Disinformation and how Nutella might not be telling the whole truth!

In class I informed my peers on the topic of disinformation. Disinformation is false information which is intended to mislead; typically in politics. Powerful figures dis-inform in order to distract from an issue or inspire its consumers to take a certain action. Some examples of this are websites posting false information online to gain ad revenue or the government using disinformation to their advantage to gain support on a policy.

A current situation is Russia using disinformation to cause conflict within America and Europe. Russia projected campaigns convincing Americans and Europeans that 5G cell phones were dangerous. The point of them doing this was for people to start picking sides on the topic and go against each other. 

Disinformation happens more than we realize whether it be through the government, racial division, or anti-vaccine campaigns. I do not believe that disinformation is just because you could gain a supportive audience in other ways than misleading. Besides politics, I see disinformation in advertising a lot. As a Strategic Communications major, this is something that I will have to deal with in the work world and will have to make the decision to disinform or be honest about products and their features or benefits. An example of disinformation in advertising is companies like McDonalds or Wendy’s making their food appear more appealing in commercials than in person. They use tricks like using toothpicks to hold a burger together or cardboard underneath pancakes to make them look fuller. Companies like Nutella advertise their product to be a healthy alternative from chocolate when in reality, the only healthier alternative in it is hazelnut; if you look at the nutrition label, Nutella is actually worse for you than regular chocolate. When someone gets exposed for disinformation, the outcome is worse for them than better, which is why I believe there is not a good reason to use disinformation to get ahead. Click here for the article explaining how Nutella used deceptive advertising!