redwashing

red +‎ -wash +‎ -ing. The colour red is historically associated with the political left.

redwashing (uncountable)

1. The practice of a state, organization, political party or company presenting itself as progressive and concerned about social equality and justice, in order to use this perception for public relations or economic gain.
   • 2013 August, Luke March, “What’s Left of the Left in Central and Eastern Europe?”, in Russian International Affairs Council:

     The fourth crisis is that the left no longer has a distinct message. This is clearly related to the fracturing of this social base. If the left no longer speaks for the workers, if equality is now considered an economically illiterate goal, then the left often finds itself putting forward a message that differs little from those of its competitors. Indeed, since the 2008 crisis, there has been a lot of ‘redwashing’ – i.e. competitors adopting policies that the left has traditionally regarded as its own. Leaders such as Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy were among the most forthright in criticizing market excesses (though their policies did not back up their rhetoric). Similarly, a number of right-wing populists have embraced socially protectionist themes (for example the British National Party’s demand for ‘British Jobs for British Workers’), and so appeal to many former social democrat voters who feel that their parties’ embrace of globalization has left them defenseless against foreign competition.

   • 2017 March, Zsófia Lakatos, Corporate Social Performance in Emerging Markets: Sustainable Leadership in an Interdependent World‎, Routledge:

     Redwashing is similar to greenwashing, but it encompasses social issues. It describes social contributions for which businesses are taking too much credit and for which they are getting more PR [public relations] out of than is really due.

   • 2018 February, Sarah Dadush, “Why You Should Be Unsettled by the Biggest Automotive Settlement in History”, in University of Colorado Law Review:

     These (combined) peculiarities reveal a number of gaps in our corporate accountability regime, in particular when it comes to broken sustainability promises and greenwashing. Greenwashing happens when a company seeks to boost its sales or its brand by overstating its environmental ambitions and achievements. It is a main source of identity harm, along with “redwashing” or “bluewashing,” terms used to describe the overstating of social (e.g., labor and human rights) ambitions and achievements. When “color-washing” happens—and goes unpunished—consumers concerned about the effects of their purchases on the planet and on other humans can experience a special type of emotional anguish that results from having been made unwittingly complicit in causing harm.

• bluewashing
• greenwashing
• pinkwashing
• purplewashing