In case there was any doubt about “Green” Products..
June 14th, 2009
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Far be it from me to criticize free enterprise, but when it comes to “green” products and “green living” lets not forget that ultimately it’s all just a question of marketing. Before you go patting yourself on the back for buying “all natural, organic, fair trade, sustainable” products that cost a bit more than the regular kind, consider that they may very well be the exact same thing, except, of course, for the marketing.
Don’t believe me? Well then maybe you need to attend this:
Yes, it’s the Good and Green(tm) Marketing Confrence! It couldn’t get more blatent than that. Hell, it’s not about what the product is or how good it actually is, it’s about the marketing. But come on, was it ever really anything else? Of course not.
You can learn all about the legality of labeling your product, thus making sure you don’t get sued for using “green” terms that are not acurate while at the same time knowing the ones which are vague enough to use. You can find out about the hottest marketing terms. Learn from the various “Experts” like Al Gore and other Green cultural icons. Eat at some of the swankiest Chichago restaurants – after all, if you’re a marketing exec in town for a confrence, you’re going to need to eat somewhere that is both five star and chic at the same time.
While you’re there, you can network with some PR firms that specialize in “Green.” Because after all, the most important part of being Green is the PR.
Finally, buy some books. Buy lots of them. Buy lots and lots of books (and other stuff) which talk about buying less. You can read these books about buying less to learn techniques to get cust0mers to buy more… from you! These books will make a good companion to the various other “executive” books you have with titles like “Commanding the Board Room” and “The Fast Track to the Corner Office.” Like those executive books, these are also totally useless, but very very trendy.
(note, this is to be read in a sarcastic tone)
This entry was posted on Sunday, June 14th, 2009 at 12:40 pm and is filed under Bad Science, Culture, Enviornment, Just LAME, Obfuscation, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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June 14th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
As the First and Second Great Awakening demonstrated: all you need to do is pitch your tent and they will come.
Add in the profit margins to be had with modern “green” products and this is only a win-win situation! … for the evangelists, that is.
The Fifth Great Awakening is a difficult movement to fight. Good luck, Doc!
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June 15th, 2009 at 12:02 am
Of course it’s about the marketing, but worse the don’t even adhere to their own standards.
TerraChoice (which regulates the use of the Ecologo certification) released a study of 1,018 “green” products from big-box stores which found that all but one were marketed with false or misleading eco-claims. These products were committing what they called the “Six Sins of Greenwashing”:
1. a hidden tradeoff (e.g. toxin-loaded electronics touting their energy efficiency)
2. no certifiable verification of green claims
3. flat-out lying about certification
4. vagueness (e.g. claiming “all natural” status, which contained hazardous substances that occur naturally)
5. irrelevance (e.g. products claiming to be CFC-free even though CFCs have long been banned)
6. or a lesser of two evils (e.g. organic cigarettes).
According to the study, Cascade paper towels were the big — and only — winner, with claims of being chlorine-free, having recycled content, and having legitimate logos checking out as accurate.
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June 15th, 2009 at 12:21 am
DV82XL said:
Bigger question to me is whether or not these things even matter or are relevant at all. For example “green” electronics that don’t contain lead. Is there any evidence that lead from electronics poses a major hazard? How about “organic” foods and products? How does that matter. I think in many cases, the net impact is going to be negative.
Why are those Cascade paper towels so great? Chlorine free? What makes that so great? Chlorine is a useful chemical component for a lot of things and it could be that by omitting chlorine they end up using more energy in their manufacture.
I am utterly convinced that none of this matters. It is all nickles and dimes in a world that is really not concerned enough about the big costs. People are so worried about their kitchen cleaner and don’t care about the big coal burning plants. People care so much about their electronics but not about the trash in the pacific ocean.
These products are all the same crap: small stuff. Not worth worrying about. The big worries are not being delt with. People are pacified by buying overpriced boutique products and don’t bother demanding real change in real places that matter.
This is just smoke. It’s blowing smoke around like coal power plants. Trumped up claims and **** that doesn’t even matter.
