Editorial – Beyond the Greenwash
Ethical advertising is rapidly
becoming a lovely opportunity for companies to jump on the eco gravy train as
they find new exploitable unique selling points to generate revenue. Unfortunately, this stampede of marketing the
green angle is either boring consumers into turning away from choosing green in
defiance against this barrage of guilt-laden marketing, or is even encouraging
consumerism without providing the ethical basis for these so-called green
choices.
Everything seems to have a “green”, “eco” or “ethical” label at the
moment. From fuel to nappies, air
fresheners to kitchen rolls – things that are essentially unenvironmentally friendly now have the latest spin attached in
order to keep us consuming them. There’s
a TV advertisement doing the rounds for a car insurance company, which will
plant a tree and offset your carbon from the car you need to drive in order to
take out their insurance. Pampers
nappies now come with a promise to donate money to tetanus jabs for African
women (a fantastic pledge, but those soiled nappies still end up in a
landfill!), and can you remember the recent stampede for “I’m not a plastic
bag” designer handbags, which whilst proclaiming to the world that the owner is
“ethical”, in fact the desire to own this must-have accessory created its mass
production, which reportedly had some purchasers taking it home in a carrier
bag! Maybe this new form of purchasing
should be called “guilt offsetting”?
Jumping on the green
bandwagon is in some cases going to increase the negative effects of climate
change, for example, the latest mass rush to grow biofuels – sounds a great
idea but the damage to the rainforests as they’re slashed down to make way for
biofuel crops is surely as perilous as growing soya for animal feed – and it
still doesn’t tackle the underlying issue which is to simply use less fuel.
Advertisers tell us to be
green but they don’t tell us why; this latest trend is as throw-away as the
products it sells. We shouldn’t merely
think about whether what we’re buying is environmentally sound, but whether we
need to buy it at all – what advertisers don’t want the populace to realize is
that the main purpose of green shopping is to halt consumerism, waste and
pollution and make a real difference to the impact of climate change upon our
planet.
Instead of using empty green
promises to grab votes, why doesn’t the government start taking positive action
right away to ensure climate change is slowed down? More laws could be passed now which will
really make a difference, for example, introducing a total ban on plastic bags
or takeaway coffee cups. If you make
things law, then people adapt – look at the indoor smoking ban. A lot of complaints, debating and
protestations but as soon as it became law then people had to comply, and in
fact adapted remarkably quickly. Ban
supermarkets from supplying plastic bags and people will by default turn to
reusable bags and this will quickly become a way of life. Why not do something really drastic and ban
meat – as a vegetarian I am of course biased about this one! – but I guarantee
people would eventually adapt and tons of carbon emissions, pollution and
Brazilian rainforests would be saved, not to mention animals ceasing to be
murdered for the taste of their flesh.
Whenever we see an
advertisement for a mainstream product or service that’s been “greened” up then
we have to think very carefully about the real story behind it. This is why organisations such as Ethical
Junction are emerging into the mainstream, ensuring no greenwash, just the real
thing!
Lisa Jackson
Lisa Jackson runs her own
ethical communications company and is a writer and campaigner for environmental
and ethical issues. www.eurydicepr.co.uk
Editor’s comment – You might also be interested in reading another Pulse article by Chris Arnold of the FEEL Agency – Brand Terrorism and The Green Wash
And there was an article in The Times on 8 Oct about the issue that is certain to raise a few issues amongst mainstream businesses
October 10th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
If people were to be truly green they would not be swayed by any advertising campaigns as goods would only be purchased when essential. Therefore, until we can alter the dedication to greed, materialism and image which appears to dominate our culture we cannot seriously expect any progress even if the government implemented radical changes. I have spoken to several people who do not believe that any change they make will affect them; and, although they have children and grandchildren, they accept that any negative affects will occur after their lifetime and does not concern them. Until we can awaken the conscience of people like this nothing will alter.
October 10th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Reductions in emissions are definately the order of the day I agree entirely. It’s not just the ban on plastic bags is it though? Almost everything is packed up in some sort of plastic or polystyrene foam. The introduction of a charge for excess litter may actually bring some resolution to this as the consumers will eventually grow to reject the excess packaging. Could it be the same with energy bills too? It might be a good idea to cap electricity consumption etc so that excessive users such as those heating empty rooms in large houses or TV etc in every room would in fact have to pay a lot more for their energy consumption. This way the elderly and needy would not be penalised too.
Yes we certainly do need to think of a much more holistic picture. Twice this week I have put the £1 into the collection boxes of childrens charities(unnamed) only to be able to recieve some promotional chocolate which is made with cocoa picked in the third world countries with slave labour. So to help a child here in the UK another elsewhere in the world would be suffering. EVERY company needs to stop and think what they are doing!
Well that’s me back to the drawing board to analyse what exactly I am doing with my own business. Ok it all takes time but to become a socially and environmentally conscious company is well worth the effort.
October 11th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
It winds me up that every product on the market is now considered eco or green, even when they’re not. For example – there’s a car ad on TV at the moment that states the car ‘Has the lowest CO2 emissions in it’s class.’ This is just a coincidence – they didn’t actually try to achieve this, and imagine what they could have produced if they had tried to design a low emission car! Also there’s the fabric softener ad – as the softener is concentrates and now comes in smaller bottles it means there are less lorries on the roads. Great but neither the softener nor the bottles are eco – and who uses softener anymore anyway – it’s much more eco to do without! The danger is people don’t really think about these things and just take the advertisers word for it.
October 12th, 2007 at 8:41 am
‘Beyond the greenwash’ While I agreed with a lot of the article, I cannot agree with the bits about ‘passing laws – people will adapt’. I think it’s very wrong of any group of people to think that they have the right to force their opinions on everyone else. As an example, I’ll give you the PC laws passed by Labour. I cannot think of any other piece of legislation that has caused more dissension, more ridiculous court cases & wasted more public money than that.
October 12th, 2007 at 10:21 am
Ruth I agree that bullying legislations are not acceptable – I really didnt intend my suggestions to be about having a group of people forcing opinions on us all, more about taking positive steps for making a real difference to the pollution and waste issues on our planet. A simple ban on plastic or throwaway goods wouldn’t be as complex as PC Laws, and was intended as a simple solution to a very real and growing problem.
October 15th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Interesting article, Lisa, and I agree with some of your points. However, you shoot the whole thing dead by suggesting banning meat. Sure, such an idea would make for a good headline, but it’s not practicable and as a policy is never going to take ethical living beyond its current 3-5 per cent constituency (made-up stat) and into the mainstream. And I say that as a veggie myself!
October 15th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
Yes Adam pipe dreams eh… yes I know, in an ideal world!! Mind you saying that, I think Pulse covered recently the government directive pointing to plant diets as more efficient, the one Viva! leaked? (Ed- you may have to correct me there!)
I was thinking the other day, one of the most effective ways of immediately cutting energy wastage would surely be to get offices to switch off lights and computers etc every evening? I once walked past the “gherkin” building in London at about 11pm and it was lit up like a christmas tree!! And there’s me, obsessively switching off lights and my mobile charger…..
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:40 pm
Hi Lisa, agreed … companies such as the co-operative bank…… who wouldn’t know “green” or “ethical” or “co-operative” if it hit them around the head…. A complete sham ! Worse – people actually believe them !
November 3rd, 2007 at 6:49 am
And just to back up that previous comment…. anyone who thinks co-op bank are ethical may want to investigate who handles credit cards for the bank…….