are so old they seem to have perfect skin and they don’t. Maybe
in reality you see them and they have terrible skin”.
Self-esteem: Respondents occasionally said that RNBCs improve their self-esteem.
Sometimes it was unclear whether this was because RNBCs describe everyone as
beautiful, or because they felt they were more physically attractive than the RNBC
models. Respondent 6 said “If people like me can be on an advertising campaign then
I don’t feel so bad about the way I am.”
Self-interest: The main impetus behind advertising was said to be self-interest:
improving sales, brand loyalty, or ethical image. Respondent 6 admitted “At the end of
the day they need to make a business. So they will always have their motives first
otherwise the purpose of their business is not met.” In addition, respondent 5 stated
that “what they want is to continue selling”.
Victoria Secret is different: Respondents frequently identified Victoria Secret as
being unlike the other RNBCs, and more like normal advertisements in their portrayal
of women. Respondent 1 thought that Victoria Secret opposed Dove “It’s basically the
same as Dove but the other way around. Like they mainly promote… the thing with
Victoria secret is that they mainly promote skinny girls.” While respondent 4 directly
stated that “the Victoria secret one is different from the others”.

43
4.2. Categorisation and Frequency
Below there is a table illustrating how many times each theme occurred in the data.
Figure 9. Categorised themes with frequencies of occurrence.
Many themes which had initially been identified in the early stages of analysis were ultimately
omitted as they were not identified frequently enough to be considered useful in further analysis,
or were made redundant by the presence of similar themes. As an example, the theme ‘Positives of
RNBCs’ included the sub-theme ‘different’ meaning that respondents found RNBCs to be different
from other advertisements, however under the ‘Victoria Secret’ theme there is the sub-theme ‘VS
is different (to the RNBCs)’. Consequently, the two themes were conflated to one ‘VS is different’
as it captures this distinction in a general sense.
The reader may notice that Victoria Secret has been separated from other RNBCs. This is because
the respondents visibly rejected that it belonged with the others, which they all found to have a
common theme. This became such a salient issue during the analysis that it was decided that, to
include Victoria Secret with the other RNBCs, would disrupt the results significantly. Consequently,
Victoria secret was analysed as a separate category of themes. From now on the term ‘RNBCs’ will
no longer be used to include Victoria Secret.
Positives of RNBCs Cynicism & Scepticism Victoria Secret (VS) Reality Beauty Business
Diversity (16) Message vs Practice (14) Cynicism of VS (20) Real vs adverts (12) Perfection (15) Brand Loyalty (10)
Lack of cynicism (12) Cynicism of RNBCs (12) VS is different (7) Real (11) Aspiration (5) Self-interest (10)
Self-esteem (8) Insincerity (8) Critical of VS (5) Boosting sales (6)
Hypocrisy (7)

44
4.3. Relations, Patterns, and Overlap
Figure 10. Visual schema of relationships, patterns and overlap of themes.
The diagram illustrates; relationships between themes, patterns of co-occurrence, and any
potential overlap which arose in the data. Central to the diagram in figure 10 is the label RNBCs as
it is important to show if and how the categories and themes are related to the discussion of RNBCs.
From the diagram it can be seen that the data suggested that Victoria Secret does not stand in a
direct relation to other RNBCs. They are most closely related only in the sense of contrasting: ‘VS
is different’. Mention of Victoria Secret frequently co-occurred with talk of aspiration and
perfection. Victoria Secret was heavily criticised for its overuse of supermodels and its lack of
diversity.
The data showed that respondents did not relate RNBCs to business directly, but rather they only
considered business indirectly through: ‘Boosting sales’. Specifically respondents were reluctant
to say that RNBCs produce ‘Brand Loyalty’, hence their isolation from one another in the diagram.
Respondents only mentioned inconsistencies in message vs practice if they were already
displaying signs of cynicism, or if they were talking about the companies behind the brands.
Another relation which arose was that cynicism arose on occasion, but was absent on others.
Lastly, the answers to questions for which cynicism was voiced were nearly always distinct from

45
the answers where it was not voiced. It is felt that the other relationships demonstrated by the
diagram are simple enough to be understood without further explanation.

46
5. Findings and Discussion
The data has been collected and organised. Now it must be interpreted. This will be the objective
of the findings and discussion. The findings will determine the type of cynicism which has been
uncovered during the interview process. The discussion will compare this cynicism with the
literature to see if any of the respondents had similar opinions of RNBCs to those documented in
the literature review.
5.1. Findings
The graph below plots data, in the form of direct quotes, on the dimensions of cynicism as
described by Odou and Pechpeyrou (2011) which can be found as figure 7 in the literature review.
The numbers on the graph reflect the numbered quotes which can be found in appendix 5. This
graph does not include instances of cynicism directed toward Victoria Secret. Respondents were
so frequently cynical of Victoria Secret that it could affect the results too dramatically to include it
amongst the data. Deciding where to place the data on the graph was somewhat interpretive,
although it did follow some criteria.
Figure 11. Data plotted against the four types of consumer cynicism.
(Adapted from: Odou and Pechpeyrou, 2011)