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June 15th, 2009 at 12:37 am
I agree that it’s normally meaningless and at best, it really is inconsequential and symbolic, but I’m surprised that this conference would be held just the same. It seems just so blatant, I’d have thought that most would have the shame to at least pretend more.
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June 15th, 2009 at 12:44 am
Chem Geek Gregor said:
I totaly agree, I was just demonstrating the depths of the hypocrisy here.
The fact is that by embracing it ‘Green’ becomes a transcendental experience, an act of moral redemption. We’re not just buying Green; we’re performing a rite of atonement for the sin of excess.
Think of that Puritan classic, “The Pilgrim’s Progress.”John Bunyan’s 17th-century allegory features a man dressed in rags who flees the City of Destruction. Guided by the Evangelist, the pilgrim wanders the world trying to reach the Celestial City. His worst trial occurs in Vanity Fair, a village market founded by Beelzebub and inhabited by noblemen named Lord Luxurious and Sir Greedy. The market offers tempting wares, but the pilgrim bravely shuns the products on display and continuing on to heaven.
This is the undercurrent of Christian guilt that is being manipulated and leveraged by the Green marketeers.
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June 15th, 2009 at 1:35 am
Do you think this is a Christian/European/Cultural kind of thing that springs from the Euro-American culture and its puritanical roots? Or do you think there is some kind of hardwired human need to feel this way or to doubt success and crave atonement or something? Maybe some kind of self-doubt or crave for sacrifice?
There are some concepts in other religious schools, for example, that seem to indicate a kind of need for atonement and sacrifice when one has shamed or dishonored themselves or does not serve somehow. For example, in some Asian cultures one must do certain painful and unpleasent things to show they have honor if it is called into question. The Romans and Greeks also seemed to think some people needed to be self-loathing.
I’m just wondering if we can escape this. Maybe we are hardwired for it.
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June 15th, 2009 at 1:39 am
DV82XL said:
In 1900 the West utterly dominated the world, now non-Western powers (particularly China and India) are becoming superpowers. Does anyone here think that this fading of Western supremacy may have triggered a wave of pessimism in the West that the Greens exploited?
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June 15th, 2009 at 4:45 am
Reminds me of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvCP3s7Xq48
(It’s about the LEED building standard and some of the greenwashing bull**** involved)
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June 15th, 2009 at 11:15 am
George Carty said:
I don’t know about that. I mean the Western countries (United States and Europe) may not dominate the world exclusively, but it’s not as if these countries don’t matter or are has-beens. I don’t think we’re going to see a world where India and China dominate the world so much as a world where both regions are important.
I don’t know that this is a bad thing, necessarily. I’m a bit concerned about China, but I’m still happy to see standards of living increasing. It’s not like this is a real new thing either – we saw Japan become a full fledged world power in the 1970’s-1980’s.
I see no reason to be pessimistic about the rise of the developing world. I don’t think this necessarily means a decline of the established industrial countries.
One thing to be concerned about, however: Extremely bad energy policy and anti-consumerism very well could lead to a decline of western countries.
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June 16th, 2009 at 3:11 am
No question these products are pure bull**** and marketing smoke and mirrors. It makes people feel they are doing something good and also it’s very in-vogue and trendy. A lot of these blatantly say that you can be the first on your street to buy whatever to save the planet.
With the current economic situation this does not help. People should consume what will give them the most bang for their buck and has good utility. We need to get away from this bull****.
The planet is not in imminant peril and improving the enviornment is not done like this. It doesn’t work that way – with idiots buying organic paper towels. It is improved by more technology and more energy to reduce unwanted effects and refuse from humanity. (More nuclear power plants, more sewage treatment plants, more recycling systems)
I guess it makes people feel they are doing something, but these individual actions don’t actually make that much of a difference and we need to demand some real and big government and system changes. Problem is that they are moving in exactly the wrong direction at the moment.
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June 16th, 2009 at 3:59 am
drbuzz0 said:
What’s wrong with anti-consumerism (as opposed to anti-producerism)? I think excessive Western consumption of goods made in the Far East is one of the biggest causes of the current economic problems.
On the subject of energy policy, how much of the opposition to nuclear power do you think is being secretly bankrolled by the fossil fuel industry?
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