47
The criteria which would place the data in the “offensive cynicism” or “ethical cynicism” quarter
would be if the data reflected beliefs and opinions which matched those given by Odou and
Pechpeyrou (2011) in the original graph (figure 7). There were occasions where data may have
been able to be classified as offensive cynicism. As an example, respondent 1, after being asked if
the RNBCs had an effect on her self-esteem, said that she liked “The Dove one… I know… It sounds
mean… I know I’m not as big” (as the models). In this short quote, the respondent has ignored the
message of ‘real/natural’ beauty and has compared herself against the models using the old
definition of beauty which Dove is attempting to reject. It could be considered offensive cynicism
because she is using the advert to make herself feel better while rejecting the apparently ethical
message. Ultimately it was chosen not to consider these as examples of offensive cynicism as the
evidence for interpreting it this way was not sufficient. With regards to ethical cynicism, nothing
was found which could be placed in this area of the graph.
In order for the data to be situated in the “defensive cynicism” quarter the data had to reflect a
distrust and intense scepticism like that described in the original graph of Odou and Pechpeyrou.
For example, if the data indicated that the respondent was cynical of the RNBC simply because they
are suspicious of large corporations or advertising in general, the data would be plotted as merely
“defensive cynicism”. For example, number 12 on the graph represents respondent 2 claiming “I
still believe they’re just trying to sell the products instead of helping women build their self-
esteem”.
In order for the data to be situated in the “subversive cynicism” quarter, the data had to show that
the respondent critically engaged with the RNBCs in a cynical way, as opposed to simply being
suspicious on defensive grounds. As such, if a respondent used the message of the RNBC to show
that the RNBC itself was inconsistent then this would be counted as subversive cynicism. For
example, number 25 on the graph shows that respondent 6 used Dove’s own message to reveal
inconsistencies in the advert “About Dove, I feel they’re talking about real curves. If they put
firming cream they’re not going to be real anymore. It’s going to be altered in some way”. The exact
placing of the data on the continuum however, was largely a subjective decision which relayed on
reading the data closely.
As can be seen in figure11 all the examples of cynicism recorded are classified under the ‘resisting’
forms of cynicism, respondents resisted potential marketing tactics. No data showed adequate
reason to believe that respondents attempted to cynically ‘master’ or control the situation of
RNBCs in order to benefit. Respondents did not say that they agree with the hypocritical behaviour
of the companies, nor did they say that they would employ similar tactics if they were in the
position of the companies. All of which would have been considered potential evidence of offensive
cynicism.

48
5.2. Discussion
As mentioned in the literature review, the Fassin and Buelens (2011) argued that by calculating a
given organisation’s implementation in relation to its communication, one can place the
organisation on a sincerity-hypocrisy continuum, which in this dissertation was defined in terms
of message versus practice so as to encompass instantiations of hypocrisy which the
implementation-communication dichotomy failed to account for. The data set from this study
suggests that the some respondents are cynical towards organisations and the advertising industry
in general while other respondents are more precisely cynical about the messages that some
organisations use, these forms of cynicism represents defensive and subversive cynicism
respectively. These findings suggest that the respondents used in this study are placing RNBC’s
toward the hypocritical end of Fassin and Buelens (2011) continuum. These findings would have
been even stronger if Victoria Secret ‘Love My Body’ campaign was treated as an RNBC, however
because the respondents often suggested that Victoria Secret Campaign is different from the other
RNBC’s, Victoria Secret Campaign was left out to avoid misrepresentation of the respondents’
opinions. Evidenced by direct quotes such as that of Respondent 4, “the Victoria secret one is the
one that I see is different from all the others”.
5.2.1. Defensive Cynicism
It was suggested in the literature review that RNBCs make use of commodity fetishism, the
commodification of abstract values, in order to boost sales. Respondents occasionally voiced
cynicism about RNBCs with regards to this. For example respondent 1 said “In a way they are more
worried about selling their stuff so they want to promote a good image”. Respondent 3 also
supported this idea by saying “At the end of the day, what they are trying to do is targeting the
people that they want to sell the product to and try to achieve their own interest”.
Odou and Pechpeyrou (2011:1799) notes that the “disappointment with unfulfilled promises in
the politic or economic realm entails a massive distrust of any altruistic discourses”. Many
respondents expressed feeling of distrust toward organizations and advertising discourse, for
instance respondent 4 stated “It’s just advertising. I don’t have any, I wouldn’t say I have any
emotional connection to what they’re putting out but maybe it’s because I can see the difference in
what they’re doing”. Respondent 5 supports the feeling of distrust toward organisations by saying
“Big companies as Unilever, or proctor, just go with the flow. I don’t believe or all their purposes
to be green”. Being cynical in these contexts may help consumers to avoid disappointment.
Furthermore, Koslow (2000:265) states that “consumers are sceptical of advertising not simply
because advertisers sometimes lie or because their argument lack credibility in the marketplace
but also because scepticism helps individuals resist or cope with an advertising system that is

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